What universities are a good fit for me, planning to major in ChemE?

College Search & Selection
1

I am currently a junior in high school. I don’t have any college size requirements, I am open to all options. Although not much is certain in life, I am set on the idea of majoring in ChemE. Some background on me: I am Colombian, moved to the US 5 years ago, I speak English and Spanish. I am a Rhode Island resident, I am looking for a good engineering program but also some safeties.
Here are my stats:

Freshman Year
Geometry Honors (A)
Physical Science Honors (A+)
English Honors (A+)
World History CP (A+) Note: there is only a CP (regular) option for history courses for freshmen
Financial Literacy (A+) requirement
Gym (Pass) P or F class
Intro to HS (Pass) requirement
Public Speaking (A+)
Italian II (A+)
College Algebra (A+)

I will list my AP score next to the course
Sophomore Year
Pre-Calculus Honors (A)
Chemistry Honors (A)
Biology Honors (A)
English Honors (A+)
AP United States History (A+) (5)
Italian III (A+)
Gym (Pass)

Junior Year
AP Chemistry (A+) (5)
AP Physics (A+) (4)
AP Language and Comp (A+) (5)
AP Calculus (A+) (5)
Italian IV Honors (A+)
Topics in the Modern World Honors (A+)
Gym §

Senior Year (definite schedule)

AP Stats
AP Literature

AP Bio
AP Italian
AP Computer Science
Citizenship requieremnt
Gym
Art

Being realistic, I expect an A+ in all the AP course my senior year with the exception of AP Lit (maybe an A).

Class Rank: 1/227
GPA: 4.9 (W)
School: Public
SAT (New): 1540
SAT Subject Tests: Math II (780), US History (780), Biology E (770), Italian (800), Spanish (800), Chemistry (770), Literature (800)

ECs:
Varsity Tennis: Sophmore, Junior, and Senior year (Captain)
Math Team: Sophmore, Junior, and Senior year
Academic Decathlon: 4 years, gold medal winner Freshman, Sophmore, and Junior year
SMILE: Sophmore, Junior, and Senior year
International Club: Sophmore, Junior, and Senior year
Science Olympiad: 4 years
~100 community service hours

What would be some good safeties, matches, and reaches for me?
I don’t want to go as far as California, especially coming from RI. URI is a safety I am disregarding, I really do not like it.

2

You’re obviously competitive enough to get looked at by anywhere, but fit has nothing to do with that. Do you like big or small schools, urban or rural, focused on sports or not, etc. Those are the questions you need to answer to figure out where you fit.

And by the way, if you don’t like it and can’t see yourself going there, URI is not a safety for you.

3

For a top ChemE program at low cost, you may want to look at UMN-TC.

4

You don’t like URI because of the rank?

5

Michigan, Wash in St. Louis, Vanderbilt, Cornell- All are Reaches/High Matches/Matches

Consider NY schools. I wouldn’t rule out LACs in the midwest as well. Florida schools may be good safeties-

6

Congratulations on your HS career so far! As the father of 2 ChemE kids, I say MIT because Why Not Give It a Shot & University of Delaware, and Penn have top ChemE programs. Good Luck!

7

Will you qualify for FA? Are you a NMF? Are you looking for merit? Do you have a budget?

8

Congrats! With those scores you have lots of options. So you need to think a bit more about whether you want a large school or small school, and especially whether cost is a factor. If it is, then depending on your financial situation you need to:

  • if you qualify for financial aid, then shoot for schools that meet full need (you can find lists online)
  • if you don’t qualify for financial aid, but can’t afford full pay, then shoot for schools that will offer merit (usually schools that are a bit lower ranked)

My D is currently ChemE. Here are some recommendations, not considering finances and not including any excellent West Coast options since you ruled those out)
Reaches: MIT, Penn, Duke, Brown
High Matches: Michigan, Rice, Cornell, Northwestern, John Hopkins
Matches: CMU, GT, RPI, CWRU
Safeties: U-Del, U-Minn TC, UWisc-Madison, Purdue, TA&M, Penn State, WPI, VT, OSU

Technically speaking not a ChemE major, but check out the molecular engineering program at UChicago - my D was really interested in that one (waitlisted but didn’t get in) - of course uChicago isn’t for everyone.

9

Great, congrats for your scores. I think you have lots of options for your career. You just need to think carefully about that. I am sharing one resource with you, in that you will find multiple degree programs. Read this: https://www.cbuonline.edu/degrees

10

Just be aware when applying to a school like Purdue. Apply early. It’s best to have your application in by the scholarship deadline. They are rolling admission and once their engineering class is filled your chances of being rejected or going on a waitlist will go up considerably. They can no longer be considered a safety or even a match.

11

For a list that is financially conscious the following are the prime schools I’d be focused on;
High reach - Cornell
Reach - Gtech
Match - RPI
Low match - RIT
Safety - Penn State

I do believe that for engineering the curriculum at RPI is better than Gtech but the reason I placed Gtech as a reach above RPI is because Gtech is harder to get into as a consequence of popularity nationwide for other programs offered along with engineering. RPI would be a better pick in my opinion because of the quality of their engineering programs. Also, Gtech would be quite a distance for holidays and breaks to Rhode Island. With your SAT/scores I believe you can get a very nice merit award from RPI.

My suggestion is RPI handsdown, don’t even bother applying anywhere else. lol

12

Did you mean to include Penn State there? It’s extremely expensive for OOS students.

13

Relatively speaking, U of Delaware is a safety for virtually no one. UD is one of the top Chemical Engineering departments IN THE WORLD, based in large part on the intellectual generosity of the du Pont Company.

14

@insanedreamer, I’m pretty sure that Duke does not offer ChemE as a major.

15

@patatty You’re absolutely right - I don’t know why I put Duke there.

Also, I shouldn’t have put UDel as a safety - I agree it’s not.