<p>and, according to wikipedia, Greenes' Guides says the following are PUBLIC IVY</p>
<p>The Public Ivies according to Greenes' Guides</p>
<p>A later book titled The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities (2001) by Howard and Matthew Greene of Greenes' Guides expanded upon the list in the first book (italicized below) to include 30 colleges and universities.</p>
<p>Eastern</p>
<pre><code>* College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia)
* Pennsylvania State University (State College)
* Rutgers University (New Brunswick, New Jersey)
* State University of New York at Binghamton
* University of Connecticut (Storrs)
* University of Delaware (Newark)
* University of Maryland (College Park)
* University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
* University of Virginia (Charlottesville)
</code></pre>
<p>Western</p>
<pre><code>* University of Arizona (Tucson)
* University of California (6 of 10 campuses):
o Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Santa Barbara
* University of Colorado at Boulder
* University of Washington (Seattle)
</code></pre>
<p>Great Lakes & Midwest</p>
<pre><code>* Indiana University (Bloomington)
* Miami University (Oxford, Ohio)
* Michigan State University (East Lansing)
* Ohio State University (Columbus)
* University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)
* University of Iowa (Iowa City)
* University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
* University of Minnesota (Minneapolis-St. Paul)
* University of Wisconsin (Madison)
</code></pre>
<p>Southern</p>
<pre><code>* University of Florida (Gainesville)
* University of Georgia (Athens)
* University of Texas at Austin
</code></pre>
<p>Don't know your preferences on all the stuff you listed but for comp sci/engineering and a good physics department with phenomenal research opps I would recommend Carnegie Mellon with its urban location yet isolated green-college campus.</p>
<p>If you are more into physics perhaps Caltech?</p>
<p>CMU overall is a high match,low reach, but there SCS is godly and EXTREMELY competitive. </p>
<p>Cal-Tech is arguably the hardest school for admission in the country...According to CollegeBoard, only 213 people are admitted...I have a much much better shot at Grad School</p>
<p>My long term goal is working at JPL at Cal-Tech actually.</p>
<p>Just check the average GPA (uw) and SAT for the schools you hope for. If you fall below the middle, and don't have significant ECs, research, diversity, recruitable athletic talent, or other compensations, you'll just have to look further down the USNWR list. Since you didn't post your numbers, there's no way we can guess where you might be able to attend.</p>
<p>^That's not bad, but nothing amazing. To reiterate what others have said, state schools are awesome very good bets. Even schools that don't seem stellar otherwise sometimes have "hidden gem" programs (for example, East Carolina has a decent pre-med program that allows undergrads to gain experience with patients in the university hospital, a rare experience). Look around!</p>