<p>You should consider Harvey Mudd because you get to interact with the rest of the Claremont Consortium (colleges like Pomona and Clarmont McKenna, which are are next door, are very heavily focused on the humanities).</p>
<p>I would also advise you to consider Berkeley if you are instate.
However, engineering is such a broad field, we would need to know specifically which engineering subfields you are interested in.
For example, Brown was earlier mentioned as being too easy, but it does have strong computer science and bioengineering programs.</p>
<p>Princeton is strong in engineering as well, but obviously this is a high-reach for most people.</p>
<p>Until I saw the ACT I was going to add WUSTL and U of Rochester to the list, but with a 25, those are out.</p>
<p>Getting into a good engineering program with a 25 is going to be a challenge. You might make it into a school with that score, but most engineering programs are tougher to get into and tougher academically for those in them. A general state school would be your best bet.</p>
<p>OR, check back after you get a better ACT score and work hard on learning the math (especially) between now and then. Consider it your first engineering challenge. Knowing the math to get a decent score is pretty much necessary for engineering anyway.</p>
<p>How much money, exactly do you need? Can your parents pay anything at all? If they can’t, will the colleges still expect them to?</p>
<p>Run some of the Net Price Calculators and talk the numbers over with your parents. Until you sort out the money issue, all your other questions are moot.</p>
<p>It’s a reach school for anyone, but when I read your post, I just kept thinking “UChicago, UChicago, UChicago!” It’s absolutely fantastic-I’m actually going to visit it exactly 2 weeks from yesterday, I could post what I got out of the visit if you’re interested! It’s a great engineering program, fantastic physics, and quite the liberal arts school, if you don’t mind the bad weather. Another school for you might be Rose Hulman or Case Western. They’re both more like safety or match schools, but their programs are good and they’re quite the up and coming schools! Good luck :)</p>
<p>If you manage to raise your ACT score to at least 30, you should consider Swarthmore. It fits all of your criteria except for the one that deals with size; it’s smaller than what you are looking for. Yale is another reach school that seems to fit your criteria–its engineering program is very small and perhaps not as well-regarded as Yale’s other departments, but it offers cool specializations and opportunities, and is gaining ground rapidly.</p>
<p>That being said, it is always easier to come up with appealing reach schools than to identify realistic targets you like. If I were you, I would take a look at Trinity University in San Antonio, which has an acclaimed engineering department, and Union College.</p>
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<p>This is an extremely puzzling recommendation given that UChicago doesn’t have an engineering program.</p>
<p>Rose Hulman is a fantastic school, but wouldn’t match OP criteria. It is too small, it is filled with engineers only and it has a gender imbalance. It also would not give the financial aid that OP probably wants. I would put Purdue in for the variety of students, but it is too large. </p>
<p>Valparaiso University would be a perfect match on all fronts. Right size, good financial aid, cute town and easy access to Chicago. Merit aid is based on test scores, so try the SAT if you can’t bring up the ACT score.</p>
<p>Engineering schools can generally be divided into two categories – “Institutions” and “Universities”. </p>
<p>The “Institutions”, such as MIT, RPI, Georga Tech, etc. by and large are dedicated to the sciences/engineering. While most certainly have courses in other areas, the overall focus of these schools are the sciences. To state the obvious, the vast majority of these schools have the word “Tech”, “Technology”, “Polytechnical” and/or “Instute” in their names. Based on what you say, stay away from all of these.</p>
<p>Other schools have a wider range of academics. Here, engineering may be in a particular college (within the university), but the University, itself is not known exclusively for the sciences. In these schools, you will find a wider range of academic interests.</p>
<p>Once you make this distinction, I think what you have to do is go down the list of engineering schools and see which meet your criteria. Looking at them – the gender/equality may be tough to achieve (at least if you’re only looking at the Engineering schools). Females are generally underrepresented in the sciences and in engineering schools in particular. However, if you go to a University, this difference is often offset by a greater than 50% female matriculation rate for the rest of the school.</p>
<p>Specific schools – to be honest, at this point it’s impossible to make a recommendation for you. If your ACT stays at 25, you’re probably looking at one set of schools. If you can improve it to 32-33 or better, you’re looking at a completely different set of schools. I think the first task is for you to take the SAT, retake the ACT and move on from there.</p>
<p>Maybe the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)? Don’t know much about the school other than that some of the brightest engineer-type students in my school are considering it and it seems to fit your criteria.</p>
<p>What kind of budget are you looking at? Have you tried the net price calculators on various college web sites?</p>
<p>Would suggest applying to your in-state public schools that have your desired engineering major. If these are not affordable on need-based aid, then you need to look for schools with large merit scholarships that bring their prices down to the affordable range.</p>
<p>RIT is way too nerdy for the OP. And has a huge gender imbalance to go along with it
Ditto for RPI.</p>
<p>Many of the more obvious choices of schools with a good balance between liberal arts and engineering are going to be way out of reach unless the test scores go way higher. Otherwise I would suggest Tufts, Union, B.U., Northeastern, George Washington University.</p>
<p>Maryland has good engineering program. It’s bigger than you want but a lot of different majors are there. I know people who do everything from Biomedical Engineeing, Physiology, and Journalism there. UMBC and UDel are pretty good too, although maybe not as good. My school’s valedictorian is going to UD for Engineering.</p>
<p>North Carolina State fits almost all of these criteria except 3 and 4</p>
<p>(1) NC State is 27th for undergrad engineering, and while it’s a big program on campus Business and Agriculture are also very prevalent. Also Gen Ed requirements will ensure you interact with people outside of the engineering department. I know 2 people in engineering up there and neither of them roomed with engineering students.</p>
<p>(2) People I know there say it’s a fairly intense learning environment. It’s the 2nd most selective among public schools in the state (behind UNC) so it draws a good crowd of intelligent people. It has very high retention and graduation rates. </p>
<p>(3) There are 25,000 undergrads, but the 18:1 student faculty ratio doesn’t make it seem so huge. </p>
<p>(4) Okay, the ratio is 55 male - 45 female, which I wasn’t aware of. But it’s located adjacent to one of the largest women’s colleges in the country (Meredith) so that probably helps alleviate the discrepancy. </p>
<p>(6) It’s a great campus in the middle of Raleigh, NC, a large urban area.</p>
<p>The uncomfortable truth is that due to the nature of their schedules and the intensity of the various engineering programs, engineers tend to hang out with engineers. You’re all going through the same things on similar tracks. You can certainly meet other people but as you move up in classes you’ll be surrounded by more and more engineers. </p>
<p>A 25 ACT takes Harvey Mudd & Michigan off the list and puts MSU in a tough spot as well. Maybe University of Iowa, Iowa State or Case Western.</p>
<p>NCSU also has a relatively low list price (even for out of state), so it may be a more affordable option. Minnesota, Virginia Tech, and Iowa State may be others along this line.</p>
<p>My son just graduated from CWR in Ohio in Mech . Eng . All of his friends were in the Mech. Eng. major . they did everything together ,studying ,parties ,shopping ,etc . These people have become some of his best friends .He is going to OSU in Sept. and living with 2 of them for grad school . My point is ,you don’t need friends in other majors to be happy !</p>
<p>Why is this thread is moving away from its original purpose, which was to help the OP identify schools he might like, toward explaining to him how his criteria are unreasonable and recommending schools like Virginia Tech and RPI, which he would never in a million years like, based on his reactions to Georgia Tech and Harvey Mudd?</p>
<p>It is patently false that engineers don’t have friends outside of their major at any school. Good for your children if they’re happy, but it’s false.</p>
<p>The reason I recommended Union, Yale (unrealistic reach, I know) and Trinity U is that I know engineering majors there whose social circles include people majoring in many different things, and whose lives do not revolve around the engineering department. I’m sure this is also possible at Tufts, Swarthmore and Lafayette, among others.</p>
Knowing the math to get a decent score is pretty much necessary for engineering anyway.</p>