<p>@kei04086 All of them are excellent at chemical engineering but think of them like ice cream- they’re all really good flavors that run out quickly but they’re all different too.</p>
<p>Going through that list, here’s what I see:</p>
<p>Schools that immediately stand out as strong chemical engineering programs:</p>
<p>MIT, UC-Berkeley, Stanford, Caltech, Princeton</p>
<p>For those, I think the majority of your work would be browsing sites like Quora (and taking a virtual/real campus tour and e-mailing professors) to get a feel for how the program differs from others at the same level. Some of them will be really, really solid but just not fit in with your interests or have the sort of culture you seek in a college and you might want to reconsider them. That said, I think these five should remain on your list unless something serious comes up. I’d also consider Georgia Tech, UT-Austin, and Minnesota-Twin Cities as they’re around the same level. I don’t know how they’d work out financially, as Georgia Tech does appear to have a limited budget (based at least on how it pays its professors).</p>
<p>The other UC’s: UCLA is a solid alternative to Berkeley, and I’m not familiar enough with the UC system (Texas resident) to comment on the other two- but I don’t think having multiple UC’s would hurt since the UC app covers most of it.</p>
<p>The others bring up questions, though:</p>
<p>Harvard- they’re not the most solid engineering department in the Ivies, but they’re research-heavy (have a really good number of graduates becoming professors and at least getting PhDs compared to other schools)</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd- did you pick them as an “engineering school” or specifically as a “chemical engineering school”? Just curious because it appears that not all of their departments within engineering are equally competitive. I guess the Claremont experience is nice- how attractive of a factor is that for you? You seem pretty well-rounded so I guess you might want something like that.</p>
<p>WashU in Saint Louis- another good school but I’m not sure where it stands out in chemical engineering</p>
<p>Cornell- the Ivies’ other engineering powerhouse? Again totally unsure about their status as a chemical engineering program.</p>
<p>Columbia- another Ivy that seems to have some sort of engineering reputation, although I have yet to see them on the Top 20 for ChemE. Also confused about what drew you to Columbia.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon- this one’s a peculiar case; CMU is incredibly interdisciplinary but their programs also favor computational fields- for example, biology isn’t that good but computational biology is solid; Tepper is solid but computational finance is where it becomes ridiculously good; and SCS obviously is the big stand-out at CMU. How interested are you in the more computational aspects of your field? CMU functions kind of like a giant think tank, bouncing ideas around, and if you’re into that + computers and chemical engineering, it’ll be a blast for you. If not, the chemical engineering department is Top 20 but there’s some Top 10’s that you’ll probably easily get into (Georgia Tech, UT-Austin, Twin Cities)</p>
<p>Rice- their engineering department is solid when it comes to BME and really pushes research (I contacted one professor about neuroscience + got responses from the entire department in less than 24 hours- instead of industry, most people are pushed toward working in a graduate lab over the summer). Not sure about Chem.E rep though, but they’re undergrad-focused and promote innovation through the Engineering Design Kitchen.</p>
<p>University of Rochester- totally unsure about this one, too; seems like another safety but I’m not familiar with it either.</p>
<p>Overall, I think that Harvard/Princeton/Columbia/Cornell (4/8 Ivies) is a bit confusing because they’re completely different Chem.E departments/environments and I’d encourage you to look into them more to narrow that part down. I think, between Princeton, Stanford, MIT, and Caltech, that you’ve got enough “reach”-level schools. Add Berkeley- and possibly Georgia Tech and UT-Austin- and you’ve eliminated the need for most of the other schools. With the UC safeties in there, you’re pretty much solid- and that’s a list of just 10 (+ 2 through the ELC program).</p>
<p>It all comes down to what you’re looking for, though- some of the programs I skimmed over might just be what you’re looking for, but I think with your credentials that you don’t need a lot of match schools. I mean, getting a 36 itself isn’t ridiculously tough- but getting a 36 while doing all those EC’s and having limited financial resources? That’s impressive and definitely going to wow some adcoms.</p>