SATMule

Hi. I am an international student and want to apply for an engineering major, especially engineering physics and mechanical engineering. I've gotten 2180 on my SAT and will retake it in October; I also took a lot of APs like 2 AP Physics C, AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP Statistics and AP Microeconomics with all 5. I am now struggling about which school to apply ED. My ED list currently contains Northwestern University, Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University and Cornell University. I have visited Brown University's compus and really like it but I am a little bit worry about its week engineering departments (according to various rankings). I know Cornell has the best Engineering Physics in America but its rural area and great scale of Greek Life really bother me. Johns Hopkins dual degree program is good, but its engineering is still not as goog as Cornell. I really cannot decide which school to ED.

Also, I wonder whether I can ED to some even better schools like Cal Tech since my SAT has the space to improve.

THX

OperaDad

Do you understand the difference between ED and EA? Carnegie Mellon is ED. CalTech is EA. ED is binding (if you are accepted, you have to go there). EA is not.

Unless you have the ability to pay, ED is not recommended. Best to see where you are accepted, and how much it will cost you (after financial aid) to attend.

Which school to apply ED? That is a personal choice. It should be the one school that is either:

1) your top choice (reach or not); or
2) slightly "reach" where applying ED (or EA single choice) might make a difference.

For my D, I told her to apply EA to all the schools on her list that have EA.

SATMule

Oh, sorry. Thanks for pointing out the ambiguity.

I mean generally, since if I want to EA Cal Tech, I cannot ED other schools anyway. But which is the top school? I should judge from the overall ranking or the specific school/department ranking? And which ranking standard (ex: employment after graduation or rigor of studying)? This is partially the reason I dislike rankings - they are neither too general nor specific to the extent that cannot reflect what I want to see. My problem is that since these universities are approximately about the same, I want to know more about the comparisons among their engineering schools. For example, is Brown University's engineering school really not as good as the others?

OperaDad

There are 5 types of school admissions:
1) Early Decision: you can only apply to one (like Carnegie Mellon)
2) Early Action Single School: you can only apply to one (like Stanford)
3) Early Action not Single School: you can apply to as many of these as you want (CalTech, MIT)
4) Does not have EA/ED (Olin)
5) Rolling admissions: You can apply to as many of these as you want, regardless of the above (State Universities)

Before you decide on which school to apply ED/EAS/EA, you should decide on the schools you want to apply to. Then you can make an informed decision.

> I mean generally, since if I want to EA Cal Tech,
> I cannot ED other schools anyway.

Sort of. If you apply EA to CalTech, then you can still apply EA to any other school (like MIT) that is NOT ED or EA Single School.

ChrisTKD

All of the schools on your list have a very competitive application process. Although your SAT scores are very good you could be wait listed at all of the schools. I think you should also consider public universities that have strong engineering programs. We can debate forever the relative merits of the reputation of the university as a whole versus the engineering college reputation versus the reputation of the specific major. My personal view is that if you are going to give weight to any of the rankings then the college of engineering ranking should take precedence over university or specific major.

Engineering Physics may fall under Engineering Science and Mechanics. The top 5 ranking for this specific major includes several of the schools on your list.

1. Cornell University
2. California Institute of Technology (tie)
2. University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (tie)
4. University of California, Berkeley
5. Stanford University (tie)
5. Virginia Tech (tie)

Note that there may not be any substantive difference that would be noticeable to an undergraduate student between a school ranked 5 and one ranked 20. For example, some rankings include percentage of donations by alumni.

You should also consider Georgia Tech - it's in a city and has a great engineering program both overall and specifically in ME.

ucbalumnus

ED is only appropriate if a school is your clear first choice, and you know that you can afford to attend.

On the other hand, applying early to EA (not restricted or single choice) and rolling admissions schools can be advantageous in that any affordable early acceptance becomes an early safety. If any of the EA schools are restricted or single choice, then you have to decide whether applying EA there is worth applying to some other schools regular instead of EA.