<p>Michigan is the best option on your list. It has the broadest strength, active sports, and a strong overall reputation. Most Michigan grads end up in NYC or Chicago, very few stay in the state...particularly among those who came from out of state originally. UofM is another world compared to its surroundings. Graduates do very very well. Your parents are very mistaken.</p>
<p>Just why exactly does it have to be a public school? There are plenty of large private schools with incredible school spirit/sports and whatnot. And they don't even have to be the really prestigious schools on USNWR (prestige shouldn't really matter anyway and I applaud you for not paying attention to it. Not to be stereotypical, but Asians have the worst parents when it comes to college). </p>
<p>In all honesty, paying tuition for an out of state (or even in state) public school is probably going to be more expensive than paying for a private school. For example, I got into stanford and someone I know got into some SUNYs. I'm gonna wind up paying less than them because of my fin. aid package. </p>
<p>So, simply put, don't avoid private schools simply because of what you are looking for in a college. They can provide the same atmosphere as a public school and can ease your parents' financial burden.</p>
<p>There aren't many private schools that have D1A football teams, if they do, I couldn't get into them anyways (aka Rice, Stanford), personally I like public schools because the type of people that go there, not as many preppy kids from private schools</p>
<p>You might not want to hear this, but... listen to your parents.</p>
<p>Hey. I'm a Texas Aggie and am now living down the road from U of Washington. Both are terrific, sports mad, HUGE schools. Lots of school spirit, virtually no handholding at either one. Kids can be happy or miserable at either one. </p>
<p>Please DO show your parents a few more statistics. For instance, I always look at freshman retention rate. If 90%+ or 85%+ of the kids return for a second year, then it says the school is doing some things right. </p>
<p>Also, please tell them about gift baskets. Say I am President of XYZ College. It is time for a Certain Magazine to do its survey. So, in the door comes 1) the survey form asking me to rank other colleges in my region and 2) gift baskets/tickets/warm greetings from my fellow co-presidents. If it's not golfing opportunities, it is at least a warm and fuzzy phone call. So college presidents have a role in the surveys. They get to say something about other schools in their region/league. And guess what? College presidents are busy people. It sure is easy to fill out that form (or have the secretary do it) using last year's response as a base. </p>
<p>We usually don't have blatant corruption -- it is much classier than that. There are winks and nods and "understandings" -- look at the Illinois Governor trying to peddle off the Illinois Senate seat. What a rube. No class! Normally a Governor would invite a prospect in for a lunch and there would be some . . . dancing around to make sure everyone understood one another. </p>
<p>Please tell your folks that magazines are glossy and slick to sell some product. Everything is plumped and airbrushed to sell you on something. (Even Cindy Crawford doesn't look as good as Cindy Crawford!). Ask them to buy you the Number One advertised toilet paper and see if it really is THAT much finer than regular toilet paper.
Good luck!</p>
<p>happymomof1 wrote:</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
Many, many, many immigrant parents (and not just the Chinese ones) think that the US system will work like the system in their home country. That is, in order to get a good job you must go to X university. Which is not so.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Really? So, he will get a "good job" coming out of Bumblefrack University? Will he have the same employment opportunities coming out of Bumblefrack as he would have coming out of university H, or Y, or P, or S, or M? I don't know what your definition of "good job" is, but going to an unknown place is a good way to land a mediocre job. You seem to be one of those people who wave "ugly is beautiful" posters at the pageant protest.</p>
<p>Pierre, it seems to me that you have a lot of good schools on your list, and a good range.</p>
<p>I also seem to recall that you said you didn't get into Pitt's Honors college. If that is so, the chances of your getting in to some of the very highly ranked schools your parents are interested in are probably not great, so the point may be moot.</p>
<p>To placate them, you could apply to one or two. (Personally, I would go for Lehigh over Georgia Tech any day. There are so many horror stories about the weeding-out process there!)</p>
<p>BTW, I hope you have gotten your application in to the University of Michigan already. Unless they've changed their process, they are at least semi-rolling and the longer you wait the harder it gets. And surely U of M's rating would please your parents.</p>
<p>Congrats on your acceptance to Pitt.</p>
<p>Come to the University of Texas. It has a highly ranked engineering program and it has tons of school spirit, great athletics, and is located in the best college town in America, Austin.</p>
<p>". . . personally I like public schools because the type of people that go there, not as many preppy kids from private schools"</p>
<p>This is not a safe assumption. Some public universities have more than their share of "preppy kids". They might even be "from private schools". Conversely, some private universities are socioeconomically diverse. You can't know for sure until you look at the specific schools in question.</p>
<p>I agree with Hippo, maybe some good private schools with a crap load of school spirit and great athletics. </p>
<p>As for schools on par with the ivies-Notre Dame, Northwestern, Rice, Duke, Stanford</p>
<p>a little less competetive- USC, Tulane, Wake Forest, Boston College</p>
<p>as for your list, I think that Clemson is an excellent choice, you may want to look into the University of South Carolina, any of the UNCs, the College of Charleston, Georgia and Florida are great, Florida State. I'm from the Southeast so i'm not sure how much i can speak for publics in other parts of the country. Georgia actually produced 2 rhodes scholars last year.</p>
<p>I'm a transfer, but sounds like you would love the University of Maryland, College Park. The students have school-spirit like no other school I've been to. They wake up at 7AM to tailgate for football games and the Byrd Stadium is always filled to capacity, with 3/4+ wearing MARYLAND apparel. The GEMSTONE (Honors) engineering program is one of the BEST, ranked as a public ivy and you do need to be a highly competitive applicant to get in. One of my good friends chose Gemstone over a full-ride to UT-Austin. The campus is large and sprawling, and CP is definitely a college town, and it is not too far from Massachusetts.</p>
<p>I disagree. A lot of times a local college has LOTS of local ties to the community. For instance, I live in a state capital (Olympia). You would have a LOT more traction getting a job in state government or local business if you had a degree from our Evergreen College (small, but very well respected) than you would if you came swaggering into the interview with a degree from Harvard or Yale.
Now, the real question is, would you want a local job in Olympia? Let's see. One of the lowest crime rates in the US, diverse, interesting community, reasonable housing costs and boating, kayaking and hiking opportunities out the wazoo. Oh, scenic vistas and some rain. Nooooo -- you'd rather have the snow and ice of Boston and that pricey degree. Makes you feel special. I get it.</p>
<p>Oops. Should have said I was disagreeing with l84ad8</p>
<p>While we're on this topic, I mentioned to my parents (probably shouldn't have) about how some of my friends got accepted to Brown, Yale, MIT etc... They told me "See, they're going to Brown, thus they will be getting better jobs than you." Can someone assess the validity of that statement? Kinda bugs me out</p>
<p>It's plausible that a degree from a respected, local college may carry more weight than even an HYPSM degree with employers near that college.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, a real problem arises if you don't want to stay in that area. Even if the university is respected locally, it may not mean much in another part of the country. So going to a university which only has a local reputation can really make it difficult to leave that part of the country.</p>
<p>By contrast, if you go to a university which is nationally known, you can go anywhere in the country and possibly beyond.</p>
<p>People relocate for all kinds of reasons. Do you really want your degree to be less valuable just because you moved to another part of the country?</p>
<p>In my case, I got my (first) Bachelor's degree from a college which is mostly unknown outside its metropolitan area. Make no mistake: The college offers a reasonably good education. Unfortunately, this doesn't open doors by itself. Worse, despite having attended high school and college in the area, I didn't enjoy living there and didn't even feel comfortable there. So now I live hundreds of miles away. This situation definitely doesn't help in finding work. As a rule, I usually find clients who are minimally concerned with educational background. Other teammates on my projects frequently have no degree at all.</p>
<p>Pierre, u mentioned that at a big state school u will have more research and study abroad opps. Actually, this is usually quite the opposite, at least for research, as most of it a big state schools is done by grad students and there r way more kids vying for that research opp. Also, there is not really any general diff in study abroad opps between priv schools and publics, there are tons of study aborad programs at priv schools. Furthermore, despite some rumurs, there are still lots of parties at top privates and it is possible to have the normal college exp. Now, as for d1 sports, i totally get where ur coming from, that is also something i was very interested in. You may want to look into top schools with d1 programs, ie stanford, duke, northwestern, notre dame, boston college, wake forest, georgetown, usc and top publics like michigan, uva, unc, cal, ucla. Fit is more important than rankings, but u may be able to find some more highly ranked schools that still fit your needs.</p>
<p>My good friend Pierre we haven't talked in a while. Your parents are partially right. I recall you scored a 34 on the ACT and you probably could get into better schools. However there are many good public schools out there that you would feel at home at. Some choices would be</p>
<p>University of Michigain Wolverines
University of Texas Longhorns
University of Illinois Fighting Illini
University of Wisconsin Badgers</p>
<p>I think these 4 schools fit your criteria. However I still think you should go to Pittsburgh or Virgina Tech.</p>
<p>Pierre: If you have the GPA and test scores to compete for admissions in the top schools, then, among the Ivies, the best engineering programs would be at UPenn and Columbia. And both play Division I sports. One poster mentioned Lehigh, and that again might be a possibility. But if you don't have the stats to compete, then you'll have to convince your parents that your choices are the best.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you want to carry out undergraduate research, then you need a school with few or no engineering graduate students. That usually means a liberal arts college with an engineering program and not a Division I sports program.</p>
<p>You can see that these two goals might not be readily compatible, which means that you'll probably have to favor one goal over the other.</p>
<p>And don't forget the financial factor. You should be applying to schools that your parents and/or you can afford, taking into account the likelihood of financial aid you would receive, which perhaps would involve more compromises or setting priorites.</p>
<p>Try a compromse. Northwestern is a top 15 university with a very good engineering school, McCormick, much better than Purdue IMO. It also has a form of honors program in the sciences, called ISP, which is highly selective. Northwestern competes in the BigTen with Purdue, and more frequently than not bests the boilermakers. If you cant get into NU try Notre Dame. [I cringed as I wrote that.] And, if youre willing to go west -- and have the stats, try Stanford; and, USC, if you dont. Both have distinguished engineering schools.</p>
<p><<pierre: if="" you="" have="" the="" gpa="" and="" test="" scores="" to="" compete="" for="" admissions="" in="" top="" schools,="" then,="" among="" ivies,="" best="" engineering="" programs="" would="" be="" at="" upenn="" columbia.="" both="" play="" division="" i="" sports.="" one="" poster="" mentioned="" lehigh,="" that="" again="" might="" a="" possibility.="" but="" don't="" stats="" compete,="" then="" you'll="" convince="" your="" parents="" choices="" are="" best.="">></pierre:></p>
<p>Since Pierre reported that he was not able to get into Pitt's Honors College, despite his nice ACT score, it is highly unlikely that he has the stats to be a match at places like U Penn and Columbia, OR Northwestern.</p>