I’m a junior looking to study mechanical engineering in college. I’m trying to build my college list, and I figured who better to ask than the people of college confidential? I’m looking to find some match/safety schools that fit my interests. Thanks!
Me:
-Male, age 17
-Junior
-GPA: 4.609/5.300
-Class Rank: 30/310 (barely top 10%)
-ACT: 32, hoping to retake
-SAT IIs: Math I: 700, Chemistry: 730
-APs by Graduation: Chemistry, Calculus AB, Statistics, Physics C
-ECs :
-Class Secretary (F,Soph,J,S)
Student Council (F,Soph,J,S)
Prom Committee (2 year)
-Peer Leader (J,S) - competitive freshman mentorship program
-NHS (J,S)
-Relay for Life Committee (Soph, J, S)
-Tennis (F, Soph, J, S)
Track (J, S)
-Lacrosse (F, Soph)
-Mountain Bike Club - Founding Member (Soph, J, S)
-Hobbies - spend a lot of spare time rebuilding broken motor bikes and reselling them
-Recs: Strong - currently from math/chemistry teachers, debating switching one to English teacher. Very strong extra rec from student council advisor
-Fortunate that financials are not a factor in college choice
School:
-Must have engineering department
-Rural or suburban (not in the middle of a city)
-Small to medium (under 10,000, preferably under 8,000)
-Schools I liked the feel of (if grades/scores/major didn’t matter): Princeton, Dartmouth
-Schools I’m considering: Lehigh, RPI, Carnegie Mellon
Any suggestions you have would be great. I’m just getting started in the college search process and am interested in getting many perspective!
Your stats look good, but here are my few thoughts:
Positives: GPA, EC’s (unique and interesting) Leadership.
Negatives: Test Scores, and rigor if the curriculum.
Dartmouth engineering is not highly ranked and it is kind of isolated from the rest of the university in many ways.If you go for a revisit tour the entire university not just the school of engineering. It may take up to 5 years to complete.
you could add University of Rochester, Northeastern ( you are a great candidate for honors college) Cornell, WPI( safety) If you are open to geographic diversity, then Georgia Tech, UCB, Harvey Mudd, Rose-Hulman Purdue and UMich.
Try to improve your test scores and retake SAT2 Math if you can
Good Luck
Plan on visiting RIT and University of Rochester back to back - this will help you decide if you want a purerr engineering slanted place (RIT) or a place with more variety and a strong engineering program (Rochester)
One thing about “technical” schools such as WPI, RIT, or Michigan Tech and others is the male:female ratio, which can be a little lopsided (often about 2:1 male:female). This may or may not be a consideration for you, and may or may not be ameliorated by the proximity of other colleges/universities.
Clarkson (mentioned) has a really nice setting and would be worth researching. Though not a particularly selective school, their engineering programs are broad and popular.
WPI Is NOT a safety for most, not sure that is the case here, and it’s in an urban setting, not a fit.
RPI is in a pretty urban location, not really a great location based on your criteria.
Princeton and Dartmouth are good location wise, but need higher test scores to have a better chance. If you do get test scores up, also look at Cornell, great location for you and better ENG school. Very competitive though.
Look into Valparaiso. It meets your list of requirements Size, type of location, stats, engineering, etc. An hour from Purdue and Chicago (via public transportation).
I actually applied to all three of the schools that you are considering, and am attending RPI currently. For Carnegie Mellon, they have a very competitive engineering program, so I would suggest that you try to get a higher score on SAT II, although that score is probably ok for RPI and Lehigh. You have excellent ECs which is very good, but the only thing I may have to warn you against is Lehigh. I got waitlisted even though I had very high test scores and a lot of leadership positions/ECs (plus my dad is an alumnus), so I am not sure if they thought I was overqualified and was not going to attend if accepted or if the engineering dept. there is really competitive.
@Wisdom2share I’m sorry, but I would not put WPI as a safety by any means. I have multiple friends who were offered admission to GA Tech, MIT, and Purdue, but were denied to WPI.
Of course, I may have a slight bias towards WPI, as I am a student there myself, but the academics are tough. Its relatively high acceptance rate may be a cause of self-selecting, and not because it’s an easy school to get into, quite the contrary actually.
That being said, although the campus is made up of a student population of less than 6,000, the campus is in a city which may put off the OP. I will say that the campus doesn’t feel at all like it is in a city. Feel free to ask any questions that you may have @boygocollege
About 5,000 undergrads - a little bigger than Princeton, but most grad schools are remote, making it feel smaller
Suburban - Six miles from Boston, less than 2 miles from Cambridge. Half of the campus is in Somerville, which is quite densely populated, so it will probably tend toward a more urban feel than Princeton (I have not visited Princeton). Half the campus is in Medford which is more densely populated next to the campus, but contains 2,500 acre reservation two miles from Tufts. The Tufts Mountain Club maintains and provides transportation to a lodge in the White Mountains of New Hampshire (near Dartmouth) that any student can use.
Engineering School- Undergrad focused with a recent build-out of Phd programs. Tightly coupled to the School of Liberal arts with several interdisciplinary degree programs that span the two schools. Known for a net negative attrition rate (more students transfer in than out) and high four year graduation rate. The School of Liberal Arts tends to be more liberal and more artsy than Dartmouth or Princeton.
The Undergrad Engineering program is about twice the size of Dartmouth and about half the size of Princeton. Eight ABET accredited degree programs are offered (vs. one for Dartmouth and five for Princeton). The Engineering Phd program is about twice the size of Dartmouth and less than one quarter the size of Princeton.
Selectivity was around 15% two years ago (about the same as CMU) but dropped to around 11% this past year (CMU probably dropped as well, but I do not have the data).