<p>I am an international student and have been admitted to the following universities-
1. CU Boulder
2. UIUC
3. PURDUE
4. UW MADISON
5. UM TWIN CITIES
6. RICE
7. UMASS AMHERST - HONORS
8. UW - HONORS
9. UCLA
10. UC DAVIS
11. UC SAN DIEGO
12. USC </p>
<p>I know its a long list but I really wasnt sure where I would get in and how the admissions work there...so!</p>
<p>I would prefer to major in Chem E but I would like a bit of a liberal education too and not just STEM. I am also interested in computer science and maybe medicine . Cost is not really a consideration but I want a good academic environment , interaction with professors, a collaborative rather than a cut throat kind of competition and where the girls like intelligent guys....not nerdy but certainly not sporting jocks! Haha. ...just joking! Weather is not a deal breaker but I dont want to be cooped up indoors 6 months a year. Also, i dont mind a dominantly white student body ( its the US after all!) as long as the student body is accepting of other cultures so diversity should not be much of an issue though I may be wrong. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks</p>
<p>All of the UC schools, plus Rice and USC, have great weather. Every other school is extremely cold during the winter. If this was my choice, personally, I would choose Rice, with UC-San Diego a distant second. Rice is far and away the smallest school, and has ChemE but also excellent programs in all disciplines. Probably will have more interaction with professors at Rice.</p>
<p>Thank you NROTCgrad. I live in the tropics so the ‘cold weather’ and ’ snow" is a novelty for me and sometimes I feel that I would love to attend a university with all the 4 seasons…but seriously, is it so bad in minnesota or madison or uiuc ?? I ask since the chem e undergrad programs are ranked in the top 10 nationally ( im not sure if these rankings have any validity and what do they measure , but living so far away, that is what i can go by, for lack of anything better) and im wondering if I shud go to madison? Minnesota? How important do you think is choice of college at the undergrad level if I choose chem engineering as a major?</p>
<p>Maybe you should make a list of your priorities and then rank schools according to that. I will put in my pitch for the Midwest. UIUC is an excellent engineering school and seems to fit your other requirements. I personally love the change of seasons and missed them terribly when in CA. Madison is a nice college town, and has a similar ranking to UIUC though I personally think UIUC is better. Purdue is a much smaller school, but if that is important to you, you might find a better fit. </p>
<p>"… is it so bad in minnesota or madison or uiuc?"
Those are all great schools, but yes their winters can be brutal. I would say that you will be “cooped up” for at least two months, and perhaps more like three months. If you want to sample all four season, then go for any of those. Wisconsin-Madison and UIUC are both outstanding universities, but Minnesota and Purdue are also excellent.</p>
<p>Frankly, I would only warn you against two of the colleges on your list. First, I see no reason why a person would attend USC if they can also go to UCLA. They are both in the same city, Los Angeles, and UCLA is almost certainly the better of the two. It does not even look like USC offers ChemE, for example. Second, U.Mass-Amherst is really not near as good as any of the others. Its only real advantage is access to Boston and New England. It does have all four seasons, though, and perhaps not as bitter cold as others. For getting a degree, every other college on your list is better.</p>
<p>If you are used to tropical weather, then Rice in Houston will not be a problem.</p>
<p>Hmmm…and does anyone have an opinion on how important is undergrad chem engineering ranking to the kind of education one is likely to get? Does the ranking reflect actual undergrad teaching quality, course rigor , research and lab facilities , internship opportunities and outcomes? </p>
<p>Btw…let me also mention costs which I guess should be factored in…</p>
<p>1) CU BOULDER - ADMIT FOR CHEM E - NO SCHOLARSHIP $48K
2) UIUC - ADMIT FOR CHEM E - NO SCHOLARSHIP $ 48 K
3) PURDUE- ADMIT CHEM E - NO SCHOLARSHIP $ 46 K
4) UW MADISON - ENGINEERING - dont know if I will get chem e- no scholarship - $43k
5) UM - Twin cities - Engineering- dont know if I will get chem e - merit scholarship $ 6.5 k per year - cost $ 36 k
6) UMass Amherst - Chem e honors - scholarship $12k per year - cost $ 32 k
7) Rice - Merit scholarship $15 k per year - Cost $ 42 k
8) UCLA - Chem E - No scholarship - $ 56k
9) UC Davis - Chem E - Scholarship 12.5 k - cost $ 43 k
10) UC San Diego - Chem E - No scholarship - Cost $ 55 k
11) USC - Chem E - No scholarship - I dread to look at the cost!!!
12) U WASHINGTON - Engineering- Honors - No scholarship - Cost$ 44 k</p>
<p>I mean its certainly not cheap for an “international " though I guess its only fair that we pay more …but I dont want to be paying for an inferior education just to have a " great college experience” since an educational outcome is what motivates me travel halfway around the globe! </p>
<p>My own shortlist consists of UW- MADISON, UCLA, RICE , U WASHINGTON, UCSD AND UIUC and Im glad that the comments above seem to coincide</p>
<p>I do not know of any reliable source of undergraduate rankings, certainly none are remotely official. There are graduate rankings which are based on research production. </p>
<p>As an international, you don’t pay any more than out of state US students pay.</p>
<p>There is a huge difference in price, so just knock off the overly expensive ones. You have a great option in UM with a well known program and are in a large city location, the weather would be hard on me personally. That is a bargain for you, so strongly consider. Rice is worth paying a bit extra for as you will get an entirely personal education and private school luxuries such as class size, nice amenities, more easily accessible opportunities, and entire college of peers academically. Madison is an excellent college town, very vibrant and a reasonable amount of internationals, again very cold, but it doesn’t seem to bother my Calif. daughter who attended grad school there. UWashington is a great location in a wonderful city that many vacation in. </p>
<p>Okay, I can see why U.Mass-Amherst is tempting. If you really decide that you want “four seasons” of weather then I recommend U.Minnesota because it is not much more than U.Mass-Amherst, but a much better school.</p>
<p>It is rare for International students to get any kind of scholarship at state universities here. So, I would not get hopes up for U.Wisconsin-Madison. But if they do give you a scholarship, then go there instead of U.Mass-Amherst or U.Minnesota.</p>
<p>Still, I think that I would choose Rice. Also, I love Seattle and lived there for over ten years, but Rice is a much better school than U.Washington for slightly less cost. Rice is the best value on your list. Perhaps Rice is also the best school, although UCLA, Madison, and UIUC are all outstanding.</p>
<p>One other thing I forgot to mention, though you may already know this, you have to apply to the engineering school in your sophomore year at Madison. There are no direct admits into the Engineering program.</p>
<p>I agree that Rice is the best value on your list and would also have the best weather for you. You’d get the amenities and advantages of a private school plus the benefits of a strong national “brand”.
UMTC is the best “bargain” in the list, very strong for Chem E, in the middle of a vibrant city.
UCDavis is also very strong in the sciences and has a better price than the other UCs.
UWashington and UWiMadison would be my last picks for cost/quality.
For quality only, UIUC but the cost doesn’t seem acceptable when you have 5 other excellent choices.</p>
<p>If you get ChemE, Twin Cities is a terrific ChemE program and it is the cheapest of the best on your list. It has all four seasons, trust me. Why pay more? It’s ChemE. The major is the same just about everywhere. Almost all of these are fine schools. Perhaps avoid UMass if you can afford to. If Twin Cities doesn’t give you direct admit, and you can afford to ignore UMass, then definitely go with Rice, as MYOS suggests, even though you get three seasons only.</p>
<p>I would not go to Rice. Completely personal opinion…but I just don’t believe that Houston will be a good match…honestly, i’d go for UMass (great campus…and tied into other colleges) or the CA schools. </p>
<p>Hmmm…this really is helpful. Really grateful for all your responses.
Nobody suggested CU Boulder. …there goes my skiing dreams…I guess I can always go there in summer though.
I tend to agree with NROTCgrad that USC should also be off my list and UMASS - although it is the least expensive and I shall be an honours student is not highly ranked anywhere…plus living in honors dorms does not equate with having smaller classes and graduating in 4 years. I guess the same goes with UW.
UC universities on my list are not highly ranked in Chem E and maybe UCLA is the most attractive…if I had got into UC berkeley, I guess it would have been different, but alas I dint!
I also understand what Brown Parent is saying and I do wonder about the size of classes. I guess smaller classes and a more personal environment is more important at the undergrad level and not as important at the grad level. Chem E courses maybe the same in every university or in any country but what would matter would be my teachers an the facilities in the department which an undergrad could use.
I also do not have direct admits into chem engineering at either UMTC or UWMadison , so it appears that Rice maybe the best choice for me.as most of you have so thoughtfully suggested. but I wonder what makes Southern Hope so dead against Rice.</p>
<p>I assume that you have made a decision now. Would you mind posting where you decided to go?</p>
<p>Sure…it was a really tough decision …but let me elaborate on my experience and thinking before I finally decided. I am sure a lot of International students face this esp those who have no experience of applying to the US. I had no idea that I would finally choose to study in the US until halfway through my 11th grade which I realised , in hindsight, is not the best way to go about it esp if one is aiming for the so called IVY league Universities! Those who are aiming for the Ivies/Stanford should start in grade 9…not so much the SAT and AP which are relatively easy , but to get those leadership and Extra Curriculars and Volunteerism and Summer jobs/internships in place unless one is exceptionally talented in music or athletics.
The Common app has made it easier to apply to mutiple universities and that is good , and I faced no glitches. I wasnt sure what I wanted to major in, and gradually veered towards Chem E because of my interest in Chemistry , and therefore looked at Undergard rankings for Chem E and applied accordingly. But I realised that, barring a few like Cornell, Princeton, Stanford, most of the programs were in Public universities. So i finally decided on a mix of high ranked public Chem E programs ( UM-TC, UW-Madison, UC-Berkeley, Purdue, UIUC, Georgia TEch), some Ivies frankly for their brand recognition in my country ( Princeton, Yale, UPENN - I really dint think I would fit in , though) and some universities where I thought I would like to go with a decent Chem E program (UC Boulder, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, San Diego, UWashington, USC) and my dream school - Stanford. </p>
<p>I was told by my counselor not to apply ED but I did apply EA to public universities and was accepted by most of them. I tried to apply to an honors program , whenever the program was large, because I was concerned about being lost in the crowd.</p>
<p>When I looked at my final tally…lol…( sounds a bit like that!) , i looked at the total cost incl any merit scholarship ( I did not apply for aid since I thought internationals applying for aid could be at a disadvantage) and the overall ranking and University experience I could expect, and it came down to UW-Madison and Rice.My heart said Madison but my head said Rice. And Rice won because of the merit scholarship! I dint want to pay the same for a public university ( education in the US has become so really expensive unfortunaltely ) . So thank you NROTC grad! Its Rice for me. Maybe I go to Madison for Grad school! </p>
<p>. . </p>
<p>Thanks for sharing and great choice.</p>
<p>Thank you BrownParent…and all others who helped me make a final decision. </p>
<p>Wow! Rice is AWESOME! Congratulations Leo. You are going to have a great time there. I cannot think of a better place to go for college…especially for an Engineer. </p>
<p>Bravo! I think you will love Rice. =D> </p>
<p>Thanks NROTCgrad!
MYOS1634, I finally chose Rice as I have mentioned on my thread and my reasons for chosing Rice. Like I said, being an international , I did not visit any university campus because of cost. Rice did offer to pay for my airfare and invited me to come visit after offering me admission but I could not get a visa on time. But it did make me feel good about the university…feeling that I was wanted!
In my country, the only universities people talk about are HYPSM…maybe add Cornell , Columbia, UCLA, CAL, CMU…I applied to Princeton, Stanford( Dad’s dream univ), Yale , Cal, and UCLA…and got admitted to UCLA only…but after reading and going through all the universities I applied and got admitted to, and reading all the opinions on this forum and elsewhere…I feel that Rice is like Princeton or maybe Yale of the South, without their hype…forgive me if this sounds like sour grapes…but I truly dont mean to sound that way since US News ranking has not really been my most important crteria. And maybe im wrong…I have 4 years to live that…so youll hear from me for sure!</p>