<p>I plan on majoring in Environmental Engineering, and even though I want to be an engineer, I would rather not be stressed all the time, considering that this is only undergrad and I have the rest of my life to stress. Ideally, I want to be on the east coast in a big city. I was admitted to Cornell, Rice, UCLA, Northwestern, and BU as a backup - obviously none of these schools really fit all of my (very picky and annoying, I know) criteria. </p>
<p>so HERE'S the question - am I absolutely insane to pass up Cornell and Rice (Houston and Ithaca, both places I don't see myself being very happy) in order to go to my back-up, BU?? Also, if I managed to do well at Boston University, is it possible to still get into top-notch graduate school programs, even if the pedigree is not as strong?</p>
<p>Part of this is coming from the fear that I won't do well at Cornell, or that I will do well but I will have wasted 4 prime years of my life locked in library in the snow doing problem sets. Is this a legitimate fear?</p>
<p>Just wondering: why don’t you see yourself being happy in Houston?</p>
<p>I have a side question…</p>
<p>Are there many jobs for environmental engineers? It would seem to me that that area of engineering would have the least number of jobs.</p>
<p>Just because you got in, doesn’t mean that you have to go! If you really don’t like Ithaca, or you don’t like what you’ve seen or heard of Cornell, well go to one of the other places on your list.</p>
<p>If you are concerned about job placement, pick up the phone and have a chat with the career centers at each university. If you are concerned about grad school admissions, call the Envir Eng departments and ask them.</p>
<p>Personally, I would vote for Cornell because it is the only institution on your list with a College of Agriculture. Environmental engineering would have a very different flavor there because of the research interests of the folks further up the hill. For an idea of what this could mean to you as a student see: <a href=“http://www.cee.cornell.edu/graduate-programs/msphd-program/environmental-water-resources-systems.cfm[/url]”>http://www.cee.cornell.edu/graduate-programs/msphd-program/environmental-water-resources-systems.cfm</a></p>
<p>Well, I suppose it’s not that I would be unhappy in Houston, it’s that I’m not a fan of hot weather, and being from SoCal I am extremely anxious to finally get away from it. I know I’m not supposed to be deciding where I go to college based on weather, but it is a factor.</p>
<p>I should have been clearer - at Cornell I would actually be pursuing a Bioengineering major with Bioenvironmental concentration through the Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, so the College of Agriculture is less of a factor (though not completely insignificant, I’m sure.)</p>
<p>To anyone who has experience with graduate schools and/or going to your safety school - do top-notch graduate programs accept people from lower ranked universities, e.g. Boston University?</p>
<p>Grad school admissions is dependent on (not necessarily in this order) your overall GPA, your GPA in subjects related to the graduate program you want to pursue, your GRE exam scores, your letters of recommendation, your written statement of purpose, and any work/internship/research/publications related to the graduate program. The name on the diploma doesn’t matter much at all.</p>
<p>When I was in grad school at Cornell back in the last century, the only people in my lab group who had attended a college or university that I’ve seen mentioned here at CC were the graduates of BU and Bryn Mawr.</p>