<p>Hello -
I've been wading through colleges for a bit and still have no clue where I should apply. I'm a female rising senior.
I'm interested in engineering - I've narrowed my interests down to biomedical and chemical (although I'd love to be able to take a few classes in Environmental Engineering, too, for fun).<br>
Here's a quick breakdown of some important factors:
SATs:
Writing: 730
Critical Reading: 710
Math: 770
GPA (unweighted): 4.00
As of now, I've taken four AP classes and I plan to take 6 in the coming year (my senior year).<br>
Extracurriculars:
Horseback riding, piano, part-time job, volunteering in the summers, etc
Essay Strength: relatively solid</p>
<p>As of now, I have no idea where I stand in relation to the rest of my class at my public high school. </p>
<p>Basically, I'm going to need quite an amount of financial aid if I want to go out of state. In the early stages of my searching, I became interested in a few colleges... only to find out that the students are miserable or the professors are lackluster, etc. My interest has been recently centered on Case Western - but I'm not really sure. </p>
<p>If you guys could offer some advice or even just toss out a couple of names of colleges, I would be very appreciative!</p>
<p>Rose-Hulman, Purdue, RPI, RIT, WPI, Georgia Tech, to name a few. Check their merit aid, specifically scholarships for females. Also look at Olin and Cooper Union.</p>
<p>The people I knew at CMU that were doing ChemE enjoyed it, and they've got a nice small department there, so you'll get plenty of individual attention. CMU's a little sketchy on financial aid, but if Case offers you a good amount you can always try to get them to match it (that's what I did between them and RPI).</p>
<p>Lehigh might be a good safety school for you with your stats.</p>
<p>I encourage you to look at Smith College. Smiths Picker Engineering Program has a phenomenal approach to teaching engineering, and its engineering program is superb. Smith is the first and only accredited engineering program in the nation for women. </p>
<p>The quality of the engineering program is such that every Smith College engineering student with a 3.5 GPA is GUARANTEED admission to the graduate engineering schools at Princeton, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, Tufts, and University of Michigan! </p>
<p>Smith provides STRIDE scholarships where high achieving students do research with professors. They have a number of other scholarships and financial aid as well.</p>
<p>Smith has a wonderful supportive, caring sense of community. Its known for academic excellence and small classes. Students are provided with terrific advising and mentoring and available, committed professors. </p>
<p>Have you considered trying for one of the Ivies? I know that they're out of state, but that actually doesn't matter in terms of tuition (same for in-staters and out of staters) and they have good financial aid packages.</p>
<p>Edit: And of course, most, if not all of them, have good undergrad engineering programs :)</p>
<p>I wonder if you're looking at Case because they have a reputation for giving lots of merit aid? You might search on this site for student comments on their opinions on Case and Case faculty.</p>
<p>Olin doesn't have biomed or chemE. It's a unique school, with full tuition for all admitted. My daughter graduated from there in '07 in MechE. She developed strong interests in renewable energy and energy policy during that time, and is now doing a grad program related to those areas.</p>
<p>JHU and CMU are on my list, too. I don't really know enough about them on a student level to really like or dislike them at this point. I'm glad to hear praise about CMU's ChemE department.
Point well taken: JHU (and probably CMU, too) are not going to be easy to get into! The unfortunate part about going to higher-end schools is that I most likely wouldn't be offered much aid. My stats aren't that impressive or unique enough for many colleges to offer me big bundles of financial aid. In the end, I probably will end up applying to those or similar schools simply because you never know what can happen!
I hesitate to go to Georgia Tech simply because I don't want to go further South. And although Smith sounds like an excellent school, I don't think I would enjoy an all-female school.<br>
So it sounds like Case students aren't too happy?<br>
Where would VT's and UVA's engineering programs stand in relation to these other colleges/universities you guys have named? I know VT has a pretty strong engineering department overall and that UVA has a great Biomed E but I'm not sure how they really stack up against other engineering programs.</p>
<p>I agree, the best Ivy for engineering is Cornell and its top tier along with Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, MIT, Cal, etc. The rest of the Ivies are a bit weaker in engineering.</p>
<p>ditto: Look into Rice, Rochester and Pitt. Be aware of one thing about merit aid, hoewever - there usually is a minimum GPA required to continue it after the first year. Typically a B average or so is needed. However, different schools have different requirements, and in some schools a B average is harder to maintain in an engineering priogram than in others.</p>