<p>I live in Western NY and am looking at applying to some colleges in the near future. I'm probably going to go into mechanical engineering and hopefully end up with some research and experience in aerospace, robotics, and military engineering. Post any good engineering schools that are in the relative area. </p>
<p>Some schools that I've looked at so far include:</p>
<p>University of Rochester
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
SUNY University at Buffalo
Rochester Institute of Technology</p>
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<p>So you have an idea of where to place me:</p>
<p>SAT:
Math - 690
Verbal - 650
Writing - 670</p>
<p>These were on my first try. I will likely retake them in November or December, but my applications need to be sent in just a few months. I haven't taken the ACT. Is that advisable?</p>
<p>Weighted GPA: 102.28<br>
Unweighted GPA: 98.87<br>
Class Rank: 1 of 92</p>
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<p>Both my parents went to Cornell, and it is only an hour or two away from where I live, but my SAT scores don't quite match up. My favorite school so far has been RPI. How do my chances of acceptance look at a glance? Also, what might I be able to look at for financial aid?</p>
<p>Any answers to these many questions is appreciated.</p>
<p>Cornell has a pretty big range in SAT scores. I don’t think it is too hard to get into Cornell, because the kids I know who got in had decent scores and grades but they didn’t need to be exceptional. If you can get a higher SAT (preferably 700+ on each section) or do great on the ACT, chances look good for Cornell.</p>
<p>University of Rochester doesn’t have as good of a reputation for engineering compared to RPI. Not quite sure if I would pay that much money to go there if you didn’t get any scholarship money.</p>
<p>FYI, for those who don’t know this, Cornell’s 7 undergraduate colleges each have distinct applicant pools. Application is made to a particular college there.</p>
<p>"I’ve known students accepted to Cornell the last 3 years with lower SAT’s and they weren’t valedictorians. "</p>
<p>Were they accepted to Cornell’s engineering college? </p>
<p>“Cornell has a pretty big range in SAT scores…”</p>
<p>Is that the engineering college’s range of SAT scores you are referring to?</p>
<p>“…the kids I know who got in had decent scores and grades but they didn’t need to be exceptional.”</p>
<p>Did those kids you know get into the engineering college?</p>
<p>The most recent 50%ile exam stats for the engineering college freshman class are as follows:
640-730 verbal, 720-790 math, 31-34 ACT.</p>
as far as Cornell admissions, it is correct that a broad range of students gets in but the engineering school is probably the most selective, I wouldn’t count on getting in without raising your test scores significantly. I would off-hand say that your chances at RPI and Rochester at this point are also just fair-to-good. Your chances are very good at RIT and Buffalo.
Some things you might want to think about: Buffalo is in general a good school for engineering but a drawback may be a lack of individual attention for undergads. The faculty:student ratio is high, and many faculty as I understand it really aren’t that committed to undergrad teaching. I have heard that many students do well there by supporting each other. U Rochester’s strength in my view may also be its weakness. The departments (and class sizes) are relatively small, so that you should typically expect to get a lot of help from faculty and have a good undergrad experience. I wouldn’t worry about its engineering “reputation” so much, employers and grad schools will recognize it as a good program. However when it comes to class choices you may find yourself limited, and that choice limitation may include which faculty teach which courses- you may end up stuck with poor teaching in certain required courses. This is one reason my son steered away from Rochester. RIT has a reputation for being a more hands-on type of institution that prepares students more for entry into the working world than for graduate study. It supposedly has a particularly good coop program if you are interested in that.
other options in the general region you may want to consider: Clarkson University; Worcester Polytechnic Institute; SUNY Binghamton. Each has its own character, strengths and drawbacks, but all produce good engineers.</p>
<p>Cornell engineering may be the hardest of its schools to get into, but it is still in no way comparable to MIT as someone in this thread has said. And yes, two of the kids I know that had “decent scores but weren’t exceptional” were accepted to Cornell engineering.</p>
<p>“Cornell engineering may be the hardest of its schools to get into…”
I wouldn;t say that, each of the schools looks for different things, Other criteria are at play at the various schools and are variously weighed, such as demonstrated affinity and aptitude for that school’s subject matter and various “soft” interpersonal factors. Which is hardest to get into for a given individual will depend on fit. Architecture and Arts & Sciences accept the smallest %s.</p>
<p>As for “decent scores”, comparison to MIT,etc. the most recent actual stats are posted in #7 above, one would hope the actual data should take the discussion above the realm of individual anecdotes and claims, and can be readily compared to other schools, from which one can draw one’s own conclusions. The data is what it is.</p>
<p>I probably won’t apply to Cornell. If I did, it would most likely be a far reach. I’d be happy just to get into RPI or U or R, while UB and RIT should be reasonable safeties.</p>
<p>Now I won’t be taking my second SAT or my ACT until early December, and I should be sending my applications out as soon as possible, so I might have to make due with what I’ve got for now.</p>
<p>What do colleges look at that might work in my advantage? I’ve got a fair ammount of extra-curriculars: NHS President, soccer throughout high school, regional science fair awards, and a few various clubs. Do colleges like RPI care about this stuff? Also I won the Bausch and Lomb award from U of R. I imagine they’d think it was cool, but I wonder if other schools would be impressed too?</p>
<p>collegehelp - I’m not sure where you got the Cornell data, but it looks inconsistent with the data Cornell published for freshman admission stats by college for Fall 2009. </p>
<p>Engineering: 22% = 1731 acceptances out of 7711 apps
Total Cornell: 19% = 6564 acceptances out of 14731 apps</p>
<p>That looks like Engineering is less selective than Cornell overall.
Engineering is more selective for Men (18%) vs Women (36%).</p>
<p>You can argue that the applicant pool for engineering is smarter, but then you can always argue about such things.</p>
<p>monydad - thanks for the pointer to the data.</p>
<p>Looks like the engineering school admits people with higher
Math SAT scores (50 points higher on the average) but the
SAT CR scores look pretty much the same for Eng vs Arts/Sciences.</p>
<p>I have near perfect on Math SAT so I’ll apply to Eng.</p>
<p>You have a very good chance at both RPI and U Rochester. As for RIT and SUNY Buffalo, you’re in a great position and can rest easy. Also, it doesn’t hurt to apply to Cornell or other reaches that you like. I’d say go for it and try because you just never know.</p>
<p>As for your extracurriculars, colleges love to see well-rounded students. They can only work in your favor so make sure to highlight them.</p>
<p>Anyway, you should also look at Case Western Reserve, WPI, and Carnegie Mellon. I’m sure you’ll get a decent amount of merit from RPI, U Rochester, Case Western, and WPI.</p>
<p>“I have near perfect on Math SAT so I’ll apply to Eng.”</p>
<p>??? How about “I really want to study engineering, rather than pursuing a major and distribution and language requirements in the liberal arts fields, and Cornell has a great program in the areas that interest me, so I’ll apply to Eng.” ???</p>
<p>WPI sounds like it’d be good, but the drive might be a bit long, though not too much farther than RPI, I suppose. Case Western would probably be a good option to look into. As for CMU, I’ve researched it a bit, but again I seem to run into the problem of relatively low SAT scores. I might apply there as a reach, but I assume that the tuition would be similar to UR/RPI, and I might not be able to count on merit aid. I’m not sure.</p>
<p>As for RPI/UR/RIT/UB, how do I go about applying? I feel so unknowledgeable about this college stuff, but I really have to buckle down and get it done.</p>
<p>Through the common application of course. For RPI, if you receive the candidate’s choice application, apply through that instead. For all of the schools, scheduling interviews and visiting the campuses will show interest and put you in a better position.</p>