<p>criteria:
good, preferably D1 athletics
green/earthy campus
wide selection of majors and programs
good with financial aid
co-op/internship opportunities </p>
<p>so far, i’ve come up with cornell, but my list isn’t too extensive beyond that.</p>
<p>i also want to be able to pursue liberal arts - electives in history, politics, language, etc. - during my stay, but i assume this is possible at most colleges.</p>
<p>thank you!</p>
<p>For engineering majors offered, you can use [ABET</a> -](<a href=“http://www.abet.org%5DABET”>http://www.abet.org) to check.</p>
<p>Yes, humanities and social studies will be offered, since ABET accreditation requires that some course work in those subjects is required of students.</p>
<p>i didn’t know about that aspect of ABET accreditation - thanks!
were you an engineering major at cal?</p>
<p>What are your stats? Do you want need based or merit aid? What state are you from?</p>
<p>in short,
roughly top 5-10% with a 2230 SAT I - no SAT IIs yet
will have 8-9 APs by graduation (3 as a junior, 5-6 as a senior)
well-rounded four-year ECs with some leadership but nothing crazy
top MA public school
i want primarily need based aid, but merit would be good, too. i know some of the most selective schools stray away from merit, though.</p>
<p>Top selective schools don’t give merit aid. For the most part they also don’t have D1 athletics. With those scores you could get great merit aid at Alabama and, if you’re NMF, Oklahoma. Most good engineering schools with D1 athletics are large public Us which generally don’t offer FA to OOS students.</p>
<p>For reaches: Cornell, Columbia, Harvey Mudd, Penn.</p>
<p>Match: USC</p>
<p>Safety: UMass Amherst</p>
<p>Take a look at Lafayette College</p>
<p>[Undergraduate</a> Catalog | UConn](<a href=“http://www.catalog.uconn.edu/engr.htm]Undergraduate”>Undergraduate Course Directory | Undergraduate Catalog)</p>
<p>[Rankings</a> | University of Connecticut](<a href=“http://uconn.edu/rankings.php]Rankings”>http://uconn.edu/rankings.php)</p>
<p>[Merit</a> Scholarships:: Undergraduate Admissions :: University of Connecticut](<a href=“http://admissions.uconn.edu/scholarships/scholarships.php]Merit”>http://admissions.uconn.edu/scholarships/scholarships.php)</p>
<p>Check out UCONN’s School of Engineering</p>
<p>uconn and umass should be good safeties for merit. i’d like to focus on finding more matches/low reaches that are good with need-based aid.</p>
<p>thoughts:
tufts?
duke?
hopkins?
northwestern?
vandy?</p>
<p>If the student needs a lot of aid, then I don’t know if UMass is his safety. Sure, he’ll get in, but he may get gapped or have an unaffordable EFC.</p>
<p>RM…what is your situation?</p>
<p>Are you low income?</p>
<p>Or does your family have a good income?</p>
<p>How much will your parents pay each year?</p>
<p>i’m middle-class - sorry, i don’t know any of the specific numbers</p>
<p>Talk with your parents to find out what they are willing to pay. Run an EFC calculator to find out what your FAFSA EFC is. For schools that meet need you’ll have to go to their web sites to run their Net Price Calculator because each will treat your finances differently.</p>
<p>i plan on only applying to schools that meet need, besides a potential merit safety.</p>
<p>how’s this quick list? my main concern lies in my list’s being too reach-heavy.</p>
<p>Cornell ED, UPenn, USC, Duke, Northwestern, UMass</p>
<p>If you are certain that UMass will admit you and be affordable (try the net price calculator with your parents), and you would like to attend it if it were your only acceptance, then it is a true safety. If these conditions are not true, then you need to find one or more true safeties.</p>
<p>I agree, too reach-heavy. But keep them all on your first-pass list. Any advice from your guidance counselor?</p>
<p>You can start by going through the Division 1 NCAA list and look for engineering schools, than narrow down by your other criteria. Over time, your criteria may shift…
[NCAA</a> Members By Division](<a href=“http://web1.ncaa.org/onlineDir/exec/divisionListing]NCAA”>http://web1.ncaa.org/onlineDir/exec/divisionListing)</p>
<p>Any geographical preferences? Is an urban campus OK if it has green spaces?</p>
<p>Someone mentioned Tufts - not a safety, and not Division 1, and doesn’t give merit aid, though does strive to meet need.
-Syracuse?
-Union? (probably a target not a safety, has good balance with liberal arts, but may only be Div1 in hockey?)
-Clarkson - would be easy target school for you, but again may only be Div1 in hockey(?), very green/earthy campus (in the boonies though). </p>
<p>The combination of Div.1 with engineering and a safety is what might be tough…</p>
<p>[RIT</a> - Office of Financial Aid - Scholarship & Grants](<a href=“http://www.rit.edu/emcs/financialaid/table_merit.html]RIT”>http://www.rit.edu/emcs/financialaid/table_merit.html) Merit </p>
<p>[RIT</a> Undergraduate Admissions - Co-op and Careers](<a href=“http://www.rit.edu/emcs/admissions/catch-the-spirit/learning-at-rit/53-co-op-and-careers]RIT”>http://www.rit.edu/emcs/admissions/catch-the-spirit/learning-at-rit/53-co-op-and-careers) Co-op </p>
<p>Take a look at RIT (NY) although it probably will not fulfill your requirement for big D1 sports teams.</p>
<p>i’ve revised some criteria and come up with this list, today. my GC and I roughly categorized the list:</p>
<p>Princeton
Cornell
Penn
Duke
Northwestern
UVA</p>
<p>Villanova
Vanderbilt
UMichigan
UMaryland</p>
<p>UMass</p>
<p>we chose schools with which my high school’s alumni have had great success, in terms of admissions</p>
<p>Not to add another reach to your list, but I’m surprised Stanford hasn’t come up. It definitely matches all your criteria well, so I’ll give a plug for it:</p>
<p>-good, preferably D1 athletics - Stanford’s generally regarded as the best D-I athletics school, has placed first in the Director’s Cup for all-around athletic excellence for the past 17 years, has the most NCAA individual championships (465), second-most team championships (107) and the most in the past 25 years, etc.</p>
<p>-green/earthy campus - the campus is known for its integration of natural landscapes and academic buildings, with some 43,000 trees on campus, between the SF Bay and the Pacific, next to the Santa Cruz Mountains, has an arboretum, a 1200-acre nature preserve, etc.</p>
<ul>
<li>wide selection of majors and programs - it has a reputation for having great academic breadth and depth, with all but one department rated in the top 5 by US News (civil engineering was #6 but made the top 5 before), nearly all in the top 5 or 10 by NRC, ARWU, QS, etc., which are available for perusal online. It’s also the only university in the world to be in the top 5 across all broad disciplines ranked by THE, and was recently rated #1 in the humanities overall, so you’d be studying in a top department no matter what you decide to pursue.</li>
</ul>
<p>-good with financial aid - aid for middle-income families is especially strong and would be considered ‘merit-aid’ at most schools: no-loan financial aid, free tuition for those making under $100k (making Stanford cheaper than most public schools), reduced tuition for those making up to $200k.</p>
<p>-co-op/internship opportunities - tons of these, whether for research (grants of $6,000 from the university for 10 weeks of on-campus research are relatively easy to get), industry work (being at the heart of Silicon Valley helps, but lots of students also intern in finance, government, etc.), or public service (the Haas Center is very well-respected and has all kinds of fellowships, grants, and programs, during the summer or school year)</p>
<p>And of course, it perennially ranks #2 in engineering after MIT.</p>
<p>Stanford’s a reach, but it arguably matches all your criteria better than any of the schools currently on your list.</p>
<p>don’t get me wrong - I’d love to go to Stanford - i feel that it’s just unrealistic, in my opinion.</p>