<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>