What classes should I take to get into Ivy league Mechanical Engineering undergrad from IB program

Pre-College Issues
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As others have said, to be very well prepared to study mechanical engineering your best bet is to do very, very well in your math classes, and also in physics. The point is not necessarily to jump ahead in math. Instead you want to do very well.

Some top schools in the US (Harvard, MIT, Stanford come to mind) do not admit by major. However, for these schools you are better off to do well in essentially everything, and doing particularly well in classes that relate to your likely preferred major is still important.

For an international student, for the really top ranked schools in the USA, being quite close to the top student in your high school is a good goal, if not close to the top student in your country (perhaps top 10 or 20 for a large country).

There are a lot of universities in the US that are very good for mechanical engineering. Anything that is ABET accredited would be good. You do not need to attend an “Ivy League” school.

Also, for a potential engineering major, being precise is a good plan. To be precise, the “Ivy League” is a group of 8 specific universities. They are all very good. However, the top schools for mechanical engineering (such as MIT, Stanford, Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, U.Michigan, Purdue, Caltech, …) are mostly not in the Ivy League. However, Ivy League schools do have good need based financial aid and some of them are good (and ABET accredited) for mechanical engineering. Ivy League schools are also generally quite difficult for admissions for an international student, as are the top engineering schools in the US.

People who hire mechanical engineers, at least in my experience, know which universities are best for mechanical engineering.

Also, being a mechanical engineering student at a top ranked university is not going to be easy.

Being a mechanical engineer can be a very good career, but I have never heard that it is easy.

All of this leads to two questions:

What is your budget? Can you afford to be full pay at an expensive university in the US (at perhaps $80,000 per year or more)?

What do you mean by “Ivy League”? Do you mean “highly ranked US university”, or do you mean “the 8 well known and very good universities that compete in the sports league known as the Ivy League”?

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@DadTwoGirls this student is a U.S. citizen studying abroad, I believe. Scroll up.

Here:

Im a citizen abroad, will try to get at least 42 IB points

I think this means the student is a U.S. citizen but perhaps they can clarify.

@luccaw are you a U.S. citizen??

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That was not the way that I read it, but now I see that it could be taken either way. oops.

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Yale and Columbia offer some of the best equipment and support for students. So wouldn’t that help them build skills and a track? But yes, that is true; you can go to a very ordinary school and achieve great things. But at higher schools that are harder to get into, aren’t you surrounded by people with higher opportunities and connections? Also, the prestige of the school I have seen many people take that into account, and also people at ivy league schools get offered jobs that are more elite than non-Avy, is that not true for mechanical schools?

So Ivy League is pointless and does not impress anyone that hires students, do people that don’t care outnumber the ones that care? I also congratulate you for not caring about that status cause many do not even look at the track history or skill. But then why is Ivy’s so contested?

I agree that you should have relevant skills and experience, but what colleges have the resources Ivy have considering the amount of wealth they have and connections? Don’t they outweigh the non-ivy?

For mechanical engineering, I was mistaken maybe you don’t have an easier life going to an ivy league, but for other professions, I would say Ivy gives quite the range of availabilities so why isn’t this the same for engineering?

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Hahahah, then how did you do your research to find accuarte measured schools?

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Because none of the Ivy League schools, with the exception of Cornell, put any emphasis on undergraduate engineering. The classes have been small and the facilities underwhelming. Recently, several like Brown and Harvard have tried to rectify that, but look at their new facilities and compare them to a school you probably haven’t even considered, Iowa State. I think you’ll be surprised.

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You are mistaken. You make it sound like getting a mechanical engineering degree from an Ivy will put you in better position than from other colleges…and that’s just not true.

As I said…when my husband interviewed, he didn’t care at all what college a student got their degree from. He cared that they were willing to be learners at his company. The “prestige” of the undergrad school didn’t matter at all. My husband and every other engineer I know worked alongside people from a LOT of different colleges. They had to work well together…and frankly, they never even talked about their undergrad degrees. It was all about their job performance.

In a field like IB, I would agree that some of the Ivies do have better job placement. But engineering…I have to say…I don’t think so.

Please plan to be the best you can be regardless of where you go to undergrad school. That will help you more than assuming having an Ivy degree will be your key to success.

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You look at those that have a long history of producing strong engineers.

From there you narrow by class size, curriculum, who teaches, facilities, placement, salaries, etc. If you’re really motivated, you’ll look up senior projects and see how they compare.

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Thank you guys for all the help, not trying to attack or prove anyone wrong. I simply want to learn how it all works with the best accurate information.

Hope to exchange further information tomorrow :slight_smile:

Any information is great to hear

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Which universities are best depends upon your major. Also, between one ranking and the next, which universities are ranked at the top can change.

For a DVM, the top ranked universities are UC Davis, Colorado State, and Cornell. One is Ivy League, two are not.

For mechanical engineering, top schools are MIT, Stanford, and Georgia Tech. None are in the Ivy League.

For cellular biology, top schools include Harvard, MIT, Stanford. One is in the Ivy League, the other two are not.

For dance, the last time that I checked the top university in the US was Julliard. Not Ivy League.

For my major (math), the top schools in the US are MIT, Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton. Two are Ivy League, two are not.

I might add: We have looked at the facilities for the major listed above for at least some of these top ranked schools. In every case that we looked at, for the specific major that the school is well ranked, the facilities are indeed excellent. However, the facilities are excellent at many other schools also.

And of course the next ranking that we look at might change the order a bit (and I might not have gotten the most recent rankings in my last Google search).

The Ivy League schools are very good universities. They are very good for a long list of majors. The top university for any particular major will depend upon what your major is.

The top school for you however, might not be whatever US News ranks at the top. There are a large number of very good universities. You should find one that is a good fit for you.

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@merc81 usually has links that can highlight things like the top schools in certain fields. Perhaps they can post one.

Here is a list I’ve never looked at before…it shows the top schools for mechanical engineering. As you can see…there is quite a mix…and the ivies are not the top 8 spots.

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All of which presumes the rankings actually mean anything.

You would know better than I, but it’s my understanding that Utah has a strong math program, but it’s nowhere near the top of the rankings list.

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There are certainly a lot of universities with very good math programs. The same is true for engineering.

And if you look at graduate programs at highly ranked universities, at least in all of the cases that I am aware of there are students who got their bachelor’s degree at a very, very wide range of universities. Then you graduate, get a job, and work alongside coworkers who got their degrees from a very, very wide range of universities.

This does imply that thinking about what you want in a university, and which university would be the best fit for you, is an important task that can take quite a bit of thought.

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If you mean job areas like management consulting and investment banking, then Ivy League college prestige can be significant. But that is much less the case in engineering work. Indeed, to the extent that college prestige exists in engineering, the Ivy League colleges are not necessarily viewed as the “best”.

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Back to the topic, a predicted score of 40/42 (or 42/45) will generally make you competitive for Ivies, though grades are simply one component on the application. This is not a hard requirement, though. I guess a 38-39/42 may be fine from certain regions, though, but a 40 is a competitive score regardless.

Essays, the SAT/ACT, Extracurriculars and Recommendations all matter quite a bit for Ivies. It’s not just about scores.

For Engineering, your course load is good, though I am unsure if HL Design Technology is a good option in place of Chemistry HL. It may be a slightly lighter option. Your SL’s are fine, though if I’m nitpicking, Business Management SL may not the best.

Edit: For top Mech Eng programs, some are as competitive as Ivies. Here’s my general impression:
Stanford, Caltech, MIT - equally/more competitive than Ivies (so 40/42 plus insane EC’s)
Georgia Tech, Cal Berkeley - slightly less competitive (39-40/42 ideally but good-not-stellar EC’s are fine)
Michigan, UT Austin, UIUC - less competitive (38+/42 ideally). Within these UIUC is likely to have a higher admit rate.
Purdue - moderate (37+/42 ideally)

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If the OP has a preexisting familiarity with U.S. News, then these rankings specifically for undergraduate mechanical engineering (which, unlike as with USN’s general rankings, rely on a single piece of information, peer assessment), may be of interest:

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-mechanical

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate-mechanical

Note that only one Ivy, Cornell, appears especially highly.

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I always find those rankings interesting.

In the disciplines USNWR ranks, Cal Poly ranks #1 in Civil and CompE, and #2 in AE, EE and ME. Yet, they rank #6 overall in engineering.

Harvey Mudd, which I have great respect for, ranks #3 in ME, #4 in CompE, #6 in Civil, #7 in EE and is unranked in AE. They however rank #2 overall. Here’s the real kicker…they don’t offer any of those majors.

As much as I think it’s cool that my son’s alma mater is #2 in ME, I really find the whole show to be farcical.

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OP, the Ivies are popular for any major because they will give you superior opportunities in some fields for which the major is irrelevant: investment banking, management consulting, politics, sales.

If you actually want to work as a mechanical engineer, with the exception of Cornell other schools will you give you a better education and opportunities as an engineer.

As for classes: as PP have noted, your choices of preprofessional subjects (business management and design and technology) are not ideal and should have been replaced with a second science and a social science. Not sure if you could even change things at this point of the year, and if you are are already going into the second year of your diploma, then what’s done is done, doesn’t preclude you from anything and it remains for you to do your best.

Incidentally, if you want to apply to top universities, it better not shock you that you are expected to get top grades as a matter of course. Together with your comment about a “life on easy mode”, that’s not the mindset that is going to get you in.

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Can you confirm if you’re a U.S. citizen and what your budget is? These are two critical items we need to know to suggest specific schools.

Absolutely not true for mechanical engineering. Your knowledge and experience will be valued above everything else. If looking just at the school name, Georgia Tech or Purdue (both state schools) will be viewed as much stronger than Columbia or Harvard.
And you’re all going to get entry level jobs so I don’t know what you mean by “jobs that are more elite”.

You need a subscription to view schools beyond the top 10, so for your reference here are the top 20 (in order):

MIT, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Michigan, UC Berkeley, Purdue, UIUC, Caltech, CMU, UT Austin, Cornell, Texas A&M, UCLA, Northwestern, Penn State, Princeton, Virginia Tech, Johns Hopkins, Ohio State, UMD, UPenn, Wisconsin-Madison.

Rankings aren’t everything and they’re very subjective. But my point of listing these is to illustrate that the Ivy League does not have the best mechanical engineering programs. There are only 3 on USNWR’s list (which I’ve highlighted) and none in the top 10. So if you want to go to an Ivy because they’ll meet your financial need or you’ll get more name recognition in your country (disregard if you’re a U.S. citizen), then that’s fine. But if you think you’ll be going to a stronger engineering program or you’ll get “more elite” or “easy” jobs, then that’s just not true.

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@luccaw so back to your courses. During High School, you should be taking 4 years of courses in each of these areas: English, Social Studies, Math, Science, Foreign Language. For engineering, additional higher level math and science is recommended. And you should be taking the highest level of these offered at your high school (IOW, honors or whatever the equivalent is for AP when one is in an IB program). And you should plan on getting nearly perfect grades.

In addition, while the Ivies are test optional, I would suggest you take the SAT or ACT, and submit if your score is high enough to do so.

And lastly…think about costs. Are you eligible for need based aid? Or are your parents able to float the total cost of attendance for these schools? The ivies are in the $80,000 a year plus range. Add in health insurance because that’s typically not included in the cost of attendance. Food for thought for you.