<p>Hello all - have been browsing this wonderful site for a bit and have decided its time to jump in with my own post and get some feedback from the helpful folks out there…</p>
<p>My son is interested in ‘engineering’ (computer engineering seems to be his focus of late when pressed for some direction) and is currently working with the following list of schools…</p>
<li>The College of New Jersey</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Drexel</li>
<li>Lafayette College</li>
<li>Lehigh University</li>
<li>Penn State (Univ. Park)</li>
<li>Rutgers (New Brunswick)</li>
<li>Stevens Institute of Technology</li>
<li>Univ. of Pennsylvania</li>
</ol>
<p>His SAT’s are Reading - 550, Math - 750, Writing - 540. SAT II’s so far are Math 2 - 640. He attends one of the specialized science public high schols in NYC and has a weighted average of 96 (the school doesn’t rank the class).</p>
<p>I consider Columbia and UPenn to be his ‘reach’ schools - not sure that any of the rest are really ‘safety’ schools.</p>
<p>He’d like to be within two hours of NYC (which I know would exclude Penn St. but that’s still on the list right now for other reasons).</p>
<p>Visits so far have been to TCNJ (he loved it - said he’d go there if accepted) and Drexel (liked it except for the dorms - thought they were sub-par).</p>
<p>Comments / feedback welcome - also suggestions on any possible additions…</p>
<p>
[quote]
...but they highly discriminate against out of staters...
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</p>
<p>Really...my impression was that in their recent direction to promote themselves as more that just another 'state school' they were actually encouraging out-of-state applicants...</p>
That was on the list - dropped for the moment because it seems to be too much of a commuter school - although still under consideration since not sure there are enough 'safety' school(s) on the list right now...</p>
<p>And why is he not looking at Cornell? I go to Midwood HS in Brooklyn.....many friends at BklynTech and Stuy :) Cornell Engineering is one of the best in the nation. Im doing early decision for Cornell, but Human Ecology. He should try Cornell. Even though its 5 hours from NYC, but its still in New York State.....give it a look. Is he sure he doesnt want schools just a little farther from 2 hours. Maybe Carnegie Mellon? Which Specialized school does he go to? Cus high caliber schools like to admit students especially from Stuy, BronxSci, and BklynTech.</p>
<p>Why not CMU, Cornell, Michigan, Northwestern, Purdue, UIUC and Wisconsin? Those schools are no more selective than say Columbia and Penn, but they have larger, more well rounded schools of Engineering.</p>
<p>
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Alan, just FYI, University Park is actually further away from NYC than Ithaca.
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Yes, I do know that...as I said in my original post, Penn St., while further than he's really interested in, hasn't yet dropped off the list for some other reasons...but I don't think he considers it one of his top choices...</p>
<p>Lehigh and Lafayette are both very good in engineering (probably better than Columbia and UPenn almost in some areas of engineering). Both student bodies tend to be preppy and the schools have a very active social scene. Lehigh has a good business school too. Union might be another addition-it has a decent engineering program. I'm not sure how close it is to NYC though. Penn State has a great engineering program if he can get accepted out of state and doesn't mind that it's in a very rural area. It seems a lot of companies recruit at Penn State b/c it's has a large, well respected engineering program.</p>
<p>Which high school? I wasn't aware that any NYC publics ranked grades. If it's Stuy/Tech/Science/Hunter consider an SAT prep class if it's not too late - at Stuy at least, a 96 average is REALLY impressive but those scores would be in the bottom quartile.</p>
<p>Still refining the list - last few days before all the paperwork is due at the High School - University of Pennsylvania has come off, the other eight remain, but now looking to add another "safety" - its at the moment between Widener and Rown - anybody have any comments on either? Thanks...</p>
<p>
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Alyn writes: but now looking to add another "safety" - its at the moment between Widener and Rown - anybody have any comments on either?
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IMHO you are not devoting enough attention to the safety. It needs to be a school your son would be happy to attend if nothing else comes thru. Every spring there are anguished posts saying "I only got into X, my safety, and I don't even want to go there!" The safety has to be a school you'd be HAPPY to attend if all else fails.</p>
<p>Put it to your son this way -- "suppose the day we are supposed to mail off the apps we throw them all away except for the safety. Would you still be happy with that school or do you wish you had put more time into investigating it and/or pick another school?"</p>
<p>You're not going to throw away the apps, of course, but if worst comes to worst and all the other schools say no the effect is the same. Something to think about ...</p>
<p>I am curious why there's such a strict requirement for distance; it just eliminates a lot of great schools out there. I came all the way from Hong Kong to attend a boarding school here. It's one of the best things I did in my life. :)</p>
<p>
[quote]
IMHO you are not devoting enough attention to the safety.
[/quote]
Didn't mean to give that impression - we have been doing a lot of research on appropriate "safety" choices - we believe we already have one good choice based on our son's academics (Rutgers) and have gone through a number of others trying to add another and have come down to trying to decide between Widener and Rowan. And perhaps we're misguided but given his record we're fairly comfortable that except for Columbia (definitely a "reach") he has a pretty good chance of acceptance at most of the schools he's chosen.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I am curious why there's such a strict requirement for distance
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It's been much discussed with our son and right or wrong this is his preference and we're doing our best to support his choice and work with him on it.</p>
<ol>
<li>The College of New Jersey - 50-50</li>
<li>Columbia - Big reach</li>
<li>Drexel -Match</li>
<li>Lafayette College - Match</li>
<li>Lehigh University Match-reach</li>
<li>Penn State (Univ. Park) - reach</li>
<li>Rutgers (New Brunswick) - Match</li>
<li>Stevens Institute of Technology -match</li>
<li>Univ. of Pennsylvania - Big Reach</li>
</ol>
<p>No locks here, but will get in some. Should take SAT again and raise the verbal.</p>