<p>I currently attend Texas Tech University's Whitacre College of Engineering, studying Chemical Engineering and Computer Science (I will dual-major). I plan to go onto graduate school and pursure a Doctorate (places I'm considering include MIT and Caltech)</p>
<p>I did well in high school: top 3% of my class, 2160 SAT, high scoring AP and SAT II scores and National Merit Commended as well as national awards in high school journalism.</p>
<p>I'll be maintaining a 3.5 or higher to keep my scholarships and plan to join the honors college as soon as I can.</p>
<p>I think transferring to another school is highly possible for me, but I'm wondering if it's necessary in order for me to get into a good grad school.</p>
<p>I dont think it could hurt, I’m not knocking texas tech or anything but I do think the reputation of a school does weigh when you’re trying to transfer. For instance, I might be wrong, but I would think it would be easier for someone with a bachelors from UT-Austin to get into MIT/Caltech than say UT-Dallas. I do know that texas tech one of the better schools in texas, but it isnt at the top. I’d say give it a shot, you look like a shoe in to get into UT-Austin, you got nothing to lose I’d say.</p>
<p>Thank you.
Are there any other opinions?</p>
<p>As part of your decision process whether to transfer, go to the Tech Engineering School’s personnel who track graduate school placement (I’m sure it exists) and find out who has gone on to grad school at the schools you are interested in - MIT, Cal Tech, etc. Then get the names of the Tech grads at those graduate programs and contact them directly. Ask them about their academic experience at Tech’s Engineering School relative to their new graduate school programs. Also, Tech loves to have undergraduates work with professors on their research. Check out what the Engineering School has to offer in terms of undergraduates assisting on research. This will undoubtedly boost your resume for grad school. Tech does place grads into excellent PhD programs. My son graduated a couple years ago from the Honors College and he has two close friends who are in grad school - one a Fulbright Scholar and the second pursuing a PhD in the sciences at Cornell University. So another avenue for research connections and grad school is the Honors College folks. Even if you are not in the Honors College, go there anyway for help about Engineering Grad School assistance OR undergraduate research with professors and I am sure they will help you or send you in the right direction. You are a big fish in a smaller pond at Tech so be sure to take advantage of your position before transferring to a bigger pond.</p>