<p>Hey everyone! I'm considering UT Austin, Michigan State University, and Northeastern University. Although MSU is the lowest ranked for engineering and overall, I am an ADS Scholar and therefore MSU is by far the best school financially for me. I have full tuition at both of the other schools, but MSU seems really great and I used to live in Michigan and miss it :).</p>
<p>I really love being around intelligent people. My SAT is a 2320, I've taken 14 AP classes, and I have a 4.0. I'm not saying this to brag or anything... merely that I'd like to be around other people who are driven and scholarly. Are people like this at MSU Honors College? How are the research opportunities? Has anyone done a professorial assistantship that could offer more information on how that works and experiences with that?</p>
<p>Thank you so much; I really appreciate any response! :)</p>
<p>I’m not sure how helpful I’ll be but I’ll give it a shot. I was not in the honors college but I had a 33 ACT, 3.8ish GPA in high school (graduated with a 3.8+ from MSU with two degrees, Phi Beta Kappa, and was accepted into every grad program I applied to- most in the top 10 of the field). I constantly found myself challenged and because I had so many AP credits, I was able to really able to take classes that interested me and helped me in my future career plans. My friends were driven and bright. MSU has had a massive upswing in high-stats applicants over the last 5-ish years. You will have no problem finding “scholarly” students. To be completely honest, I am now a student at Michigan and see just about zero difference in the general student body in terms of overall ability and intelligence. </p>
<p>I know very, very few engineering students (I was social sciences/humanities) but one I know who graduated in December has a fantastic job in biomed engineering. My best friend’s dad is a partner in a civil engineering company in SE MI and they heavily recruit at MSU so they must think highly of the grads 
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<p>The PAs match you with professors and they’re research positions. I never did one but I know my friends that did had a lot of flexibility with their projects and had great experiences. </p>