Match/High Match Schools Help!

College Search & Selection
1

I’m making a list of schools to investigate or possibly visit this year (I’m a junior). I’m an international student whose main interest lies in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering. Having limited experience with US colleges beyond website rankings, I would really appreciate some input. Thanks in advance!

Stats:

  • GPA: 4.0 unweighted (not sure about weighted, because my school doesn’t offer APs)
  • Rank: school doesn’t rank
  • SAT Subject: planning to take Physics, Math II and World History
  • SAT: 2260 (760 CR, 790 M, 710 W) will retake
  • AP: taking Calc BC this year, maybe French next year for uni credit

Junior/Senior Classes:

  • IB HL English, IB HL Chemistry, IB HL Physics, IB SL History, IB SL Math, IB SL French (studied 7+ years)

Extracurriculars:

  • Piano (6+ years, graduated from conservatory)
  • French Horn (5 years school and community band)
  • Badminton (5+ years, played on senior teams throughout high school because we don’t have varsity)
  • Yearbook/School Newspaper (5+ years doing cover design and layout)
  • Math Club/Mu Alpha Theta (3 years, won some school-wide/regional awards)
  • MUN (first year, haha but it’s been my dream to do it)
  • a bunch of volunteering stuff, held jobs throughout high school, etc
  • founded some clubs/organised some events

I can consider finances or school environments later, but would really appreciate some names to start with.

2

:slight_smile:

3

Great keep it up but that’s a bit odd for a school offer calculus BC and not be an AP

4

It doesn’t. I’m doing it on my own. Any school suggestions though?

5

Let me get the business out of the way first: what schools can you afford? have your parents given you a firm figure they can provide you each year? Have that talk first because you surely don’t want to visit a school you cannot afford to attend. After you get that firm figure, keep in mind that VERY few American colleges provide ANY aid to international students. If you need aid, you will find it very difficult to go to school here unless your scores and extracurricular were astronomical (and they’re not). So the money talk may settle some issues for you, but here are some places where you will find lists of American schools that give SOME aid to internationals (generally, the most prestigious schools provide the most aid):

http://www.educationusa.info/financial-aid.php

http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2013/09/19/colleges-that-give-international-students-the-most-financial-aid

Not to the question of admission: You’ve nice scores, grades, and extracurriculars. Nothing out of this world, however, so I would caution you against expecting to go to a Top Twenty school, as many internationals (and Americans!) do. No one should expect to get into these schools.

Unless you have a lot of money, I wouldn’t expect you to need to travel to the US to check out schools. If you do come, you might consider doing that only after you’re been accepted to two or more schools you really want to go to and know what aid they will provide you.

However, if you have all the money in the world for travel, I would suggest you decide on visiting two Top Twenties, three or four match schools, and a safety or two (if you MUST go to school in the US). Those visits should be split among one ivy (Cornell might accept you more easily than the other ivies); one near-ivy LAC like Amherst, Pomona, Bowdoin, or Swarthmore; one match LAC like Haverford or Vassar; one flagship like UVA, Michigan, or Berkeley/UCLA (they’ll have a lot in common so seeing one is seeing many of them); and one midsize uni like Tufts, Brandeis, WashU, Chicago, or Duke (similar to seeing a flagship but not quite the same). Of course all of these suggestions could change depending on your preferences for size, region, major, etc.

You can use the SuperMatch feature of this website; look for it in the column on the left to get you started on building a list of interests. Then come back after you’ve done some research. One benefit of this process, you’ll learn that the US is a really big country with long jet flights between colleges (altho it pales in size to some others). What you’re proposing is very expensive.

6

“one flagship like UVA, Michigan, or Berkeley/UCLA (they’ll have a lot in common so seeing one is seeing many of them”

No, not all state flagships are alike jkeil911. UVA and Berkeley don’t have much in common, other than they are both public schools.

I suggest the OP pose his question in this forum here on CC:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/

7

yes, I know Michigan is superior to any, rjk, but based on what you can learn in a four-hour visit to campus from a foreign country, these schools look a lot the same and can help you determine if any large American public flagship should be on your list.

8

Thank you guys so much!

My goal right now is to form a general list of schools that I could further research on my own- I tried SuperMatch already and wasn’t really satisfied with the results (they mostly seemed like reaches to me). I also don’t want to just rely on rankings and acceptance rates. As for visitation, I’m definitely not planning to see all the schools on my list- I live in Canada and can only afford the time and resources to take a meticulously planned road trip through the northeastern US. Exploring any colleges that are farther away would warrant some serious interest.

Financial matters are kind of personal, but at the moment I’m not too concerned with them.

@rjkofnovi‌ I’m hesitant to do so because those threads seem to be more focused on major-specific inquiries rather than a general college searches :confused:

9

Fortunately, there are a ton of great schools in the northeast. Unfortunately, many of them are not known for their generosity (unlike, say, some southern and midwestern schools). I’m not asking you to say anything about your parents resources on CC, but make sure you know costs before getting in the car.

In the northeast there are some great schools, so put an Ivy or two on there (Brown, Cornell), put an elite LAC or two (Amherst, Bowdoin), a match LAC like Mount Holyoke or Vassar, an elite uni like Tufts or a match like Brandeis or Wesleyan, and a couple academic safeties like UMass or Binghamton. What’s that, three or four states to visit? Should be relatively easy and inexpensive driving for a Canadian family.

10

@jkeil911‌

The OP made it pretty clear that they’re interested in mechanical or aerospace engineering. There are dual degree programs at most of the top twenty LACs. But, they are not that popular and unless the OP has a burning desire to attend a small New England college (which some people do), I think it would be silly visit more than one LAC. It’s true that they each have their strengths, but just for the sake of getting an idea of their size and scale - Vassar, Wesleyan, Middlebury will all do nicely. It would also be useful to know the OP’s gender before recommending an all-women’s college (Mount Holyoke).

Personally, I would recommend visiting Dartmouth: It’s near the Canadian border; it’s an Ivy but also considers itself an LAC. And, it has an engineering school. If the OP is totally turned off by Dartmouth then it probably wouldn’t make any sense to explore anything smaller.

11

If cost is not an issue, and if you’re ok with the competitiveness for a spot as an international…

Publics: Michigan, Georgia Tech, UIUC, Minnesota, Maryland, Purdue. Maybe a UC such as UCSD, if west is ok.
Privates: Rensselaer, Case Western, Boston U.

If you want to work in aeronautical eng and serve for 5+ years in the Cdn Forces, there’s the Royal Military College. Savings of perhaps $100K+, state-of-the-art equipment from the get-go, large responsibility at a young age, great recs/resume for pursuing a grad degree in the US at a later time.

12

Thanks for schools and insight! I’ll definitely look into them further now and am always open to new suggestions. I spoke with my parents, who once again re-iterated that cost would not be an issue for tuition, but noted that they’d obviously try their best to save money wherever possible. They did point out that I ought stay in the northern US and preferably the northeast, though. School size doesn’t really matter to me, and I’d rather not attend an all-women’s college. With that in mind, so far my college list looks a bit like:

  • Reach: Princeton, Cornell, MIT (lol)
  • Match-ish?: Waterloo, McGill, U of T, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, U Mich, Boston U, Rensselaer, Worcester

I’m not sure about how each of these US schools regard internationals, so they may as well be reaches. Even though the Canadian schools aren’t technically “safeties”, I think I have a pretty decent shot at getting in anyway.

As for the Royal Military College, the general premise sounds great but I have to think about the 5+ years of service.

13

cu boulder Should be on your list. They have the best aerospace engineer program

14

Well, it’s sensible and important that you can see that your US “match-ish” schools are tantamount to reaches. Northwestern, Mellon, Rensselaer, Michigan – I’d say these are reachy, so you have about 7 reaches on your list. If you can pay full freight, though, you become more attractive. (Trying to gauge the odds of an international is tough to do.)

Do more research on US publics like Minnesota, Maryland, Purdue. The advantage for you is that they’re not quite as selective as most of the US schools on your current list, plus if you are full pay, public unis with tighter budgets might find you more appealing than wealthier privates.

Also, if you are interested in both mechanical and aerospace eng, you might want to target schools that offer both. I believe all of the schools in post #10 offer both.

Be absolutely certain about how much you can afford. You can assume that you’re full pay in the US. So you also have to consider just how much more quality you’d be receiving in the US versus your Cdn schools, for much more cost. That’s probably why your list is reachy: maybe you feel that if you’re going to pay $20K+ per year more than Canada, the extra quality better be there. Nevertheless, try to maximize your odds of being happy with your choices/u.

15

Yeah, I think you really get what (I’m realising that) I’m looking for, so thanks a ton for your input. I don’t see the point of attending a “safety” school in the States if the quality of education isn’t much greater than what I can get for a much lower cost here, hence I suppose, the lack of interest in a lot of the large public low-match unis. By targeting schools that offer both ME and AE, would I be severely limiting my options? AE isn’t that common of a major and I’m honestly ok with just ME if it’s a really good program.

Regarding my satisfaction, my top choice match/safety is Waterloo in Canada, and it’s somewhere I’d be pretty happy to attend. I guess I’m just looking for places where I can take the chance but not waste all my time senior year.

16

With ME + AE, you’d be limiting your options in the reach category, for sure. But the reaches aren’t going to be a problem to find – you have plenty of good ones on your list already – they’re going to be a problem to attend! The task for you will be to find US matches that offer you more quality than Waterloo. That’s tough. The good news is that you have time for research, and time to sort out what you’re looking for academically and socially.

17

Hmm. MIT and Embry RIddle would be surprised to read that (using the usual mag ratings).

18

oops, @circuitrider. thanks for the catch.