Need Help with Engineering Safety Schools

College Search & Selection
1

Hey Guys,

So I am going to be applying to colleges this fall and I need help deciding on Safety Schools. The ones I will be applying to are:

Carnegie Mellon
UIUC
MIT
Purdue
RHIT (Almost a Safety School)
UCB
CalTech
Harvey Mudd
Cornell
Standford

Can you guys recommend schools that could be good safety school as well as other schools I should apply to?

Info:
I live in Illinois, but I’m not really worried college location. I am Indian and would consider myself upper/middle class. Tuition isn’t a problem for me. My father finished his college in India and my mother only has a high school diploma. I have a 33 ACT but I am waiting for one more result. My GPA is 4.8/5 (Sorry my high school is a rebel). My ECs are NHS, Cross Country (Captain), Track and Field, Math Team (Captain). I have tons of volunteer and some job experience as a computer installer and programmer as well as a tutor.

Please let me know of some colleges.

Thanks,

2

Stanford, not Standford

Are your parents ok with paying $55k per year for Berkeley?

there are lots of schools that could be safeties for you… I think Purdue is one if your parents will pay. probably also Ohio State. Probably also RH

What area of eng’g

3

It seems highly likely you will get into Purdue and Rose-Hulman.

But if you want some certain safeties, look at Auburn, Clemson, and NC State. All are strong for engineering and easy admits for you.

4

Lehigh, Syracuse, Colorado, boulder

5

These schools are additional options for you: Rensselaer, Case Western Reserve, URochester.

6

I think my parents will pay some, but I will have to take loan. It’s going to be expensive, but I think our family will manage.

7

Does Case Western have good Engineering? I know its a good med research school.

And I am debating between Computer Engineering and Biomedical. Leaning more towards computer.

8

CWRU holds its own in engineering in comparison to schools such as WUStL. I can’t comment knowledgeably about its strength in the specialties.

9

What about USC and UW Madison?

10

Either would be fine. Wisconsin is particularly strong in chemical engineering.

11

Find out how much “some” is now (before you make your application list), not next April. In April, these forums are full of let-down posts by students who have been led to believe by their parents that the parents will contribute more than they actually will contribute, and parents who want to know how to break the news that most or all of their kids’ admissions are to colleges which are too expensive – because these students and parents did not have the money talk before the student made the application list.

http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ has a list of schools with large automatic merit scholarships that will bring the cost down to $15,000 per year or less. But you need to recalculate your GPA on the usual 4.0 scale to determine if you quality. Not all of the schools have engineering, but several do.

If you want a small lower cost engineering focused school, look at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

12

Have you and your parents run the Net Price Calculator on all your schools, including any potential safeties? I know it may seem like we’re changing the subject but I’ve just watched several kids turn down their “safety schools” because they didn’t get the aid they expected. Later, I found out that the parents either did not run the NPC, or they did but chose to ignore the results (which were accurate).

13

Pitt or Pitt could round out your list.

14

A safety school is one which is affordable, you are assured admission and you will be content to attend. Considering only the information given I would say you have 5-6 reach schools and the rest would be matches. I would say you have a strong chance of admission to most of the matches (CMU may be the outlier and I am not familiar enough with UCB), however, none would be considered assured. Without understanding your financial situation it would be difficult for anyone to specifically identify schools you might afford and be content with. If you like urban schools the University of Cincinnati has a strong engineering program as do nearly all of the Big 10 flagships. Alabama is a school that is emerging as a strong engineering school as well that for someone with your stats might be more affordable. Case Western is similar to CMU in many respects. It actually has more grad students than undergrads. It also typically offers better merit scholarships. If you visit CMU you can also check out the University of Pittsburgh that also has a good engineering program. Good luck.

15

My financial standings are fairly well. We have quite a bit saved up and we are upper class. I think I’ll check out UPitt.

16

I think you are pretty safe with UIUC in-state and Purdue. I always suggest applying to a couple of schools that have rolling admission or non-binding early action (Purdue might and UMichigan does I believe) so yo know you are in by December.

17

“I think you are pretty safe with UIUC in-state…”

Er…ah…no.

U of Illinois is quite popular and undergraduate admission is very competitive. It is among the group of flagship universities where the parents of high-achieving in-state applicants vociferously complain about their kids not being admitted, very similar to the situation at the U of Washington but only more so.

18

Worcester Poly (WPI) and Rensselaer Poly (RPI) would be two great engineering options, low safety and high match respectively. Both are very highly regarded for engineering in the northeast region.