Help me expand my college search!

<p>Soup. </p>

<p>I'm a junior in HS right now. I've gotten lots of mail from colleges and I've already picked a few favorites. However I feel like my range is too narrow, as in there are more colleges out there that might fit me but I just haven't heard of them yet (or haven't fully acknowledged them..). Lemme post my stats:</p>

<ul>
<li>I'm from Germany. Been living in Colorado for almost four years now. </li>
<li>3.8/3.9 Gpa (uw) 4.4+ w</li>
<li>haven't taken SAT/ACT yet, but I realistically expect around 2100/30 give or take a little.
-I play varsity soccer, and I wanna keep playing in college. </li>
<li>I don't have a lot of ECs, but I'm going to do so e volunteer work over the summer. </li>
</ul>

<p>My main interest is an engineering major. Something along the lines of chemical/mechanical engineering, computer science, or IT.
But then I'd also consider something along the lines of international business/relations. I speak fluent English+German and I've been studying Spanish (5 yrs), Latin (3-4 in Germany) and French ( 2 years..). A college offering chinese would be a nice extra. </p>

<p>This is my list as of now:</p>

<p>-WPI
-RPI
-RIT
-CU/CSU
-Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT, I haven't heard a lot about that at all to be honest.)</p>

<p>As you see that's neither a very big list, nor a very broad one. I'd like to hear about some colleges that have a good engineering program, but also the liberal arts aspect of the languages. But anything goes.
Ultimately, just throw some colleges at me! :) (if possible also give me a reason as to why they would fit me, but w/e ;) )</p>

<p>Take a look at Harvey Mudd. It’s part of the Claremont college consortium, which includes top LACs like Pomona and Claremont McKenna. The campuses are contiguous, so you have small engineering classes with great mentoring - and all the diversity and resources of a much larger school (you can cross-register for a certain number of units - check how many). Claremont is a suburb of LA so the weather is great year round - no problem finding people to play soccer outdoors.</p>

<p>Soup? . . . . . .</p>

<p>@M’s Mom
Thanks I’ll definitely take a look. I sort of ignored Harvey Mudd until now just because I always see in context of HYP and MIT. The system sounds pretty good!
@gadad
Soup is my way of saying “sup” over the Internet.</p>

<p>Frip, if you indeed get a 2100/30 on SAT/ACT you should probably add some more schools of RPI’s caliber like Gatech and Carnegie Mellon.</p>

<p>Take a look at Rose-Hulman … #1 Engineering School in the country (according to Newsweek) 12 years running for an undergrad only school … 97% of their seniors this year already have jobeen placed (masters or job) avg starting salary ~ 60,000</p>

<p>Case Western also. They are good with merit money. Best of luck!</p>

<p>Alright. I’ll check out Case Western and Rose-Hulman. </p>

<p>@rico2 what do you mean by “RPI’s caliber”? Would they be better than what I currently have (maybe reaches?) or just similar to RPI? And as of now WPI > RPI > RIT for me at least. </p>

<p>Anyways. I’m going to consider Middlebury. I’ve A LOT of good things about their engineering program, even though they are a LAC.</p>

<p>^^^ </p>

<p>Frip, what I meant was you potentially have a shot at the more selective schools like RPI. I’m not sure how you conclude that “WPI>RPI” but RPI is certianly is more competitive (latest acceptance rate about 38%). Gatech and CMU are also more competitive and better than the other schools on your list.</p>

<p>Oh well WPI just makes a better impression at the moment. And if I get a scholarship (full-ride or anywhere close to that) I’ll be going anyways. Prestige isn’t a factor whilst deciding. The thing is I don’t have a lot of leadership ECs which will probably keep me out of the top schools. I’ll be spending 1 month of my summer in Germany so over the summer I’ll probably do 1 week at TU Dresden (sorta reseach) and 1 week at TU Aachen. Now of course nobody knows these :|. I’ll basically be taking 2 week-long courses in Math/Sciences which involve some sort of research. As of now I don’t want to add too many potential reaches without knowing my ACT score. now… if my ACT is really good I’ll give Cornell a try.</p>

<p>Yea I’ll keep this thread updated and I’ll be posting my thought process. So this is the offical Frip Thread now. ;)</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Middlebury has engineering?</p>

<p>Yea [Engineering</a> Options | Middlebury](<a href=“Preprofessional Programs | Middlebury College”>Preprofessional Programs | Middlebury College)
From what I’ve read on CC it’s great.</p>

<p>Ah.</p>

<p>Middlebury does not actually have an engineering program, nor do they offer any actual engineering classes. What they do have are agreements with other colleges which do offer engineering. What happens, is that you spend the first three years at Middlebury, followed by two years at a school with engineering (such as Columbia). At the end of the five years, you receive a B.A. from Middlebury as well as a B.S in engineering from the second school.</p>

<p>Dartmouth has a similar program, with the only difference being that you spend your first two years at Middlebury, then one at Dartmouth, one more at Middlebury, and the final year back at Dartmouth.</p>

<p>Another option frequently pursued by LAC graduates is to first get a degree in a hard science (Physics, Chemistry, etc.) at the LAC, followed by an engineering graduate degree at another institution.</p>

<p>I’ve done quite a bit of research on options for engineering at LAC’s, so if you have any questions about it, I’d love to help.</p>

<p>I think with you grades you should not accept anything less than RPI. Which means do not pick RIT. Look at CMU, CU, GaTech… along those lines.</p>