<p>I'm trying to narrow down the list of colleges that are on my application list. Of course, this is one of the most difficult parts of the process, and it is very stressful. But I don't want to talk details, I just want to talk about which schools are good for my prospective major. I would like to do something either in Mechanical engineering, Civil engineering, or physics. I think I would be happy with either of them. </p>
<p>Here are the schools I am looking at. I know for a fact that most of these are reaches for anyone, but I just want to know if they are good in the mentioned fields. </p>
<p>In no particular order:
SUNY Binghamton
SUNY Buffalo
SUNY Stonybrook
Caltech
Carnegie Mellon
University of Chicago
Columbia
Cooper Union
Cornell
Dartmouth
Harvey Mudd
Franklin Olin
Johns Hopkins
Lehigh
Macaulay Honors
Princeton
Northwestern
UPenn (I heard their engineering department isn't so good)
Rennsaeller
Swarthmore
Wesleyan
Worcester Polytech
Yale</p>
<p>Also, summer between Junior and Senior year, I find, is very stressful. That's when people begin to compare extracurricular activities ("ha, you only have 2 leadership positions, I have 7"; "You have a 2100, I have a 2280") and it really gets so stressful. I am beating myself down and I am feeling so negative. I need to do well on the test retakes, especially subject tests. I think I'll feel bad when I start getting the rejection letters, but right now, I'm having a difficult time believing that its just all so random, and nothing is guaranteed. </p>
<p>In any case, I do tend to like smaller schools, or smaller "colleges" within larger universities. For example, I'm currently doing an internship with Grad students at Columbia SEAS, and I like the size of the college. Not too big, and not too small.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Check [ABET</a> | Accrediting College Programs in Applied Science, Computing, Engineering and Technology](<a href=“http://www.abet.org%5DABET”>http://www.abet.org) for ABET accredited degree programs in the engineering majors you are interested in. ABET accreditation is very important if you want to seek Professional Engineer licensing, which is especially important in civil engineering.</p></li>
<li><p>If costs are a concern, check each school’s cost of attendance and reputation for need and merit financial aid (generosity varies greatly).</p></li>
<li><p>Make sure you have a safety or few that you are guaranteed to get in with your stats, and whose net cost after non-loan financial aid is definitely affordable.</p></li>
<li><p>Remove all schools from your list that (a) are unlikely to be affordable (i.e. expensive and not sufficiently generous with financial aid), and (b) you like less than your safeties.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hmm, some schools in the list that I provided don’t seem to have accreditation. </p>
<p>SUNY Binghamton (not for Civil)
Caltech (in Civil)
UChicago (doesn’t even have engineering, would do physics instead)
Harvey Mudd
UPenn (not for civil)
Stonybrook (not for civil)
Swarthmore + Weseleyan (do they even have any engineering?)
Yale (not for civil). </p>
<p>Thats very odd, that many of those schools don’t have accreditation for Civil, but many do have it for Mech-E. Harvey doesn’t seem to have accreditation for either Civil or MechE. This doesn’t really help narrow down the list. </p>
<p>I suppose finances would narrow it down. GA Tech just became an option, although I don’t tend to like public schools, or the south. </p>
<p>A few schools do have a general engineering science ABET-accredited major program that allows electives for specialization in civil, mechanical, electrical, etc… But you need to go to each such school’s web site to see if its general engineering science ABET-accredited major has the desired range of electives for civil and mechanical engineering and that it will be sufficient for the various exams and such leading to PE licensing.</p>
<p>They don’t seem to be accredited, but some schools (like mudd) do offer civil. </p>
<p>What is really sad is to see what schools I can’t afford. For example, GA Tech would be a decent school, but my parents can’t afford to pay more than about 8k a year, and GATECH offers terrible aid. All the state ones should be affordable, but of course, if I could go to a private school, I would.</p>
<p>Mudd has a general engineering curriculum with civil engineering electives. Technically, it is not listed as a civil engineering major, thus there is only a general engineering accreditation. The difference is minimal, if any, but that explains why ABET doesn’t list Mudd’s CE program.</p>
<p>Op - Is $8K/year what your parents think they can afford? Or is it the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) from online financial aid calculators? You’ll need to understand this to determine whether you are chasing Financial Aid (need-based) or merit scholarships. That answer will help you determine your list.</p>