Yeah, I thought about saying STEM, or STEM and Econ, but left it at just Engineering because that’s what those Davis scholars are into (right?).
Anyway, there are pros and cons for both. I’m a “fit” person, so if OP would be more comfy at Rice, that’d be my pick, but the Columbia/NYC draw is enticing too. There’s no “wrong” choice here per se; only a good one and one slightly better for the OP.
@purpletitan No, but I know a decent amount about Columbia SEAS.
I know that getting over a 3.5 gpa in Columbia SEAS is very difficult. The last I heard, the average is close to 3.0 in Fu, so if a 3.9 is plausible at Rice, that tells me a lot.
At Columbia SEAS, you have demanding, time consuming engineering classes, then you have a portion of the core that requires you to compete with students from The College in classes that are often in their specialties, and they are only taking four courses. I would compare it to having the workload of a Northwestern engineering student, and then they decide that when you get your engineering projects done, you have to try to get decent grades in your English and humanities requirements at U of Chicago in classes with the book-nerd squad, only they take fewer classes than you do. That is doubly challenging.
An amazing education, but doubly challenging.
In my experience as a current Yale law student, your engineering degree will be nearly useless unless it comes from MIT, Caltech, or Stanford. With a Rice or Columbia engineering degree, if you worked hard enough, you could maybe swing a law school like Florida State or Texas Tech. You would be better off majoring in polisci, philosophy, or one of countless liberal arts majors. I was once in the same position as you, feel free to DM me if you have any questions.
@gdogg688 I second what you are saying. I went to Stanford and majored in MechE. I had to work my tail off and literally had no social life, but I managed to end up with a 3.9. At Stanford, I was able to intern at Google, and after college, I went to go work for Boeing. There, I found it out it really did not matter where you did your undergrad as my colleagues were from places like Notre Dame and OU, but one of them also did come from MIT. Essentially, you just have to be smart and likeable. I worked for Boeing for 4 years, but then got really bored of my job, so I tried for MBA. I will be attending Wharton next year, but I think MechE did not help me at all. I felt like I barely made it, while there were kids majoring in stuff like communications and polisci who were much more happy with their undergrad life, even though we are ending up in the same place. I had a 760 GMAT score and a long with my resume, I was told that I only got in because one of the admissions officer knew my father. So at the end of the day, you may as well major in anything and be happy if you are thinking graduate school like law or business.
@redgreen243 I feel like you have similar aspirations to me in high school so DM me if you want to ask about how it worked out for me more specifically.
@NashvilletoTexas
Your experiences sound similar to what I would like to have. What led to you being heavily recruited by investment bankers?
I don’t know 
… I got degrees in both EE and Political Science, but I think many of my peers who were also 3.9+ GPA in Engineering without the another degree received equivalent interest. The Rice ethos was big on problem solving and knowledge application – most tests were problems we had never seen before – so I think those who were successful in that environment were attractive to consulting/banking employers.
By the way, it’s been a while, but most engineers found A’s difficult to get in upper level Engineering classes at Rice…no grade inflation at all in my experience. The top students of course were able to get As in near everything, but the majority did not (and of course all came in considering themselves top students.)
Depends on how strong you are in math. Did you score a 36 on the ACT or a 31? (HUGE difference.)
Good friend was Val at Caltech. But he also scored a 1600 in middle school. On the other hand, some of his Caltech colleagues struggled in Calc 1 – all Frosh are required to take it. And don’t forget, Caltech has a bottom quartile of 770 on the Math portion of the SAT.
Yes, Caltech is not Columbia or Rice, but my example is that everyone – including the best of the best – goes in with good intentions, but the pace and competition is a big step up from HS.
You haven’t gone through b-school recruiting yet, so wait until you pronounce your engineering background useless.
There are many post-MBA jobs where your engineering background will indeed be useless, but nobody is hiring a communications major in to a quant role even if they got a Wharton MBA.
@gdogg688: Same goes for you. PoliSci majors aren’t going in to patent law. Speaking of which, isn’t that one of the few legal fields where the future actually looks bright?
@bluebayou
I would say I am moderately good at math. I scored a 31 on ACT math (but I think I really was 34 quality, I averaged a 34 on the practice tests I took and for some reason couldn’t get that in real life) and a 5 on my AB calculus exam. But I realize that there are people far better than me at my age. Anyone who did well in Mathcounts is probably better than me. My only excuse for not being better is that I come from an underprivileged background.
In terms of going from hs to college, I think that I will face some difficulty. I can ace any test that is a variation of homework problems I did, but if the test is much more advanced than the toughest homework problems I did then I will have trouble (so my math skills at this point are basically glorified memorization). I have been told I know what I need to know to do well at application problems, but most of the time I just can’t figure out how to apply what I learned through studying. So I guess so far, I have only been good at math I memorized (did well on achievement test of AP but not so well at application test of ACT). This makes me worried for the tests that @NashvilletoTexas describes.
Does this mean that even with hard work (like @YiStanford09 described) I am not likely to be at the top of my class or ready for the switch to college? Hopefully that the engineering physics 1 class I am taking this summer will prepare me for this.
If you got a 31 on your math ACT and struggle with test that are “new stuff” rather than variations of homework problems, then I think that you are correct that your will have trouble being at the top of your class at any top engineering school. No shame in that…it’s just that’s what “top” means…most people won’t be there. Something to consider in your college choice I guess…how important is to you to be in the top 5 or 10%…if it’s very important then you may want to look at slightly less competitive schools. Being ready for college and being ready to be top of your class are not the same thing.
Not to say that you couldn’t end up being at the top anywhere, but my experience is similar to @bluebayou … I had a perfect 800 on my math SAT and that was normal for me on standardized tests. That’s not bragging, just pointing out that there are many people like me at these top schools for whom math comes second nature, which makes excelling in STEM coursework that much easier. Rice shows that the middle 50% had an ACT composite of 33 - 35, and Columbia is a 32-35, so even at your best you are middle of the pack at these schools. Again, no reason to panic, but go in with your eyes open, which it sounds as if it is exactly what you are trying to do.
What should I write in my LOCI if I have no significant improvement or change in my honors and etc, Please help, I am desperate!!! I didn’t apply to any safety school, so this is my last chance.
@futureleader14 No need to post this question in every thread that mentions Rice. My answer is probably there is nothing you can do at this point that will have the result you hope for. It’s time to start spending more energy on capturing what opportunities are left for you at this point than staying fixated on the one you wanted but didn’t get.
The silver lining is that what you may learn from this in your first year out of high school – about making decisions and their consequences, especially when hoping that everything will just work out – may actually be of more help to your future success than what 90% of incoming Freshman will learn in their studies.