<p>I’d really, really prefer not to go to a big school. I do a lot better in smaller environments.</p>
<p>A lot of your schools are still pretty big. Would you consider a LAC with good theater and chemistry programs? Muhlenberg comes to mind.</p>
<p>In the absence of any four year school safeties, your default safety is to attend community college, do well there, and then transfer to a state university to complete your bachelor’s degree. This may give you the size that you want, since community colleges are usually not that big, and a big state university may seem smaller after transfer as a junior, since you will be spending most of your time in your smaller upper division major courses.</p>
<p>I’d consider an LAC. I’ll go research Muhlenberg.</p>
<p>Have you taken a good look the University of Rochester? Great school.</p>
<p>Does your school subscribe to Naviance? I think there are several schools on your list you should not waste your application fee applying to. I don’t think MIT, Tufts, Washington U, Chicago, Northwestern, or Vanderbilt are realistic possibilities at all. Those schools tend to admit kids who have almost all A’s. If you are representing yourself as a “lopsided” type whose strength lies in math and science rather than English or history, the schools would probably expect to see A’s in all of your science courses, which it looks like you don’t have.</p>
<p>Again, not to be harsh, but go take a look at the admissions results for each of these schools posted on CC last spring and see the credentials of the students who were rejected.</p>
<p>Using the search function on [CollegeData:</a> College Search, Financial Aid, College Application, College Scholarship, Student Loan, FAFSA Info, Common Application](<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com%5DCollegeData:”>http://www.collegedata.com) for schools of 2,500 to 9,999 students and chemical engineering, 58 schools come up.</p>
<p>Many of them are not super-selective, so you may be able to find safeties and/or low matches from that list.</p>
<p>What has your research told you about UChicago’s chemE department?</p>
<p>I’m really doubting you have done any deep research into these schools. WashU has an excellent BioMedEng program, but the rest of their eng majors are weak. I was admitted there, I researched it, and their engineering school is highly dependent on their med school. I have no clue where you have heard their chem E program is strong (along with Tufts).</p>
<p>This is what I would do if I were you:</p>
<p>ED: Cornell. I know I go to Cornell, but I’m trying to be as unbiased as possible. I know it is also in the middle of nowhere, but I think that this is your best chance at a top tier engineering school. This year, they admitted 50% girls to engineering. Their motto is “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.” Seriously look into this school.</p>
<p>RD:
Reaches: MIT, CMU, Vanderbilt, Harvey Mudd, Northwestern
Matches: University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin, CWRU, Brandeis
Safety: Purdue, UDel</p>
<p>@DeskPotato
Again, I know those schools are reaches, but it’s not like I have a 2.0 GPA and I’m applying to Harvard. Obviously, it’s a lot harder to get admitted with my stats, but I really don’t think they’re completely out of range.</p>
<p>“I really don’t think they’re completely out of range.”</p>
<p>When I went to admit’s weekend at MIT, people didn’t seem like they got anything close to a 3.6 GPA in high school.</p>
<p>superstarlala - </p>
<p>Just noticed your Bethesda location. Are you studying at BCC, RM, or a private school? The IB grads I know from RM went to all sorts of different colleges and universities all over the country. Heck, the kids I know from WJ where there is no IB program did that too. If you are at BCC and don’t feel you are getting useful advice, check the RM website, and see if you can pay a visit to their IB advisor for some ideas.</p>
<p>Have you asked your advisor why he/she recommends “big state flagships” for you? If you are serious about engineering, that could be a reason for steering you in that direction. Running the college-matching search engines for the combination of majors that you are interested in, and with some size/budget limitations also should give you some more ideas.</p>
<p>I PM’d you because I’d rather not post my school in the thread.</p>
<p>I agree with a lot of the people posting on this thread, there are several VERY good state universities for chem EE…</p>
<p>Look into:</p>
<p>UMich Ann Arbor
UW Madison
U Maryland College Park</p>
<p>I think these schools are much more realistic and they’re all in great places. Ann Arbor and Madison are great places to live in, and the universities are very good as well. MIT, Tufts and others are just out of reach in my honest opinion.</p>
<p>I am applying to UMDCP but I’d rather not go as it’s 15 minutes away from my house. I visited UW-Madison and HATED it. And UMich Ann Arbor is just too big. I’m willing to look into slightly bigger schools but 25K students is just too much</p>
<p>Also, for everyone saying that my reaches are out of reach, what do you guys consider realistic reaches?</p>
<p>Assuming you are considering Brandeis and Case as matches…I would say your only realistic reach is NYU right now. Apart from your test scores you just have a lot of Bs and you are competing against kids with near-perfect grades AND stronger scores. I might answer differently if you were from an obscure state or a URM or had a significant accomplishment in academic competitions, sports or the arts.</p>
<p>Why isn’t Delaware on the list for Chem E?</p>
<p>OP’s list in post #1 includes “UDel”, which is probably Delaware.</p>
<p>I agree with the poster above.</p>
<p>There are applicants with perfect stats who are rejected from some of your choices.</p>
<p>Brandeis and cwru should be at the upper end of your range.</p>
<p>Please understand that stem majors draw some of the most talented and hard working students at any school.</p>
<p>My advice is to apply at schools where your stats put you above the median</p>
<p>UDel is in fact the University of Delaware.</p>