Engineering schools, maybe in the southeast?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Alright, so here goes. I'm a senior right now, starting two college applications as early decision and that's about it.</p>

<p>I live in Charlotte, NC and so my backup school is North Carolina State University, and my high reach is MIT. (Yes, very high reach)</p>

<p>SAT score of 2210, ten AP's by graduation, 4 and 5 ap scores, high GPA, good extracurriculars, lots of volunteering, leadership, etc etc not here for a college chancing.</p>

<p>The problem I have is that I don't know what other schools to apply too. I mean, friends of mine are applying to ten, fifteen schools, and I just have two. The logic I see is that if I get in to MIT I go, if not, I go to NC state.</p>

<p>There's a school academic gap between those two schools, but I'm having trouble trying to fill it. For example, I was considering the University of Virginia, but after finding out it's not far better than NC state in engineering I felt less obligated to even apply. (The admission rate is far lower, but that's due to it being out-of-state for me)</p>

<p>Rensellear polytechnical I'm considering applying too, but no next to nothing about the school. (Other than it being difficult and my father happening to have gone there)</p>

<p>Carnegie-mellon, I just don't really know anything and am not very enthusiastic about going too far from home (plane-distance far) without good reason (such as MIT, and Boston).</p>

<p>I've heard some things of Georgia Tech, but it seems almost identical to the NC state engineering program.</p>

<p>Duke was my top at first, but now I'm barely considering applying knowing that Pratt engineering school only has four engineering majors, and I don't want to limit myself in so quickly. (Unless I really feel compelled to take computer science)</p>

<p>I'd wish I'd visited any of these schools (except for Duke), but my family is busy over the summer and spring break of my sophomore year we visited my sister's schools, and spring break my junior year we went to Florida to celebrate my sister getting into her top choice, UNC Chapel Hill.</p>

<p>So, does anyone have any good science/engineering schools in the southeast, or any schools that I should otherwise consider despite distance? Also, if anyone can elaborate more on the schools I've listed above, please do.</p>

<p>And as a last note, my parents being highly HIGHLY republican won't let me go to California or UChicago.</p>

<p>Please help, application deadlines are closing in and I'd prefer to do as many early action schools as possible.</p>

2

<p>If NCSU is a safety (assured admission and assured affordability), and there is no school other than MIT which you prefer over NCSU, then your application list is complete.</p>

<p>Be sure to run the net price calculators on each school. Note that you can also try for the competitive full ride Park scholarship at NCSU.</p>

<p>If costs are uncertain, you may want to go to the financial aid and scholarships section of the forums and look at the automatic and competitive full tuition and full ride scholarship threads (automatic ones for safeties, competitive ones for non-safeties).</p>

3

<p>Your parents shouldn’t discount USC in Calif…it’s rather conservative as colleges go. And, frankly, engineering depts on any campus tend to be less political or less “liberal”…since that’s what concerns your parents.</p>

<p>What are your parents saying about how much they’ll pay each year?</p>

4

<p>My father started a small investment firm a few years ago and our income is well into the six figures, so money isn’t really an object. I have applied for the park scholarship for NCSU, as getting a full ride to NCSU would be fantastic.</p>

<p>Although I’d still sacrifice it in a heartbeat for a chance at MIT. So don’t really consider money as an issue in this case.</p>

5

<p>Good!</p>

<p>But you don’t have to worry about the politics of many Eng’g depts. They’re rarely hot-beds of the more radical left. lol</p>

6

<p>I would check into GA Tech and perhaps Vanderbilt as well. if you are willing to come up north, perhaps Cornell and Johns Hopkins as well.</p>

7

<p>Staying in the Southeast, I would also recommend Vanderbilt and GT. After that, you may want to take a look at Virginia Tech and Clemson.</p>

8

<p>NCSU is a safety for you and if that’s where you’re going to go if you don’t get into MIT, there may not be any point in applying to 10-15 schools. You may want to add 1-3 more NC state universities just in case, and maybe 1-2 more engineering schools like MIT that may be a bit less reachy - but ultimately, that’s up to you. I think applying to 2 schools, being pretty well assured that you will get into NCSU, is totally fine (and personally, I think a lot of students on here apply to too many schools).</p>

<p>If you really want to:</p>

<p>Within the Southeast, Georgia Tech is a great engineering school, and it’s different from NCSU enough. There’s also UT-Austin, Texas A&M, and the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). If Virginia’s on the table there’s also Virginia Tech. There’s Rice University, in Houston. Someone already suggested Vanderbilt. UF in Florida also has good engineering programs. Maryland is kind of like the border between Southeast and Northeast, but Maryland at College Park also has great engineering programs.</p>

<p>Outside of the Southeast, you may be interested in the Colorado School of Mines if you are interested in MIT. It’s an engineering school in Colorado (I think in Colorado Springs). Among the privates, there’s Carnegie Mellon and Cornell but also Columbia, Penn, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and Princeton. If large publics interest you, there’s UIUC, Purdue, UW-Madison, Michigan, Penn State and UW-Seattle.</p>

<p>I think it’s strange that your parents are vetoing the entire state of California, since there are definitely more conservative areas of CA. Consider [url=&lt;a href=“Home - GeoCurrents”&gt;Home - GeoCurrents]these[/url</a>] political maps of CA - MOST counties in California went for the Republican candidate with the exception of the last two elections, during which the country was in an “economic meltdown”. The only reason I make the case is because some of the best engineering programs (Stanford and Caltech) are in California. (Berkeley also has a top engineering program…but Berkeley is a very liberal area.)</p>

9

<p>

</p>

<p>Stanford is in left-leaning Santa Clara County (70%-27% for Obama in 2012), and Caltech (and UCLA and USC) is in left-leaning Los Angeles County (70%-28% for Obama in 2012. Berkeley is in Alameda County, which voted 79%-18% for Obama in 2012. UC Irvine is in “conservative” Orange County, which voted 52%-46% for Romney in 2012.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/sov/2012-general/ssov/pres-summary-by-county.pdf[/url]”>http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/sov/2012-general/ssov/pres-summary-by-county.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Looking at the cities these universities are in sometimes shows even greater margins:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/sov/2012-general/ssov/pres-by-political-districts.pdf[/url]”>http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/sov/2012-general/ssov/pres-by-political-districts.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

10

<p>Note, however, that urban areas generally lean left. For example, Fulton County in Georgia voted 255,470-137,124 for Obama in 2012.</p>

<p>[GA</a> - Election Results](<a href=“GA - Election Results”>GA - Election Results)</p>

<p>Wake County in North Carolina voted 286,939-232,933 for Obama in 2012.</p>

<p>[North</a> Carolina Election Results 2012 - Map, County Results, Live Updates - POLITICO.com](<a href=“http://www.politico.com/2012-election/results/president/north-carolina/]North”>North Carolina Election Results 2012 - Map, County Results, Live Updates - POLITICO.com)</p>

11

<p>If you want to stay in the Southeast and you’re certain you want to do engineering, NC State is hard to beat.</p>

<p>Here are the US News rankings of undergrad engineering programs in the Southeaet (excluding Texas):</p>

<h1>5 Georgia Tech</h1>

<h1>16 Virginia Tech</h1>

<h1>20 Duke</h1>

<h1>30 NC State</h1>

<h1>34 (tie) Florida, UVA, Vanderbilt</h1>

<h1>53 Auburn</h1>

<h1>58 Clemson</h1>

<h1>64 Tennessee</h1>

<p>I wouldn’t take these rankings too seriously; all these schools have very respectable engineering programs. But for a NC resident, NC State is hard to beat for quality and price. Georgia Tech and VaTech have very strong engineering programs, but neither is known for generous FA for OOS students.</p>

12

<p>The US News rankings are a bit “quirky”…but what are you going to do? :)</p>

<p>Vanderbilt is worth looking at, based on their commitment to meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need (COA-EFC). All of which is grants, etc…no loans. </p>

<p>Auburn and Clemson would give significant Merit aid/scholarships (based on your stats), but they still can’t match NC State for in-state cost (with tuition about $7,800 a year). </p>

<p>For example, at Auburn, if your M+CR = 1440-1600 and you have a 3.5 GPA, you would qualify for the Presidential Scholarship. Which is awarded at $64,000 over four years ($16,000 per year) and a $1,000 technology stipend the first fall semester. (OOS Tuition is about $25K a year). With a SAT of 1360-1430, the next level of scholarship would award $12K a year.</p>

<p>[Freshman</a> Scholarships | Undergraduate Scholarships](<a href=“http://www.auburn.edu/scholarship/undergraduate/freshman.html]Freshman”>http://www.auburn.edu/scholarship/undergraduate/freshman.html)</p>

<p>For Clemson (OOS Tuition about $29,600 a year) as an OOS student with your stats, you would be awarded a grant of between $5,000 to $15,000 a year.</p>

<p>[Clemson</a> University Scholarships and Grants | Clemson University, South Carolina](<a href=“Types of Aid - Student Financial Aid | Clemson University”>Types of Aid - Student Financial Aid | Clemson University)</p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>