<p>Hi everyone, I am a perspective transfer student (junior transfer) from a liberal arts college with engineering program. Being a computer geek, I would like to go to a school with good computer engineering and computer science classes. However, I am reluctant to go a 'tech school' due to my wide range of interest outside of these heavy sciences and I want to be surrounded by people with variety of interests. My main reason for transfer is because I can't find myself to fit into my school's culture. My ideal school culture would be relaxed, friendly, somewhat liberal, and with people passionate about what they study.</p>
<p>Here's a short list of schools I have in mind:</p>
<p>Rice
Harvey Mudd
Brown
Dartmouth</p>
<p>Any critique and recommendation about what schools I should look at. It would be very helpful to not use ranking as the primary evaluation. </p>
<p>My goal after college is to get into a good graduate program. My ultimate goal is to start my own tech company.</p>
<p>All those are good for getting into grad school. Brown has a really great CS dept and access to research with professors and that helps tremendously. I don’t know much about the Engineering program in CS as my daughter didn’t study in that dept but they recently beefed up the Engineering dept.</p>
<p>Although Mudd has a liberal component, I still think of it as a tech school. Yes you can take classes at the other Clarement schools, though. If you are looking at that, look at Olin. It also has a liberal arts component cross registration access with Brandeis University, Babson and Wellesley Colleges earby. It used to be full merit scholarship for those accepted, but is now 1/2, I believe–look it up. It also awards need based.</p>
<p>Right in the heart of Silicon Valley this very prestigious school will be far more your style and give you direct access to the world of tech start ups. As a transfer, you’ll have difficulty with Harvey Mudd. Not sure about the others.</p>
<p>Brown accepts around 10% of transfers, Dartmouth around 4%, Mudd around 1%, Rice doesn’t publish their CDS but it should be something in that range. Santa Clara is looking like a good recommendation.</p>
<p>You may want to consider Rose-Hulman it is a tech school but at the same time the head of the humanities dept realizes that they are limited in what they can offer and will often let you take a course at Indiana State if Rose does not have it (I have personal experience with this). As far as grad schools go if you do well at Rose you can go pretty much anywhere you like (Honestly if you do well at any good school you can go pretty much anywhere you like). Best of luck to you in finding the school that fits you.</p>
<p>Edit: if you scroll down to the bottom of this link you can see the grad schools that were picked by 2010 graduating class
<a href=“404 | Rose-Hulman”>404 | Rose-Hulman;
<p>From your situation it sounds like what you are looking for IS a tech school. Most of the smaller [Association</a> of Independent Technological Universities: AITU](<a href=“http://theaitu.org%5DAssociation”>http://theaitu.org) schools pay attention to areas outside of engineering. At my school, [Illinois</a> Institute of Technology](<a href=“http://www.iit.edu%5DIllinois”>http://www.iit.edu), we have student diversity from the architecture college, our social sciences, humanities, psychology, and business majors and for a change of pace we have a small liberal arts school (Shimer College) and a music school (Vandercook College of music) right on campus where our students can take classes if they wish.</p>
<p>Without stats, ECs and budget it’s impossible to say. Every school on your list takes very few transfers and Brown offers little aid to transfers, so without more info we’re shooting in the dark.</p>
<p>Most of the transfer friendly schools with engineering are big state universities (and they often favor students from in-state community colleges).</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone’s reply. I know that the schools I am applying to are very competitive in terms of admission. Therefore, I plan to apply to as many schools that fit the criteria as possible. As for big state schools, I think the 3 UCs I applied to would be the only large schools I will apply. </p>
<p>Here’s a quick run down of my stats:
I don’t need FA.
College GPA: 3.79 (probably going to keep it after this semester)
EC: music, clubs here and there, nothing spectacular.
SAT: 1900
HS gpa: 3.4 UW, ~4.2 W
AP: 10, few 2s, few 3s, few 4s, and few 5s.
LOR: I can probably get pretty good rec letters since I know most of my professors well.</p>
<p>Someone recommended Washington U at Louis St and Northwestern. How are the cs/compEng department there? I have not heard much about their engineering.</p>
<p>I was not aware of the existence of Santa Clara University. Can someone give me some feedback on it besides its location?</p>
<p>Santa Clara is a solid school though I would not refer to it as prestigious. It offers strong Slicon Valley ties. Looks like a good safety for you. You might also look at Union and Lehigh as good, small match schools you should get into.</p>
<p>If you’re applying to UCs, why not USC? Very strong CA network if that’s where you want to work later, and as good or better engineering than all UCs except UCB with less budget crisis.</p>
<p>Also, have you looked at whether you could apply for the Columbia 3-2 program? They seem to have an agreement with every LAC on the planet. Some are able to do it as a 2-2. It’s definitely the easiest way to slip into an ivy.</p>
<p>Which UCs are you looking at? I’m afraid your SAT may sink you at all of your target schools. Harvey Mudd recommends providing the SATs, Dartmouth, Rice and Brown require it.</p>
<p>In general you have to start as a Fman at Olin because of their special first year program, but with the merit aid doing the extra year, if necessary-- is do-able. You may get credits for some coursework.</p>
<p>I don’t have the time to retake any of the tests. I will have to cross my fingers and hope they don’t weight my test performance too heavily.</p>
<p>I applied to UCB, UCLA, and UCI. I will apply to USC as well.</p>
<p>According to Olin’s transfer page, most of their previous transfer students did not receive any credit for their prior course work. I don’t think I have the patience to “relearn” all the materials I already knew just for the sake of credit. </p>
<p>I think I might be a bit too late to consider the 3-2 program as I already have course work spread out across various fields (namely, physics, CS, and ECE). Graduating in three years (one more year) might be a stretch even if the transferred institution allows it. </p>
<p>Since most of the small colleges don’t offer an engineering degree, in general, do they have classes in computer/electrical engineering offered? I was thinking maybe I can change my major to physics/CS, which I also have heavy interest in, and still have a good foundation of EE/CE for potential graduate studies.</p>
<p>CS is more commonly found at small schools, but many of the small schools’ CS departments are fairly minimal, offering just introductory courses, or a subset of intermediate and advanced undergraduate courses that would normally be considered insufficient for a CS major.</p>
<p>Schools without engineering majors generally do not offer any engineering courses at all, although a few physics courses may cover some of the same topics as in some engineering courses. However, not all small schools have good breadth and depth in intermediate and advanced undergraduate physics courses.</p>
<p>Have you considered GA Tech? It is ranked in the top three nationally for engineering and not as competitive as some of the suggested schools have been.</p>
<p>@ OP: I think Rice would be an excellent choice for you. I spent my freshman year there, and it is a very inclusive community with strong engineering programs. I still miss it.</p>