<p>MIT and Stanford are my top choices but just in case my sheer brilliance, my blazing personality and my numerous national and international gold metals don't add up to acceptance letters in those schools, what are some other colleges to look into?</p>
<p>Again, many colleges have very nice engineering programs, but I'm international and I need a good amount of aid.</p>
<p>Caltech and Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania have undergraduate engineering programs and financial aid for international students. Olin might be another option to consider if you can cover your living expenses (every student gets an automatic full-tuition scholarship, but there is no additional financial aid for internationals).</p>
<p>LOL....
You just named few of the most competitive universities. All of them being non-need blind. :p..</p>
<p>issacnewton, you know as well as I do that the only "decent" engineering schools with financial aid for international students are among the most selective colleges in the country and that most of them have only a limited amount of financial aid. (Of course, if the OP wanted to look at merit aid from 4th tier colleges, the list would look different but I doubt that that would be a good idea.)</p>
<p>Caltech doesn't offer any financial aid to int'l xfer students. Sorry.</p>
<p>True, but we are not talking about transfer admissions, are we?</p>
<p>NO NO NO. I'm not a transfer. I'm an international student without a green card who happens to have lived in this country for 8 years -.- Don't ask why we still don't have a green card.</p>
<p>Look at top LACS with engine programs. Swarthmore and HArvey Mudd probably the only 2 TOP ones. I wouldn't say their engine program is as good as MIT or Cornell's tho.</p>
<p>If you expect to get your green card soon (within the next 2 years or so), you could also look at 3-2 or 2-1-1-1 engineering programs. Those are programs where you spend the first 2 or 3 years at a college without an engineering department and take courses in math, physics, chemistry, computer science, etc, and then transfer to another college and complete an engineering major there. After 5 years you get two degrees, a liberal arts degree and an engineering degree.</p>
<p>Some small liberal arts colleges (who have financial aid for international students) have such programs, and the counterpart with the engineering program is often quite prestigious (e.g. Caltech, Columbia). However, you would need to have your green card to qualify for financial aid at the engineering school, even if the liberal arts college initially gives you financial aid as an international student.</p>
<p>I really hate rankings and how they almost never agree with each other, but it's my most concise way to make my college list right now</p>
<p><a href="http://polycentric.csupomona.edu/campus_news/usnews_engineering14th.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://polycentric.csupomona.edu/campus_news/usnews_engineering14th.pdf</a>
Look at Iowa State vs Wash U and Yale. I live near ISU, but seriously?</p>
<p>Stop reading the rankings. They will just make you insane.</p>
<p>IF you know what kind of engineering you want to study,
and
IF you know anyone currently working in that field,
then
ASK that person for his or her suggestions on good places for you to consider.</p>
<p>For what it's worth, the three ISU engineering grads that I personally know, are still working as engineers (not management) and still love their jobs thirty years after college graduation. The ISU engineering drop-out that I know got a two-year engineering technician diploma and has a great job that he loves in the environmental protection business. ISU can be a wonderful place to study. Just be sure to dress warm from December through March!</p>
<p>I've heard Worcester Polytechnic is good. A Russian guy got his BS there cause MIT woudn't accept him and now he works at MIT</p>
<p>These are the top schools for engineering:
MIT, UCBerkeley, Stanford, Caltech, CMU, Cornell, Illinois, Michigan, GeorgiaTech</p>
<p>If you are truly brilliant like you said, getting aid/scholarship at all of these universities shouldn't be a problem =)</p>
<p>^sorry if you didn't catch my drift. I was being sarcastic.</p>
<p>GA Tech is 4th best in the states.</p>
<p>I think that's a stretch.</p>
<p>USC gives generous merit scholarships for students with high stats.</p>