<p>This is what I have right now, its pretty long but I have my reasons for each school: one common denominator - mostly up north and private schools</p>
<ol>
<li>MIT- childhood dream school</li>
<li>Brown- i LOVE the open curriculum so much, and i heard there are lots of opportunities for undergrad research because as a grad school they arent that big</li>
<li>Upenn</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Rice- its in my hometown, a great value school</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon- everything about this school makes me feel good</li>
<li>Northwestern- its the engineering alternate to uchicago and w/o hyde park lol. </li>
<li>Vanderbilt- i watched a campus video... seems like a nice private school</li>
<li>Case Western- tech oriented private school</li>
<li>RPI- tech oriented private school. </li>
<li>UT- great engineering school... even though im a texas resident, my school doesnt rank... so no automatic admission</li>
</ol>
<p>Anways.. is this list too ambitious? should I add A&M just to be on the safe sid or what?</p>
<p>Brown is pretty good for biomedical engineering but otherwise not a very significant engineering program. I would drop it from your list. The expression "open engineering curriculum" is an oxymoron. There should be lots of required courses for engineering.</p>
<p>Cornell's engineering program is terrific but demanding. They take pride in creating a strong work ethic. It is one of their goals. And, I love Ithaca NY. Very cool.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree I wouldn't recommend brown for engineering. Put on Penn State instead or something, PSU engineering is amazing.
Or maybe swarthmore as a reach or lafayette as a match for engineering.</p>
<p>It seems you like physics - you could do EE major physics minor, or combined major in physics and computer science (1 <a href="mailto:program@usc">program@usc</a>...)</p>
<p>oh and btw... the reason i dont want to major in physics is because my main attraction to the subject is optics, electricity, mag. etc etc... I'm not really interested in mechanics.</p>
<p>however... i was thinking of replacing one school with USC</p>
<p>and not brown because i would seriously love to take interesting electives rather than tons of english and history classes.... and cmon they have credit/nocredit , pass/fail...</p>
<p>Haha, the way I see it, Cornell engineering is spectacular because the school's part state school.
Duke/penn/others are good schools for stuff like BME, agreed, but I think a state school's the way to go for the 'hard' engineering programs.</p>
<p>University of Rochester has a spectacular optics program, be sure to check them out. They're phenomenal for it.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how much employers for engineers would like pass/fail classes. The point of engineering is to suffer through one of the toughest undergrad programs and come out knowing your stuff even due to competition. Engineering is all about competition, pass/fail makes you a softy. Engineers can't be softies.</p>
<p>k im not going to play the gender card.... hah yes i am... anyways the building im working in has only two women and both are secretaries... i think this field needs to soften up a lil.... i mean who doesnt like seeing little hearts next to the title of the programs.</p>
<p>haha one time i put a heart in the actual body of this massive program.... and i was searching for it for like 30 minutes.</p>
<p>Lol i know you didnt mean it that way, but i agree... ill toughen up... lol bme... heh i dont even kno why its a separate field. i guess chem e and ee had so many applications in biology they just had to make a new branch...</p>
<p>I just don't see why anyone would only major in bme. I just see an ee degree helping me in almost any career path. I mean technologies everywhere... what use are you to a lab if you dont know anything about electronics. found that out the hard way. You could go on and study biosensors... you name it. I could even see myself becoming a doctor with the problem solving skills of an engineer and logic of a computer programmer (lol getting in to med school with an ee course load is another story)... </p>
<p>BME is unique in that it's concerned primarily with applications to the body, they make things like artificial hearts and pacemakers, things that an engineer could design but still need a biologists touch for things to be biologically proper, so it's a cool new field that's experiencing a bubble right now.</p>
<p>Same with pharm. stuffs. Chem E's aren't always totally intune with biological workings, and bme's can design things the way they need to be without too much complication.</p>
<p>Specialization is borne out of necessity.</p>
<p>I really liked rochester when i was up there, they say it's the hottest place on earth when they have the laser going haha.</p>
<p>I'm going to wesleyan, but I looked there (by that I mean applied/got in). My aunt works for the med school, but i've known of their optics program for quite some time.
They've got a good rep, and they're not that hard to get into if you have good grades/test scores. They don't play to the US news hype with admitting certain students, they take in whoever they think will do there. One of my friends is going there too, and I'm pretty familiar with the school.</p>
<p>aseemo....the time you spend on this forum would be better spent on writing your essays and expanding your EC's and impressing your NASA mentor</p>
<p>don't you think?</p>
<p>worrying so much, and guessing, and predicting really isn't going to improve your chances of getting in anywhere</p>
<p>just do it</p>
<p>besides, worrying about everything so much before you even send an app in is like ****ing into the wind: the more time you spend on it, the more likely you'll end up wetting yourself</p>
<p>lol... advice coming from someone who's biggest problem was deciding between olin and mit.... heh i got the programming under control now.... and ive even written a couple essays... what say you now? </p>
<p>but yea ill attempt semi-cc lockdown right now.</p>
<p>
[quote]
but I think a state school's the way to go for the 'hard' engineering programs.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Oh, I don't know. I think that MIT, Stanford, and Caltech have some pretty darn good engineering programs, yet they aren't state schools.
Other undergrad-focused private schools such as Harvey Mudd, Cooper, Olin, and Rose-Hulman are also quite good. </p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm not sure how much employers for engineers would like pass/fail classes. The point of engineering is to suffer through one of the toughest undergrad programs and come out knowing your stuff even due to competition. Engineering is all about competition, pass/fail makes you a softy. Engineers can't be softies.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well, I'll put it to you this way. Relative to other top engineering programs, I would say that engineering at Stanford is pretty soft, and certainly softer than the engineering at MIT or Caltech. Yet Stanford engineers seem to have no problem in finding jobs.</p>