Reverse chance me/recommend schools for a junior!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

hello! i’m a junior girl who is really interested in being an electrical engineering major! i’m in my college search and i’m having trouble determining what colleges i should look to applying towards/ which programs are really worth the financial investment if i’m accepted.

my gpa is 3.9 uw 4.5 w (with a b in ap chem and ap calc bc last semester but otherwise straight a’s) with a psat of 1440/1520 which translates to a 1515 on the sat scale (i think, i might be wrong). i’m planning to take a total of nine ap classes by my senior year and an aerospace engineering elective as well!
my ecs include:

  • model un (on board) 10th grade-hopefully senior year and hosting my own committee
  • national english honors society (on board) 10th grade-senior year it’s very un stem related but it’s a volunteer club and i like ela
  • science olympiad- 10thgrade- senior year i was the team manager this year
    -robotics team - 11thgrade - senior year
  • science national honors society 11th-senior year
    -speech team- just 9th grade
    -part time job- 10th/11th/maybe 12th?- soph year i worked 25 hr weeks, this year i work 15hr work weeks on average
    non club ecs:
  • had one virtual internship as a “data analyst” for two weeks??? but i don’t think it really counts
  • Summer@Brown intro to engineering course after 9th grade
  • KodeWtihKlossy scholarship recipient for free web dev virtual course after 9th grade
    -SaturdayMorningPhysics at Fermilab in 10th grade, basically sat in on physics lectures geared towards highschoolers
  • QubitXQubit: 11th grade, online quantum computing course sponsored by IBM, but i had to drop it bc of my grades dropping (the two Bs i got)
  • Museum Volunteering: 11th grade, only 20 hours so far but my goal is 100 total!!
    awards:
    -i got a two speech awards in the dramatic duet acting category (both 5th place in the tournament)
  • scholarship for summer music programs (quit music tho so might leave out)
    -Best delegate award for mun at a top uh i think 30 college?? conference (the college i won it at is on my far far reaches list haha) and some honorable mentions/best position paper awards
    -scioly jv regional awards (10th grade) 1st in the jv division in the region and 3rd in jv

so yeah! some schools that i’m considering for like
my just for fun lottery picks: mit, princeton, cornell, columbia school of engineering
my far far reaches: umich, boston u, washu, cmu,
reaches: uiuc (in state!), purdue, rose-hulman
target: rensselear, university of washington
safety: virginia tech

are there any programs i should consider? some other factors affecting my list so far is: i dislike warm weather (which is very arbitrary especially bc there’s so many good southern programs)… i sorta want some humanities focus in my education (?) although i’m super excited about electrical and getting to use breadboards, design circuits, solder and make a working device is super super cool to me, i will still want to be around humanities majors or ppl with those interests (the idea of picking up a philosophy minor, although super impractical, seems really cool to me)… i’m still considering a physics major → academia path even though i’m not sure that’s the most practical… and i’m lgbt which may make some campuses a little more difficult to make friends at. i am also middle class so my reaches may not be as financially feasible as well.
thank you so much for all your help and time! :o)

1 Like
2

Great job on getting started with your college search!

You have a great in-state flagship with UIUC, and lots of really good engineering colleges. Almost universally, however, they are all extremely competitive for admission. There are far more qualified applicants than there are spots, and so odds are really difficult to get in. Virginia Tech is in no way a safety…lots of very high stat individuals were waitlisted or denied. Some of the most popular colleges have had to become much more selective the last two years. My guess is that UIUC and Rose-Hulman are your two likeliest choices from your list, but Rose-Hulman definitely is more of a specialty school than an all-rounder with a lot of liberal arts majors on campus.

What is the budget? Has you family used an NFC calculator at one of the university’s sites to see what the university expects your family to contribute? If that number is a cost that your family is willing and able to afford, let us know, as that will keep a lot of “meets need” schools in the game, as many (most?) of them do not offer merit aid. If that number does not work for your family, however, you’re looking for merit aid to meet your family’s budget.

ETA: Are there certain areas of the country where you would like to live after graduation? Even with the highest-ranked schools, their strength is job placements is usually in a closer geographic proximity.

Also, were you interested in continuing any of your extracurriculars in college (or pursuing new ones)? Of course, you may not have much time as an engineering major, but…

Also, note that ABET-accredited programs have extensive coursework requirements (and if you want to be an engineer, you definitely want an ABET-accredited program). That means that there might be little opportunity for minors, but it also will depend on your AP scores and whether the university will use that just for placement purposes, or if it will let you use the scores to replace distribution requirements.

3 Likes
3

By the way, this is how I would categorize your current list based on my very fallible sense of what might be your chances of acceptance. Others may disagree and I welcome them to express their thoughts so that you have a wealth of perspectives. Also, note that Rensselaer is like Rose-Hulman insofar as they don’t even offer majors in English or history or most liberal arts fields, so you’re not going to be seeing those students on your campus.

Do you have any sense of whether you’d prefer a larger or smaller college experience? Or urban, suburban, or rural? You have all of the above, currently. :blush:

Guaranteed

Extremely Likely (90+%)

Likely (60-90%)

  • UIUC
  • Purdue
  • Rose-Hulman

Toss-Up (40-60%)

  • Rensselaer
  • U. of Washington

Possible (15-40%)…both of these I’d guess are in the less likelier part of the range of possible

  • U. of Michigan
  • Boston University
  • Virginia Tech

Less Likely (15% or less)

  • MIT
  • Princeton
  • Cornell
  • Columbia
  • Wash U.
  • Carnegie Mellon
1 Like
4

Acceptance rates for women are particularly high at RPI and Rose-Hulman, and they’re great schools. But with the very unbalanced gender ratio, the dating pool for women-seeking-women could be uncomfortably small, if that’s an important factor for you. Plus, there won’t be a lot of being-around-humanities-majors.

If you like BU, are you also considering Northeastern and Tufts?

Consider Pitt, CWRU, and URochester.

Pitt isn’t necessarily a safety numbers-wise, but it’s rolling, so if you apply right when the app opens, you could get a very early acceptance, and at that point it becomes the best kind of safety! If you like the area around CMU, it’s right there, and the engineering programs are excellent. It’s not super-inexpensive OOS, but not terrible, and merit is possible.

URochester’s curriculum is especially good for students like you who have secondary concentrations in mind… and it definitely has the winter weather you like!

You might think about Smith. Their engineering major is a general engineering degree, but it’s ABET accredited, includes EE content, and can be tailored to emphasize that direction. Plus, you can cross-register at UMass Amherst, so that opens up more coursework possibilities. Terrific place to be around humanities majors and as LGBTQ+ friendly as any school in existence… and you’d like the weather as well. Plus, merit $ is possible. (UMass Amherst itself could also be worth considering.)

4 Likes
5

thank you for your help! i’ll reorder my admit-likeliness list. in college, i think i’m going to focus solely on my classes w/o ecs. i have not discovered my budget yet, and i’m hoping to stay in the us.

6

thank you! i’d mostly like to avoid rural campuses if possible. thanks again.

7

Thank you so much or all of your help!! I’m considering Northeastern and Tufts as well. I’ll look into those schools, thanks again!

1 Like
8

Ok, so U.S. and you’re equally open to living in the northwest, midwest, northeast, etc after graduation and have no personal preferences. Correct?

The sooner we get a budget number (even a rough estimate), the sooner we can give you a more customized list of schools that might interest you.

9

This list is categorized based on my very fallible sense of what might be your chances of acceptance. All the colleges here are rated either 4.5 or 5* on the Campus Pride index. Where possible I tried to list the approximate number of undergrads (from College Board), but if it wasn’t listed I used the total number of students from Campus Pride. The schools listed below are all ABET accredited for electrical engineering. There are more options, but I thought I’d start with this to get a better sense of budget, size preferences, and other factors that you may find become important as the search goes on. In case it’s not obvious, I focused on likelier options since you seem to have several options already in the most selective categories.

Guaranteed

Extremely Likely (90+%)

  • U. of Vermont, 5* on Campus Pride, about 10k undergrads
  • Hofstra (NY), 5* on Campus Pride, about 9-10k students
  • Kansas State, 5* on Campus Pride, about 16k undergrads
  • U. of New Hampshire, 4.5* on Campus Pride, about 11k undergrads
  • Northern Illinois, 5* on Campus Pride, about 12k undergrads
  • U. of Louisville, 5* on Campus Pride, about 14k undergrads

Likely (60-90%)

  • Rutgers – New Brunswick (NJ), 5* on Campus Pride, about 35k undergrads
  • U. of Massachusetts – Amherst, 5* on Campus Pride, about 28k students
  • U. of Colorado – Boulder, 5* on Campus Pride, about 30k undergrads
  • SUNY New Paltz (NY), 4.5* on Campus Pride about 7k students
  • U. of Pittsburgh, 5* on Campus Pride, about 25k students

Toss-Up (40-60%)

  • Union (NY), 4.5* on Campus Pride, about 2k students
  • U. of Maryland, 5* on Campus Pride, about 30k undergrads
  • U. of Wisconsin – Madison, 4.5* on Campus Pride, about 43k students
  • Ohio State, 5* on Campus Pride, abut 46k undergrads

Possible (15-40%)

  • Lehigh (PA ), 5* on Campus Pride
  • U. of Rochester (NY), 4.5* on Campus Pride
  • U. of Virginia, 4.5* on Campus Pride, about 17k undergrads
  • Case Western Reserve (OH), 4.5* on Campus Pride, about 5k undergrads

Less Likely (15% or less)

  • Tufts (MA), 5* on Campus Pride, about 6k undergrads
3 Likes
10

If you’re considering U Rochester, go down the road a little bit (by car, but not far) and check out RIT. It might be the hands on type you’re looking for with EE. Both schools are good.

Drexel comes to mind too in PA. Both RIT and Drexel have co-ops as part of their programs. See if that appeals.

1 Like
11

Here is the list of all ABET accredited EE programs if you haven’t found it already: https://amspub.abet.org/aps/category-search?disciplines=24&degreeLevels=B

Also the list of Midwest Student Exchange program participating schools if discounted tuition is a factor. Institutions | Midwest Student Exchange Program

2 Likes
12

Georgia Tech?

2 Likes
13

You have a lot going for you. Kudos! A couple thoughts…

Add Carnegie Mellon to your list. They are #8 in EE and they are also strong in data analytics (I only mention that because of your data analytics internship). Of course, they are tops in CompSci (again, I mention this because of your IBM computing course). CMU has a policy of having gender parity in all STEM majors, which greatly benefits female applicants. Because of this, you may be admitted by CMU when you are rejected by lower ranked programs that do not have a similar policy.

Take practice tests and get coaching to get a strong SAT, especially the math component. CMU’s midrange for engineering acceptances is 780-800. CMU is a little crazy with their high SATs (their midrange for humanities students is 760-780, and CompSci is 800-800), but strong engineering programs want to see a high math SAT.

I think Purdue and Rose-Hulman are more targets than reaches for you, assuming you have strong SATs. My son was admitted to both for MechE with 770M/750E, 3.9UW and STEM APs and electives. Like you, he did Robotics and SO. Note that they are very different schools in size and culture. RHIT only has 2,200 students and Purdue has 35,000. Rose focuses almost exclusively on teaching undergrads, and the professors self select for teaching over research.
You may also want to look into RHIT’s Catapult summer STEM program, the application deadline may have passed. RHIT does not lock you into a major until late sophomore year, so you can apply as a EE, but change your major. They offered our son merit aid equal to 50% of tuition. In contrast, Purdue makes you apply to general engineering, then apply for your desired major, which, depending your grades and availability of slots, you may not get.

For safeties you may want to add Case Western Reserve. Not as highly ranked as some others, but nice campus, great culture, and there are options to take humanities classes. Like Rose, CWRU does not require you lock into a major until sophomore year, and they encourage double majors and minors. When we toured, our guide was a MechE major with Econ minor. If you like building things, they have the nation’s largest build space in the Sears ThinkBox. They are also generous with merit aid.

I would not worry about any of the schools mentioned here being LGBT friendly. I think with a very small number of exceptions, campuses are pretty open.

You have a lot going for you. Good luck!

1 Like
14

Are you in IL?

15

@JackH2021 @AustenNut @Creekland thank you so much for your help!

1 Like
16

Since you’re still considering a physics major, you may also want to check out the Engineering Physics major at CWRU. Within that major, which is ABET accredited in its own right, students choose an engineering discipline of emphasis. So, if you wanted to study both physics and EE, the EE track within the Engineering Physics major might be appealing. Engineering Physics, BSE < Case Western Reserve University CWRU has an open door policy with regard to majors, so it would be relatively easy to shift in either direction from Engineering Physics, either toward straight EE or toward straight Physics; and staying in the Engineering Physics major could leave both options open for grad school as well. Because CWRU was formed through the merger of a STEM school and a liberal arts school, the humanities opportunities are excellent also. The Philosophy department offers two different minors - Philosophy, and Ethics - plus an additional minor offered jointly with the History department, in the History and Philosophy of Science. FWIW, there’s an active Model UN program too. Home - Model United Nations | Case Western Reserve University

3 Likes
17

One more you may want to consider… Ohio State. Pardon me, THE Ohio State University. They are ranked #16 in EE, and #27 for engineering overall, and they give generously to lure students with strong academics.

18

Depending on the campus, the LGBTQ community is celebrated, accepted, tolerated, or sometimes not even that. Individuals who are members of groups that have historically been marginalized and discriminated against deserve to go to a school where they feel safe and can thrive, being their fully authentic selves. Lafayette, Bucknell, and Cooper Union are fine universities with strong engineering programs. They also are rated 3 out of 5 stars by Pride Index. That would give me pause in recommending such a school to an LGBTQ student. Although we’re in the 21st century, the environment at campuses doesn’t necessarily feel that way for all of its students, and thus think it’s reasonable to have it be one of the criteria under consideration.

Didn’t know that such a program existed; thanks so much for sharing it! K-State is in it and when I input OP’s stats it appears as though OP would get 150% of in-state tuition plus an extra $3k/year off, and would be eligible for additional scholarships. U. of Nebraska (4* for the Lincoln campus) would also be eligible.

2 Likes
19

Austen, I had never heard of the Pride Index before your post, so I went to their website, campusprideindex.org. While they mention the various categories on which they score schools (policy inclusion, academic life, student life, etc.), they do not provide detail on the scoring process. Maybe I missed it. Because of this, I don’t know if a 3/5 means that LGBTQ students are getting assaulted on campus, or if the LGBTQ Studies Department is too small.

If you have some insight on this, I’m curious. Rather than hijack this thread, feel free to message me.

1 Like
20

Strongly disagree re lgbtq point - as we are visiting with my kid, I think there are big differences between “tolerance” - yes hopefully you find that most places - and actual vibrant community presence. And consider the town and surroundings- you won’t be on campus all the time. Will you be happy and confident walking holding hands with your gf through town? Going to a bar? Colleges are often blue dots but some of the surrounding areas are unwelcoming or worse. I would reject many of the schools proposed by posters on this basis. On the other hand your original list is good - but watch our for those gender ratios, even if the area is good, how many dating prospects will you have at RPI for example? On a practical point, I would add CU Boulder for sure.

1 Like