<p>Thank you guys for the heads up, I actually learned a couple things that I didn’t know, as for boneh3ad’s response, I have to say that I never said that I could have a secure spot for MIT or Caltech, and yeah, I have more than just a scholarly background, I am naturally keen to my field of study and literally all of the sciences and math out there and I am well aware of the competition that is why I just said at most, I had a good chance, but it is seriously not that important as the question at hand is asking which school is the best one terms of the criteria that i am looking for. Sorry for not stating this before but I am interested in both the theoretical and practical side of engineering, theoretical alone will only get you so far, (example learning how to play a violin just by only reading about it- don’t get me wrong, I am not stating however that theoretical is in anyway inferior, just that you could never substitute the practical with the theoretical only and actually being better off) </p>
<p>and I don’t base my decisions on US News rankings, but those rankings do tell you as a matter in fact how successful their departments are to the general public and how well known they are, (for example, not many people from the entire nation know that Caltech is a successful school, especially when it comes down to applicants from Caltech that are applying for law school or medicine, so if there are two applicants and one is from MIT and the other one is from Caltech and everything else equals, in terms of reputation and the weight that the MIT name carriers as opposed to Caltech, of course the employer would choose the MIT applicant, perhaps in the science department that would be a different story, but you get the idea form where I’m coming from) and I also stated that “Even if you believe that I am not cut out for MIT or Caltech, for the sake of answering this question and many others who might ask the same thing, which of these schools or combination of schools (with an order) should I consider taking that best integrates the field of studies that I want to pursuit?”</p>
<p>So I just want to know my best options right now so that I may know the best possible school to go for my degree and career (and of course to get an education :D) so that I may better prepare myself and actually build up to one goal to increase my chances, and when it comes to competitions (such as scholarships, boys state, boys nation, and many others) i’ve always been selected first place, for the field that I’m interested in I believe I have a really strong and unique background to say the least (not that there are many others that might say the same, but this is again really irrelevant as to answering the question)</p>
<p>But aside form all else, I thank you for the searching methods you provided me bonh3ad, I’ll get started right away as this decision isn’t going to be a quick one, but one that takes serious time I suppose to find an effective solution, and to everybody else as well, I thank you again. Everyone’s input provided me vital information that I would not have been aware of otherwise. Again THANK YOU, from behalf of everyone (including me) that you guys have helped out and continuously changed the life’s of. </p>