<p>I’m looking to major in material science and engineering (nanotechnology)</p>
<p>(arranged in order of my preferences)</p>
<p>MIT
Caltech
Rice
Columbia (Fu School Eng)
Cornell
U of C Berkeley
U of Pennsylvania
UCLA
U of Texas Austin
Penn State
Northwestern
Rutgers State U
Virginia Tech</p>
<p>can you guys help me cut down the list?</p>
<p>Can you give more information about what YOU want? All are good for your intended major. Any location, financial aid, etc. preferences? </p>
<p>Also, your stats are very important for us to know. For a lot of people, you have a lot of reaches.</p>
<p>ahh yes i know i MIT/Caltech etc; is very hard</p>
<p>well i would like financial aid (im an international student btw so that might be difficult to get); i prefer smaller universities ( hence rice). </p>
<p>k lemme post my “stats”</p>
<p>Well, I really really really want to go to Caltech/MIT and will be applying but I don’t expect much from them. I’m looking at Rice as a more realistic school and it seems nice for me. My stats are very very mediocre by CC’s standards… but here goes</p>
<p>Ok, this might turn out to be a pretty long post!
Well guys, I’m an international student from Trinidad & Tobago and I’ve just finished CSEC (O’Levels… they are about grade 10 level work). We have an international school here and I got a scholarship (based on my grades) to go there for two years. So instead of doing the CAPE exams (equivilant to A’Levels), I will be attempting the SATs for the first time this October and will be starting AP’s. I’m going into grade 11 from September BTW.
In grade 11 I would be doing these APs</p>
<p>Physics B
Calc AB
Chem
Stats
and in 2nd year</p>
<p>Biology
Physics C
Calc BC
and i can do whatever i want here (I might do something like world history or economics)</p>
<p>Well thus far my EC’s are</p>
<p>Music: Guitar
Harmonium (indian instrument)
Steel Pan ( trinidadian instrument also known as steel drum)
Swimming (its recreational so i highly doubt it counts at all)
Archery (i just started this)
I also started latin dance classes (rofl!)</p>
<p>When I start the international school I’d be able to do</p>
<p>Steel Pan in the school band
I always wanted to play violin so i might try that
Science club
Math olympiad
Golf
Community service in an orphanaga</p>
<p>So guys, say i do all these EC’s and get say 2100+ on SAT’s and triple 750+ in SAT 2’s and all 5’s on AP’s … how do my chances look. I still have two years so im thinking i have time to “pull up my socks” with respect to my EC’s. (assuming i do the math olympiad well) Oh, also I have gotten awards each year in HS for academics (thats one thing i love about my school!)</p>
<p>right now im getting around 2050 in my SAT practice test but i really wanna get 2100 by october; ill retake them next year anyway~</p>
<p>Cut out at least two from this list:
MIT
Caltech
Columbia (Fu School Eng)
Cornell
U of C Berkeley
U of Pennsylvania
UCLA</p>
<p>They are all reaches for you. The rest look pretty good. Maybe cut out a few from the bottom of your list.</p>
<p>i guess ill cut out UCLA and Berkely from that list then…</p>
<p>what % chance do you think i have at mit/caltech? >_></p>
<p>Yeah, UCLA and UCB are very hard for OOS’s.</p>
<p>MIT/Caltech will be very hard. Definitely try getting as many science ECs that you can. Getting a very high SAT score is VERY VERY important. I’m talking 2250+ to have a decent chance. Especially your math score. As close to 800 as possible is critical. I mean, the 25th percentile for caltech for the Math SAT is 780. =P</p>
<p>If you like smaller schools, why so many giants?</p>
<p>Penn State and Texas are some of the biggest schools in the country.</p>
<p>bump, any more opinions?</p>
<p>ill take off penn state as well from my list</p>
<p>Cornell seems out of place as well as Northwestern.</p>
<p>vin: here is a link to my post in the Engineer Majors board on schools with good programs in nanotechnology</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=367691[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=367691</a></p>
<p>If you really are interested in that subject, and becasue you have very low chances at MIT or Caltech with that sort of SAT score, look at Rice, Louisville, Cincinatti, Arizona State and, yes, Penn State. Also SUNY-Albany and Louisiana Tech.</p>
<p>It is too early to finalize your list. You have not taken the SAT yet, so you really have no idea how competitive you will be at various schools. You should be adding schools of interest, not really deleting. By the end of 11th grade, you should have a firm list, not now. I am also concerned about financial aid. If you really want it or need it, you must make that a top criterion, and you must do as much research as possible on which schools give it to internationals. You must also find schools that are lower cost, in case you don’t get any. (UNC is a lower cost public university that is very highly ranked, for example). Many US public schools are very expensive for out-of-state or international students, but some are reasonable in cost. Being interested in nanotechnology is great, but is a little too specific at this point. Given your need for aid, you may have to be flexible on that one- there is always graduate school. It is easy to get full rides for graduate school in engineering, so your options should be wider at that point if you do well in undergrad. To get aid, you may need to look at some of the respected but less famous schools such as Worchester Polytechnic, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rose-Hulman, RPI, etc.</p>
<p>The 2008 USN&WR rankings for Materials Science and Engineering (based on peer assessment only) looks like this (* denotes a public school):</p>
<p>Undergraduate engineering specialties:
Materials
(At schools whose highest degree is a doctorate)</p>
<p>1 Stanford University (CA)
2 University of California–Berkeley *
3 Massachusetts Inst. of Technology
3 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor *
5 U. of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign *
6 Cornell University (NY)
6 Northwestern University (IL)
8 Pennsylvania State U.–University Park *
9 Georgia Institute of Technology *
10 University of Florida *
11 Carnegie Mellon University ¶
12 Ohio State University–Columbus *
12 Purdue Univ.–West Lafayette (IN)*
14 Univ. of Wisconsin–Madison *
15 University of Pennsylvania</p>
<p>Note that some of the universities listed above are less selective (i.e. easier to get into) than the alternate ones in your personal list. I’d cross for example Caltech (über selective) , Columbia (also very selective), and Rice or UCLA (not really high ranked for Materials Science) and add Georgia Tech, UIUC, Michigan or Carnegie Mellon to your list.</p>
<p>one thing i didn’t add is that i’m also looking at University of Waterloo (in canada)</p>
<p>Keep in mind that if you are in need of financial aid, look at some mid-level public universities as you can be a stand-out academic in that pool of applicants meaning you may be able to get some scholarships/grants.</p>