<p>So this upcoming year I will be a junior at my all girls Catholic high school. I'm looking to apply to colleges that have strong engineering and science departments. That is why I'm considering MIT as one of my top choices. But what other colleges should I look into further? I want to start complying a list (I have kinda started). But some of my stats so far are below...what schools should I look at for engineering and sciences that I stand a chance at?</p>
<p>GPA: about a 98 throughout the past 2 years
My school doesn't rank, but definitely in top 5%.
APs: World History (5) This year I will take Bio, Physics B, and APUSH. Senior year I will take Euro, Calc AB, Lit, Chem, Physics C: M and E/M
Taken AMC past 2 years (don't know exact scores)
I'm a member on Campus Ministry (Leadership Team - 12 people in club who lead), been class president for the past 2 years, Varsity Sailing (2 letters), involved in Youth and Government (Conferences in Albany, won many awards, even met with legislators from my area), volunteer weekly at senior citizen home (3 hours a week for years), member of NHS, currently working summer job</p>
<p>I havent taken the SAT yet but am signed up for October. On my practice ones, I consistently score between 2100 and 2200, hoping if I keep practicing it will improve :]
On SAT2 World I got a 720.</p>
<p>I really didn't mean to make this a chance thing or whatever, I just want to know what schools would be a match and I have a chance at. Thank you!</p>
<p>MIT would definately be good.
Stanford and UC Berkely should also be considered. Almost on par with MIT in terms of engineering.
CalTech is much more “nerdy” and tech oriented. Don’t go there if you think you might switch to humanities major.
Carnegie Mellon, strong computer science and engineering. Also has good drama/theater stuff.
safety to consider?: Georgia Institute of Tech</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions! Right now I’m looking into all of them, although I think I’m going to try to stay someplace in the Northeast (I’m from New York). Any other suggestions? Also, any safety type schools I should consider? I’m not entirely sure where I can and can’t get in yet so I wan to have a broad list.</p>
<p>Cornell is one of the few noted engineering colleges in the Northeast.
Most good engineering schools are in the midwest or west coast. Some of the other ivies have decently-rated engineering programs (10-30 ranking), but this tends to be inflated by general prestige and the quality of professors who are more scientists than engineers. </p>
<p>You might consider Duke, especially if you are considering biomedical engineering.
On the East Coast, University of Delaware has a top notch chem E program, but the other engineering programs aren’t very good.</p>
<p>A lot of the purely tech schools have a reputation for being unpleasant, like factories that take tuition. So keep them in mind. It might be better to go to a state school with an excellent engineering program.</p>
<p>Consider University of Michigan. They get a lot of good out-of-state students and they have a great engineering program.</p>
<p>Not really. In addition to the great engineering schools at MIT, Cornell, CMU, and Princeton; the Northeast also hosts the very strong engineering programs at Lehigh, RPI, Cooper Union, Villanova, Bucknell, Lafayette, and Stevens Institute of Technology. Also, many of the ivies other than Princeton and Cornell are excellent for particular engineering specialties.</p>
<p>It’s really important to visit some of these schools and get a feel for the environment. Everyone thinks of MIT when they are considering engineering schools, but they might find that they actually prefer the atmosphere of a school like CMU or RPI. Schools like CMU and the ivies are good alternatives to MIT for some because there is a lot more offered in areas outside of engineering, science, and technology.</p>
<p>I don’t think you should only consider the top Engineering schools such as MIT in the NE. If you “only” can muster a 2100 plus, you probably aren’t getting into MIT and possibly not CMU. And if you decided to come West, a 2100 isn’t getting you into Stanford or Cal (OOS) either. This is still an excellent score and WOULD get you into a NE school such as Northeastern with quite possibly some merit-based money. I’d also consider Purdue, not the NE, but an excellent Engineering school that tends to accept applicants with stats that aren’t through the roof. As already suggested Michigan has a wonderful Engineering school, located on their north campus, with fantastic facilities.</p>
<p>OK, well, they may be good but they aren’t on par with Big 10 schools, many of which are top 10 in engineering. I don’t know much about Cooper Union, but their grad schools aren’t highly ranked. I’ve heard their students score pretty high on the SAT.</p>
<p>I would think you would be better off going to a state school which has a more complete undergraduate experience as well as a stronger engineering program than a more specialized engineering school that actually isn’t as good at engineering anyway. The only way I would consider a tech school is if they were like Caltech or MIT, but this is your decision.</p>
<p>To the OP: It’s hard to tell you what engineering schools are a good fit because you haven’t told us what you are looking for or even what type of person you are, your likes and dislikes, etc. I can’t tell by looking at your activities.</p>
<p>Some people don’t enjoy the atmosphere at tech-focused schools. IMO, the most important factor in your decision is whether you are one of those people.</p>
<p>An exception would be Georgia Tech… very OOS friendly from what I’ve heard. the OOS tuition premium is not that stiff either.</p>
<p>Also look into princeton [easier to get into when you apply engineering] and columbia [much much easier to get into engineering than liberal arts columbia college]. you shpuld also check out Northwestern’s McCormick school of eng, particularly for materials science.</p>
<p>Hmm…from New York and looking for good engineering schools in the Northeast. The no-brainer alternatives to MIT are R.P.I. , C.M.U. and Cornell. </p>
<p>RPI (and schools like Rice in Texas) tends to be underrated simply because its a much smaller program than Georgia Tech, Michigan, UIUC, etc. US news grad rankings heavily weight total #of Phds awarded and aggregate research dollars so of course schools that are 2,3 or even 4X the size will rank higher and have reputations that filter down to UG rankings. In terms of student quality and quality of research facilities, R.P.I. is easily on par with the bigger schools. </p>
<p>MIT awards a $30,000 cash prize for student inventivess each year at MIT itself, CalTech, R.P.I. and U.I.U.C… That should give you an idea as to the caliber of the school. </p>
<p>you are reading way too much into the the inclusion of RIP students in the eligibility requirements for this one award.</p>
<p>With the exception of MIT the NE is not that all that strong in engineering. And why you would elevate Cornell and exclude Princeton and Columbia from your list is a little curious.</p>
<p>But if you have to be in the NE and dont get into MIT, try Olin – their concept is interesting.</p>
<p>The Lemelson Prize is just one example I chose to site. Anyway, I’ve got 20 years experience at Texas Instruments that runs contrary to the assertion that MIT is the only great engineering school in the Northeast. We hire engineers all the time from Carnegie, RPI, Cornell, Lehigh, etc. That’s a half cross country trip from/to our headquarters in Dallas. </p>
<p>Yes, we have a lot of UT Austin, Texas A&M, Purdue and the like but the Northeast has supplied some great engineers for us.</p>
<p>There are smart people everywhere, and a lot of people tend to stay local for college. Though the choice in college can have an impact how good they become, but by-and-large a really smart, motivated person will become a great engineer regardless of where they go.</p>
<p>Lehigh is a good engineering school, but not great compared to say U. of Illinois or something. That doesn’t mean they don’t turn out great engineers, though.</p>
<p>If the OP is looking for matchy-safe engineering programs in the Northeast, I would think Rensselaer, Lehigh, or Worcester would all fit the bill. Penn State, too, if she wants to go big. She may also want to look at Rose-Hulman, in Indiana (which is practically the opposite of an all-girls school).</p>
<p>Another intriguing possibility, if she likes single-sex education, is the engineering program at Smith.</p>