If you were in my shoes, what colleges would you apply to?

College Search & Selection
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<p>I know that most of you will say "Well, it depends on who you are and what you want", so I'll try my best to tell you.</p>

<p>There are two main things that are very important to me. The first would be the quality of the university. I want to go to a college that's nationally recognized in my field and a degree that's impressive when applying for a job. As important to me is cost. My EFC will = $0, so I need a university that offers generous need-based scholarships. Some preferences of mine are a smaller campus (< 10k undergrads) with a good campus life/community. Location doesn't matter much, and neither does ethnic diversity, religious affiliation, gender makeup, or public/private.</p>

<hr>

<p>Here's what my application will look like:</p>

<p>+Bio+
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Multiracial (Asian, White)
High School: Public, Ohio
Major: Chemical Engineering</p>

<p>+Senior Courses+
AP English
AP Calculus
AP Chemistry
AP Government
Honors Spanish III
Accounting I
High School GPA: 4.158</p>

<p>+Academic Honors+
National Merit Semifinalist (maybe finalist), AP Scholar, Invited to NYLF on Law, Invited to NYLF on Medicine, Principal's Award, Nordonia "N" Award, High Honor Roll</p>

<p>+ACT+
Composite - 36
English - 34
Math - 36
Reading - 36
Science - 36
Writing - 6...</p>

<p>+AP Tests+
Physics B - 5
US History - 5
European History - 3</p>

<p>+Family+
Father - Associate's Degree
Mother - Did not attend high school
Siblings - None</p>

<p>+Activities+
Varsity Tennis (10,11,12): 12 hrs/week, 16 weeks/yr - Varsity Letter
Science Olympiad (11,12): 5 hrs/week, 36 weeks/yr - Varsity Letter
National Honor Society (11,12): 1 hr/week, 42 weeks/yr</p>

<p>+Essays+
I expect them to be very good; I am a solid writer despite what my 6 on the ACT claims.</p>

<hr>

<p>I figured I'd apply to anywhere from 4-8 universities, with one shoe-in, one or two matches, and the rest being ideals. I can already apply to Case Western for free, so I'm going to do that.</p>

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<p>high school grades??</p>

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<p>Ah, I knew I forgot something. I've gotten straight A's throughout HS and my GPA is a 4.158.</p>

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<p>shoot for the stars. if i was you i would apply to more than 3 or 4 match and reaches. i think you should apply to top schools from harvard/yale/princeton on down. your stats are top notch. being asian and white wont help since they are probably the worst two races to be when applying haha, but your stats are so good it wont matter. i would apply to every ivy if i was you. you got a great shot at them. University of Washington is strong in bio, as is UCSD, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Stanford on the west coast. Ivy's and John Hopkins are strong in bio on the east coast. WUSTL and Northwestern, University of Chicago, Duke, and Rice are strong in the midwest and the south. I would also put in my application for Cal Tech and MIT as both should be pretty good at bio as well. Keep your safeties and matches and apply to a lot of top notch schools. you should get into atleast a few very elite universities.</p>

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<p>apply to Harvard/Yale/Princeton etc.</p>

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<p>ucchris:</p>

<p>Lol, I think you misunderstood my post. "Bio" was an abbreviation for "Biography", where I put all my general info. My intended major is Chemical Engineering.</p>

<p>I'd edit my post to clear that up, but it's been 20 minutes already.</p>

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<p>Well, aside from MIT and Princeton, both top Chem E programs, U of Delaware is surprisingly considered one of the top 5 or so Chem E schools nationwide. It isn't too large for a public uni (about 15,000) and you would likely be at the top of their applicant pool, with significant merit aid. It is close to the Philly/NJ pharma and petrochem companies and is well known by those in the industry. </p>

<p>Probably the major question you need to answer still for us is whether you would prefer a tech-oriented school or a more well-rounded university environment. If the former, I would look into places like Rose Hulman, Georgia Tech, RPI and Carnegie Mellon. If the latter, maybe take a look at Northwestern, Bucknell, Penn, Lehigh, and Lafayette. (again, note how many Pennsylvania/NJ area schools keep appearing)</p>

<p>Another important consideration is whether you actually want to be a practicing engineer, or whether you would rather parlay your degree into a related area of consulting, law, or medicine. Pedigree (MIT/Ivy/similar) tends to be much more significant in those types of industries.</p>

<p>Hopefully that gives you a start, at least, and you can help us follow up better.</p>

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<p>haha sorry i took too quick a glimpse at that haha. chemical engineering... while ivys arent generally strong in engineering (with the exception of Cornell which is very good)... i would still apply to ivy's (esp Cornell) on the east coast and deff MIT, John Hopkins. On the west coast your top two should likely be Cal-Tech and Harvey Mudd. UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, USC, UW are also good. UIUC is very strong in engineering in the midwest. Also G-Tech, Duke, Rice, Purdue, WUSTL, U Chicago, Nothwestern should be good in the south and midwest. check out both the us news undergrad engineering rankings and us news grad engineering rankings and choose top 25 schools off those lists that you think you might be interested in.</p>

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<p>U of Chicago doesn't have Chem E, or any engineering, for that matter, and most of those public schools are way larger than the OP prefers. Rice is an excellent suggestion, however.</p>

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<p>"need-based scholarships"</p>

<p>I think you mean need-based aid. The problem with need based-aid is that it can mean a substantial amount of loan. I don't think that's what you want or what you should have to settle for with your HS performance. There could well be merit-based aid available that works out better for you than need-based aid. Perhaps even CWRU. Try to find schools that limit the amount of loans in their FA packages. There are some like Princeton that have eliminated loans altogether in favor of grants.</p>

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<p>Amherst college has very generous need-based aid. They just eliminated all loans, so the finanical aid there is great!</p>

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<p>standrews:</p>

<p>Man, it's funny you would mention that because like 10 minutes ago I checked my mail and found that I received some information I requested from Princeton. The first thing I see is that the average grant for family incomes of <$40k is 99% of tuition, room, and board. That sounds awesome, but getting accepted to Princeton may be the hard part.</p>

<p>Do you know more schools that have lessened or eliminated the amount of loans in their student aid packages?</p>

<p>Lesser Perfesser:</p>

<p>I'm planning on adding on some courses so that I qualify for med school, to keep that open as a possibility after graduation. So does that mean I'm better off not even applying to CMU? I still might decide I want to be a practicing engineer, but I want to keep my options open.</p>

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<p>Since when does Amherst have Chemical Engineering? I thought Amherst was just a small LAC. Amherst's profile on collegeboard lists no engineering majors.</p>

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<p>lehcar,</p>

<p>Oh, yeah you're right. The college I was looking at was UMass Amherst. I should be more careful when I google.</p>

<p>So yeah, thanks for the info chocolatelover03, but it looks like Amherst College doesn't do me any good.</p>

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<p>


</p>

<p>Take this with somewhat of a grain of salt, since I am not an engineer (though I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night... j/k) and only a mere h.s. senior-to-be still looking at schools... but from what I understand, many of the uber-elite engineering schools (MIT, Princeton, Cal Tech, etc.) have a reputation for being very theory-focused, since many of the students go on to attain PhDs, attend med school, or work on Wall Street. On the other hand, certain schools (Purdue, Penn St., and Rose Hulman come to mind) have more of a reputation for producing practicing engineers on the B.S./M.S. level, and are accordingly blend more practical elements into the curriculum. You will largely be taking the same classes and covering similar materials, with the main difference being how much "hands on" and project-oriented work comes into play.</p>

<p>That is the main distinction I was trying to impart. Granted, you can become a fine practicing engineer from any school, or can apply to med or law school from any undergrad. But if you have an idea of your goals already, there may be some routes that are easier than others.</p>

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<p>I too would sugges Rice for ChemE.</p>

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<p>If your EFC is 0, look at collegeboard and check to see if a school meets 100% of need-based aid. Sure, some of it will be loans, but chemE major will let you pay that off, no problem. I third Rice. That's one that I am looking at for chemE or BME. Basically any school is within reason though still a crap shoot, so now decide what else you want in a school. Party-reputation-wise, political-activeness-wise. Also, if your EFC is 0 you should also qualify for fee waivers so you can apply to a lot of schools. Good luck with your college search.</p>

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<p>Okay, another question - so far, I haven't taken any SAT II Subject Tests (didn't even know they existed until a few months ago).</p>

<p>I think I should take the earliest ones I can, which would be on October 6. From what I understand, you can take all 3 tests in one day, in any order that you like? If so, which ones should I take? I'm thinking about taking US History and Physics, since I've already been through AP level work in those classes. As far as Math, would I be better off with Level 1 or Level 2? From the description of Level 2, the difficulty seems to be on par with the math section of the ACT.</p>

<p>Help?</p>

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<p>On this board, I see a lot more people taking the Math II exam. </p>

<p>Yes, you can take three in the same day. That's what I did.</p>

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<p>I think Harvey Mudd would be a good fit. It's small, but part of a consortium, and it's really impressive academically. One of the best engineering schools in the country.</p>