Schools for me

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Okay, let's begin. </p>

<p>Basically, I want to go into something. I'm not sure yet. Lets consider the following:
Any kind of engineering, Physics, and Math. If the school you're recommending is only good in, say, civil engineering say "Civil Engineering University for Civil Engineering. It's pretty horrible at everything else"</p>

<p>The stats are these:
I hail from Washington. Indian Male. Almost six foot. Almost.
GPA: 3.4 (as of end of junior year)
SAT: 2020 (this may look good, but its cause of the 770 in math)
AP Classes: Chemistry (4), Environmental Science (5), Physics, US History, English Language, European History, Calculus AB
also took tests for: World History (4), Biology
Honors classes: science in 9th, english in 9th/10th, history in 9th/10th.
Extracurriculars: robotics (third place in vrc world), city youth board, library advisory board, volunteer at the hospital irregularly, math club, track and tennis (irregularly), some other non-notable stuff. </p>

<p>The kind of school I would like is
- any size. it can be big. or it can be small.
- could allow me to double major (not a deal breaker)
- is fairly prestigious in grad school and other admissions
- don't much care about the "atmosphere", but would like to have some other nerdy people there
- i want to go to the best school possible</p>

<p>I've been looking up random stuff. Ideas currently include applying to UW, and going there if I get in. </p>

<p>Looking for reaches, matches, and safeties. </p>

<p>Nothing super-reachy. I'm not going to get into MIT, I know that. I think CMU and Georgia Tech might qualify as good reaches. Maybe those are impossible with a 3.4 too. </p>

<p>So, that's that. </p>

<p>Also, what all do I need to do? I should probably be taking as many SAT IIs as I can on October 10 (I haven't done that yet). </p>

<p>Would it be a bad idea to take Math and Science at the local community college senior year? Would anybody other than UW accept those credits?</p>

2

<p>That 3.4 is unweighted. Washington doesn’t really weight GPAs</p>

3

<p>I have heard that the best school for civil engineering in the country is the University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign and Illinois is great for many subjects. Other great civil engineering schools that you may be able to get into:</p>

<p>University of Texas - Austin
Georgia Institute Of Technology
Purdue University - West Lafayette
Texas A&M University - College Station
Rose-Hulman Institute Of Technology
Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo
Bucknell University
Manhattan College (safety)</p>

<p>I would rather go to one of the above schools rather than CMU for civil engineering
Also, many of the schools above are public schools which are still relatively cheap for out of state students. If you get into the above schools rather than Washington then I would look to see if you get any scholarships to help you out since I think the above schools are really good for CE</p>

4

<p>For engineering, I’d add Virginia Tech to the list - I’d have to call that slight reach, but a manageable one.</p>

<p>SAT-II’s - you should make a list of the schools you’re applying to see how they view SAT-II’s - some require ‘3’, for example, some will use them for admissions decisions if submitted, some won’t use them at all. So, you have to make sure you have all the required tests, and then balance the time you’d spend on SAT-II prep vs. regular classes, SAT’s or extracurriculars. As for the SAT, while the 770 SAT-M is great, I’d try to get the rest of the score up for a more balanced application. </p>

<p>Personally, I’d look to improve your admissions chances vs. worrying about getting credits after you’ve been admitted - AP courses / exams can get you a fair amount of credit, if they’re offered by your HS. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

5

<p>If you can’t get some sort of weighting on that GPA VT is going to be a reach, but weighted like most places do I think VT is a match.</p>

6

<p>CMU and GT are both pretty big reaches - you are about the 25% level for GPA and, while your math is competitive, your CR and W would be in the 25-50% range. I would add RPI and Case Western to your consideration list.</p>

7

<p>So, there’s a lot of information here and a lot of good schools. Compiling a list based on what is here and lists of good engineering schools, I get this. It may be incomplete, so give me suggestions. I know nothing about a lot of these schools. If you think something is impossible to get into, tell me. I will remove it. </p>

<p>This is a list of about fifty schools. I want to narrow that down a lot.
If you could help by telling me which ones are “reach”, “match”, and “safety” that would help. Based on the replies, some of that is done. I might be misinterpreting the replies </p>

<p>My superintendent has told me that although GPA in our school is unweighted, it doesn’t really matter. GPA and class rank are recalculated by nearly every school. </p>

<p>Boston University
Bucknell
Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo
Carnegie Mellon - reach
Case Western Reserve - match
Clarkson
Colorado School of Mines
College of New Jersey
Cooper Union
Duke
George Washington
Georgia Institute of Technology - reach
Harvey Mudd
Johns Hopkins
Kettering
Lehigh
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Olin
Pennsylvania State
Purdue
Renessaler - match
Rice
Rose-Hulman - match
Rutgers
Stevens Institute of Technology
SUNY - Binghamton
SUNY - Buffalo
Texas A&M - match (?)
Trinity (Conneticut)
Tufts
Tulane
Union
U of Colorado
U of Florida
U of Illinois U-C
U of Maryland
U of Michigan
U of Minnesota
U of Missouri-Rolla
U of Notre Dame
U of Rochester
U of Southern California
U of Texas-Austin
U of Virginia
U of Washington
Vanderbilt
Villinova
Virginia Tech - Reach
Worchester</p>

8

<p>bump bump bump</p>

9

<p>Did you look at the SATs and GPAs for the accepted students at these places yet? Keep in mind that these numbers might change for the incoming class this fall.
You may find that Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, UIUC, Michigan, UVA, Villanova, Bucknell, USC, UT, and some others might be reaches that could be out of range for you. </p>

<p>Good luck!!</p>

10

<p>GA Tech if you can get in.</p>

11

<p>“GPA and class rank are recalculated by nearly every school.”</p>

<p>I’ve seen statements like this before. I understand how GPA can be recalculated, but class rank? How would an admissions office do this without seeing the transcripts for the entire graduating class?</p>

12

<p>

</p>

<p>CMU is a top 10 school though for environmental engineering, which is normally an option within civil engineering.</p>

13

<p>That’s a pretty unmanageable list, and I’d suggest finding SOME consideration(s) to narrow it down. Areas to look at could include geographic location, school size, urban/suburban/rural, male/female ratio - whatever works for you. Might even pick a selection which includes a bunch of different characteristics. </p>

<p>You should also have at least one safety on your list - a school you’re almost assured of getting into which 1) you can afford, and 2) you’d be happy going to. Believe it or not, there are LOTS of schools that would work for you, and most students end up somewhere they’re happy to attend, even if it wasn’t their first choice. I’d put as much (or more) effort into this choice as any other.</p>

<p>Here might be a list of good engineering schools for you to consider (don’t consider ANYONE’S take on reach/match/safety as gospel):</p>

<p>Reach
Bucknell
Carnegie Mellon
Ga Tech
Lehigh
UIUC
USC</p>

<p>Match
Bradley
Case Western
Colorado School of Mines
Illinois Institute of Technology
Missouri U of S&T
Rose Hulman
UWash
Va Tech</p>

<p>Safety
Alabama - Huntsville
Arizona State
Clarkson
U of Evansville
Wisconsin - Platteville</p>

14

<p>are safeties really necessary? </p>

<p>I’ll apply to case early action (and other early action schools if they end up on my list), and apply to the ones with rolling admissions asap. Thus, I would probably receive acceptance/denial from Case by mid-december. The rolling applications might come (probably not). I might also apply ED to CMU / Rice / JHU / a different school </p>

<p>So, if I get accepted to even one of those by late december, I’m not going to have any safeties. Is this a bad idea?</p>

15

<p>Trust me, safeties are necessary. It’s a crazy world out there, especially with “recession admission” policies.</p>

<p>Also, Kettering and Rose-Hulman are everything you want and more, so look at them first. Also, Purdue (yuck), many of the UC’s, ASU, and Michigan Tech may also be good.</p>

16

<p>Getting an admissions decision early is only half the battle. There’s also the financial aspect. Even if you can afford to pay full freight, you may have to make a value judgement as to the perceived increase in quality vs. the increase in cost. Would it be worth, say, an extra 20K a year for a school which you have a slight preference for over another school? Some would say yes, others no. If there was a large preference? More would say yes, but some still no.</p>

<p>Make sure you have an understanding with whomever is paying the freight as to what they are willing to shell out for. I made the mistake of telling DS that we’d look at finances only after we saw what sort of FA was offered. Unfortunately, he grew very interested in one school which we ultimately couldn’t afford.</p>

<p>Again, safeties are schools you’re confident you’ll be admitted to, would be happy to attend, and that you can afford - have to have all three aspects.</p>

17

<p>When reading through your original post I was thinking Case Western (which I now see you already have thought about), if that matters.</p>

18

<p>A slew of science/engineering oriented students at D’s prep school are applying to 15+ schools this year and next year will be higher. The competitive environent is just crazy at the moment - apply to plenty of safety and matches and, what the heck, a bunch of reaches as well.</p>