which engineering school should I ED?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I am looking to apply to Columbia, Cornell, U Penn, Duke, UC Berkeley, U Mich Ann Arbor, and other mechanical engineering programs of that caliber.</p>

<p>I am a California resident. I don't know where I should ED. I really want Columbia but I feel that it's a longshot for me even if i am applying ED. Am I better off ED'ing to Cornell/Duke/U Penn as there may be a chance that I would get in for ED but not RD? I want to ED at a school where I could get in for Ed but not RD.</p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA: 4.0/4.0 (straight A's) Class Rank: 1/796</p>

<p>Courseload: Freshmen Year -- Geometry P, Bio Honors, Spanish 2 Honors, English 1 Honors, PE, World History P Community College -- Intermediate Algebra Summer -- Precalc Honors Sophomore Year -- AP Calc AB, AP Comp Sci, Chemistry Honors, English 2H, Track, Spanish 3 Honors Summer -- American History P Junior -- AP Calc BC, AP Stats, AP Spanish Lang, AP Chemistry, English 3H, Track Summer -- Music Appreciation Senior -- AP Psych, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Econ, AP English Lang, IB Math HL</p>

<p>SAT: Highest per test date: 780M, 760W, 630R = 2170 Superscore: 780M, 760W, 660R = 2200</p>

<p>PSAT: National Merit Commended (212)</p>

<p>AP: Comp Sci -- 4 Calc AB -- 5 Chem, Spanish, Stats, Calc BC -- Pending AP Scholar w/ Distinction</p>

<p>Activities: Track -- hurdles 10th/11th grade FIRST Robotics Team -- 10th grade; Los Angeles Regional Winner FBLA -- 10th/11th/12th; Board Member, Sponsorships Officer; Placed top 10 at state CSF -- 10th/11th/12th; Treasurer 2012; 64 community service hours Leo Club -- 9th/10th/11th/12th; Director of Lions International Publicity, District 4-L4 Activities Director, District Newsletter Editor; 500+ community service hours Link Crew -- 11th/12th; Captain Pocketful of Sunshine -- 11th/12th; Treasurer American Cancer Society Relay for Life -- 4 year participant</p>

<p>Awards: --"Top 10" student; 10th --2011 Outstanding Volunteer in City; 10th --LA County Fair Community Hero of city; 11th --Lions Student Speaker Contest winner --FBLA Sections: 2nd Global Business; 6th Marketing --Misc. awards from FBLA and Leo Club for completing certain projects --JPL invention challege: 2nd place regionals --FIRST Robotics Competition: Los Angeles Regional Winner</p>

<p>Misc: --Southeast Asian --Male</p>

<p>Personal Statement: I'll most likely talk about the robotics team in which I dedicated 25 hours each week for 7 weeks. I was the youngest in the team (sophomore) and the team only lasted for 1 year because the adviser quit even though we won regionals. I am the only member from the original team still going to the school because the others have graduated. I spent the past year working to bring back FRC (A LOT of work and road blocks) for senior year and will be Team Captain/President. While coordinating FRC, I also worked with local middle schools to form a solid robotics program that spans from middle school into high school where students at a younger age are able to participate and the older ones will serve as mentors. FRC has not only inspired me to focus on engineering but has also allowed me to incorporate business and public speaking skills from FBLA as well as computer science that i learned from taking AP Comp Sci.</p>

<p>what are my chances for ED/RD Columbia, Cornell, U Penn, Georgia Tech, Stanford, U Mich, Duke? Would I be wasting my time EDing to Columbia?</p>

2

<p>Don’t ED anywhere. Submit your application to Michigan before October 20 (even if you apply RD) and you will likely get an acceptance by December 20. With your stats, I would aim for MIT, Stanford and Princeton, none of which has ED. Princeton and Stanford have restrictive EA while MIT has straight up EA. None of those are binding. Should you be admitted into one of those three but forced to go to your inferior ED (Columbia, Cornell, Duke or Penn) school, you may regret it.</p>

3

<p>Can you afford UMich?</p>

4

<p>Why would you pay OOS prices to Georgia Tech and Michigan when you have Berkeley in state? </p>

<p>If I were you, I’d apply to the following:</p>

<p>Stanford
MIT
Princeton
Columbia
Cornell
Penn
Berkeley</p>

<p>Check off some other UCs as a safety/backup.</p>

5

<p>Since you are a California resident and obviously hands on oriented due to your robotics club, I am surprised that you did not include Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in your list of schools. I am just curious as to why you did not include this extremely prestigious “Learn by Doing” program in your list of target institutions.</p>

<p>My kid, Asian mixed, turned down the top UC’s and other prestigious programs for Cal Poly SLO. He, like you, was at the top of his class being a Valedictory scholar. His test scores were very similar to yours as well. He is also an ME major and loves it.</p>

<p>Do the research. This school rocks and graduates some of the best ME’s in the state. What is so special about the program?</p>

<p>(1) You will start in your major the very first quarter of your freshman year. No other program we looked at had you in engineering classes from day one.
(2) In every relevant class you will have a corresponding lab to try things out hands on. There is plenty of theory, but at Cal Poly you learn it in lecture and then immediately test it in the lab. No other program including the UC’s offered this.
(3) Clubs – nothing short of amazing. As a freshman, my kid was invited to be on the team for the Supermileage Club that took 3rd place nationally at the Shell Echo-marathon in Houston back in March. Cal Poly beat every other California team and almost 50 other competitors from around the country. Where else can a student get a chance to do this so early in his academic career?
(4) The school is very prestigious ranking at the top in its category nationally. Click here: [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.calpolynews.calpoly.edu/rankings.html]Cal”&gt;http://www.calpolynews.calpoly.edu/rankings.html]Cal</a> Poly: National Honors, Ranking and Recognition - A Constantly Growing List<a href=“5”>/url</a> Cal Poly grads are among the most sought after grads in industry. They are also among the highest paid – the highest starting salaries of all California public school grads including UC Berkeley.
(6) Internships, Coops, and Jobs – even in this economy most Cal Poly grads are employed in their majors either at graduation or within 9 months of graduation depending on your interview skills, GPA and accomplishments.</p>

<p>I could go on, but I’ll stop here. If you want to get your hands dirty and really dig into your profession while at school. Check out Cal Poly. If you want to be an experienced engineer at graduation as opposed to being ready to become one do some research on this school.</p>

<p>We were very skeptical at first and Cal Poly was not at the top of our list of schools when we started. But after doing objective research and checking out the all the schools, Cal Poly was the right fit.</p>

<p>Oh yeah, the school is $12K annually cheaper than a top tier UC and less than half the cost of other programs like Harvey Mudd and some of the privates you mention above.</p>