<p>@menloparkmom: I don’t want to go to USC for a wide variety of reasons, including testimonials from former students, the unpleasant setting, and the fact that I’d be paying a fortune and competing viciously for an education that is probably below what I’d get at other schools.</p>
<p>@pierre0913: Of those ten, Berkeley, Michigan, and Mudd are currently on my list. Rose-Hulman is definitely possible, although its setting is even worse than Purdue and it doesn’t get much less diverse.</p>
<p>@Uncle Jon: Thanks for the info. I think one of my friends visited Purdue (he has family in Indiana). So I’ll ask him for his take.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the info. I’d like to stick in a quick overview of my preferences. Ignore my current list; just mention what your gut instinct offers on seeing these requirements. I want to get a nice broad list before planning visits.</p>
<p>Location: west preferred, upper midwest possible, maybe parts of the northeast</p>
<p>Size: Huge OK if there are smaller groups inside (ie residence halls, fields of study), small OK if there is still variety</p>
<p>Majors: engineering (probably physics, chemical, civil, or computer - not mechanical), maybe other sciences</p>
<p>Life: I want a community on campus. The dorms should be pleasant and there should be things to do on campus. Outdoor activities are nice.</p>
<p>Student Body: I want smart, hardworking students. Discussion outside class is great. I like variety. Something like Rose-Hulman, where like 75% of the student body is made up of conservative white males, doesn’t appeal to me. I am a quasi-conservative white male, but I’d like to meet other people.</p>
<p>Academics: Demanding is good. Real-world applications and hands-on learning are both good, but an interesting lecture is fine too. I would love the chance to do research as an undergrad.</p>
<p>I think you would like Carnegie Mellon. It’s only near some small hills, though. My son is there and he says that there are enough different types of kids that you can find a group that you fit with.</p>
<p>might be a big reach(I have no idea what your gpa means since you didn’t give any context to how your school calculates it) and may be too far east for you, but cornell has really good engineering and some impressive nature, swimming by one of the waterfalls in the gorges during orientation was awesome.</p>
<p>I would DEFINITELY look into OSU. Yes, like somebody mentioned, a majority of the people won’t have 2100 on their SAT, but OSU has an excellent honors college that WILL be filled with that those type of students. you have to have a minimum 3.75 gpa and the average sat I believe is around 2176…and OSU has an excellent engineering program</p>
<p>OSU is still on my list, just not necessarily in the top slots.</p>
<p>It is a good deal more specialized (a strong focus on computer engineering), but Rochester Institute of Technology looks quite interesting. The professors sound great and co-ops might be interesting.</p>
<p>U Minn if you think you might go ChemE, but not otherwise.</p>
<p>YOu are correct about USC… good for many things but less so for engineering.</p>
<p>Berkeley… No. You said you wanted less competitive, so no Berkeley, Caltech or MIT. Stanford maybe.</p>
<p>That leaves Michigan, UCLA. Maybe UCSB as well if you like the ocean, and UC Irvine. What about Vanderbilt? There was an engineering poster here a couple years ago who came back to report that he had turned down Yale for Vandy scholarship and ultimately landed a job at Google. do a search here on Yale, Vanderbilt and Google, and you should find his post. He said it was the right decision for him. Don’t know much about Illinois or Wisconsin, but they’re worth looking into a little more.</p>
<p>The funny thing about Engineering is that with the exception of a few employers like Yahoo, Google, IBM, etc., a top 10 program is not necessary. And with those exceptions out of the way, most engineering jobs pay within a narrow band/// and that includes those with Masters degrees.</p>
<p>noimagination, if you like RIT, I think you’ll really like Northeastern. It has the best co-op program in the country. I went to visit on Sunday and I was pretty impressed. Though I probably won’t end up going there because I would like to go somewhere farther than 10 minutes from home, I would highly recommend it. It’s in the Boston area, and I don’t know many people in the area that have been hit hard by the economy so co-op opportunities are plentiful. The engineering department has a 99% placement rate for engineering (that 1% is if you’re really not flexible and insist on going somewhere where there are no jobs), and you can get paid $16/hour starting your sophomore year.</p>
<p>if you want a job after college, Northeastern University is the best place to go in my opinion, they have connections with every company imaginable</p>
<p>Northeastern has a somewhat more limited selection of engineering choices, but it nonetheless looks really good. It does have a bad reputation for lots of parties - is this true?</p>
<p>I’ve done some more research on Colorado School of Mines. It looks good in a lot of areas. Can anyone who knows about it comment on the following three concerns:</p>
<p>a) Since Mines is located on the outskirts of Denver (in many ways a great location), a car is probably a must.</p>
<p>b) The male/female ratio is fairly ridiculous.</p>
<p>c) Is Mines well-respected in the engineering field?</p>
<p>not at all, in fact I know many people going to Northeastern and apartment and house parties are lame at Northeastern since they get broken up easily. The party scene in Boston revolves around the bars and it’s by no means crazy, it’s just like any other school. Not everyone parties and you can choose whether to party or not. There’s plenty to do in Boston, it’s a great city</p>