<p>Hey, I'm going to college in Fall 2011 and I am looking for good state public schools in the engineering field (I'm from California)</p>
<p>I've found out about Wisconsin through US News and Reports and was wondering if I should apply for the school if I have any chances</p>
<p>First off before I list my stats: I don't really have much EC's or Community Service
W GPA : 4.6
UW: ~3.75
Rank: Top 2% out of class of ~950
SAT: 1980 (retaking one more time), also taking ACT
SAT IIs: Math 2 -700 (retaking), US History - 690 (not retaking)
APs: (passed tests all but chem and physics) Euro, US, Lang, Calc BC, Chem, Physics, Art History,
APs/Class Schedule for Senior Year: AP Gov (both of them), AP Econ (Both of them), AP French, AP Prob and Stats, AP Bio, AP Lit
Others: I am independently studying multi-variable calculus through MIT's free class podcasts and released tests/homework
Also, I hope to sign up for linear algebra at my community college 2nd semester</p>
<p>EC's: Not that much, but the usual CSF, NHS, Art and Architecture Club
Service: Not that much, but Key Club, School-wide recycling club, and serving food to homeless </p>
<p>Good chance and engineering school is very good. Lots of opportunity to do co-ops and or compete with other schools in various design build contests.</p>
<p>You just apply to UW overall, no special requirements. You start in Pre-Eng and apply to your major in Spring of first year. Minimum is a 2.3 in pre-eng classes but should be higher. Some depts are more competitive than others. BioEng is most competitive right now.</p>
<p>I say you ought to be accepted to the school without much of a problem. Also you would be accepted into the school as a whole, not the engineering school specifically. Just for reference I am from California and got in with a 1950 SAT and 3.6 unweighted GPA two years ago. If you want any prospective on Madison from a California point of view let me know.</p>
<p>You’ll have no trouble getting accepted. Just remember, as discussed in other threads, that you’ll be paying out of state tuition, that financial aid for out of state students is negligible at best, and that you’ll be facing some serious obstacles graduating in four years. Be sure to factor all of this into your budget.</p>
<p>Nova is wrong. If you want to graduate from Eng in 4 years you can but not if you do a co-op program which is highly recommended. Then it takes 4.5 years. But you make good pay ($10K/semester) in the co-op semester or year plus often get a job after graduation.</p>
<p>Well here’s what the official UW engineering guide says:
I’ll take that over a verbal secondhand report that migth not have had the full text. You really are desperate aren’t you??</p>
<p>"The curriculum requirements for a Computer Engineering or Electrical Engineering degree can be satisfied in eight semesters of study by completing 14-16 credits of work each semester. Please see the flowchart on the inside of the front cover for a sample eight semester plan. Many students, however, choose to take longer than eight semesters. A nine-semester or ten-semester program may be selected to achieve broader coverage of an area of specialization, penetrate an area more deeply, pursue a certificate program, or pursue a second major. In addition, many students participate in the engineering cooperative education (co-op) program, which requires one or two additional semesters.</p>
<p>Barrons, the article on graduation rates that you provided in the other thread made clear that there’s a clear correlation between being in the engineering school and not graduating in fours years. Without question it’s one of the more difficult majors and without question this student needs to take this into account when applying. To suggest that he or she can just breeze through in four years is not telling the whole story – you are not doing this student any favors.</p>
<p>Barrons, anyone can look up UW’s graduation times for engineering majors and see that the average time is over 4 years. The odds overwhelmingly favor the OP taking longer than 4 years to earn a UW engineering degree.</p>
<p>ME does lots of great stuff. Best aspect is they compete in several national building competitions–Formula SAE, Snowmobile, Hybrid, and others. </p>
<p>Competition Teams
Badger Pulling ASABE Quarter Scale Tractor Team
Concrete Canoe Team
Formula SAE Badger Racing
Human Powered Vehicle Team
Hybrid Vehicle Team (formerly Future Truck)
IEEE Robot Team
SAE Clean Snowmobile Team
SAE Formula Hybrid
SAE Mini-Baja Team
Steel Bridge Team</p>
Did you come from Southern California? Or any ‘busy’ lifestyle? How does Madison compare? I remember traveling to some city in Montana and the pace of lfie was so slow compared to what I see in California.</p>
<p>Out of state tuition at UMich isn’t 50k, it’s 36k. And University of Michigan has a higher ranked (top 5) program from which you’re more likely to graduate on time, so doing a cost benefit analysis things look pretty even. There’s no question that UW has a strong engineering program as well. Also consider Illinois, whose ME progarm tops UW, and maybe even Virginia Tech, whose program is pretty even with UW. </p>
<p>Not Cryto, but know places you’re thinking of. Consider the campus as well. All academics being in the same league you will want to visit each campus and see for yourself. Visited Montana (Yellowstone trip) this summer. Have been to both N and S CA. Madison is definitely much livelier than MT and not as frenetic as the east coast. It lacks the horrendous traffic of S CA and the hugeness of the LA/Orange county area. The UW campus and UC-Berkeley have many things in common although the hills aren’t as steep (nor are there earthquake cracks) and the ethnicities are different. Think of a liberal place with varied terrain, a lake and a lively off campus area.</p>
<p>Check out the schools nova mentions. One of them may have the campus you desire, as well as an equally good program.</p>
<p>I think U-Mich, U-Illinois@UC, and UW-M are my top OOS choices, but they are all public so tuition and chances (since OOS is usually harder to get into a public school than in state) is gonna be a bit more</p>
<p>Make sure you check out all the schools in your range. Georgia Tech is great for ME; I think Purdue is, too. </p>
<p>If you want smaller privates, Carnegie Mellon or Cornell (not so small) are good reaches, too. </p>
<p>Tiny schools like Cooper might be something to consider if you want a good engineering school that’s not your typical massive public.</p>
<p>That said, UW’s engineering department is stellar. Top 15 in anyone’s book even for undergrad. And its great grad programs will offer a lot of research/internship options.</p>