<p>Shoebox, some good points you made there! I applied to UMD College Park, American (safety, i applied before i decided on engineering), GW, Georgetown, Hopkins, Cornell, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, and Penn. Haven't heard from the last 8, but I got into UMD with invites to the honors and Gemstone program (basically you're part of a research team for 4 years with others in your major). I will probably go to UMD because of the Gemstone program (and because it's cheap, I'm in-state!)... I love the idea of working with a close-knit group. I am thinking civil engineering right now but I'm very liable to move around within the engineering majors. Where do you go/what major are you pursuing?</p>
<p>Wentworth - Haha I think the question should be are there any hot boys in here? Come on, speak up. :p</p>
<p>Virginia Tech, EE. But i'm trying to transfer to UVA, simply because I want more options in my classes. Here, i have 16-17 credits every semester with no electives. At UVA, I'd have atleast one elective each semester, which is good for a strong liberal arts student like me. Hopefully I'll get in =) If not, i'm still at the #11 public engineering university, which isn't too shabby. They're both IS for me as well, VT being 3.5-4 hours away, UVA being a mere 2 from home, so neither is too expensive/too far, which is nice since i'm planning on grad school and hopefully the parents will lend me some monetary support =P</p>
<p>Really? VT?! I think I'm going to visit vt this friday, if I can set up a tour. I applied to: VT, GT, UVA, rose-hulman (accepted), NCSU (accepted), duke, carnegie mellon, cornell...a couple others. I live in the western carolina mountains, so VT is only like three hours, and my sister goes to roanoke, so that would be cool. I want to major in mechanical engineering.<br>
Do you like VT overall? anything in particular that you do not like?</p>
<p>Wow! Well, VT is great, its no wonder its #11. However, it doesn't fit me, simply because there's a lack of humanity/communication/liberal arts electives simply because, well, its Tech =P The career fairs are very successful, and anything above a 3.0 here is very respected by major companies. Be warned, the freshman year is brutal, as you have strong courseloads, and they make an effort to weed out those who cant hack it. EE is definently the toughest, especially second semester. Also, look into the requirements for testing out of freshman english, atleast one semester (i know APs will do it, thats how I got out of both semesters. I think SAT scores might get you out of one as well), and definently try to get out of Calc 1. They'll make your life faaarrrr easier here. It's definently a grinding engineering school, but I really do like it, and I know i'm getting a great education. Thats why I won't be too heartbroken if I don't get into UVA, but I definently would like to have the option. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions =)</p>
<p>Hehe funny how "Tech" changes its meaning depending on where you are at. When I was in TX, "Tech" means Texas Tech. When I got to Georgia, "Tech" only refers to GT. Apparently you Virginians see things differently :p</p>
<p>Anyways, going by the graduate ranking, VT is #30, UVA is #38, so there is practically no difference in ranking. I applied to UVA for grad school, my #3 choice. But apparently they thought I had bad jujus. Luckily I got in at my #1 choice with funding and thus averted freezing weathers :)</p>
Exactly. I just sort of grew up around engineering, from my dad to playing with Legos to being really good at maths and sciences my entire life.
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<p>Not to get too much off topic, but I seem to find this really fascinating - because among nearly all female engineers who happen to discuss such things with me, it seems almost universally, they played with legos a lot as kids. </p>
<p>It seems unclear whether this is a cause or effect (was it because these girls developed strong analytical ability because of playing with legos, or did their interests/abilities drive them to play with them more), or even, does such a substantial percentage of girls play with legos that there's no correlation?</p>