<p>Let’s just say Standford, Caltech, Berkley are pretty much out of reach as of right now. The rest of the UCs are a bit on the “reach” side of things.
List of schools so far:
New Mexico Institute of Mining
Carnegie Mellon University<br>
New York Institute of Technology<br>
Polytechnic Institute of New York<br>
New Jersey Institute of Technology<br>
Kettering University<br>
Illinois Institute of Technology<br>
Cal Poly<br>
California State Polytechnic<br>
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology<br>
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute<br>
Worcester Polytechnic Institute<br>
Florida Institute of Technology<br>
Stevens Institute of Technology<br>
LeTourneau
</p>
<p>Now, most of those schools are not really good for the whole PHD/Professor/Research path. They are more oriented towards career. </p>
<p>I had the UCs, Purdue, U of Illinois in mind so far as research universities go so far. Perhaps Texas Tech. But those schools are so big. I was initially looking for schools with 7000 and under students, but those tend to lack in research.</p>