<p>So I'm a rising senior and beginning to fill out my common app. I've always dreamed of my reach schools and know now that if I don't get into them well I have my safety Texas schools. What I'm having trouble with are finding some potential match schools.</p>
<p>Sex: Male
Ethnicity: Hispanic - Mexican
Location: Houston, Texas
Family Income: approx 120k
School: #1 by one list in Houston, Top 100 school by both US News and World Report & Newsweek</p>
<p>Stats
GPA: approx 3.75 UW; 4.4 W
Rank: Unknown but approx top 10-15% of class of 80
SAT: 690M, 680V, 650W (plan to retake to break 2100)
SAT II: Math 2 670, US History 790, Spanish 800
ACT: C31 E30 M31 R32 S31 E9
AP: US History, Spanish Lang 5; World Hist, English Lang, Euro Hist - 4</p>
<p>Senior Schedule: 6 AP classes + Yearbook </p>
<p>ECs
V Baseball 9/10/11
Catholic Youth Group 11/12
Speech/Debate Team 10/11/12
Spanish National Honor Society 11/12
National Honor Society 11/12
Varsity XC 11/12
Latin Club 9/10
Soccer Club 10/12</p>
<p>Summer Activities
Fish Camp Head Counselor 11/12
Changing the Face of Math and Science (Rice Nanotech Summer Program) 11/12
MESET (Univ of Houston Engineering Program)
Volunteer at Elementary School</p>
<p>Awards
AP Scholar with Distinction
2nd Place MESET Roller Coaster Derby Competition
Cum Laude on Latin 1 NLE
National Hispanic Recognition on PSAT
1st Place Spanish Religious Text, Finalist on Poetry and Storytelling at Debate competition
Wesleyan Book Award
Voted Most Talented of Junior Class
4th Place Roman History and Vocabulary at Regionals</p>
<p>So as of now my Reach schools are
Dartmouth
Georgetown
Rice
maybe Yale/Boston College</p>
<p>and my safeties are
Texas A&M
University of Houston</p>
<p>I guess it would help if I mentioned some possible majors. I’ve always been pushed towards engineering but I’m not really sure if that’s what I want to do (I suck at math) but nevertheless it’s still an option especially if its closer tied to science like a chemical or biomedical engineer. My real passion is history though I’m not sure where I could get with that besides becoming a history teacher, which is why I think the SFS program at Georgetown may be great for me.</p>
<p>Hopefully this will help in suggestions for my matches?</p>
<p>Georgetown is not a good choice for engineering. If you want to keep both IR and engineering options open, then Columbia, Johns Hopkins or Tufts would be better alternatives. Both Columbia and Hopkins have highly regarded history departments (Tufts probably is good, too.)</p>
<p>Maybe you’d want to consider a career in international aid and development. You could combine IR or regional studies (including history) with some solid science/engineering training. I have a relative, a retired mechanical engineer, who used to go around the world consulting on hydro projects (dams, irrigation, pump systems) for the World Bank. He loved it. You could do the world a lot of good and make decent money too.</p>
<p>For more of a match, check out the University of Pittsburgh. They apparently have a good Public & International Affairs program (at the graduate level anyway). They also have an engineering school.</p>
<p>Holy Cross does not have an engineering school or department. They apparently have no International Relations department (although they do have a “Peace and Conflict Studies” program.)</p>
<p>Boston College does not have an engineering school or department either. Lehigh would be a good match. RPI, WPI, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech all great engineering schools.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions. I especially liked tk’s comment about his relative and how he managed to combine two seemingly different areas of interest into a specialty. </p>
<p>I guess I should have mentioned that I prefer smaller universities and colleges like under 10k.
Also east coast is a preference. Although I know those poly and tech schools are good universities I think they are too focused on those areas. As I mentioned I’m pulled more to the humanities/social sciences areas rather than the technical and pre-professional. Also I’m not looking for safeties (outside of Texas) because well if I don’t really get into my reaches I really have no desire to leave Texas. </p>
<p>SMU and St.Thomas are two of my matches here in Texas.</p>