My College Results (need guidance)

College Search & Selection
1

Hello all! I’m finally done with the most stressful process in the world and the results turned out quite nice for me. Here’s my list:

Cornell (still waiting on financial aid, I did it late), Chemical Engineering

Johns Hopkins (really good aid, full need met), Chemistry

UConn Honors (merit + aid is almost a full ride), MatSci Engineering

Ohio State (no honors college, no significant aid), MatSci Engineering

Stevens Institute of Technology (Presidential Scholarship, waiting on aid package), MatSci engineering

RPI (I don’t even wanna go here, it’s like a sausage fest), MatSci Engineering

UMich (waitlist, probably not gonna take it up)

UBuffalo (honors college, waiting on aid, it’ll probably be really good as kids in my school have turned down their top choices to go here instead cuz of $$$)

Cornell, JHU, UConn, Stevens, and UBuffalo are the ones I’m considering, the latter three just because of money really. I’d really like to go to either Cornell or JHU.

My issue is that I think I was admitted to JHU for chemistry, not chemical engineering. I did that because I thought a non-engineering major would be an easier way to get in. (It worked out! I’m the first kid from my school to ever get in!) How difficult would it be to transfer to engineering? As of now JHU looks like it might happen because I haven’t heard back from Cornell on my aid for like a week now, getting kind of worried.

I haven’t visited anywhere yet, as my plan was to only visit the schools I got into. I’ve seen both Cornell and Hopkins online and they are both beautiful obviously. I don’t know, I kind of like the upstate NY vibe, it might be for me. I’ll find out this spring break. My question is which schools should I visit with limited amounts of time. I don’t especially want to go to my other schools (definitely not OSU or RPI). Buffalo could be on the way to Cornell but idk if i really wanna go there. UConn and Stevens are maybes, but I REALLY wanna go to either Hopkins or Cornell. Is Hopkins only overnight with their SOHOP program, or is there another way I could visit? I’ve tried searching for an alternative but all I can find is the overnight program which I don’t think my family can find the time for this break.

What’s your input? Hopkins or Cornell for a chemical engineer? How hard would it be to transfer to engineering at Hopkins? Which schools should I visit? Can a Hopkins visit only be overnight? If I did get to engineering at Hopkins, they have a five year masters program which is very attractive to me (idk if Cornell has something similar). Cornell I love the feel of upstate and Ithaca though. Thanks for the help!

2

Cornell, which is excellent engineering ivy league school. Why take a chance on Hopkins? Cornell also has a five year masters program.

3

@CU123: He would need to find out if Cornell is affordable, first.

Anyway typically, internal transfers for folks who start as freshmen at elite medium/small privates is a piece of cake. Most don’t even admit by major/school outside of a few special circumstances.

You should just ask JHU. Say you were interested in X when applying and now you’re more interested in Y. How easy is it to transfer.

4

JHU only admits by major for BME so you can switch to ChemE!

5

Congrats on the admission by many great schools on your list. You can pretty much forget about UMich as they rarely use their waitlist even they had tried in the last couple years. Have you tried the NPC at Cornell? At least it would give you some idea. Anyway, they would send you the FA package soon if not already.

6

Regarding visits, you do not need to attend an overnight if it does not meet your schedule. You should be able to arrange a full day visit including attending a couple of classes and a meal in the dining hall. That should give you a pretty good idea about the student vibe. JHU and Cornell are in very different physical environments - I recommend that you check out the surrounding area as well, to see if it’s a place you’d like to live for four years.

Congrats on your acceptances!