<p>I'm sure you all have seen something like this a bunch of times, but I'm really struggling right now. I'm attempting to narrow down my list this summer for which colleges I'm going to apply to. MIT and CalTech are both on there, but I'm thinking I will probably want to take one off to reduce the amount we're spending on application and to make room for another school that might be more reasonable to be accepted to.</p>
<p>What do you think? What are the pros and cons of each school? Which is best for a mechanical engineering major? </p>
<p>@PiperXP I’m really looking for a school that will give me a lot of experience during my education there. That’s the biggest reason why I’m looking at quite a few schools that have co-op programs, since it doesn’t get much more experiential than that! I’m not looking for a big school. Probably the maximum enrollment that I would consider for a school is about 15,000. Most importantly, I’m looking for a school that will really challenge me (my high school doesn’t generally do that…), but will give me the option to explore classes outside of my major. For example, I would be a mechanical engineering major, but I would really enjoy taking some advanced math classes outside of the requirements, because I’ve always loved math and I really enjoy doing it. I’d also like to take another foreign language. I have taken Spanish all through high school, but I would really like to learn Chinese or Japanese in addition, in case I decide to study or work overseas (which I would really like to do).</p>
<p>Here is my list of other schools that I am thinking about:</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon University
Iowa State University (an exception to my size criteria)
Milwaukee School of Engineering
MIT or CalTech
Kettering University
Case Western Reserve University
Marquette University
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Bradley University</p>
<p>I’m hoping to find at least one or two more schools to apply to as well. But I’d like them to be financial safeties. A friend of mine said it would be a good idea to apply to a school that will give really good financial aid, scholarships, etc. and use it to hopefully get some more money out of schools at the top of my list.</p>
MIT has stronger mechanical engineering and math programs. MIT also allowed you to cross-register with Harvard, which has a strong math program as well.
MIT is a good size, in my opinion. I went to a high school the size of CalTech, and that really limits the spread of activities available because there simply aren’t enough people to run the wide diversity of clubs that I would’ve wanted. MIT is also not so huge that you never feel connected to campus (though it <em>is</em> huge enough that you’ll feel lost for the first month or so).
Strong programs in Japanese and Chinese (I don’t know about those programs at Caltech, but my Caltech friends think Caltech is less into humanities overall.) I have friends who have studied abroad in Japan due to our pretty awesome MISTI program.</p>
<p>Pro Caltech:
Higher acceptance rate (11.8% vs 8.9% in 2012 according to Google). Though this depends on what your application looks like. Caltech is more into raw numbers, MIT is more into background and holistic evaluation (your accomplishments compared to what you had to start with).</p>
<p>That sounds… way more slanted towards MIT than I intended. You should talk to people on the Caltech forum if you haven’t already </p>
<p>As far as financial safeties, you will not get a better financial aid package out of MIT just because another school offers you a good financial aid package. MIT only offers need-based aid. Same with Caltech. The thing about when you get to top schools is that all of them have incredible applicants - if they gave aid based on merit, they’d have to give everyone a free ride </p>
<p>@PiperXP Thanks for the info! I’ll have to post the same thing on the CalTech forum and see what happens. My biggest problem is that I don’t have a very great amount of experience or extracurriculars in math and science (or even engineering). A lot of it is in music because that is a program that is very big at my school, and there isn’t much outside of AP classes for math and science at my school (just the math team, WYSE team, and a science club which no one takes seriously).</p>
<p>Also, as far as the financial safeties, I know it won’t get any more out of MIT or CalTech, but I meant more for the other schools I am applying to :)</p>
<p>I didn’t either. I was into horseback riding, acting, community service, and karate. Late in my high school career, I started flying planes, which benefits from an understanding of engineering but isn’t really engineering.</p>
<p>And fair enough about safeties - financial safeties are definitely important. Good luck </p>
<p>@PiperXP Interesting! Yeah, I am involved in most of the programs in the music department at my school (marching band, advanced choir), I perform in the pit orchestra for every spring musical, and I do lots of community service.</p>
<p>Anyways, thanks for the help! I’ll definitely be looking more into MIT :)</p>
Just because both schools offer need-based aid does not mean they will provide the same package. Generally, the more resources/the larger endowment a school has, the more generous its financial aid package is. Everyone I know who had even marginal need was offered great aid by Harvard; packages offered by many other schools did not match up.</p>
<p>I know zilch about Caltech, so I can’t begin to offer a helpful comparison. But I did love MIT. It’s my understanding that MIT offers more non-technical alternatives, but it sounds like the classes you’re interested in outside of your major are technical too.</p>
<p>MIT offers lots of opportunities for students to do MISTI or other international programs in Asia. I spent a January in Korea and know people who have gone to Japan and China. I thought the Chinese language courses MIT offered were great and very well-structured. There are a ton of tests, but it’s very clear that they’re there to help you learn. I’ve heard good things from friends in the Japanese language classes, but apparently there are even more tests.</p>
<p>Caltech definitely has better weather! Unless you like staring at a frozen river for months at a time…</p>
<p>I think MIT is a better choice for someone interested in mech E–I think MIT offers more opportunity for applied projects. At Caltech, it might look more like applied physics. I’ve heard from chem E majors there that it is needlessly theoretical. </p>
<p>At MIT, you have a choice of taking a theoretical intro track (Apostol for calculus, Purcell for E&M) or taking the regular track. At Caltech, you are forced to take the theoretical track, and it’s close to impossible to place out of it. At MIT, the theoretical physics classes are relatively popular but people rarely take the theoretical calc classes unless they are a theoretical math major. (By the way, I am into theory myself, but I would rather take abstract algebra or some other math class rather than re-take calculus–although Apostol is a great book.)</p>
<p>Also, at Caltech, there are two years of physics classes required to one at MIT. Their requirements make it more rigid.</p>
<p>I think you should widen the net a little and apply to more places…Some schools do have application fee waivers, and I think in the long run you may save more money doing so. Also, some high tier but not MIT-level places have academic scholarships. Rice gives a lot of money to national merit scholars. I know Duke has a very competitive scholarship that is basically a full-ride. In terms of the time spent on applications, many of the questions are similar from school to school (or identical in the case of the common app,) so I wouldn’t worry about that. It is a project to apply to college, but I don’t think it is a good strategy to cut down on the applications. Also, the mid-tier places on your list tend to have easier applications with less essays I think. </p>
<p>@Millancad Thank you so much for the input! While I definitely prefer warm weather to colder weather, I would have to say I value the education as a more important criteria than the weather But I have heard that CalTech is very theoretical. It sounds like MIT would be a better fit because they have more options available and more practical applications.</p>
<p>@collegealum314 Personally, I don’t mind theoretical type of courses or ideas, but since I will be an engineering major, obviously theoretical is not the way to go. Do you think I should apply to both then? I would definitely need to have some fee waivers if I do, because the costs will add up immensely when you count the cost of sending all of my test scores and application fees themselves. Also, I will most likely be adding Tulane University to my list, but I plan to use it mainly to get high financial aid offers and then use that offer to try and reduce the cost at other colleges (it feels strange using schools this way…but when it sends me an email giving me an invitation to apply for free, what do they expect?). I’ve heard this is a good strategy when money is a factor (which is definitely is).</p>
<p>Fee waivers are usually given for financial hardship (Does CollegeBoard give you a fee waiver? Do you get free lunch at school due to financial hardship? Does your family receive financial help from the government?), not because you’re applying to 11 colleges.</p>
<p>You really don’t need 11 colleges. Pick a couple schools you really want to go to. Pick a couple schools you’d like and will definitely get into. Pick a couple schools that you seem a good match for and are in the center of the risk category. Even if you want to play the financial aid game, that’d be a couple more schools – 8 total. Why do you want to apply for more? </p>
<p>@PiperXP I wasn’t really planning on applying for more, actually. The reason I posted this was so I could narrow down my list (in other words, take out either MIT or CalTech so I could apply to Tulane, while reducing costs at the same time). I was just clarifying what collegealum said.</p>
<p>Based on what you all have said (and the fact that I posted this exact same discussion on the CalTech forum and got no responses), I’m probably going to apply to MIT and take CalTech off my list.</p>
</p>
</p>