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I was hoping for some suggestions as to where I should apply for college. I plan to major in mechanical engineering, with a minor in robotics. Any responses would be greatly appreciated. My stats are below:

Unweighted GPA: 4.0 -enrolled in toughest courses available (AP and Honors) except for English (academic).
Class rank: 2 of 438
SAT Math: 800
SAT Verbal: 760

SAT II Writing: 800
SAT II Math IIC: 800
SAT II Chemistry: 800

Clubs/ECs:
JV Soccer(9)
Varsity Track(9,11,12)
Cross-Country Skiing(11,12)
National Engineering Design Challenge(9,11,12)
Section Leader Marching Band(9,10,11,12)
Section Leader Wind Ensemble-Honors Band(9,10,11,12)
Section Leader Jazz Band(10,11,12)
Section Leader Summer Theater Production(9,10,11,12)
Tri-M Music Honor Society(11,12)
National Honor Society(11,12)
Certamen Latin Club(9,10)
Work as dishwasher at Nursing Home(11,12) 20 hours a week
Building and Designing Hovercraft for Senior Project
Bausch and Lomb Science Award
National Merit Semi-Finalist
Fairfield Book Award

By Sammywu (Sammywu) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 03:35 pm: Edit

with impressive your stats,

apply anywhere you like

like MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Cornell..etc

By Donomom (Donomom) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 03:43 pm: Edit

CMU would be a good choice. What geographic area, school size, etc are you interested in? Are you interested in staying involved in instrumental music while you're in college?

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 03:58 pm: Edit

I would apply to 8 schools:

Cal-Berkeley
Caltech
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
MIT
Michigan-Ann Arbor
Princeton
Stanford

You are pretty much guaranteed 4 of those 8 schools. The other 4 are reaches for anybody, but I would be surprised if you didn't get into at least 2 of the other 4.

By Sammywu (Sammywu) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 08:06 pm: Edit

how about UIUC

By Piman3141 (Piman3141) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 10:01 pm: Edit

i was looking at MIT, CMU, UIUC, Cornell, and RPI as a safety. About UMich, should I really bother applying. I dont know much about their engineering program. I was really looking for schools in the northeast, so Stanford and Caltech are off the list. Any other suggestions?

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 03:21 am: Edit

UIUC is also awesome. I would certainly apply to them. Michigan is worth applying to. They are ranked among the top 5 in Mechanical (#2 according to the last USNWR) and the campus is quite nice...as is the city of Ann Arbor. Why apply to a safety? If you apply to 8 or 9 schools, at least half of them will accept you. You do not need a safety. The only schools that are "iffy" are MIT, Stanford, Caltech and Princeton. The others will most likely accept you. I can tell you that if you apply to Michigan in the next 3 weeks, you are as good as in. I hope you have already started your Cornell application. Cornell has a two part application that requires the first part to be submitted in September or October at the lastest.

By Rtkysg (Rtkysg) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 03:31 am: Edit

Piman,

Umich's engineering is rated above UIUC, RPI and CMU (except comp. engrg). Hope that answer your doubt.

By 3togo (3togo) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 07:58 am: Edit

I concur with the other posters ... you have done a terrific job and will be an top candidate at all the schools to which you apply. So the questions I have for you are about the fit of the school. Would you rather go to a school that is focussed on science and engineering (MIT, CalTeach, RPI) or a school that has a wider variety of students as cohorts (Stanford, Cornell, Princeton)? Would you prefer a bigger (UMich) or smaller school (Princeton)? Would you prefer rural (Cornell), suburb (Stanford or Princeton), or a city school (Penn)?

You probably are going to be accepted to many terrific schools ... I would suggest thinking about which school fits you best and where you will enjoy the experience the most.

By Nornever (Nornever) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 08:17 am: Edit

really impressive.

By Benzinspeicher (Benzinspeicher) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 08:33 am: Edit

if you're looking into a reputed tech school that's focused on science and engineering and is in the northeast, you have: MIT, RPI, Olin College of Engineering, and that's about it. Here are the positives and negatives of all of them

MIT: best tech school in the world-nuff said

RPI: very well reputed, excellent students (avg SAT score is 1320) yet somehow it's not that tough to get into at all (no clue how that works out lol-i go here); fairly small school, beautiful campus; everything else you can think about a college as a property is something that sucks here-like weather, surrounding city, social life, dorms, and food

Olin College of Engineering-very, very (very x 10^420098 tiny school and avg SAT score of 1500; not well known but is one of the best

By Donomom (Donomom) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 09:34 am: Edit

Olin is very very small. Current student body size is. . . .75 jrs, 75 sophs., 75 frosh. Very hands-on engineering education from the start, quite a few faculty from MIT, four year tuition scholarships for all.

By Testertest (Testertest) on Tuesday, October 05, 2004 - 02:16 am: Edit

Why not apply to all the above mentioned schools? Cost of application is so small in comparison to the tuition and prestige of acceptance to these schools.

Impressive resume, However, it would seem that you should have done your homework; or you are still a bit unsure of yourself to make a decision. There are no right answers and no wrong answers to this problem.

By Klass (Klass) on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 10:20 am: Edit

Piman,

Please check out any/all the colleges on your list at www.studentsreview.com !!!!!!!!!!!!

Real students/grad/alumni, real comments, VERY USEFUL info!

Also at www.princetonreview.com (not necessary to get a username/password to view individual college info.- student comments, etc.)

Our son is also looking at eng colleges for
chem-e. His stats/interests somewhat similar to yours (academics, band, theater, etcetc.), and so he's interested in good eng as well as music minor, or at the least music participation opportunities (so his list encompasses perhaps a bit of different priorities than yours.)

His original list: Carnegie Mellon, USC, Georgia Tech, UMich, UTexas Austin (at our insistence as we are in Texas and chem-e at UT is ranked 5th), Northeastern, Rice.

After checking studentsreview/princetonreview, he
has taken Mich off completely (my bro went there in the 60's. He had said, "Beautiful campus . . . . until around Sept.15-April 15. Gray slush most of the time." Also, Mich apparently offers lots of money, but "not a whole lot to each individual". I'm sure that varies.

CMU, USC, and Geo have moved to the bottom of the list (and may be removed) after reading what REAL STUDENTS' experiences have been at those schools.

However,
it is all in your personal take on the comments.

One alumni wrote on Sept. 3, 2004, "This school is c_ _p!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT GO TO CARNEGIE MELLON!! STAY AWAY! PITTSBURGH S_ _KS AND THE SCHOOL S_ _KS. Don't believe the hype. Bad food, overly expensive for dorm rooms. In the major I was in cr_ _ _ y professors who do not grade objectively - it's more about whether they like you or not; you get a higher grade if they do. C_ _ p, c_ _p, c_ _ p. . . .BEWARE!. . . DO NOT GO HERE! DO NOT GO HERE! DO NOT GO HERE!"

Hmmmm. . . .

By Peggy (Peggy) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 12:00 am: Edit

Hi! I am a lurker in a vareity of threads, especially those considering Engineering. My Son's a sophomore, probably going into Engineering or Computers.

I may be overstepping my boundaries, but the comment about www.studentsreview.com has been on my mind for a couple of days. If I am out of place, please forgive me.

I saw that web site recommended somewhere else and checked it out. It is a blast to read on a Friday night when there is nothig else to do, but I wouldn't use it to pick out a college. Someone recommended not going to MIT because the parties were boring and the girls were ugly. In fact, I seem to remember that that was the major complaint of most schools -- the girls were ugly and stuck up.

Don't go to U of Mich because there are too many rich people. Don't go to RIT because there are too many gays and the winters are too cold. The work at RPI is too hard and the social life s**ks.

While these opinions are very interested, I would take them all with a grain of salt. I would also read a lot of the good ones. The ones that talk about caring profs, challenging school work and the satisfaction of graduating.

OK, back to my little corner . . .

Peg

By Testertest (Testertest) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 03:09 am: Edit

Klass:Piman

My S loves CMU. Also beautiful location-suburban with hugh park next door but 3 miles from downtown Pittsburg. Great transit system.

S is in CIT-ME program. He's smart and deciplined. Got a PT job in sophmore spring semester just by knocking on doors in his department, and which flowed into entire summer. Job happens to be biomechanics related and is in collaboration with PITT's medical school

Student quality is very high. His stats are similiar to your's but everybody's stats are there also. The fine arts school brings down the SAT's but the arts tend not be SAT talent. CMU has a competitive fine arts school. Alot of students participate in the nonmajor fine arts, band/orchestra/theater for relaxation and if time permits.

CMU's undergrad college population is only slightly larger than the graduate population. CMU is very much an international school with extremely high talent level. Classes are taught by the professors.

Students have a guarantee 4 year student housing if you want it, Dorm buildings are much smaller than larger schools and are very near to the class buildings. Because CMU resides next to PITT and in a desirable neighbor-off campus housing is expensive.

Recruiters are currently seeking him as junior for summer 2005. This is not unique but standard. The kids and school is extremely focused to produce very high quality product. The number of recruiters to CMU reflect CMU's success.

As for the student comment from studentreview.com,
is there a school with the perfect food or food program? and did the student expect the Ritz-Carlton? IMO that student didn't do his research or he wants to discourage other people and reduce the level of competition.

By Piman3141 (Piman3141) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 08:37 pm: Edit

dont worry, i ignored everything on that site.

By Piman3141 (Piman3141) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 08:31 pm: Edit

piman bumps!