So, as of now I am a junior in high school, and I am in the middle of the process of creating a list of colleges to apply to. I know I want to study engineering but am not entirely sure which specific field yet. The biggest concern with my list of colleges I have compiled is that I have too many “reach” schools listed.
Here are the “reach” schools that I am strongly considering applying to:
Wisconsin
Michigan
Northwestern
UVA
UT Austin
I want to narrow this list down to ideally two, but possibly three if I have to. It would be very helpful to know what makes these schools and their engineering colleges unique so I can decide which ones are the best fit for me. Thanks!
First off, well done on thinking this through as a junior. Not everyone does.
The questions you’ll want to have answers for are these:
what is the budget
what kind of engineering (mechanical, electrical, chemical …)
what kind of campus environment works for you
what kind of GPA/ACT or SAT scores do you bring
are any of these in state
Personally, I’m not a big fan of paying OOS tuition for large publics like UM, UW, UIUC, etc. I can’t get comfortable with paying that kind of money for class sections of 300, 600, or even more. Other people don’t have that hang up. You’ll want to know how much it matters to you. If it’s a big deal, X out the big lO publics early.
We took the approach that most of DD’s schools had to be affordable, but we endorsed her decision to apply to a couple that weren’t with the understanding that the financial package would cast a vote. Most of these came through, but we didn’t lose any sleep on the others.
Personally, I think there are a couple of less well known, yet quite good schools worth looking at. New Mexico Tech, for instance, is tiny, but punches way above its weight. U of MI is good, yet I’ve found engineers from MI Tech better to work with overall. Even the guy who moved from India to Lake Superior in January.