<p>I'm looking to go into business or computer engineering/computer science, and I'm slightly leaning towards the computer side of things, but mostly I'm undecided. I would like to go to a school that is strong in both, but considering I might decide which I want to do before I say which college I'm going to, I could also apply to different colleges that can do one or the other.</p>
<p>As for atmosphere, I tend to like smaller, nerdier schools. So far, my favorite social atmospheres have been Harvey Mudd and MIT. I don't like bigger schools, but I accept that I will find people I can socialize with at those schools, so it's not a total lost.</p>
<p>As for cost, I don't exactly have a problem getting the money, but if it's a really expensive school (like over 45k or something) I do start needing to take out minor loans, which I'd rather not do. But for schools like these safeties, I could probably get some merit-based scholarships (if they have them). If it's really cheap (like UC cheap) then my parents will pay for 1 year of grad school if I go, which is nice.</p>
<p>My current safeties:
RPI
Penn State
Cal Poly SLO
UCSB
UCI
UCSC</p>
<p>I need to narrow these down to a few. Which do you think are best?
And I'm tired of looking up colleges, so please don't mention new colleges unless you REALLY think I should look at them. Thanks for responses :)</p>
<p>What are your stats?</p>
<p>You’re instate for the UC’s right? do you have assured admittance into one of the lower UCs?</p>
<p>Do you mean the top 9% admitted get into a UC automatically? Yes, according to the calculator on the UC website I’m well within range. And yes, I’m in state.</p>
<p>I meant more which are good safeties for what I want to do, not for what I can get into easily, but here are some stats anyways:</p>
<p>Best SAT 1 sitting: 790 math, 750 writing, 640 reading
Superscore: 790 math, 750 writing, 670 reading
SAT II Math II: 800
SAT II US History: 710 (I hope to hide this if I can)
SAT II Physics: taking in October, I think I can get an 800, if not I should get at least 750</p>
<p>Cumulative unweighted GPA: 3.93 (my school is especially rigorous and is often compared to private schools, I believe this gives me a slight edge and is why my GPA isn’t great)
Weighted: 4.32 (this is off of memory, might be inaccurate)</p>
<p>Total APs: 7 (8 AP tests, because 2 are taken for physics, and my school offers many APs but mostly for upperclassmen, so it is hard to take a lot)
AP scores so far: US History (5), Statistics (5)</p>
<p>If you want anything else, just ask.</p>
<p>What I meant is do you qualify for ELC? I think you have to be top 9% ??? Don’t remember.</p>
<p>Since it sounds like you do, then be sure to apply to some lower UCs so that you can have a safety there.</p>
<p>You have a 1430 M+CR from one sitting…and a 1460 super scored. The Writing doesn’t often count for much.</p>
<p>Since you have Mudd and Mitt, I guess that techie schools are ok? Are you ok with unbalanced male/female ratios?</p>
<p>How about URoch?</p>
<p>Okay, thanks for the info. But I’m mostly just trying to narrow down these schools to just a few safeties. Do you by chance know anything about these schools? Maybe, which would be good fits as safeties for me?</p>
<p>Why Penn State? It’s not nerdy or small. </p>
<p>I think URoch would be better for you…it’s kind of unique.</p>
<p>Penn State has very good engineering and business for a school that easy to get into, and it’s cheap, which is nice.</p>
<p>I will look up URoch.</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>How is Penn State cheap??? it’s rather expensive…$45k per year.</p>
<p>Thank you for pointing this out to me. I was basing it off of the US News tuition price, but I didn’t realize that was only tuition. In which case Penn State does make little sense. My list is one shorter, thank you.</p>
<p>Except a place like RPI is still $15k more expensive, which is a lot to pay for just a better social atmosphere, especially if it’s just a safety school. Penn is slightly more pricey than the UCs, but from what I’ve gotten it’s better than most of the lower ones.</p>
<p>But what if RPI offers you 15K or 20K in merit aid? You can’t really predict that so easily. Why do you need to narrow down this already short list? What other schools did you consider and reject? CMU, Case Western, Northeastern, BU, WPI, JHU…there are lots of schools that have business/CE/CS so I don’t see how Penn State in particular bubbled up to the top for a kid from California?</p>
<p>I agree to remove Penn State. Not worth the extra price over UC’s. UC’s are just one application so no reason to weed those out.</p>
<p>These are only my safeties. CMU is a match or a reach-match. My other schools:
MIT
UPenn
HMC
CMU
WUSTL
Cornell
U Michigan
UCSD
UCLA
UC Berkeley</p>
<p>I suggested URoch because it’s good with merit for high stats, so your cost would be more in line with your budget.</p>
<p>PSU wouldn’t be worth paying that much for…but URoch would be.</p>
<p>UMich is going to cost you $53K+/year. If Penn State was too expensive then so is UMich. Go to the Financial Aid forum and look through the stickies at the top. There are some school like Alabama which will offer some excellent scholarship $ to you.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if this makes any sense, but I’m not willing to pay as much to go to a safety school as I am to a match or reach. UMich is a low match, and it honestly has great education for how easy it is to get into. The social situation is just about the worst it can get, but it’s okay because of the education. Also, my brother’s there and he likes it. And he’ll be there my freshman year.</p>
<p>I tend to avoid conservative states like Alabama. I’m only considering WUSTL because it’s supposed to be a liberal school, albeit in a conservative state. If you know good schools like that in Alabama that have good education for what I’m interested in, then that would be cool.</p>
<p>If you want something smaller - take a look at Lafayette - excellent science and business in an LAC. It may not be a safety but check it out anyway.</p>
<p>Lafayette is small but the OP said he really likes “small and nerdy”, so how about WPI instead? It competes with RPI a lot for students and is priced about the same. You would likely get merit aid though it is hard to predict how much.
[Innovate</a> Everything - WPI - YouTube](<a href=“Innovate Everything - WPI - YouTube”>Innovate Everything - WPI - YouTube)
<a href=“https://www.wpi.edu/index.html[/url]”>https://www.wpi.edu/index.html</a></p>
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<p>University of Alabama campuses in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham are in a Democrat-leaning House of Representatives district (AL-07).</p>
<p>In contrast, Penn State - University Park (one of the other schools in your list) is in a Republican-leaning House of Representatives district (PA-05). Note that many parts of Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are quite conservative.</p>