Help completing list of ENGINEERING universities

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I am an international student and I need help completing my list of universities in order to apply this fall. Here are my stats:
SAT: 2150 (710CR 800M 640W) will retake in october, hoping to raise my essay score as well as the critical reading
SAT II: not taken, will take math II and physics in november, aiming for a 750+ in both
GPA: not calculated in my country, but almost all my grades are A and A+
IB diploma candidate (Math HL Physics HL Catalan HL Chemistry SL Philosophy SL English SL)
TOEFL: 114/120
Top student in my class (very competitive school)
Participation and awards in different math contests, including math olympiads
Model UN participation and awards
Recipient of a scholarship (for high school) in an extremely selective program in my state with a focus in mathematics and science
Lots of volunteering work
Very good ECs with a focus in science and mathematics (will not list them here but it's just to give you an idea)
Doing an unpaid internship for 3 months this summer in one of the top 5 engineering universities in Europe, working in a lab in the materials science department
Intended major: civil engineering. My other choices are mechanical engineering, industrial engineering and materials science. I also have an interest in business as a minor
So, for now, my list of universities is the following:
REACH:
Stanford
Princeton
Columbia (I know it's not a great engineering school, but I spent last summer there and loved it)
UPenn (again it's not a great engineering school, but would love to get into the Jerome FIsher M&T program)
Cornell
Northwestern
Berkeley
MATCH:
Carnegie Mellon
University of Southern California
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
Johns Hopkins University
SAFETY:
University of Michigan
University of California-San Diego
Purdue</p>

<p>Any help is welcome in suggesting other universities or narrowing down my list. I especially would like more matches and safeties. Thank you</p>

2

<p>Do you require financial aid? Columbia’s engineering school is among the best of the Ivies, although I don’t know how strong it is for undergrad. Also, University of Michigan is not a safety. </p>

<p>Any reason you’re not considering Georgia Tech? It’s probably the top engineering school in its region.</p>

3

<p>UMich is a match and UIUC is a safety.</p>

4

<p>As an international student my sense is that your list of matches is overly optimistic – in particular CMU and JHU. I’m also doubtful that UCSD is a safety.</p>

<p>If you need financial aid my sense is that none of the colleges on your list are safeties.</p>

5

<p>UM is not a safety
JHU is a reach
CMU is a reach</p>

6

<p>Upenn doesn’t have a civil engineering major.</p>

7

<p>You are way too optimistic.</p>

<p>Even without financial aid, the only safety you have is Purdue. JHU, USC, CMU are not matches. They are low reaches. UIUC, UM, UCSD are high matches.</p>

<p>With financial aid application, I could conceivably see you strike out at all schools, maybe save for UIUC/Purdue. You need to add several real matches and safeties.</p>

<p>Another factor is your geographic location/ethnicity. If you are Indian/Chinese/Korean, you experiences are going to be so much worse since there are some many overqualified applicants.</p>

8

<p>For international students, Michigan is a reach (acceptance rate under 10%). CMU and JHU are also reaches.</p>

9

<p>A list of ABET certified Engineering programs that can be narrowed down to Civil only is here: [Accredited</a> Program Search](<a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx]Accredited”>http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx)</p>

10

<p>Another safety could be UIUC for engineering</p>

11

<p>I don’t need financial aid, and I’m European. If I went to UPenn it would be for mechanical engineering.</p>

12

<p>My opinion? </p>

<p>You have way too many schools. </p>

<p>My assessment of probability of admission:
Stanford (10%)
Princeton (10%)
Columbia (20%)
UPenn (10%)
Cornell (20%)
Northwestern (30%)
Berkeley (80%) - they want your full pay money - California is broke
Carnegie Mellon (50%)
University of Southern California (50%)
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (90% - assuming app by priority deadline)
Johns Hopkins University (50%)
University of Michigan (90% - assume EA by Nov 1)
University of California-San Diego (90%)
Purdue (100%)</p>

<p>I would

  1. rank order your preferences,
  2. calculate your probability of attending a given school (based on the probability of getting in times the probability of getting rejected by all schools with higher preferences)
  3. focus your attention on schools with greater than 5% chance of attending.</p>

<p>If that was your rank order, and you used my probabilities you’d have the following probability of attendance

  1. Stanford (10%)
  2. Princeton (9%)
  3. Columbia (16.2%)
  4. UPenn (6.48%)
  5. Cornell (11.6%)
  6. Northwestern (14%)
  7. Berkeley (26.1%)
  8. UIUC (5.8%)
  9. Purdue (0.6%)</p>

<p>The others have probabilities of attendance less than 5% and you need to keep a safety </p>

<p>You can play with your own estimates if you want.</p>