Need assistance determining Safety Engineering Schools

College Search & Selection
1

I am currently a rising Junior ( High School ), and have gotten my list of colleges I’m interested in down to around 10…

  1. MIT ( I mean I gotta apply here <3)
  2. Cornell ( Reach but it's an ivy)
  3. Georgia Tech ( Reach? )
  4. Carnegie Mellon ( Reach )
  5. UVA ( Match?)
  6. Virginia Tech
  7. William and Mary
  8. College of Maryland - University Park ( Match or Safety? )

I’m applying to the schools listed above as it is now, ( Applying to all of them either to their engineering schools respectively, or to Mechanical and/or Aerospace Engineering programs.) My current stats are 3.9 UW / 4.22 W, which will hopefully go up, SAT : 1430 with the highest math and science courseload my school offers. My ECs are Debate Team Captain, Varsity Soccer, President/Founder of Engineering Club, Officer of Red Cross Club, and PIRATE CLUB OFFICER <3. I have more stuff and volunteering that I can put but it’s not as important to me.

I’m looking for what I should add/remove from my list, as I have no idea what would fit my stats as a reach/match/safety school and I want to apply to the best schools possible considering my stats and personality… ( I reside currently in VA btw if that makes a difference.)

Thanks for any and all advice on how to move forward this junior year and coming application process! <3

2

Cost constraints?

3

Not really that I’m aware of

4

What’s your home state? The state schools tend to favor instate applicants. I would not say UMD engineering is a safety for anyone. How far are you willing to travel? Clarkson has a great engineering program and would be a safety but is in far northern NY state.

5

W&M does not have a real native engineering major. It has 3+2 arrangements and something called EPAD variant of physics. But that is less desirable than a real native engineering major.

6

Your Sat is low for your school choices. You will need 1500 and up think 1530 to be competitive or 33/34 ACT equivalent. Knowing your home state as starters will help. Think 1,2,3,4,6 will want that.

7

I know nothing about UMD admissions stats but I do know that their CS program is one of the tops in the nation, and their Engineering school is right there in the Top 20-ish in the country.

8

For the exception of Virginia Tech, all these schools are reach schools. Based on your stats, all of them have about a 30% chance of acceptance, except for Cornell, which is about 10%.

9

Even as an in-state option, Virginia Tech should not be considered a “safety” school: a friend who runs a college admissions counseling service spoke this past Spring with an admissions officer from Virginia Tech, who said that their office had gotten a directive from their provost to lower the admissions rate. So they did and put all the students whom they would normally have accepted (beyond an elite group of applicants) onto the waiting list — apparently, it was a huge list. In the end, Virginia Tech took a good number of students off the wait list; but if you’re on that list, you just never know. VT may be more of a match for you, but definitely not a safety.

Unless you have some admissions “hook,” you are not competitive for OOS admission to the schools you have listed at 1-4.

Maybe look at NC State, the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and the University of Cincinnati for some other OOS options.

If you can get your SAT score up to around 1500, as one of the other posters mentioned, you will be in a better admissions posture.

10

Since the OP is a rising junior he has some time to get the Sat /Act up. I would take both since a lot of people do better one vs the other. I would also start to look at schools in the top 50. I made my high Stat son do this. He applied to the ones in the top ten that he wanted to and is at Michigan, but also some in the 11-20, 21-39,40-50. I made him do this by design. He found some great schools with great merit like NC State as already Stated, V-tech, Minnesota, Iowa State, Michigan State etc. He has a better appreciation for those schools. They have great solid programs. My point is your list needs solid safeties /matches. I was disappointed when my son decided to not apply to MIT. I thought the rejection letter would be cool to frame and put on a wall as a reminder! :wink:

11

George Mason, VCU, and ODU would be instate options for engineering, and would be easier admits than UVA and VT engineering.

12

Look into Purdue, Union and RIT

13

Congratulations on your hard work and success!

You are a great candidate for college. An overwhelming % of schools would consider you a very strong candidate. AND most of the schools on your list are reaches. Why? Nothing to do with you, really, you could succeed at all of them. It’s supply and demand. Two examples: Georgia Tech probably would have been a match for you 6-8 years ago, but it’s seen a tremendous leap in applications, so now it’s much more selective. Also, we visited a top LAC a few years ago. They said 70% of applicants were fully qualified, and the school thought they would succeed academically and otherwise there. It accepted 14% at the time. So 4 in 5 fully qualified applicants were not accepted. So it’s not a knock at all to say that these would be a reach for you. That is true of almost every single unhooked applicant (i.e. a recruited athlete).

The great news? You can certainly take a crack at these schools. You are certainly a reasonable candidate. But you’ll also want some matches and safeties. These are very often not inferior schools. They just don’t get the insane number of applications as an MIT, Yale, Stanford, etc. I’d contend academics at a Holy Cross or William and Mary or lots of other schools are really just as good, a few more specialized fields excepted.

Some others that might be more in the match range would include, as mentioned above, Purdue, Union, and RIT. RPI and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU, “Crew”) too. I love CWRU–great engineering school in a nice area of Cleveland, an underrated city. My favorite STEM school, though, is Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). It has a very hands-on, project-oriented approach, if that appeals. Beautiful campus, nice part of Worcester, great students, very high starting salaries, etc. You fit the profile well–the bulk of students would have stats similar to yours. It does give some decent merit money. And CWRU definitely does. This is not safety engineering, but shows the type of programs WPI has.

https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/fire-protection-engineering

You are a very strong student and seem to have financial resources. You’ll do great. Just look at it as a matter of exploring for a great school that’s a great fit, understanding that MIT, etc. are very hard for almost everyone. Take a shot of them, that’s reasonable. Trust that there are other really great places out there with great students, faculty, and staff, like VT and Purdue and WPI. I know a recent Purdue grad who came out of one of those 3 schools making well over $100k with unbelievable perks. (They are very smart AND tech savvy AND business savvy.)

Have fun with the process. And enjoy high school as high school. You have the gift of youth, enjoy that.

Good luck!

14

I would look to Clarkson University as it has:

a  very well established engineering reputation;
It has Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering along with most other engineering majors;
It would be a quality backup as matches do not mean admission.

Clarkson is in the country on a huge campus. If they were in Boston they would be buried in applications. Lucky for some, the country campuses are not too popular now.

I agree with “ucalumnus,” William and Mary is a fine college (three or four of my nieces and grand nieces went there), but 3/2 programs are another ball of wax. Do you want a BA as well as a BS in engineering degree or are you looking for an engineering program which will give you a broader perspective.

If it is the later, look more closely at the university’s environment and program structure. What is the environment like? How would you describe the student body’s perspective? All ABET programs have to meet certain criteria, but all programs are not the same This raises another set of issues when selecting a university.

See Clarkson at https://www.clarkson.edu/

If you have not already looked, I would add RPI and WPI to your list as they have aerospace engineering et al. I would call these matches.

15

Yah I only got a 1430 my sophomore year with no prep or studying cause I wanted to see what I most needed to work on… so I definitely should be able to get a 1500+ now that Im studying!

16

Thanks so much for this helpful advice, I was planning on looking a bit into WPI but am definitely gonna look more into it now! Do you think WPI and schools like RIT would be matches for my current stats and ECs? ( BTW I am only a rising junior, and will definitely bring my SAT score up, didn’t prep for the 1430 etc. )

17

Keeping working hard and I’d think you’d be a very strong applicant at WPI, RIT, CWRU, etc.

One thing about WPI is that it’s trying hard and succeeding at building a student body that has relative gender balance, so it’s probably an advantage to be a female applicant these days. STEM schools like these have traditionally been heavily male, often with % of male students in the high 60s to high 70s. I believe the number is more like mid to high 50s for WPI in the last couple of incoming classes. In contrast, many more women apply to W&M, and it’s typically an advantage to be a male applicant.

I don’t know, I think the the W&M/Columbia University 3-2 engineering program can be a cool option, especially if you are a VA resident and can pay in-state tuition for 3 years. You get to valuable degrees, one from an Ivy League school, without going through an Ivy League application process (though program requirements are very rigorous). Socially, it could very well be difficult to leave good friends before senior year. But big advantages.

https://www.wm.edu/as/undergraduate/more-pathways/engineering/index.php

Have fun. If you do get to visit some of these schools, it’s a great way to see different towns and regions. It can be great family time, and a great opportunity to think about oneself, and what’s personally important, and how a school might fit one’s personality, and how it might shape their growth and development.

18

Your unweighted GPA of 3.9 is your best pull here. WPI was the first well established STEM school to stop requiring SAT scores. They are no longer required, but GPA is a big deal because it is a better predictor of college performance than SAT scores. The average entering freshman in the fall of 2017 had an unweighted GPA of 3.86. That is why I call you a match. WPI believes your research, attitude and work history count for more than an afternoon’s exam. They are not IQ test. WPI would like you to submit other evidence in place of standardized tests, such as HS research.

RPI’s average secondary school GPA for the same year was 3.78, but they require test scores.

“Match” does not mean that everyone with a profile is admitted. This is why you want quality backups.

19

https://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/apply/combined-plan

Note that admission to Columbia is not guaranteed unless you have a college GPA of 3.50, with 3.30 technical and no grade lower than B in technical courses, three favorable recommendations (hard to assure that given that they may be subjectively written and read), and some other criteria.

Also, unlike for frosh and other transfers, “We [Columbia] do not guarantee that we can meet 100% of demonstrated financial need for all admitted students [in the 3+2 program].”

20

I agree that, as noted, the requirements for acceptance into the program are “very rigorous.” I appreciate the emphasis on that–acceptance to Columbia after 3 years is not guaranteed and requires a lot of classroom success in challenging courses. It is very possible that in the end, if the OP is still really interested in engineering senior year, when it’s time to decide on a college, accepting an offer of admission from an engineering school/program might very well be the best choice. A bird in the hand . . .

Looking at it broadly, though, W&M, with an eye toward the Columbia 3-2 engineering program MIGHT be a better option, especially if W&M is a better fit than any other schools where the OP is accepted, and they are not sure about engineering. I’m sort of assuming OP is a VA resident (because 3 VA schools are on the list)–though that may be a faulty assumption. But assuming that, the cost would be in-state at W&M for 3 years, then probably full price at Columbia for 2 years. That might very well be impossible for the family, though I get a sense from OP that they can and are willing to pay at least a pretty large amount toward college, maybe full freight.

Assuming the family is middle class–defined broadly–and, like most families, would find it difficult to pay 2 years full freight at Columbia, this is a case where it might very well make financial sense to borrow a significant amount to pay for school. Why? If a student goes to W&M (presumably at in-state tuition), earns a 3.5 overall and 3.3 in technical courses over 3 years, and meets the requirements to study engineering at Columbia, they seem like a very good bet to make a very high salary after graduation. They will, after all, have a valuable degree from a top national university, probably in a science, and an engineering degree from an Ivy League school. For them, it would not the same thing as taking out a large loan on a rising freshman who does not have this level of academic achievement, let alone at the college level, and who is studying a subject that does not offer the same remuneration as an engineering major from an Ivy League school might expect to receive. One could very reasonably project different levels of ROI in these different cases.

And, I think one’s best best is often on oneself, though, of course, it is important to be realistic.