Looking for safeties/match/reach schools with good engineering

College Search & Selection
1

<p>TX - Male - Junior...no special race or background</p>

<p>SAT I: 2070 (750 M, 620 V, 700 W)
SAT II: will be taking physics and whatever the math 2 one is called
ACT: 30-32 range; will update when scores come in (Feb. 20)</p>

<p>Have taken all honors throughout high school (except I took Spanish II and Spanish 4 regular and will take Spanish 5 regular next year)</p>

<p>APs: The ones I will graduate with....US History, Modern European History, Calculus, Physics II, English IV, and either US Govt. or Economics (Total of 6)
Also if I take AP Spanish 4 next year I would add that.</p>

<p>GPA W: 4.15ish; MIGHT graduate with 4.2+
Rank: Top 10th or 11th %. Will know for sure next week.
Competetive private prep school with 150-160 per class.</p>

<p>If it is a small school, I may be able to use baseball to get in.</p>

<p>So far I have thought of the following schools:
Georgia, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Michigan, Northwestern, Purdue, Vanderbilt, Virginia, and then I have tossed MIT onto the list. I would try to get through the baseball coach...worth a shot.</p>

<p>Location: Looking to get out of Texas and stay out of the Gulf region.</p>

<p>Social: I'm looking for a relatively social school with either a large student body or a large city around the school. Also intersted in greek life. </p>

<p>I'm asking for some help searching for safety, match, and reach schools.</p>

<p>Purdue is my only safety and I am actually very intersted in going there. It would probably be in my top 5 from the list I have above. So I guess I'm looking for more match/reach schools.</p>

<p>If you have read this far...Thanks.</p>

2

<p>So your applying to Purdue....while your applying in Indiana, I would look at Rose Hulman. I know you said a large school, and I thought that too....now I'm looking at both. I would apply to both and then visit and make your decision.</p>

3

<p>Miami University (Ohio) - Safe Match</p>

<p>Out of curiosity, what part of Texas are you from? Why do you want to leave the state? Texas has many different areas with different weather/culture/etc...still, as a student who is looking primarily out of state for colleges myself, I understand a desire to leave.</p>

4

<p>I'm from Houston. I am personally not a fan of the University of Texas simply because everybody else in my area is obsessed with it. I like the state of Texas, I just want a change of scenery. I am fortunate enough to have parents able to afford more expensive colleges, so I am not limited to in-state schools. (I will still apply to UT as a safety school though if I am top 10%...for financial safety and what not). I don't "dislike" my state; I just want to get away from it. I do realize there are some excellent schools in the state of Texas (and surrounding states), just none of them really spark my interest. Rice would be the only one I would consider...but if I could get into Rice, I could get into a school of equal caliber that I have more interest in. Hope that all made sense...</p>

5

<p>As an aside, you do realize that UT has some of the strongest engineering and natural science departments in the country? In terms of engineering faculty, only MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley are stronger (based on faculty NAE membership). I know you want to leave the state, but just thought that should be pointed out.</p>

6

<p>jlamp - it makes perfect sense to me...Obviously UT and Rice have great engineering programs but it seems to me that you want to experience something different than Texas. I felt the same way this time last year when I was at the point you were at, but I did find a couple of schools in state that captured my interest (SMU and TCU). However, it looks like I will have better options out of state (at least at this point in time)</p>

<p>If you are interested in UVA, you may look at Virginia Tech...slightly more slanted toward engineering, better football team, and a beautiful campus...it's a safety for you.</p>

<p>Along the lines of Michigan (but with better weather) is UC-Berkeley. Stanford would be a good reach school.</p>

7

<p>Thanks nathan. I guess I guess you have to be from here to understand what I mean about wanting to get away. And thanks for those suggestions.</p>

8

<p>No problem. Good luck to you on your search, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.</p>

9

<p>Try to improve your SAT by a total of 100 points and some of your reaches, like Michigan, UVa and NU become matches and some of your matches ecome safeties. You also have a more realistic shot at MIT if you improve your SAT.</p>

<p>REACHES:
Cornell University
Northwestern University
University of California-Berkeley
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Virginia</p>

<p>MATCHES:
Georgia Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania State University-University Park
University of Florida
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
University of Maryland-College Park
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Vanderbilt University</p>

<p>SAFETIES:
Purdue University-West Lafayette
University of Colorado-Boulder
University of Washington-Seattle
Virginia Tech</p>

10

<p>If you get the SATs up, look at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.</p>

11

<p>Don't Forget About Usc- University Of Southern California- Great Undergraduate Engineering School.</p>

12

<p>UofA or ASU</p>

13

<p>Why not visit the Princeton Review website, Below is the link. It will give you a list of safety, reach, and match schools based on your inputs to a variety of college related questions.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/advsearch/match.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/advsearch/match.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Good Luck</p>

14

<p>engineering schools are ABET acredited. This means that no matter where you go you will be taking the same courses. Employers group eng schools into rough tiers, the top being MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Cal, perhaps a few others. Most fall into a broader mid-tier, and some are at the lower end. If you get into one of the top programs you will have stronger demand, especially if you decide to bag working in engineering and go to Wall Street or something. But an engineering degree from an ABET-acredited program is marketable, period. </p>

<p>When you're searching for schools, be sure to pick one you'd be happy to attend if you were NOT an engineer. I have no prediction about what will happen to you, of course, but if we were to look at 100 people who are planning on being engineers then research shows most of them won't make it! According to a trade publication
[quote]
the majority of engineering undergrads drop out or flunk out of the curriculum within the first two years. With a few notable exceptions, U.S. engineering schools typically have attrition rates hovering between one-half and two-thirds.
<a href="http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=45200041%5B/url%5D%5B/quote%5D"&gt;http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=45200041

[/quote]
</a></p>

15

<p>Well I don't plan on going to a strictly engineering college...I'm interested in lots of schools that would allow me to switch my studies if I don't like engineering.</p>

16

<p>USC seems like a perfect match for you when considering its strong engineering program and big Greek/Social life.</p>

<p>As an aside, one of my roommate at USC went to High School in Houston and has some of the same priorities as you (except he is a business major). He is loving it here.</p>

17

<p>Cal Poly San Luis Obispo would be a match.</p>

18

<p>Lehigh is mainly known for two things: excellent engineering and a huge greek/social scene</p>

19

<p>
[quote]
a huge greek/social scene

[/quote]
</p>

<p>A few years ago I would have agreed with you, but recently the adminstration has severely cracked down on this.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=290405%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=290405&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

20

<p>Whoa I had never read that before. A friend's parent had mentioned Lehigh as a good school but that kind of turns me away from it. I'm not looking for a huge social school with huge frats and what not...I just want a school where I can have a good time and have a fun college experience....not a place where I would get breathalyzed on the street randomly....eewww.</p>