<p>On reaches: Olin’s definitely a reach (at least, on par with your other reaches. I still give you a much-better-than average chance of getting in). Olin’s pretty much only applied to by people who research engineering schools, and love the idea of doing science for the rest of their lives. And their two-step process is incredibly difficult (more so fro men, as they keep their ratio 50-50). And the process kind of sucks, because they make you visit their school, fall in love with their school… to waitlist or reject about 1/3 of the people that went there. But if you get accepted, it means you’re going with a group of people who really get along and love the school and are friendly and such.</p>
<p>There are several state schools that are better than Harvard or Yale for an engineering major and were completely ignored in your list, e.g. Cal Berkeley, Illinois Urbana, Michigan Ann Arbor, Georgia Tech, Purdue, Texas Austin, UCLA, Wisconsin Madison, etc.</p>
<p>Your numbers are good, but I agree with Erin’s Dad that Wesleyan U, Cooper Union or Franklin Olin can NOT be called matches. Perhaps they are for you because you are a African-American Female interested in science. </p>
<p>Case Western should be your safety. May I suggested that you add Lehigh, Trinity College. Rochester and Brandeis as your matches or safeties. You have quality they want , thereby you may get some good aids from these schools.</p>
<p>This is just my humble opinion. :)</p>
<p>@bruno: I looked at state schools. But, I heard the UC system is almost impossible OOS, and they don’t give good aid. And I really, really, really don’t want to stay in WI. I also prefer East Coast over Midwest. </p>
<p>@chsowl: Yea, Franklin Olin is gonna be tough. But, I hear it’s a great school and with half-tuition automatically (formerly free tuition… <em>sigh</em> economy…), if I get in it could make alot of sense. </p>
<p>@t1388: The problem I have with most other safety/match options (Lehigh, etc.) is that they are either far from the city, have a really small female population, very little diversity, or some combo of the three. Can’t stand the thought of being literally one of the only non-international black people on campus.</p>
<p>This is becoming interesting. Half of you are think I’ll get in almost everywhere and the other half thinks I have no matches lol.</p>
<p>Jayay90, on that case, you should definitely consider Engineering program in universities, not technical institutes. Rochester, which is in a small city called Rochester, is a possibility. Brandeis is really looking for non Jewish students. It is about 1 hours from Boston. Trinity College is in the city of Hartford but is not not that diversified. GW is another option. It is in a big city but has more female students than technical institutes.</p>
<p>Hope this will help. :)</p>
<p>^^ It’s basically a question of how much you believe in hooks. AA female with high stats interested in engineering–that’s a VERY rare combination.</p>
<p>You are an extremely qualified application, but I don’t see why you wouldn’t include Wisconsin-Madison on your list. It’s much better than Harvard and Yale for engineering (actually, it’s one of the top engineering schools in the US), and it’s a good safety (especially in-state + scholarships + close to home [aka cheap transportation]). Cornell should be on there too.
Actually, since your financial situation would guarantee you full tuition financial aid at the top level, I would drop Olin (it changed its policy to only half tuition scholarships recently).
Wesleyan? That seems random. I would consider Bucknell if you’re looking at LAC’s.
So my list would go as follow:</p>
<p>Reaches:
Princeton
Stanford
Caltech
Cornell
Columbia
Cooper Union
MIT</p>
<p>Matches:
Bucknell
Case Western</p>
<p>Safeties:
UWisconsin Madison</p>
<p>Vinnyli, thanks for the analysis. I really don’t like WI at all though lol, as much as UW Madison makes sense. I know if I went to school here, I’d end up living here, as did my mom and her mom, etc. etc. etc. I’m thinking I’ll drop Yale, but I must keep Harvard because I visited it, stayed in the city for a while, and I just love it.</p>
<p>Revisions:
MIT
Harvard
Princeton
Caltech
Stanford
Brown
Columbia
Cooper Union <^reaches
Case Western < safety
Georgia Tech (? perfect besides the whole South thing) < match/safety</p>
<p>Great suggestions.</p>
<p>Question: are you interested in LACs at all? What size is optimal?</p>
<p>Keile, I like the idea of LAC’s as long as they have Engineering or some sort of program that would let me take it somewhere nearby with a good rep. No school is really ‘too small’, but ideally between 1,000-10,000 undergrads, no more than 20,000.</p>
<p>^ Then you should definitely consider Swarthmore, one of the best LACs in the nation and a strong engineering rep as well (more liberal arts than some other programs–you can switch into the major as a sophomore and still graduate in 4 years). Smith also has good engineering, but is a women’s college. There are other engineering LACs, but those are the two that I know best.</p>
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<p>Actually, UW-Madison is pretty well known nationally and internationally among engineering circles, so you probably won’t have much of a problem with recruitment outside the Midwest. I would recommend you to at least apply to it, just in case you change your mind (it can’t hurt to apply to a nearby college). Its honors program is pretty darn good, too.</p>
<p>For me, I applied to UConn as a very last resort (hated a lot of aspects about it, including the fact that it was close to home). In the end, though, it ended up being one of the two choices I really considered at the last minute. Many students do not appreciate what’s in their backyards until they look back in April.</p>
<p>I’ll probably apply EA to MIT and Caltech, so if I don’t get in there, maybe I’ll do a last minute app to UW Madison.</p>
<p>I just happened upon this thread, and have actually just skimmed it, so I apologize if there’s something I’ve missed. BUT, if you think you would like Olin, there’s really no reason to drop it off your list. You appear to be a very strong applicant, and despite the scholarship having been cut in half (hopefully only temporarily) Olin still gives good financial aid on top of the scholarship. It appears you will probably qualify for financial aid, so please don’t rule it out entirely if you feel Olin is a good fit!</p>
<p>I see that t1388 already mentioned Lehigh University, but nearby is Lafayette College (~2,300 students), an excellent LAC + Engineering school</p>
<p>Jayay90 - you’re an extremely attractive candidate for all these schools and I agree that no school will be a reach for you. I would recommend applying to 10-12 of the schools that interest you the most and throw UW - Madison as a back up. I think the question will be finding out which school gives you the best financial aid package rather than which schools will admit you. Apply regular decision and select the school that makes the most financial sense for you. You haven’t mentioned Michigan, Penn or WUSTL all of which have strong engine programs. I understand your thoughts on Madison - it’s a great school but you shouldn’t go there if you want to explore life outside of Wisconsin.</p>