<p>I felt that the quarter system at Northwestern could make life pretty unpleasant for engineers. It’s a great school though.</p>
<p>If you want to apply, you can, but I think your time would be better spent trying to narrow down your interests. You seem to be all over the map.
Why the surprise? Your counselor doesn’t have to ‘let’ you do anything.</p>
<p>NO. You don’t have any other Midwest schools on your list and Northwestern isn’t the best in this region for engineering. Many excellent public flagships worth considering if you choose this region. Stick with your already lengthy list of schools. You can’t cover all bases with your applications. Relax and tell yourself enough, done with the search.</p>
<p>Most entering freshmen will be undecided or change their major once they experience college classes. You may discover you do/don’t like engineering.</p>
<p>A good college campus will have enough going on that the city surrounding the campus is secondary. You don’t go to college expecting to have enough free time and desire to be taking advantage of city activities instead of campus ones most of the time. Northwestern is in Evanston, a north shore suburb of Chicago. Plenty of opportunities to visit Chicago without going to school near it.</p>
<p>Not sure why you were surprised that Georgetown asked you about religion as they are a Jesuit institution.</p>
<p>Wow . . . ya gotta wonder about a place where a 2290 SAT is considered “meh”</p>
<p>Last stats I saw (for year 2010) had 7660 kids in the world get a 2290 or better</p>
<p>OP, for applying to another school . . . apply if you want . . . but you haven’t articulated any reason to add another school except for your anxiety . . . that additional one school won’t solve that issue for you . . AND you’ve already listed prefernces for schools (close to home; weather, etc) that would exclude Northwestern.</p>
<p>Not to be too much of a shrink, but . … the issue here isn’t about applying to another school . . it’s about how to handle your anxiety about applying to college. And you ain’t gonna solve that by applying to more of them.</p>
<p>I’m going to echo someone else’s concern about whether engineering is a fit for you. Schools can usually see through someone who is applying as an engineer just to get an admissions boost. I know you’re not applying to Brown, but if you were the engineering faculty would look at your application and determine if your grades/scores/ECs/recommendations meant that you could handle engineering and stick with it. Other schools probably do the same thing.</p>
<p>Everyone is saying, oh, she’s a female engineer and that will improve her chances. But if admissions sees a humanities person trying to be an engineer, that boost will disappear.</p>
<p>When I look at your list, this is what I see: 6 high reaches, crapshoots for everyone. 5 reaches. 1 match. 2 safeties. If you are perfectly happy with your two safeties, then fine, you’re done. If you don’t “love your safety,” I strongly suggest finding another match school (which would NOT be Northwestern), or a safety you would be truly happy to attend. </p>
<p>I’ve been on CC long enough to know that every now and then, students with amazing stats lose the lottery and end up at the safety they hate. That’s what you are trying to avoid. I look at your list, and I worry that could be you.</p>
<p>However, you cannot blame your SAT scores for any denials. Your scores are very very good.</p>
<p>You should not apply to a college just because of a major or a school (e.g. college of engineering). It’s very likely you will change your mind so you want a school that’s strong all-around. I highly recommend Northwestern for that. However, DON’T apply to ANY college if you will not seriously consider attending it in the event that you do get in. </p>
<p>As you may realize by now, getting in is not a lock for any of those schools, including CMU and Northwestern. On many occasions, people will get into Dartmouth and Brown but not CMU. There are also plenty of cases of kids who get into MIT, Penn and Duke but not into schools ranked lower (the examples I know of are Columbia, Northwestern, and Georgetown).</p>
<p>If you’re not seriously considering attending a school, leave it to applicants for whom it is a first choice or a strong contender. Everybody is happier this way.</p>
<p>On the other hand, there are also plenty of people who add a college or two at the end after doing some research on them and finding out they are great fits. Many of them visit these schools and end up attending even after getting into schools on their original list. (This is very common for schools that have different vibes but are appealing in their own way, e.g. Columbia and Brown, UChicago and Northwestern, Amherst and Harvard, Duke and Penn).</p>
<p>FYI-Georgetown is a Jesuit college- that is why they asked your religion.</p>
<p>I know kids (white males) with much better SAT scores who did not get into the MIT, Tufts, or CMU.</p>
<p>It does not appear as if you have fully done your homework on the pros and cons of the schools on your list. Did you apply for their names, or would you truly enjoy attending any of the schools. Many offer little or no merit aid. As the Tufts adcom said during the info session “Everyone who gets in here deserves merit aid, so we tend to give it to a select few.”</p>
<p>Drexel is a great school, but you really need to enjoy living in the heart of a city, with little to no ‘real’ campus. My D was accepted and received significant merit scholarship, but she could not handle the campus. Although, many of your schools are urban schools, so I assume that is not an issue for you.</p>
<p>Why is everyone yelling at me?</p>
<p>I have done my research. When did I say anything about the cold? That’s fine. I’m not looking for merit aid - I don’t need it, I don’t necessarily want that. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression. Why do I start these threads on CC? I always get yelled at. I don’t think I even said anything controversial this time.</p>
<p>I did look for the pros and cons of these schools, and threw out many that didn’t fit. As someone mentioned, I’m applying to a lot of difficult schools, and wanted to give it a good try. I don’t mind having no campus- I love that. Also, frankly, my main concern is getting myself into a good college, not caring about everyone else. I’d love to, and would help, but just not right now. Also, on one hand people are telling me I have no chance of getting into these colleges, and on the other hand, that I should leave these colleges for less qualified applicants.</p>
<p>I know who got into MIT last year, and their grades, and who didn’t, and their scores. Like I said, I’ve done my research. </p>
<p>Also, why all the questioning about me wanting to be an engineer? Ok, maybe my app doesn’t seem to show it. Maybe, in whole, it does. But yes, I am definitely interested in the fields I have said I am interested in - engineering and business. </p>
<p>I am more confused than before.</p>
<p>waitingforivy, In May, when you have finally made your decision, you should look back at this thread and see what was going on. You started off asking if people would support you applying to 18 schools. Who does that? Only nervous, confused high school students who don’t know who they are yet. You have very strong stats and should be a contender for many schools on your list. I hope your essays talk about who you really are and what motivates you so the college admins can see how you would fit in at their college. Relax, trust you strengths, and all will shake out in time.</p>
<p>I just reread the entire thread to see where someone was “yelling” at you.</p>
<p>No one is.</p>
<p>You need to get a grip on your anxiety. You don’t need to apply to more schools. You probably ought to drop Georgetown, because it doesn’t even offer all of the majors you claim to be interested in. (I agreee that one should not apply to a school just for one major, since most people change their minds, but attending a school that doesn’t offer engineering at all when you think you might want to be an engineer makes no sense.) Other than that, you have a pretty good list, if a lengthy one. Particularly for someone who is not looking for FA. (If you decided to apply to NU instead of Gtown, that MIGHT make some sense…)</p>
<p>Ok, new idea. I haven’t applied to Georgetown yet. What about if I apply to Northwestern instead of Georgetown? Since I dropped BC, that would be a total of 16 colleges - a comparatively reasonable number, especially since I’ve already done 13.</p>
<p>Well, the thing is this - Engineers with business MBA’s and the such are a dime a dozen these days. If you know what you want to do engineering wise, and it fits a particular school’s strengths, go for it. Robotics? CMU or MIT… Computer Engineering? blah, blah. Civil? blah. Look at the faculties at each school and see what they’re doing research wise and see if you can see yourself doing this. </p>
<p>At the level of your grades and test scores you have lots of options and may have already developed a ‘feel’ for what type of engineering you want to get into; not the exact specialty nailed down but the building :-). So, go ahead and apply and see how your interests match those of the individual school offerings. As a minimum you should think about whether you like engineering or business more? </p>
<p>As for merit aid, trust me on this one, unless your parents won the Powerball within the last few years, nobody can part with $50k+ a year without serious heartache… </p>
<p>Finally, look at your ‘lifestyle’ preferences. If you like opera versus jazz versus pro sports… campus with nice dorm versus urban apartment versus… Options are good, so write down as many things that are important to you and as the acceptances come in, start thinking about how they match with what you want. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that it works out at the end. The world won’t end if you go to X vs Y, but the right prof / program may help you ‘find’ yourself faster.</p>
<p>@turbo93 - Thank you.</p>
<p>I want to be sure of going to a good college. The general consensus seems to be that that is not a reasonable certainty, given grades, scores, and schools chosen. So if I were your daughter, or your niece, or your granddaughter, or your student, please tell me what you would advise. </p>
<p>About the money issue: No one won the Powerball recently, and there won’t be many fancy vacations for the next couple years, but it’ll work out. I’m not eligible for financial aid and I don’t really want to go to schools where I can get merit aid, and my parents support that. I was just trying to get a selective school where I might get some geographical preference, without going to California, since the rest of my schools are pretty darn near my house.</p>
<p>Good College is often overrated for the wrong reasons. As I told my wife (Tigress Turbo for y’all) if it gets to the point that only people from the top 20/HYPS/whatever get decent jobs, then the 1% will have won, and at that point I’d rather worry about what the 99% will be doing to get back at the 1% than whether Cornell is ranked 1.23E-02 higher than Harvard in Angry Birds or some such. So, to me, personally, there’s three bands of colleges, the top 30-50 schools, the few hundred great schools (stage flagships, good privates, etc) and the rest (aka directional state U). I’ve attended all three levels. </p>
<p>Since you have great options, I would think hard about how the schools match your interests. You’ve earned this much. Here’s an example. My older daughter (just completed her 1st semester Architecture) had choices between a 5 year or a 4+2, and an arts-based school versus a smaller school versus a humongous flagship state. The 5 year is a killer - no electives :-)) and she wanted to ‘find’ other areas to take classes in. Plus, she wanted a big school in the South that has great sports :-). That nailed it down quickly. Then we look at how the studio culture plays out, student/prof ratio, use of TA’s, areas of interest, size of department, focus of program, and so on. Then, academic resources, scholarships, and the like. She got merit aid to drop OOS to IS, but the scholarship office pretty much owns them right now since they have all kinds of mandatory tutoring, study sessions, monthly meetings, and the like (which may sound horrible for more responsible kids but was perfect for my daughter :-))</p>
<p>Now, to the impact of faculty. The place I attended for grad school had numerous brand name profs. Like, people who are world class and whose name, when dropped at the right circles, counts more than one would think. Such brand names usually get lots of funding, have spots for research, had lots of industry contacts, and so on. The fact that it was ranked #2 in the USNWR at the time was not even known to us (we kind of figured it out when the volume of homework became ridiculous). </p>
<p>Finally, location. If your folks are OK with it I would think it’s a great idea to explore the boundaries a bit; there are some great schools in the south (GA Tech, Emory, Auburn…) and the Midwest, etc. If you’ve lived in the same place all your life, discovering something different is great. </p>
<p>So, you have a lot of hard thinking ahead of you.</p>
<p>If you really will seriously consider attending the school if accepted, yes why not apply if that will really put your mind at ease? I don’t blame you for being anxious over this process. I’m a Northwestern alum, but I would say the same if you had mentioned a different school instead.</p>
<p>Ok, someone is applying to 36 schools including ALL of the uber-competitive ones I’m applying to. I’m not crazy. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1252910-how-long-everyones-college-list.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1252910-how-long-everyones-college-list.html</a></p>
<p>My kids chose to apply to fewer schools, but put in a huge amount of effort writing tremendous essays for the schools they really wanted. S1 had ten on his list, S2 had eleven. They each dropped three and added one after excellent EA results, for a net of 7 and 8 apps submitted, respectively.</p>
<p>There is a limit to how much one can personalize eighteen college apps and still demonstrate that you’d be blissfully happy at any one of them. Presumably you have different versions of your essays for engineering vs. econ? Some schools want to know if you are a good fit for them, and that may have little to do with objective numbers.</p>
<p>Engineering schools and business schools generally want to see that Math Level II score, plus physics or chem. Some engineering programs will NOT accept a Bio SAT-II. Check your schools. I know someone (BME major) who found this out Oct. of senior year and had to scramble to take the Physics SAT with only one year of the two year SL Physics completed.</p>
<p>Are you taking Calc AB this year or did you take it last year? If the latter, are you taking BC this year?</p>
<p>Engineering is a very tough program, even for people who love it and want to be engineers. If you are not committed, you may find yourself pretty miserable. You would do better to consider schools that are good in both business and engineering in case you change your mind. Majoring in engineering is quite different from bio research, even if you go the BME route. You still have two years of core engineering to get through before you start getting to the interesting bio electives.</p>
<p>“I was just trying to get a selective school where I might get some geographical preference”</p>
<p>You’re not likely to get a “bump” at Northwestern for Geographical Preference if you’re from any urban or suburban area in the Northeast (OP states you’re in the Northeast.) Northwestern is a national university, and has large numbers of highly qualified applicants from the New England and Mid-Atlantic states. In their Common Data Set, Northwestern states that Geographic Residence is not considered in admission.</p>
<p>You may get some help if you’re from a rural area in the Northeast…but I’m guessing that’s not the case. </p>
<p>I’m not saying you wouldn’t be admitted…I’m just saying you don’t have a geographic advantage.</p>
<p>Do I really come across as that much of a humanities person?</p>
<p>You’ve got newspaper, lit magazine and model UN, and music. OTOH, there’s the research and math competitions. You clearly are well-balanced, which is good. A lot depends on what you’ve emphasized in your application and what your teachers say. Being a STEM major at many of these schools is very rigorous and requires a special commitment and aptitude. Without seeing your entire application, it’s hard to know how you come across.</p>