<p>Our daughter is that most dreaded thing to be at this point – balanced in her interests. Loves history but also physics and chemistry. Drawn to civil engineering, bridge and highway design, water systems and general infrastructure stuff but is balking at the rigidity of an engineering course of study.</p>
<p>She likes cold weather and is cool with urban, suburban but probably not too rural. </p>
<p>Her stats are such that she’s viable at the tip top schools but could easily get rejected by them all.</p>
<p>sewhappy - When my son applied to UMich it was rolling, but now has moved to EA (which would only be a problem if you were applying to an SCEA school). Even with rolling, UMich did not notify him until January. Merit aid was very good. USC, while not technically rolling, let him know in February that he was being considered for merit aid (a pretty sure indication that he would get in). Again, good merit aid.</p>
<p>My son was also determined to go to someplace cold, but went to USC and fell in love with it. Ultimately went elsewhere, but USC moved from near the bottom of his list to the top three.</p>
<p>sewhappy - FYI, Pitt has a program whereby students can get both a BS in engineering and an Arts and Science degree in 5 years. I have heard of students getting their full tuition scholarship extended an extra year to get that extra degree. Agree with others that Pitt’s rolling admission and generous merit aid offers (usually received by early December) to students with stats for top schools can go a long way in taking the edge off the application process.</p>
<p>Michigan State University offers very good merit aid if you’re good enough to get into their Honors College or score a Proffessorial Assistantship.</p>