Yes we are finding the need to apply to colleges within universities a little frustrating - it is what is is - but it adds another level of pressure. Re: Cornell - my child isn’t sure if their potential major will fall in arts & sciences or engineering - as in they just don’t know if they may switch majors since they haven’t even started senior year. They are trying to figure out how difficult it is to move schools within universities if (example may not be accurate) they start in chem but want to move to chem e for a major - at Cornell = dif colleges.
Rice
Washington University/St Louis
Bucknell
Lafayette
Tufts
Rochester
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Case Western Reserve U (as already suggested above) seems like it could fill a gap in this list. It’s less reachy than your reach list but still highly competitive. It’s in a northern city. And while it has separate schools for engineering vs. natural sciences, it has an “open door policy” that removes all arbitrary barriers to switching among majors.
Case has strong programs and great research opportunities, and also an impressive variety of programs. For example, you can parse the difference between majoring in biochemistry vs. chemical biology. (And of course there’s straight chem as well.) On the engineering side, there’s ChemE, Materials Science & Engineering, Polymer Science & Engineering, and also an Engineering Physics major, within which one chooses a concentration which can be any of those previous three. So, lots and lots of options and no imperative to commit ahead of time. Merit $ would be a possibility.
URochester could be another with great STEM and great flexibility, and merit potential.
UVM doesn’t have ChemE. If Vermont is your home state, then you’d be eligible for a reciprocity discount at other New England publics for this major. UMass Amherst could be worth considering, especially if they were offered Commonwealth Honors. https://www.nebhe.org/info/pdf/tuitionbreak/2021-22/BACHELOR’s_Programs-VT_Residents.pdf
I don’t think their reach schools are unrealistic, just so selective as to be unpredictable. Plus, it bears considering whether full pay at such schools is worth the price tag.
Another merit possibility would be Northeastern U, and they also have a blended degree program in ChemE+Biochemistry that might be of interest.
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Thanks so much for recommendations. We’ve looked at NE and thanks for info about umass and NE - didn’t know about the NE program. Liked northeastern a lot and forgot to mention we visited U Rochester - on paper sounds great, sadly campus was empty when there and not a great impression, but not the school’s fault.
Wanted to ask a question a little off topic. One school that bubbles to the top is u Chicago. My child really likes it, but the safety issues unsettle me. I’m used to cities but the safety issues there seem dif from Boston, nyc , providence. That impacts how we/child are prioritizing the college list. They could apply ED to u Chicago, but I’m flinching and that leaves them looking at EA for u Chicago, northwestern, mit, northeastern and a state school.
Any idea if going EA on these schools will weaken their app vs ED (mit doesn’t have ed) to the reach schools?
I think Yale & Princeton are such a reach using scea would not be productive for my child.
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Although some media like to beat the drum about crime in Chicago, note that it is far from the highest crime city. Other cities like Saint Louis (WUStL), Baltimore (JHU), and New Orleans (Tulane) have higher violent crime and non-negligent homicide rates. However, Chicago does have higher crime rates than Boston and New York (which is actually relatively low in crime compared to most other very large cities, in sharp contrast to its reputation from the crime wave era of the 1980s-1990s).
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Do you mean Northeast and Chicago parts of the US or the universities Northeastern and UChicago?
“They are trying to figure out how difficult it is to move schools within universities if (example may not be accurate) they start in chem but want to move to chem e for a major - at Cornell = dif colleges.”
At most places, it would be easier to move from School of Engineering to School of Arts and Science, so you may want to apply to Engineering though at a place like Cornell, it would be tougher to get into Engineering than A&S.
That’s a lot of colleges to apply ED or EA given the work that has to be done for each applicaton in a short timeframe. Northwestern only has ED anyway. It doesn’t look like your child has a clear, top choice, so I wouldn’t encourage ED. EA or SCEA to a private college and EA to a public college would probably be the best choice. If in the next couple of months, a college with ED (Cornell, Tufts say) becomes the top choice, then you can reconsider. Good luck!
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Agree absolutely with both points! The time figuring out which reach school to ED/EA/SCEA might be usefully put into delving more deeply into what the actual path is like in Chem vs Chem E as some of the preferred schools, and what the post-UG options are like for each path. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the thinking won’t evolve (it almost certainly will!), but it will start the building of a frame of reference. Anecdotally, we pegged one of the Collegekids for engineering by age 7, but they didn’t get there until grad school- via Materials Science, neatly in the middle of the Venn diagram of science & engineering!
Not for us, but for your student: what, exactly, do they really know & like about UChicago? UChicago’s marketing is legendary- but underneath the veneer it is still pretty much the school that it has always been- which is a strong ‘fit’ school. It either really suits a student- or it really doesn’t. If your student hasn’t spent a decent amount of time there I would worry more about how good the fit is much more than any safety issues
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[collegemom3717]
We haven’t made it to U Chicago yet - hopefully in the next few weeks, but on paper my child really feels a click there. The house system, the core, the ME program - all feels like a fit - but I do know we need to see the campus. I admit, for U of C I’m the gating issue - I need to feel that they are in a safe location (Chicago is not local to us). I feel that I may hamper their chances by having them apply EA vs ED. I have been to Chicago and loved it - but that was a different section of Chicago - Gold Coast and Magnificent Mile (I just haven’t had a reason to go near U of C area before).
Also, it feels so early for my child to even say this but they are already thinking they want to pursue grad school - yes the major is not clear, but they have done an internship at a pharmaceutical and see a masters or phd as a future path.
My goal is to find a university where they can look into chem e, bio chem, etc to figure out what clicks and get a great education in general (which is true at any of the places mentioned in this thread). I know ideally they will look at the paths of each major to help figure out a school to apply to, but I feel like until they take more classes, etc. they won’t really know a deeper level of detail.
If Engineering, and as far west as Chicago, my D’s list probably provides some matches/safeties - Purdue, Virginia Tech, Case, Lehigh, Ohio State, Penn State, Pitt.
Her HS friend also considered Delaware for ChemE, before they both ended up at Purdue. It has a strong program given the DuPont ties, but the relative weakness of other programs, if she changed her mind, kept her away.
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