<p>I am going to be applying to college in the fall. I am still somewhat unsure about what type of engineering I would like to do, but I am leaning towards mechanical engineering. What colleges should I be looking at for engineering? I've seen some of the lists of the top colleges in the nation, but I don't even know where they get that data from or what criteria they use. Some websites are listing colleges like Notre Dame, WashU, and Yale as top colleges, but that doesn't seem right. What colleges would you guys suggest?</p>
<p>So far I have been looking at the following colleges:</p>
<p>MIT
Stanford
Cornell
UIUC (I would be paying out of state tuition)
Northwestern
Georgia Tech (I would be paying out of state tuiton)
Princeton</p>
<p>I’d prefer private, although if a public school’s engineering program is good (like UIUC), then I am all for it. I’d rather not have a college be in the middle of nowhere (my main gripe Cornell). Location doesn’t really matter. I’d rather not have a really small class like with Caltech. Everything else I am open with.</p>
<p>All state universities are excellent for engineering. Apply to your in-state school first. </p>
<p>University of Texas at Austin
University of Michigan
Purdue University
University of Wisconsin- Madison
University of Minnesota- Twin Cities
University of Maryland- College Park</p>
<p>Post your SAT, GPA and estimated family contribution.</p>
<p>Your criteria are pretty generic, so that opens up a lot of possibilities. </p>
<p>What do you see yourself doing after graduation? (i.e. designing planes, cars, robots…) While many engineering schools are good, virtually every school will have strengths and weaknesses in certain areas of engineering.</p>
<p>Just as importantly, what are your stats. MIT, Stanford and Princeton might be on your list, but if you have a 3.0 GPA and 1700 SAT, your practical search will be completely different.</p>
<p>Why would you want to pay out of state tuition when most state schools are just as good. It seems you care more about the name rather than the school.</p>
<p>MIT, Stanford, Cornell, Northwestern, Princeton, UIUC and GTech are all in different parts of the country…What region are you from?</p>
<p>Visited MIT and loved their program- a lot of creativity going on. Very difficult to get into though, regardless of your stats. </p>
<p>Princeton was a campus we ran from - bad vibe there - program seemed more theoretical, less hands on. </p>
<p>GTech is relatively easy to get into, not so easy to stay in by all accounts of friends’ kids…heavy handed weed out in first few years. </p>
<p>XtremePower had great schools listed. They all have different strengths and are in different regions, so it depends which discipline you want to study and how far you are willing to go from your home (wherever that is).</p>
<p>Since you have expressed a preference for private schools, look into <a href=“http://thaitu.org%5B/url%5D”>http://thaitu.org</a> Many of these schools are medium sized and located in cities.</p>
<p>I have lived in Atlanta since like 8 years old. And year after year you keep horror stories about GTech. From the super stressful workload, to the anti-social campus life, and even all the HIV that atleast (was) going around. I wouldn’t go there at all, just my two cents.</p>