<p>Please? You gave me so many options (a good thing, but I need to narrow down quickly). Or at least pros and cons that you’re aware of.
For these schools:
U of Rochester
U of Portland
Tufts
Lehigh
Laffayette
Swarthmore
Villanova
Trinity College (Conneticut)
Case Western
Rice
Clemson
Poly-NYU
Rennsaelier
Syracuse
Georgia Tech
Santa Clara</p>
<p>How many are you trying to eliminate?
Here’s what **I **would do (but I am not you!):
Eliminate:
Swarthmore - their engineering program is an afterthought, the engineering facilities suck though everything else they have is awesome. We were very disappointed. Besides, Super hard to get into.
Trinity - in a tough part of the city
Lafayette - engineering department is too small (though good), students too preppy
Syracuse - is OK, but not as good as others on your list. Keep it if you need a safety.
Clemson - I wouldn’t like the emphasis on Greek life and football.</p>
<p>Keep;
Tufts, U.Rochester, Case, Rice, RPI, GT, Lehigh, Villanova. Of these RPI,GT - have the geekiest vibe. RPI is in Troy which is not great, but their engineering and science programs are highly regarded; not a good choice if you decide want something else though. Tufts is my favorite, but I am biased ;-)</p>
<p>I don’t know these enough to judge, are these your safeties?:
U. Portland, Poly-NU, Santa Clara</p>
<p>If anybody else answers this they will give you different answers. There are a lot of differences between these schools.</p>
<p>"High quality. But not just engineering/math like some sort of pre-professional school.It should be well-rounded.</p>
<p>Small to 10,000ish</p>
<p>On west or east coasts. Preferably on the west coast, but I’d make an exception for a really great match back east.</p>
<p>Well respected.</p>
<p>A school that I could apply to as undecided, or where I could at least switch majors without taking a long time to finish."</p>
<p>"So could you guys rate the schools on Overall Academic Quality, Engineering Quality and Diversity of Options? For example, maybe Stanford would be 10, 10, 10 (lol). "</p>
<p>Santa Clara. 7</p>
<p>That was in addition to <em>another</em> list that I had already made up by myself, so there are a lot to be eliminated. If I combine both BeanTownGirl’s suggestions that I liked and my own list I get:
Cal Poly SLO
Tufts
URochester
Case
Bucknell
Rice
USC
Stanford
UC (SD, Berkeley) - Big, I know…
Middlebury - My brother goes there
Claremont Mckenna - I could take classes at Harvey Mudd and major in engineering, while getting the Lib. Arts education of a LAC.
Brown
Santa Clara
That’s like 13… which is better than the 20 or so I had earlier, but still a lot.</p>
<p>James Madison in VA has an Engineering program that is more interdisciplinary with a focus on sustainability. Could be a good fit.</p>
<p>
My recommendations:</p>
<p>3 reaches - Rice, Brown or Stanford, and USC or Johns Hopkins
4 matches - Rochester, Tufts, two more (Lehigh? Case Western? Bucknell? Lafayette? Santa Clara?)
2 safeties - any of the less selective CA publics</p>
<p>That’s a pretty balanced list and a manageable number of applications. If you like Mudd, you could swap it for one of the reaches.</p>
<p>Very important: what is your safety that you know you will be admitted to for sure and which you can afford to attend for sure?</p>
<p>If you want to go to a Claremont college for engineering, consider going to Harvey Mudd, so that you can have an engineering major “natively”. Harvey Mudd does require about a third of your course work in humanities and social studies breadth, plus science prerequisites for engineering, so you should get plenty of liberal arts there (and can take some courses at other Claremont colleges).</p>
<p>The “engineering” programs at Claremont McKenna and Middlebury are 3+2 or similar programs, which are logistically more difficult than going to a school with a “native” engineering degree program. If you can afford the extra year and the financial aid uncertainty of the “2” school, and the “3” school is not highly restrictive on what you major in there, then you could get an extra year of non-engineering-major courses in, or have a second non-engineering major that you would otherwise not be able to have. But many students eventually do not want to transfer away from the “3” school (although Claremont McKenna to Harvey Mudd is not as big a transfer transition as most), or do not get admitted to or enough financial aid at the “2” school.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus Yeah, I see what you mean, I just worry that I couldn’t get into Mudd with my scores. So I was thinking I could kind of use CM as a gate to Mudd. You are allowed to major at any college in the consortium once you get in, so I was thinking of majoring in Engineering at Mudd, while minoring in something like Art History or Enviro Science at CM. That wouldn’t have the difficulties of the 3 + 2</p>
<p>As far as a safety…wouldn’t Bucknell or Santa Clara or UCSB be a safety?</p>
<p>What I mean is… my profile is more of a fit for an LAC (I think), so if I apply to CM, I am more likely to get in, in which case I could attend CM while majoring at Mudd.</p>
<p>I think Bucknell is too selective to be considered a true safety. 27.6%</p>
<p>Are you sure that you can easily transfer to HMC after being admitted to CMC? A search of CMC’s web site did not find anything obvious in that respect beyond a 3+2 program where you major in economics or management at CMC, then transfer to HMC to finish an engineering degree (and there are GPA minimums to transfer).</p>
<p>For the UCs, you can try using <a href=“http://statfinder.ucop.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://statfinder.ucop.edu</a> to see how students with your stats and intended major did at various UC campuses. However, the latest data is from 2008-2009, so current selectivity may be different.</p>
<p>Well, from what I picked up when I visited, you don’t have to transfer. It sounded like CM allows you to take major at other colleges while still attending CM. Apparently, you could even trade dorms with a person from another college if you both agreed.</p>
<p>Find something in writing that details the procedure involved. What you may have been told verbally at a visit may not have been entirely accurate or complete.</p>
<p>I’m also looking at schools similar to what your looking for. In your list, I would take out
Clemson, Poly NYU, Syracuse, and Georgia Tech. Clemson and Georgia tech are big schools, or at least, definitely not in your size range. Poly NYU is a good engineering school, but not very well rounded. Syracuse is okay, but not superb at Engineering and I believe it is also above your size range.</p>
<p>A couple of defense against Clemson as a legit college choice:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Size - In 2010 and 2011 Clemson was ranked by US News as one of the best colleges for undergraduate teaching (one of two public universities - along with Miami (OH)), professors are very accessible compared with other professors and the Creative Inquiry program creates a lot of research opportunities for undergraduates. The school as a whole is very undergraduate-friendly and professors genuinely care about teaching and about your success. I would say that the experience is no less different than a smaller school of 7,500 to 10,000 students.</p></li>
<li><p>Greek Life/Football - 17% of men join a fraternity at Clemson and 23% of women join a sorority at Clemson according to the 2011 Common Data Set (<a href=“http://www.clemson.edu/oirweb1/FB/factbook/CommonDataSet2011.pdf[/url]”>http://www.clemson.edu/oirweb1/FB/factbook/CommonDataSet2011.pdf</a>) - this means that there is about 80% of the student population that is not involved in greek life. As for football, at many of the top engineering schools in the country, there is a division 1 football team - Stanford is one of the top teams in the country along with Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Florida, UCLA, Texas, USC, Michigan etc…</p></li>
</ol>
<p>@ucbalumnus - yeah it’s a little vague - a couple of the claremont colleges mention an “off-campus major” and they are pretty clear that you can take classes at any of the colleges… but it’s overall pretty vague. I’m thinking I’ll just call anonymously and ask if I could switch majors after I get there.</p>
<p>Some of my “reaches” seem a little more likely if I don’t go as an engineering major (Rice, USC). Would it be just as good to get into a great school with a “good” major (other interests), or an ok school with a “great” major?</p>
<p>I’m not seeing schools on your list that are just “ok”, they are really great schools. So where do you think you could get into an engineering major or engineering college within a university on your list that is only “ok”? Your stats are really good so why would you try to apply to a different major and then hope to be able to switch into engineering?
I don’t see your dilemma at this point.</p>
<p>I don’t think engineering is one of those majors where you have to go to a really good school like an ivy league or top 20 school to get a good education - if you look at the engineering rankings and where employers recruit, sometimes its better to go to a state school such as Virginia Tech or NC State than Harvard or Yale. What is important for engineering is your GPA and the amount of experience that you get during college whether it is through co-ops or internships. What is the point of getting into Rice “undecided” as opposed to engineering when you can get into a school like Texas A&M for engineering that is on the same level for engineering?</p>
<p>Some helpful links:
[School</a> Rankings by College Major – Job Recruiter Top Picks - WSJ.com](<a href=“School Rankings by College Major – Job Recruiter Top Picks - WSJ”>School Rankings by College Major – Job Recruiter Top Picks - WSJ)
[url=<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering]Best”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering]Best</a> Undergraduate Engineering Schools | Top Undergraduate Engineering Programs | US News Best Colleges<a href=“Take%20a%20look%20at%20that%202nd%20list%20under%20the%20US%20News%20rankings%20for%20some%20smaller-ish%20schools”>/url</a></p>
<p>What would you think about the South? Have you looked at Rice? There’s Stanford on the West, but that’s the big one.</p>
<p>Hmm… I don’t know… the South would have warm winters but besides that I’m not sure how I would like the South. For some reason my family seems to look down on the South. In fact, my parents don’t seem to like the idea of me leaving Cali. I do have a brother going to school on the east coast, so I feel like they would be more receptive to that idea, which is why I’m kind of looking around there. Come to think of it, it’s sort of me too that isn’t sure about leaving California. I’ve been away from home before, I’m just not sure if I would want THAT much separation. I have one younger brother left at home, and I’m just not sure what he’d do without me. He doesn’t really have a whole lot of friends besides me. On the other hand I wouldn’t want to be too close (I don’t think).</p>
<p>@pierre Yeah I see what you mean… but if I switch out of engineering I would still want good, quality options.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What exactly do you mean? Do you mean strength of major, or overall strength? That may depend on how likely you are to change majors. If you are certain to stay in your major, then strength of major is more important. If you are wavering on your major choice, then strength in your other possible majors becomes more important, or overall strength if you are very undecided. Note, however, that overall academic strength is not necessarily the same as prestige or selectivity; big state universities often have many strong departments, but are not always that selective, and may have some less motivated students.</p>
<p>Regarding off-campus majors at the Claremont consortium, even if you did manage to major in engineering as a CMC student doing an off-campus major, employers may wonder about it, especially since CMC does not have an ABET accreditation listing like HMC.</p>