My daughter is interested in Engineering, but like many others, she is not 100% sure she will end up in this discipline, so we’ve eliminated all of the pure Engineering Schools. We live in PA and she has narrowed her search to Pittsburgh in the West, Boston in the North, Duke in the South and the ocean to the East.
Here is her current list where she wants to apply:
Reaches
Duke - self-guided visit and she liked it
Princeton - liked it, but did not love it (it was weird, lots of people wandering around campus playing Pokemon Go)
Possible Reaches/Matches
Johns Hopkins - visited and was extremely impressed (financial reach)
UVA - visited and really liked it (financial reach)
Swarthmore - likes the campus, but needs to delve a little more into the Engineering program
Safeties (she is applying to the Honors Colleges for these three, which may not actually be safeties?)
Pittsburgh - visited and liked it a lot
Penn St - multiple visits and through science competitions has small scholarships to both the science school and engineering school
Temple - visited and to my surprise she liked it
Visited and Will Not Apply
Georgetown, Lafayette, George Washington
Considering Visiting
Carnegie Melon, Lehigh, Penn and Villanova
Academics
1570 SAT/35 ACT
3.975 GPA Unweighted (1st in Class) - weighted she is 3rd in class
4 APs (Scored 4 or 5 on each test, planning on 4 more APs her senior year for a total of eight)
Main ECs
Sports: Lacrosse(3), Soccer(3), Indoor Track(3) - not a recruited athlete
Music: Choir(3), Orchestra(3)
Science: State Science Competition (3)
Leadership: Girls State(1), Thon Captain(2)
Volunteering: Co-Founded Non-Profit in 2013 to run yearly fundraising event and 500+ volunteering hours through her participation in Mini Thon, Buddies Program and Church
Awards
Samsung Scholarship through American Legion
Rensselar Medailist
Science: PA Regional 1st Award (3), PA State 1st Award(2)
Indoor Track Effort and Dedication Award (2)
National Merit Commended (221 score will likely make her a semi-finalist since PA cut-off last year was 219)
Family income is $115,000/year with a budget of $20-25,00/year, so we will be dependent on merit aid at some of these schools if she does not win any additional outside scholarships. Any other good engineering schools we should consider in this area? We thought about U of Maryland and Virginia Tech, but why pay OOS rates when Pitt/Penn St/Temple are solid in state options?