<p>I would look into Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Rice, Washington University and of course, Michigan. All of those schools save JH have excellent college atmospheres...but JH is #1 in Biomedical Engineering.</p>
<p>But I would say that it is worth spending the extra money for some universities. In your case, MIT and Stanford. The schools above are awesome, but MIT and Stanford are a notch above.</p>
<p>Rice, Stanford, Duke, Michigan is a great safety. Ranking depends on how highly you value atmosphere, academics, and music, respectively. JHU is exactly as Alexandre describes it, but what if you change your major? Stanford sounds like a great choice,as well as a fabulous school, worth as Alex puts it paying a little extra, but it is on the West Coast, money and ?BME. Duke may be a good compromise, but it won't be much cheaper.</p>
<p>Look at U of Rochester. You can most likely get a merit scholarship.</p>
<p>taurustorus - I would have probably made the same connection you did if I hadn't written it myself! I didn't realize it at all until so many comments were made. I'll try to be more careful and less racist next time...</p>
<p>2bad4u - I had read somewhere else on this forum that girls don't actually have as big of an advantage at tech schools as they think they do. And unless I go to Michigan Tech, there's no way to avoid AA all together. So basically, I'm screwed.</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice, everyone, but I just saw Episode III and I need to go to bed!! More replies later.</p>
<p>Update: 800 in Chem, 750 Math iic. Just took the SAT yesterday.</p>
<p>supermurgatroyd, are you sold on big or would you consider small as in the case of a liberal arts college? I would think that Amherst/Williams/Swarthmore/Pomona would have a lot to offer. They don't provide merit aid but their need based financial support is good.</p>
<p>I have some personal experience here because I went to UMich and my son is now at Williams. If you haven't visited an LACs you should do so, just to get a comparison.</p>
<p>I believe that Penn State has a marching band. How about Brown? They like quirky, and you said that you are. How about Carnegie Mellon? At JHU, you could take all of the music classes you want at Peabody Conservatory. However, JHU is not a marching band kind of place.</p>
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I'm considering biomedical engineering at the moment. The biomedical part is my thing. I have no idea if engineering is, but it sounds good to me.
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You've gotten good suggestions about colleges to pursue, but I want to suggest a more basic approach. From your comments, it sounds like you're not sure if this is the right major for you. Actually at your age a feeling of doubt is a good thing; too many kids who are "sure" they want to be engineers or lawyers or what-have-you are basing their decisions on hunches and incomplete info.</p>
<p>What I suggest is spend some time this summer finding out more about biomedical engineering and/or engineering. As a HS student its pretty easy to get people in the field to talk to you; they aren't worried you're using a conversation as a pretext to pump them for a job. The classic book about informational interviewing is "What Color is Your Parachute", any edition at your library is fine. And a summer job in a lab, even if its just doing filing or washing bottles, is very valuable because it will let you see on a day-to-day basis what the career is like.</p>
<p>The reason you want to do this now is that next fall if you're aiming at engineering that restricts the schools you can consider (ruling out all the LACs, for example), and the major itself is VERY rigorous. Many students start out with the intention of entering engineering, but stats show that nationwide between 1/2 and 2/3 leave engineering. That's why I recommend looking into the field now to see if its really what you want.</p>
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<p>I'd rather not pay that kind of money to an institution that says that minority status is "important," according to US News.</p>
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<p>Then you need to erase the rest of the schools on your list. Why single out Case and Michigan? There's no set of institutional values at Case or Michigan that you won't also find at Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, and all the rest. All make the same declarations about the importance of minority representation in the student body, all practice affirmative action, etc. If this is an important issue to you, you're going to have to look beyond the usual suspects in order to find a school that reflects your values.</p>
<p>Hanna - According to my 2005 U.S. News Ultimate College Guide, Case and UMich classify minority status as "important." At Northwestern, Duke, WUSTL, JHU, and Stanford, it is "considered." The only college I've found that has "not considered" is Michigan Tech, and if I only got into UMich and MTU, I would undoubtedly end up at UMich, because it is the better school. However, I sincerely hope that will not be the case, and this factor certainly takes a back seat to the quality of my education. Please disregard it if it bothers you so much.</p>
<p>It is a mistake to take that kind of U.S. News categorization as gospel. There's no quantifiable difference between "important" and "considered" -- indeed, there may not be any difference at all. It could well be that Stanford cares more about race than Case. Which box some admissions employee checked on the U.S. News form reveals, at most, a little something about the school's marketing strategy. It says nothing at all about the actual admissions policy or the importance of race within that policy relative to other schools.</p>
<p>You stated that this philosophical issue mattered to you, and I tried to explain that you're going to find it everywhere on your current list. I'm not "bothered" by your choices -- this is your life, after all -- I'm trying to point out that you're relying on a semantic distinction that doesn't actually reflect any real-life differences.</p>
<p>momrath and onemom - To make this quick, Brown is probably too liberal, I forgot that Peabody is at JHU - I'll have to look into that more, and I probably won't qualify for decent amounts of need-based aid.</p>
<p>mikemac - Ok, this is my engineering rationale, maybe you can help me. I am fairly positive that science (and math) is what I'm doing with the rest of my life. I can't stand English or social studies classes; they're too arbitrary. I went to an informational meeting at NU for their Arts/Science school, and I was turned off by all the extra requirements they had in other subject groups, etc. After two years of AP English, I never want to take another English class. Then I went to the engineering meeting, and it seemed like it was the easiest way to be able to focus on what I want to do. There were still requirements from the Art/Science school, but it seemed like I could easily fulfill them with classes that I was interested in, or AP credits.</p>
<p>I guess that seems kind of silly, but engineering seems like a good idea right now. Any comment?</p>
<p>Hanna - I understand I'm going to find it everywhere if I only look at these schools, and I am here on this forum looking for real advice because I realize that U.S. News doesn't hold all the answers. Thanks for your advice.</p>
<p>Oh yeah... thanks for all your advice, everyone!</p>
<p>for engineering the link between what what you study in school and what you do on the job can be quite thin in many cases, from what my engineering friends tell me. This is good news for those who struggle with the intensive math it takes to get thru school because they may find the job much more rewarding than the degree. It can be bad news for those who thrived in class but find the actual job isn't quite what they expected. That's the problem I have with counseling (or maybe self-counseling, in your case). While an aptitude for math/science may help you get thru an engineering education, it does not mean you will enjoy the career! </p>
<p>I urge everybody considering a career field to get some actual experience in it prior to going too far down the road. Not just engineers but accountants, doctors, lawyers, you name it. While few decisions are irreversible (eg. engineers can put their quantative skills to use in other areas, for example) some investigation in advance of becoming too committed can save a lot of frustration and wasted time. I bet Hanna and the other adult posters would agree with me on this one.</p>
<p>So talk to engineers and see what they like/dislike about their job, get a feel for what the day-to-day life is like. Maybe its right for you, but if it isn't you'll want to find out before college rather than after!</p>
<p>Thanks for all your advice, mikemac! I'll see what I can do in the way of career research this summer. My dad knows a lot of people, he can probably hook me up with a few engineers around here.</p>
<p>edit I wrote "That's the problem I have with counseling (or maybe self-counseling, in your case). While an aptitude for math/science may help you get thru an engineering education, it does not mean you will enjoy the career!"</p>
<p>What I meant to say was : "That's the problem I have with counseling (or maybe self-counseling, in your case) that steers students strong in the math & science area into career fields like engineering. While an aptitude for math/science may help you get thru an engineering education, it does not mean you will enjoy the career!"</p>
<p>Supermurgatroyd, Michigan is probably going to give you the best offer all around, financially, academically and socially. Like I said, if you can get into MIT or Stanford, go for it, otherwise, I would probably recommand going to Michigan. Academically, Michigan has one of the top 5 or 6 Engineering programs in the nation and is one of the top 15 or so universities in the nation. Financially, without any aid, Michigan is already about a third the cost of any of the other universities you will be considering, and chances are, you will probably get quite a bit of aid from Michigan (and the other schools too). It is worth paying extra to go to MIT or Stanford, but not to go to any other Engineering school in the nation, since in all likelyhood, Michigan will be at least as good academically, and probably much better overall.</p>