EECS: Which schools should I consider?

College Search & Selection
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<p>Before anyone looks me up: Yes, my first post was a troll post. Yes, it was stupid. But it got me into this site and now I'm interested in using it legitimately.</p>

<p>I'll be a senior next fall.</p>

<p>Profile:</p>

<p>GPA: 4.00/4.00 (UW), 7.49/7 (W, max- my school is weird)
Class rank (solely GPA based): 1/832 (there's 26 other people with that same rank, and that might pop up during the admissions process)
School is a highly competitive, top 50 in my state
State of residency: Texas</p>

<p>Test scores: 2400 SAT (2 takes; 2240 first time but Math was a 720 so I retook); 800 WH, 800 Literature, 740 Math 1, 800 Math 2, 770 Chem, 750 Bio E, 730 Physics; AP's (all 5): World History, US History, Statistics, English Language, Physics B</p>

<p>Courseload: max rigor; AP Chem + AP Bio + AP Calculus BC + AP English Literature + AP Microeconomics/Macroeconomics next year</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>3 years of Orchestra (not much to show)
3 years of Mock Trial (some awards, Treasurer)
3 years of Young Democrats (President)
3 years of FBLA (competed at state)
2 years of UNICEF
2 years of Model UN (PR Manager)
Some competitions on recent events (got to state level)
Science Olympiad (state level for Astronomy)
500 hour of volunteering (300 at animal shelter, 150 at local tech charity, 50 miscellaneous- mainly tutoring)
3 years of school volunteering (Web designer)
Founded 3 clubs (GSA and two volunteering organizations)</p>

<p>Awards:</p>

<p>Excellence in a few subjects (3 math/sci)
National Merit Semifinalist (likely to be a Finalist)</p>

<h1>2 at a local math contest</h1>

<p>Character Award
AP Scholar with Distinction
National Forensic League Distinction</p>

<p>Major: EECS
Goal: Tech company (Start-ups and Google/Apple/Facebook/Microsoft/etc. are my dream, but I'll settle for any innovative environment if I can get in)
Educational goals: I think I'll go for a Master's and an MBA but that's TBD</p>

<p>Cost constraint: $40k/year is the furthest my family will go (we're hoping for something like $25k/yr and won't go very far unless the school is stellar)
Income bracket: $125k/yr BUT with high savings (too much for Berkeley's MCAP)</p>

<p>Preferences: academics first
Weather- none
Region: I like the West and the Northeast but mostly because their universities tend to be way better; I want to avoid conservative regions, rural schools, and hopefully most of the South
I don't want to go to a school that's religiously affiliated unless it's only nominal; I will not take a mandatory religion course
Size: no concern as long as there's research and internship opportunities for things I'm interested in (innovative tech)
I'd like to avoid frat/party schools if possible, but state schools are cool since they're so big and diverse that I can find my own scene</p>

<p>So far I'm using UT-Austin as a safety (my only one? A&M will offer a full ride, so maybe I'll add it). I'm also looking at Stanford ("dream school" although I know that's a stupid term), MIT, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Princeton, Caltech, and Harvey Mudd. Any tips?</p>

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<p>With schools as good as UT Austin and Texas A&M as safeties (but make sure that you meet any additional requirements for their engineering divisions), you need only consider schools that you prefer over those schools.</p>

<p>Have you tried Berkeley’s net price calculator? It will likely show too high a price, since there will be no financial aid coverage of the $23,000 additional out-of-state tuition. For any other school, check the net price calculator to check financial feasability.</p>

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<p>@ucbalumnus‌ Yeah, I’m trying to narrow down the two as well so I don’t waste application money + time on the one I would pick the other over. I think Texas A&M won’t make the final list since I’m not a big fan of conservative environments (at least not over Austin) and since they’re not as good for my major. Plus my impression of the student body at UT is much better, but I’ve visited UT a few times (due to ECs) but never visited College Station. I think an additional problem will be my lack of college visit time/money but I’ll be able to explore Columbia and a few other Northeastern schools since I’ll be in the area anyway.</p>

<p>Berkeley’s NPC says $55k but I think I’ll still apply and see if I get anything. Silicon Valley seems like the place to be for someone going into tech with my interests, and I know there tend to be disparities between NPC calculations and actual aid. Our FAFSA EFC is at $40k and I ran through the NPC and it looks like no other school will go seriously over it- maybe I miscalculated Berkeley if they’re that high? I know OOS students are a source of income but that’s still high.</p>

<p>I’ve been told by a friend that Rice sends waivers (around late September) for people with good SAT II scores and that I’ll probably qualify. I’m not sure if I’ll apply there either, since they’re not as good for EECS as UT-Austin, but they’re known for being undergrad-friendly and research-heavy. I’m not sure if I want to go all-research though. So my list looks like this at the moment:</p>

<p>Safety: UT-Austin Cockrell, possibly A&M</p>

<p>Match: possibly Rice, Carnegie Mellon ECE, possibly UCLA, possibly UIUC, possibly Georgia Tech</p>

<p>Reach: Berkeley EECS, Stanford, MIT, Princeton, Cornell, Caltech, possibly Columbia, possibly Brown</p>

<p>So 8 schools (6 reaches- yikes!) and 7 possibly’s</p>

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<p>If your FAFSA EFC is $40,000, then Berkeley will not give you need-based financial aid grants, since your FAFSA EFC exceeds its in-state cost of attendance. Financial aid grants do not cover the $23,000 additional out-of-state tuition. Berkeley does not have much in the way of large purely merit-based scholarships; the most obvious on, the Drake scholarship, is for mechanical engineering majors only.</p>

<p>UCLA financial aid will be similar to Berkeley (i.e. you won’t get any). There are something like five large Stamps scholarships for out-of-state students (super-reach to get those). Georgia Tech’s out-of-state cost of attendance is about $44,000, so you would need to take a federal direct loan or contribute work earnings to top up your parents’ contribution. They also have some super-reach President’s scholarships. UIUC is about $50,000 out-of-state for engineering, so it would be a stretch to cover it with both direct loans and work earnings after your parents’ contribution. Large merit scholarships there do not seem to be mentioned.</p>

<p>Caltech is an outlier in your list, being a very small school with a strong emphasis on engineering and science. Other smaller schools focused on engineering and science include Harvey Mudd (also reach for everyone), Rose-Hulman, Stevens, CO Mines, NM Mines (safety, cheap), and SD Mines (safety, cheap), MO S&T.</p>

<p>Are all of the other schools on your list those which you would choose over UT Austin and Texas A&M?</p>

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<p>If you have stats to get in UT of Austin, forget the rest, it’s not worth the price for OOS. UT of Austin is well represented in the Bay Area.</p>

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<p>UMass-Amherst! It literally has everything you’re looking for. (Even price. For OOS students, the cost of attendance is 37K. UMass even froze their costs for the upcoming year, and they’re looking to do it for future years). With your stats, you could get into the Honors College and get some scholarships. </p>

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<p>Thanks for the suggestions!</p>

<p>@ucbalumnus‌ I mostly picked Caltech due to some lingering interest in NASA and the JPL. I’ll look into Harvey Mudd, Rose-Hulman, CSM, and MO S&T a bit more; I think my Safety list is pretty robust.</p>

<p>My only worry about UT-Austin is that the top 7% rule won’t guarantee my admission to Cockrell ECE with Honors. I don’t know how much of a difference Honors would make, but I want to avoid the frat-domination/partying on the campus and go for an academically driven/passionate/entrepreneurial environment if possible. Maybe Plan II offers this same environment, but I’m not sure whether I want to delve much more in the liberal arts.</p>

<p>I think I’ll only add A&M if I don’t think I’ll get into Cockrell ECE with Honors. State schools look kind of stats-driven so hopefully that’ll work in my favor. And yeah, I’m only going to apply to other schools that I think would be better than Cockrell for me, but I’m worried that would make my list too reach-heavy since there aren’t that many affordable matches between UT-Austin and the Stanford/MIT crowd.</p>

<p>@Violet1996‌ Wow! That’s awesome; I was about to just go cross off every state school on my list because UIUC, UCLA, Berkeley, etc., made it look kind of hopeless. What’s the student body there like? And how much of a difference does Honors make?</p>

<p>@DrGoogle‌ That’s good to know. I just have mixed feelings about UT-Austin because of the 7% rule (I’m afraid of the sort of student body that would bring in, since like 100 kids from my school get in every year and most of them I don’t consider my kind of crowd). I’d still pay a premium, I guess, for something with a Silicon Valley atmosphere (Stanford/Berkeley) or extreme excellence in STEM (Caltech/MIT) if I get in. From the impression I got earlier, UT-Austin seems to be more of a “get a job” place than a “make something cool” place. I wan’t to avoid bureaucratic cubicle-y jobs and stay on the innovative side of EECS if possible. I don’t know; I think I’m just wary of UT Austin because of the people I see going there from my school and the common jobs they end up getting. Probably unreasonable on my part.</p>

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<p>I used to work with a group from Austin, Texas, not sure if all of them graduated from UT of Austin but they are pretty smart. My neighbors both graduated from UT Austin and moved to the Bay Area right away after graduation. I also met countless people at work graduated from UT Austin. They all did very well. I think like most students, people underestimate their own state schools. If you go to Facebook, career section for student, UT of Austin is listed as one of the top 21 schools Facebook recruits, now that does not mean those are the only schools Facebook will recruit but the fact that Facebook lists them there means something. I can’t find similar high tech companies that I can cite easily.</p>

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<p>Apply to both UT Austin and Texas A&M. You are fortunate to have these excellent in-state universities to use as safeties.</p>

<p>Skip applying to out of state publics. They are unlikely to give you any aid, making them much more expensive than UT Austin or Texas A&M. Berkeley, UCLA, or Georgia Tech are not worth the full-price OOS tuition, especially when you have affordable in-state options.</p>

<p>Since you have two good safeties lined up, apply to reach private universities that can offer generous need-based financial aid. You mention Stanford, MIT, Cornell, Princeton, Caltech, and Harvey Mudd. Who knows?.. so go for it. Definitely apply to Rice, as they offer both need-based financial aid and merit aid.</p>

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<p>I loved your ■■■■■ post!</p>

<p>I think you have the rare capability to get into a reach school with a really great witty essay. </p>

<p>No question you have talent. Use the state schools as your safeties, but shoot for the stars. </p>

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<p>@TheGoodBook‌ The school is pretty large (about 4500 students per graduating class), so it’s safe to say that it’s really diverse. It is about as far from conservative as you could get. It does have a slight reputation as a party school, but if you’re not interested in partying, you can just stay away from the housing complex that is responsible for all the noise. </p>

<p>Honors students have a couple of benefits, with the most obvious being that you can graduate with special distinctions from UMass. UMass also built (like 2 years ago) a brand new housing complex for honors students (complete with air conditioning), which has also attracted more students. Being an honors student also gives you a leg up with the professors, who might be more willing to take on an honors student into their research than they would with non-honors students. In short, the unwritten opportunities become a bit more available if you’re an honors student. </p>

<p>I think it would be a great safety for you. You seem like someone they would love to have. </p>

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<p>UT Austin has a low fraternity and sorority percentage (3.4% in fraternities and 4.9% in sororities, although small percentages of a huge student body can fill up a lot of fraternities and sororities, making them look like a bigger part of the campus than they are.
<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg05_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=788”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg05_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=788&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Please lose the school-elitist attitude. If you work at a Silicon Valley computer company, you will work alongside graduates of non-elite schools like non-flagship state schools (e.g. UC not-Berkeley, CSU various), state flagships that do not have an elite-for-a-state-flagship reputation (e.g. Alabama, Hawaii, Oregon, Arizona [State], Colorado, etc.), and perhaps a few non-college-graduates who self-educated CS.</p>

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<p>@DrGoogle‌ Wow. I wasn’t aware of that list. Looks like there isn’t much out there that beats UT-Austin, then, and my worries are silly.</p>

<p>@Fifty‌ Thanks for the advice! I think I’ll go with that strategy since UT and A&M are really, really good safeties.</p>

<p>@ClassicRockerDad‌ Thanks! I hope my essays will be good enough.</p>

<p>@Violet1996‌ I think it’s going to be on the list, then. Seems like the ideal environment and geographically nice since it’s not too far from Boston, America’s #2 startup hub.</p>

<p>@ucbalumnus‌ I know they have a lot fraternity rate, but they seem to be described as “frat-dominated”- both by my teachers (some of which are members of Texas Exes) and current students. I think they also rank high when it comes to Greek dominance, but yeah I’m aware that it’s huge and I can avoid Greek life if I want to. It’s definitely not a huge defect; I’m trying to find things to look for in other schools so I can decide what’s more preferable than UT-Austin, since that seems to be a very small category.</p>

<p>I don’t think that a student at one school is inherently better than a student at another school. But I don’t think that putting overall student body quality into consideration is an elitist thing; yeah, you can go anywhere and still end up reaching your goals. I don’t avoid conversation with people just because they went to/are going to CC; that would be silly. And I’m aware of the prevalence of self-educated programmers; I’m learning C from one and he’s pretty good. However, I don’t think it’s wrong to say that a higher portion of the kids at UT will be from the crowd I don’t really get along with- compared to my reaches/matches. True, you can find motivated people just about anywhere and UT’s a good place to find them (hence the struggle with finding matches)- but I’d just prefer a student body that’s saturated with people like that instead of one that has high numbers of motivated people but isn’t dominated by that sort of attitude.</p>

<p>Also, the top 7% rule <em>does</em> have an effect on quality. Professors at Cockrell, for example, don’t tend to be as willing to interact with/develop relationships with ECE freshmen and sophomores because there’s a 50% dropout rate for that major in the first year. It’s definitely creating some problems for UT- so that’s why I’m a bit wary of it. I just hope no one’s taking this to mean I think UT’s terrible.</p>

<p>So I think my list looks like this then:</p>

<p>Safety: UT-Austin, Texas A&M, UMass-Amherst
High Match/Reach: Carnegie Mellon, Rice
Reach: Caltech, Stanford, Princeton, MIT, Cornell, Harvey Mudd</p>

<p>Hmm that comes out to 11, so a little bit more than I’d wanted (10). Any suggestions? I’m pretty comfortable with this list if there isn’t something to cut out.</p>

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<p>There are frats at Stanford and Berkeley too.</p>

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<p>@DrGoogle‌ So does this have no validity? I figured it gave some idea of student perspective: <a href=“http://colleges.niche.com/rankings/greek-life/top-where-greek-life-rules/?page=1”>http://colleges.niche.com/rankings/greek-life/top-where-greek-life-rules/?page=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Are Stanford and Berkeley also football-dominated? I’m wondering if it’s just a Southern thing (although I’m glad UT’s football program isn’t subsidized).</p>

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<p>Stanford definitely. For Berkeley, it has a football team, but words on the street is that some of the team member is neither student nor athlete. :wink: It’s painful to watch them. :smiley: </p>

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<p>Wow not only are you clever and funny - but what guts to admit your dark past! </p>

<p>I’m a fan of Case Western, as a parent whose son is very happy there, pursuing same/similar educational goals (EECS, possible graduate work, he’s declared for a dual degree program). Greek life is low-key and mostly academic/philanthropic so not like many schools where frats are a huge party scene. With your stats you’d probably get a merit award which would bring the cost within your range. </p>

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<p>Most of these are larger schools, where a small percentage of students in fraternities and sororities still means a lot of students in fraternities and sororities. But if you are not interested in fraternities and sororities at UT Austin, you have the other 95% of the students to socialize with.</p>

<p>The situation is different from places like Dartmouth, Bucknell, and DePauw, where the majority of eligible students are in fraternities and sororities, so a student who is not interested in them may find the social scene more limited.</p>