Good engineering schools?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello. I am going to be applying to schools for engineering in the fall and have already found several good matches but I want to make sure I didnt miss any that may possibly be a good fit. So far ive narrowed it down to Va Tech, UVa, and Maryland as my Match schools and have UPenn and Cornell(Legacy) as my reach schools. Please let me know if you have any suggestions of other schools I should research or if you have any comments on the schools ive already listed or my chances to get into them.</p>

<p>Credentials:
Attended the New Horizons Governors School for Science and Technology, a dual enrollment program that focus heavily on math, science, and research. Very similar to TJ.
Took Calculus based physics, Calculus I&II, Research Methodology and Ethics. Straight A's in all of my classes.</p>

<p>GPA: 4.425 but should go up to about a 4.5 after the end of the first semester of senior year. UW 3.9.</p>

<p>Sat: 1420, 2090. (790 in math)</p>

<p>APs
Ap Euro(4), Ap US(4) Ap Eng 11(4), Calculus A(4) Physics C(5)
Ap Scholar with Distinctio4. </p>

<p>Next Years Homeschool Classes: Ap English 12, Ap Gov, Advanced Technical Drawing,
Gov School Classes next year: Calculus Based Physics II, Mentorship, Enviro Science, MultiVar/LinearAlg.</p>

<p>Extra Curriculars:
Varsity Soccer
Nasa Mentorship
Model UN
Governors School Student Advisory Board</p>

<p>If you have any questions regarding my credentials please ask.</p>

<p>What I look for in schools (In order)
1. Academic prestige especially in engineering
2. Good social environment
3. Total cost of attendance hopefully <$35,000 a year
4. Internship/Job opportunities
5. Not too far from where I live (Va)
6. Good food
7. Larger campus but not in city
8. Good sports teams</p>

2

<p>Purdue and UIUC may be a bit far, but they are good engineering schools.</p>

3

<p>

</p>

<p>NCSU, Stony Brook, Minnesota, Cal Poly SLO, Virginia Tech may be in that range.</p>

<p>Several schools in this list which have engineering can be low cost safeties:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>More potentially low cost match/reach schools:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-2.html#post15889078[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-2.html#post15889078&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Yeah Ive considered those but their both pretty far away and are expensive.
Also I forgot to mention I would also prefer a place that’s not too cold</p>

5

<p>Ah, Georgia Tech is in the south. But i think it’s expensive.</p>

6

<p>Va Tech would be a great selection, especially since it meets your criteria. Besides that I would also consider Penn State University Park (not too far), and Texas A&M (it is far), and University of Wisconsin Madison (far as well).</p>

7

<p>Total cost of attendance hopefully <$35,000 a year</p>

<p>Is that the amount that your parents have said that they’ll pay? If not, how did you come up with that number?</p>

<p>All of Alabama’s eng’g disciplines are ABET accredited.</p>

<p>Bama would give you free tuition PLUS $2500 per year (over $100k in merit money), so your remaining cost would be about $13k per year…so there’s a financial safety for you.</p>

<p>Bama has a brand new mega sized and gorgeous Science, Engineering and Research Complex. The entire campus is beautiful!</p>

<p>Here’s a video and pics about the school…
[The</a> University of Alabama College of Arts & Sciences “This is How College is Meant to Be” - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>

<p><a href=“Titanium Chef | Home”>Titanium Chef | Home;

<p>^^^ Pics of the new Science & Engineering Complex begin on page 6, Student housing pics begin on page 12.</p>

<p>Alabama forum on College Confidential which is VERY active.*
[University</a> of Alabama - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/]University”>University of Alabama - College Confidential Forums)</p>

<p>Warm weather and moderate winters. :slight_smile: Sunny blue skies with fluffy white clouds on most days! :)</p>

8

<p>Yeah said anything past that I would have to start paying for myself. So it could be more but I would rather stay around/under that limit.</p>

9

<p>Lehigh University</p>

10

<p>I think you need to look beyond average state schools. Consider:</p>

<p>University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign
University of Michigan- Ann Arbor
UC- Berkeley
University of Virginia
Cornell University
Carnegie Mellon
Cal Tech
Stanford
Columbia University in New York</p>

<p>Apply to Virginia tech as safety since you are in-state.</p>

11

<p>Xtreme…if his parents are saying that they’ll pay up to $35k then the student can’t afford schools like Cal, UMich, and likely many of the privates. Parents who can pay that much generally do not qualify for aid…except for maybe at Stanford.</p>

<p>*Yeah said anything past that I would have to start paying for myself. So it could be more but I would rather stay around/under that limit.
*</p>

<p>So your parents have said that they’ll pay up to $35k per year. You can only borrow $5500 to supplement that so many privates may be eliminated, as well as the pricier OOS publics.</p>

12

<p>Every one of those school will have to be eliminated lol</p>

13

<p>He can apply to some of those schools on X’s list just to see, but he needs to have a few schools that will give him substantial merit as his safeties.</p>

14

<p>UIUC seems to fit exactly what you are looking for…just one problem, It’s in Illinois. Depending on how far in Virginia you are it could be a 12-13 hour drive. Other than that (if you don’t mind being that far away) it seems like a perfect fit for you!</p>

15

<p>

</p>

<p>It has another problem in that it is too expensive at $49,000 per year. UIUC financial aid is not very good for Illinois residents; it won’t be any better for others.</p>

<p>Really, everything needs to be compared to in-state Virginia Tech as the baseline target school.</p>

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<p>“Sunny blue skies with fluffy white clouds on most days!”</p>

<p>[Deadly</a> Tuscaloosa Tornado - YouTube](<a href=“Deadly Tuscaloosa Tornado - YouTube”>Deadly Tuscaloosa Tornado - YouTube)</p>

<p>One of those “fluffy white clouds” got a little carried away!</p>

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<p>I like the idea of U of A. Many merit students, great academics, fun school, gives a lot of money, and you get to be a National Champ! Doesn’t get much better then that LOL</p>

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<p>Yeah Im definitely leaning towards Tech cause even though its not the most prestigious, its got basically all I want and is relatively cheap. How do you guys feel about Va Tech Engineering vs. Uva Engineering. Also im ultimately trying to get a law degree after i get my undergrad in engineering so I can practice patent law. Should this effect my choice of where I get my undergrad engineering degree? For example would it be to my advantage to just to go to UVa for engineering because their law program is so much better then tech’s?</p>

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<p>Also, thanks everyone for your input. Its greatly appreciated.</p>

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<p>Law school admissions is mainly about LSAT score and GPA. See [Welcome</a> to LawSchoolNumbers.com | Law School Numbers](<a href=“http://lawschoolnumbers.com%5DWelcome”>http://lawschoolnumbers.com) .</p>

<p>Virginia Tech appears to have a somewhat better reputation than Virginia for engineering, although the difference is probably not that significant – fit and cost type considerations would likely be more important.</p>

<p>Note that ABET accreditation is helpful if you intend to take the patent exam; see <a href=“http://www.uspto.gov/ip/boards/oed/GRB_March_2012.pdf[/url]”>http://www.uspto.gov/ip/boards/oed/GRB_March_2012.pdf&lt;/a&gt; . In most engineering fields, any decent program should be ABET accredited (and ABET accreditation is especially important in civil engineering, where PE licensing is common). But in some areas, like computer science, bioengineering, and some unusual interdisciplinary engineering majors, there may be good programs without ABET accreditation. Check [ABET</a> -](<a href=“http://www.abet.org%5DABET”>http://www.abet.org) if that is a concern.</p>