UVA or other for Engineering?

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>I guess I am your fairly typical Northern Virginia Junior girl (White, upper middle class family, competitive public high school etc.). My older sister is studying MechE at UVA and absolutely loves it. My plan has always been to follow in her footsteps and apply early decision. </p>

<p>This past fall I wrote the PSAT (73V, 73M, 71W) and the ACT (33 Comp). Over the last few weeks I have been receiving mail from schools that I never considered or where I feel I don't have a realistic chance of admission (MIT, CalTech, Cornell, Columbia. Duke, Brown, Swarthmore, Olin …). Of course the mailings don’t mean much and I have low expectations, but now I am starting to wonder if I should give some of these a shot. I don’t really have any preferences as to size, location, or such similar school features. I just want a good education that positions me for grad school – probably MBA. Given that I want to apply early (increased odds?) where should I apply? What can I do (EC or classes) to improve my chances?</p>

<p>INFO: GPA 3.9? (UW). All As except one B in middle school algebra. Junior year AP Calc BC, AP Comp Sci AB, AP Chem). Senior APs planned, Multi Calc, Physic C, Advanced programming. Lots of Ecs (Lacrosse, robotics, community service etc,) but no leadership or state-level awards - so not much to show in this area. Both parents are engineers, father went to MIT.</p>

2

<p>Hockeyfan, UVA is a fine school and it has a respected Engineering program (especially in Biomedical Engineering). But there are may Engineering programs that are far better. MIT, Stanford, Cal and Caltech are the obvious ones. Cornell, Michigan and Carnegie Mellon are also excellent. Princeton, Northwestern and Illinois are also great. Those programs, from an Engineering point of view, have more to offer. However, UVA would probably save you a lot of money and it is certainly good in Engineering.</p>

3

<p>practice and take your SAT, for those schools u mentioned, u would probably need at least a 1450 to be competitive. also take SATIIs, engineering schools will require writing, a science(some require two), and math 2c. think about who u are going to ask to write a recommendation letter for you. also another hint: those clubs that u are in, maybe u can ask the teacher to make u the president at some of them, explain to them how it will help you and if u have been really involved, they will usually let u put down co-captain, or vice-pres or something like that. For the top schools, these things really help. this is pretty early to be talking about the admissions essay, i don't think people realize how important the college admissions essay really is. I think its the single most important deciding factor for schools like MIT, caltech, columbia, duke. But, when u get some free time, think about what u are going to write.(if you are not creative, do NOT try to be)</p>

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<p>I started this post months ago. Now that the numbers are in I am seeking your advice once again: where should I apply ED/EA?</p>

<p>White Girl
3.94 UW ( no ranking at school, but I would guess top 3-5 of 600 weighted gpa)
35 ACT (no SAT I)
750 IIc, 770 Chem. 800 French
APs Chem 5, Calc AB 5, Compsci AB 5</p>

<p>Awards
First Prize Engineering at State Science Fair
Chemistry student of the year at High School
Achievement award from Society of Women Engineers
Honor societies and school honor roles</p>

<p>Extracurriculars</p>

<p>USFirst Robotics
Lacrosse Team
Community Service</p>

5

<p>apply to MIT, caltech and stanford...they love girls who want to go to engineering.</p>

6

<p>REACHES:
MIT
STANFORD
CALTECH</p>

<p>MATCHES:
CORNELL
UVA
UMICHIGAN
CMU</p>

<p>SAFETIES:
UIUC
UW-Madison
Penn State University
and Most Importantly--->Apply to Virginia Tech (Virginia Polytechnic and State University)</p>

7

<p>Thanks Guys,</p>

<p>I like your suggestions! </p>

<p>Given that UVA and VTech are good in-state choices, my parents would not agree to pay for an out-of-state college unless it was (in their minds) significantly better and private. They would have no issue with MIT, Stanford,CalTech, as reaches, and CMU and Cornell as good matches. </p>

<p>Can you suggest a few more reaches? </p>

<p>Thanks</p>

8

<p>I'm going to take a bit of a spin on Untilted's list. That's a strong list, no doubt about it, I just want to add my two cents.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I'm not sure how much of a "match" CMU is. In my opinion, CMU is more of a true Powerhouse for Electrical or Computer Engineering. It has a very good Mechanical program, no doubt about it, but it's certainly not much better than some of the school's listed there as "safety" schools in terms of Mechanical Engineering.</p></li>
<li><p>I would urge you to think economically. A lot of this depends on how much money your parents make and have to help pay for college, and how much scholarship you can get. A lot of people here might disagree with me here, and I'm sure they can write a very good arguement for why you should aim as high as possible. And, to some extent, if you can go to MIT or Stanford, ect., I'd do it. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>For me, I choose PSU over CMU for economic reasons; in 2002, it didn't seem reasonable to me to pay an extra $20,000 PER YEAR to move up from what was then the #14 engineering school in the country to the then #9 engineering school in the country. MIT, in my mind, is different, however.</p>

<p>That doesn't mean I'm telling you to come to PSU. Not at all. PSU will cost you (unlike me) almost $30K per year (before scholarships). Actually, I'm urging you to give strong consideration to V-Tech and UVA. If I was a resident of Virginia, I would have gone to one of those two schools.</p>

<p>If you kick major butt at V-Tech, you can "move up" into an even higher ranked graduate engineering school (not that V-Tech isn't a strong school, it's always Top 25... don't lose sight of this). And if you don't truly excel and stand out from the rest of pack? Well, you won't have near as much debt as you would have if you had "finished at par" at a place like CMU.</p>

<p>But this is a decision that everyone has to make for themselves. It certainly wouldn't be a BAD decision to go to CMU, UIUC, ect... can't go wrong with a strong engineering school like one of those two...</p>

<p>Also, if you want a few more schools to add to that list, you could put:
University of Maryland (probably fairly close to home for you)
Georgia Tech (very good engineering school)
UC Berkeley (always a top-notch engineering school)
but I think Untilted gave you a list plenty-long... at some point you will have to stop adding schools and start trimming away, unless you really intend to write that many essays... heh</p>

9

<p>University of Maryland --DISAGREE. this is a waste of application fee money, VT is a better engineering school, and cheaper.
well, colleges ain't gonna make a huge difference. i mean: VT and MIT. yeah, MIT is better, but the difference is still very small.....you can get an extremely solid education at VT or UMichigan(i'm sure u can get in)......really, there's no need to go to MIT unless you wanna be a prestige whore. recruiting at Umichigan is just as good as MIT. big engineering firms all go to UIUC, Umichigan....and big investment banks all go to Michigan. Put Michigan as your focus........</p>

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<p>I'd be a bit more optimistic than untilted. I think some or all of the matches are safe matches. Take untilted's counsel with a grain of salt. Michigan is far more of a safety than UIUC. UIUC is 88% instate (though its 77% in state for engineering), while Michigan is 64%. UIUC's average engineering SAT is 1377 (far higher than any other UIUC college) while Michigan's is 1330. It's likely both are safe matches/safeties.
You may get a boost from being a girl.</p>

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<p>I only suggested U Maryland because she wanted MORE schools.</p>

<p>But absolutely, as I said, I wouldn't look at U Maryland, I would look at VT and you'll get in-state tuition at V-Tech, unlike at U Maryland. I would defintely apply at VT and UVA, and then pick out a couple of reaches, like the schools Tilted already mentioned. And then I would weigh the schools and the debt you'll incur to go to them, and make the decision that only you can make; how much do I want to go to school XYZ, and how much debt am I willing to incur to go there.</p>

<p>Whichever school meets that criterea is the school I would choose.</p>

<p>But U Maryland is a respectable engineering school. If I was a resident of Maryland, and could get a U Maryland tuition break and not a PSU break, I wouldn't have hesitated in going to U M and not PSU. Now, if for some reason I qualified as a resident of both states, and therefor for both tuition breaks, (which is impossible, but lets just say it hypothetically happenned), I would choose PSU. But if I only got the U Maryland tuition break, I'd be a Terrapin in a heartbeat. And if she's from Virginia, it wouldn't be to far from home for her, which is why I mentioned it.</p>

12

<p>"I'd be a bit more optimistic than untilted. I think some or all of the matches are safe matches. Take untilted's counsel with a grain of salt. Michigan is far more of a safety than UIUC. UIUC is 88% instate (though its 77% in state for engineering), while Michigan is 64%. UIUC's average engineering SAT is 1377 (far higher than any other UIUC college) while Michigan's is 1330. It's likely both are safe matches/safeties.
You may get a boost from being a girl."</p>

<p>Michigan is more prestigious than UIUC, that's why i told her to focus on it.</p>

13

<p>Not that it means much, but UIUC is rated higher than USNews. So how is it more prestigious? I'm curious to know.
I like how you steamroll right over the fact that you were wrong.</p>

14

<p>"Not that it means much, but UIUC is rated higher than USNews. So how is it more prestigious? I'm curious to know."</p>

<p>in engineering, yes. </p>

<p>but UMichigan is more prestigious than UIUC overall, Michigan is ranked 2nd best public school, its overall peer-accessment score is much higher than that of UIUC, it attracts more recruiters, more well-known.......</p>

15

<p>Hello, fellow Virgninian here. I'll offer my two cents.</p>

<p>I suggest you visit Cornell and MIT. Those would be the two ED/EA candidates that I like the most from your list. (I grew up in Boston, and I went to Cornell, so I'm biased.) You definitely should visit Cornell before you take it off your list. Also, Cornell has a large number of female engineers, so you won't feel isolated.</p>

<p>I would definitely prefer UVA over tech, especially if you think you'll go the MBA route. Double major in economics. My son is at UVA and enjoys his econ courses more than his e-school classes. With your stats, UVA should be pretty straightforward--especially the e-school. No need to "waste" an ED/EA there.</p>

<p>Best of luck--sounds like you're on the right track.
RB</p>

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<p>"Also, Cornell has a large number of female engineers, so you won't feel isolated." Heh, what's large? The sheer number? Caltech (by a slim margin) and MIT have more girls proportionally.</p>

<p>Try Olin. Its female ratio seems a bit artificially high (about 46%) so you may get a boost from that. Olin also has a focus on entrepeneurship, good for an MBA I suppose. and its free tuition.</p>

17

<p>"You may get a boost from being a girl."</p>

<p>a rather large boost.</p>

<p>try going for scholarships. a lot of the engineering ones don't consider parents' financial stats. again, it helps being a girl. check out the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). not sure how large their scholarships are these days. at berkeley, the Drake is a full scholarship for mechanical engineering geared more toward out-of-state kids. (err, i just checked it out, and they ran out of money, haha, n/m.) but there are a lot of academic scholarships out there, so check them out.</p>

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<p>I really appreciate the feedback everybody! </p>

<p>So I am looking at:</p>

<p>MIT/Stanford/Catech (reaches)</p>

<p>Cornell, CMU, UVA (matches)</p>

<p>Vtech (safety)</p>

<p>All of these schools (except UVA) have strong engineering programs and probably a predominantly "engineering" culture, due to their focus or the sheer size of the program. What about adding a reach school with a small engineering program within a highly regarded Liberal arts environment? What schools come to mind?</p>

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<p>i personally don't think the % of females in the engineering department of a particular school matters that much. the guys don't really treat you differently unless you want them to. if you're going to a school that isn't completely tech-oriented (stanford, cornell, etc.), you'll have plenty of girls to hang out with unless you hole yourself up in the engineering corner of campus. the male to female ratio sounds intimidating, but it's really not. please don't let that affect your choice that much.</p>

20

<p>MIT & Stanford will probably be easier to get into than caltech, because caltech just looks for the best and doesnt care about ecs or gender.</p>

<p>"What about adding a reach school with a small engineering program within a highly regarded Liberal arts environment?"
Harvey mudd, swarthmore.</p>