<p>I'm a sophomore in high school and in looking at colleges, RIT really stuck out to me. I didn't really know a lot about it, and I still have a lot to learn, but everything I have seen about it seems very appealing to me. The same goes for Carnegie Mellon. I'd say that they're my top two at this point. The biggest plus that I see in both of them is all of the diverse options with majors/minors. I am unsure of my intended major at this point, and I know I still have time, but they both seem to have everything I am interested. This is engineering, math/statistics, criminal justice, computer science and music. I know that it's impossible to pursue all of these things, but both of these schools seem to give great options for all of these. </p>
<p>I have a 4.7 weighted GPA and 3.9 weighted. My extracurriculars are pretty strong and I intend to have completed about 10-12 AP classes by the time I graduate. My school doesn't have class rank, but I'm definitely in the top 10%. I haven't taken the SAT yet, but my PSAT score (as a sophomore) was 200, but I know I can do better than that.</p>
<p>Now to the point...
From your experience, how would you rank RIT vs. Carnegie Mellon?
Any advice for me?
Any other similar colleges for me to look at?</p>
<p>CMU is a much better school than RIT, and Pitt is a much nicer city than Rochester. RIT would be a safety for you academically. CMU is more like a match if you can pull the SAT upto a 2200. </p>
<p>What to do now? Enjoy high school. Take courses you want to take. Explore possibilities. Build relationships with teachers, counselors, administrators, adults in your community. Date. Go to sporting events and cheer til you’re hoarse. Hug life.</p>
<p>Single most important factor in YOUR app success will be the SAT score; for your schools right now the math score should be above 700. You haven’t mentioned ECs but get into leadership positions/do leadership work on any ECs you have. If you can win any academic awards, olympiads, Latins, do so. This will help with other schools, too. Volunteer/intern in fields in which you have some interest or that you want to explore.</p>
<p>Your mind will change some over the next year and a half. That’s good. Keep it open. Come back and see us in a year.</p>
<p>Yes CMU is ranked much higher than RIT in many areas. For CMU you can apply to several departments and each has a different acceptance rate. You would be a match for engineering (30% acceptance rate) but a reach for computer science ( 12% acceptance rate). CMU has a policy of counting your interest in CMU so plan on visiting or at least going to a local information session that they hold around the country. But also note that CMU is known to be stingy with merit aid but if you try for early decision they claim to meet all financial need ( well at least what they think you need). Run their financial calculator on the CMU website to see what type of aid you might get - no sense applying to a college you can’t afford.
If you are applying for either Computer Science or Engineering I could give you more specifics on schools. My senior son just finished applying to 14 colleges and I have a sophomore son who will be looking too. I plan on taking him to one or two colleges this summer to start the process.</p>
<p>First of all as a sophomore, it is too early to target the exact schools you want. For those two schools in particular, CMU is not only higher ranked, but it is more well rounded (ex. great music department) while RIT is more of a technical/STEM oriented school. Offhand, you might also look into Johns Hopkins, Cornell and URochester as well rounded schools that are particularly good in the engineering/sciences. You will have many great choices if you keep doing well in HS. If you want to look for more options, maybe get a college guide book (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review, Insiders Guide) and look around. Think about if you want a big/medium/small school, where you want to be geographically (location as well as urban/suburban/rural) as well as what your family can afford.</p>
<p>Also check out Case Western Reserve University.</p>
<p>At this point don’t worry about which is better. Work on figuring out what you would possibly like to major in, in general, which you have started. Figure out what part of the country you would like to live in. DO you like urban, suburban, rural? Do you care about School Spirit/Football? Does a large or small school appeal to you? Do you have a budget from your parents to work with? Then start making a list of possibilities. All the ones you have talked about are good for that list. Once you get accepted you can worry about which one to choose.</p>