Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

I am interested in studying either electrical or mechanical engineering at an excellent school. I've visited Dartmouth (invited to visit by swim coach...not sure how significant this is), Penn, Georgia Tech (loved it), and U of Florida. I'm a rising senior and these are my stats so far:
IB student in large, competitive public school
3.75 UW GPA, 4.2 W
1460 SAT I (700 V, 760M, one try)
SAT II - 700 Physics, 690 Writing, 680 Math 2C (will retake in Oct.)
Solid ECs - Varsity swimmer 4 yrs, team captain 2 yrs, many swimming awards, Habitat for Humanity 300+ construction hours, NHS chapter chairperson for Habitat, math club, ASME design contest winner, soccer referee...

Looking for suggestions for reaches, matches, and safeties. Thanks!

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 12:42 pm: Edit

Well, MIT, Stanford, Ca-Berkeley are the top 3 schools of Engineering and all three are within your reach.

Reaches:
MIT
Stanford (excellent swimming)
Cal-Berkeley (excellent swimming)
Princeton

Matches:
Cornell
Michigan-Ann Arbor (excellent swimming)
Illinois-Urbana Champaign

Safeties:
Georgia Tech
Purdue-West Lafayette (excellent swimming)
Wisconsin-Madison
Texas-Austin (excellent swimming)

Other decent programs of Engineering include Columbia, Rice and USC (excellent swimming).

If you are more interested in a LAC atmopshere:

Reach:
Harvey Mudd
Swartmore

Match:
Rose Hulman Institute of Technology

By Rtkysg (Rtkysg) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 02:18 pm: Edit

Reaches:
MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Berkeley
For MIT & Caltech you also need to raise your SAT I score if possible

Matches:
Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Gatech, Harvey Mudd, Illinois, Michigan Ann Arbor

Safeties:
Purdue, UT Austin

By Bunmushroom (Bunmushroom) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 02:21 pm: Edit

MIT Stanford Cal and Cal Tech are top engineering schools.

Stanford is the best at swimming and overall athletics

By Flstudent (Flstudent) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 03:25 pm: Edit

Thanks for the input. At the moment I'm considering:
Reaches - MIT (super reach), Cornell, Rice
Matches - GA Tech, U Michigan
Safeties - U Florida
I'd love to consider Stanford and Duke, but most of the kids in my town with similar stats were turned down cold. I don't think I should have so many reaches. I'll check out Purdue and UT. I'm a good swimmer, but not a great swimmer. If I swim in college, Division 2 or 3 is probably best for me. What do you think about these choices?

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 03:50 pm: Edit

I would certainly look at Wisconsin-Madison, Texas-Austin and Purdue-West Lafayette. Cornell will be a match for you. Your SAT score is about 30 points above their mean. Don't forget about Cal-Berkeley...they are awesome. And don't give up on Stanford. Their mean SAT score is 1460. You are in the ball park. Forget about Cal Tech, it has to be the worst undergraduate atmosphere!

I would apply to:

Reaches (apply to 3):
MIT, Rice Stanford, Cal-Berkeley

Matches:
Michigan-Ann Arbor, Georgia Tech and Cornell

Safeties (apply to 3:
Florida, Purdue, Wisconsin and Texas

By Flstudent (Flstudent) on Saturday, July 17, 2004 - 10:39 pm: Edit

These lists are terrific! I'll start checking sites immediately. Which of the schools you listed have the best atmosphere for undergrads? I realize this is very subjective, but I value your opinions. Thanks again for your time.

By Rtkysg (Rtkysg) on Sunday, July 18, 2004 - 01:08 am: Edit

Well Alexandre , I'm by all mean not against you, but I'm just curious as why you think Caltech has the worst undergraduate atmosphere.

I think it's a subjective view. For example, a hardcore tech would love to learn new technical things/research and Caltech become the best place for this (may even be better than MIT for its 3:1 ratio). Actually, I was very happy spending my 3.5 years at Caltech. Now, on the other hand, some people may not be interested at laid back school like Michigan or Texas Austin. I'm not saying particularly for Flstudent case eitherway.

I heard your friends have had a hardtime at Caltech. Well, it doesn't mean that the school is bad. There're two possibilities, your friends are not hard-core techie. Or, sorry to be harsh, your friend is not up to Caltech's standard. In anyway, Caltech has given out its rigorous image before your friends went to College. I hardly see that the blame is at Caltech.

Sorry, may be I sound defending my alma meter too much. But I don't think your judgement is fair.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Sunday, July 18, 2004 - 05:18 am: Edit

I have known only 7 people who went to Cal Tech (6 of which were classmates of mine in High School) and they all hated it, without exception. They were all hardcore techies mind you, but 7 for 7 speaks volumes. I must make clear that the students do not hate the school. In fact, they are very loyal to the school. Indeed, Cal Tech is an awesome university. But they hated the fact that they could do nothing but study, and even then it was usually not enough. None of them dated, none of them socialized outside of their study groups and none of them got to slow down and explore/broaden their horizons.

The 7th person I know that went to Cal Tech is a fellow Lebanese. He is a prodigy. He graduated from the American University of Beirut with a BSE in Electrical Engineering at the age of 16 (SIXTEEN). He then went to Cal Tech and got his PhD. at the age of 21 (TWENTY ONE). He then joined the faculty at the University of Michigan where he finally got his tenure at the age of 27!!! The guy is a freak. But he also commented on how little Cal Tech undergrads "lived".

By Rtkysg (Rtkysg) on Sunday, July 18, 2004 - 07:35 am: Edit

Hmmmm, but are your Lebanese friend would have regretted his choice if he had gone to Caltech for undergrad study? True, that many Caltech undergrads don't dated (count me in for my gf was at Cornell), but I guess it doesn't mean your college years are ruined, does it?

When we have this 'ditch days', we all very passionate to apply our tech skill to make surprises, and some of my friends at Chess club spend much of their time at Chess, long enough for them to go to LA, pick their dates, and went back to the dorm everyday should they wanted. You see, many of us are used to that kind of living. Frankly speaking, if we are consistent with the study, average 5 hours a day (including weekend) should be enough to tackle the lesson. And we still have many times left to do our hobbies.(well, dates is not a popular one around, but they do have their free times). Furthermore, I don't know whether you consider this, but Caltech's students can choose 4-5 subject per quarter, yet still many of them choose to take the maximum allowed of 6 subjects.

One last side note, I'm actually an international student, and I'm at first quite taken aback with relief to realize that most of top US universities are quite relax compared to Asian top universities. For example if you pick any of these: Korean Inst. of Tech., Kyoto U, Tsinghua Uni., Taiwan Uni., Nat. Uni of Singapore, Indian IIT, you will find out that all of them have the intensity of Caltech/MIT rigor. In fact for me, Caltech's 5-6 quarterly subjects hardly gave me a surprise.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Sunday, July 18, 2004 - 08:03 am: Edit

Rtkysq, I now understand your obsession with rigor! LOL I know IIT well. Their dropouts excell at MIT! LOL

FlStudent, quality of life is way too subjective. I can tell you that Ann Arbor is an awesome town if you don't mind relatively cold winters. Wisconsin, Stanford and Texas also have great quality of life. Cal-Berkeley and MIT are a little bit harsher, but Cambridge/Boston and Berkeley/San Francisco are delightful and academics at MIT and Cal are not quite as tough as they are at Cal Tech. I also heard that Georgia Tech is alright.

If I had to rate quality of life, I would go with:

#1 Michigan, Wisconsin, Texas, Stanford
#5 MIT, Cal-Berkeley
#7 Georgia Tech, Rice
#9 Cal Tech

By Baltodad (Baltodad) on Sunday, July 18, 2004 - 09:52 am: Edit

Look into U of Maryland, UVA, Virginia Tech, and Clemson. All good schools for engineering and sports. All except UVA would be safties for you.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Sunday, July 18, 2004 - 10:21 am: Edit

I believe we forgot Northwestern. Another great university with solid Engineering.

By Alongfortheride (Alongfortheride) on Sunday, July 18, 2004 - 11:09 am: Edit

Alexandre, you suggest to many out of state students that they attend UT-Austin, are you aware that only 2.5% of the freshman class will be composed of out of state and international students? Those are pretty long odds, therefore making UT a reach school - not a safety - for any out of state student. Those stats are from the mouth of the UT counselor that served as my son's contact, and that was the information given at the admissions session during our day at UT. The school has 5,000 undergrad engineering students, will accept around 1,000-1,500 freshmen. That means there will be about 25-35 spots open for out of state and internationals.

Also, the engineering school has been partially exempted from the 10% rule because of available spaces in the classes. Seventy-five percent of the spaces in the classes are filled using a rolling admissions processes. Popular majors like electrical engineering typically only accept students graduating in the top3-4% of their class. The other 22.5% of spots for in state students are reserved for those students that weren't top 3-4% but had outstanding applications. Same goes for business and communications. Those are long odds for anyone.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone to apply there. Honors engineering there was my son's safety. Just wanted to set the record straight.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Sunday, July 18, 2004 - 11:29 am: Edit

Thanks for the update Alongfortheride. I was not aware. Back when I was applying to college (12 years ago), Texas was a safety. I was under the impression that 1400+ on the SAT was pretty much a guarantee. But if only 2.5% of Texas' Freshmen class will be from out of state/international, I would have to agree that UT would be more like a reach than a safety. Still, it is worth applying to. Great academics, awesome college town and good weather. Can't beat that!