I will be applying for engineering, but when I tried writing down my list, I had wayyyy too many colleges (most were reaches). Any advice on trimming my list? (Quick stats: ACT 35, SAT 2370, GPA 3.89, not too many impressive ECs)
These are all my reaches only:
UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UC Davis (I was unsure if all of these were reaches or some were matches; I am out-of-state)
Carnegie Mellon
Johns Hopkins
Northwestern
Tufts (is it considered a reach or match?)
NYU (ditto)
MIT, Caltech, nearly all the Ivies
Duke
UPenn
Pomona
CMK
Amherst
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (again, reach or match?)
WUSTL
UChicago
You get the idea…how am I supposed to trim the list down?? It’s so hard!
Some of your schools do not have engineering majors: UChicago, Pomona, Amherst. I’m not sure what CMK refers to. (Claremont McKenna College? If so, this is another school without a direct engineering program.) A public university from your home state should receive consideration. UPenn, btw, belongs with “nearly all the Ivies.”
No financial constraints? No geographic preferences? No distinction between schools that prepare you for research or entrepreneurship in your field vs. those that are more applied? No specific kind of engineering where one program might be better for you than the other? (And yes, it helps to pick schools that offer engineering…) And why ‘nearly all the Ivies?’ Some are much better fits for future engineers than others.
@merc81 @N’s Mom
Yes, my main match is the University of Michigan, where I live. I know it’s got a great engineering program, but I really wanted to go out-of-state. I threw in some LACs because I like the idea but my parents probably won’t go for them. As for financial constraints, my parents have $120,000 saved up and they’ve told me that loans and scholarships will easily cover the rest, so I haven’t really considered that. I want to go into Computer Science/Engineering, so I believe it’s offered at schools that don’t have an engineering program?
Thanks for your help! I am looking into those factors now to narrow my list down! It’s just very overwhelming. 
Have your folks run a few of the NPCs (Net Price Calculators) for various schools. They may be very surprised at what various schools think they can afford to pay. Here’s an example for Pomona: https://npc.collegeboard.org/student/app/pomona
And many schools will give scholarships only to students in the top 25-5% of the class, which means that if you are applying to highly selective schools, you may not see any scholarship money at all. Many explicitly state that they do not give merit scholarships.
And yes, LACs do offer computer science. Many also offer 3-2 programs where you can start the pre-reqs during the first 3 years, and finish an engineering degree at a different school (but you need to pay for that 3d year somehow.)
I love LACs. In fact, I’d only want my kids to go to one of them for undergrad (Ivys are for grad schools in family). When you say that your parents “probably won’t go for them” that indicates that you might need to do a little work to educate them about the value and excellence of LACs and arm them with facts.
See http://time.com/money/3311853/liberal-arts-colleges-top-earning-grads/
For sciences/engineering/computers, consider:
Reaches: Carleton, Haverford, Pomona, Swarthmore
Mid range: Grinnell, Lawrence, Oberlin
Others: Beloit, Kalamazoo, Earlham
Many of those LACs have 3/2 engineering programs. So you attend say CMC for 3 years and then go for two years to Stanford or Columbia. If you can afford it, that’s what I’d do. It’s really the best of both worlds IMO.
http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-college-solution/2010/08/31/3-2-engineering-programs-at-liberal-arts-colleges
Take a look at Harvey Mudd as well. Great STEM-focused LAC with very well regarded engineering and computer science programs. Olin College is a great choice as well. If admitted, half your tuition is guarenteed covered by their merit scholarship.
Amherst has a very small computer science department. Although it is still a valid choice, you may want to consider if you would rather be in a smaller department (perhaps to the detriment of research opportunities) in a school that is not very CS focused or a larger department (like Berkeley) where competition is perhaps higher. Once you decide what exactly it is that you are looking for, it will be easier to weed out colleges on your list that don’t fit your criterion.
So from what you are saying, they are willing to pay $30K/year, and you have to find a way to cover the rest? You can’t borrow very much ($5,500 freshman year, $6,500 soph year, and $7,500 each junior & senior year. Run the net price calculators for the schools on your list, and you will see you still have a pretty sizable gap at most of them unless you are eligible for need based aid. Pretty much none of the schools on your list give scholarships strictly on merit, and those that do are highly competitive and/or not very big amounts.
If you think you may go with engineering, then skip all the schools with 3/2 programs for engineering. Students rarely follow through on them, you have to pay for 5 years for sure, and you have to leave a campus where you have a lot of friends and activities after your junior year. Focus only on colleges that offer engineering as a major.
That said, I grew up in Michigan (and attended Michigan in spite of a desire to go out of state as well). So I get what you are saying about wanting to go out of state. But you honestly can’t beat the engineering education offered at Michigan. And you are lucky enough to get to pay in-state costs for it.
If you really want to go out of state and can come up with more money, I agree that Mudd is a school you should look at. Really strong in engineering & CS. Feel of a small LAC, but with the other Claremont Consortium colleges around it, you get some of the benefits of a bigger school. But that only makes sense if your parents’ will pay more than the $30K or if you are eligible for need based aid.
Here are some ideas to help trim the list…
You need to start taking a look at lifestyle – how do you want to live for four years? There couldn’t be anything more different than NYU and Duke, e.g., in terms of location. One is in the middle of the largest city in the USA and the other is in the middle of nowhere surrounded by trees. Where would you be happier? What do you plan to do besides study computer science/engineering, when you have free time outside of class? Consider all your hobbies and interests, both those you’ve been able to explore already and the ones you’ve dreamed about.
You also have very small and very large universities on your list, which again provide a very different college experience. Places like Michigan have very big alumni groups that proudly fly school colors and wear spiritwear their entire lives, especially during football season, while all that “spirit” is not so much a part of an LAC. Are spectator sports at all interesting to you? Do you really want a college that’s as small or smaller than your high school, where you know everyone, or do you want a place where there are endless people to meet and hundreds of clubs to choose from where you can find your people? Note that even at a large university, there can be a small-college feel if the major is in a small “college” department. You will get to know everyone in the major, all the professors and so on. But you will still remain anonymous walking across campus, and maybe you don’t want that. If you’re at a place like NYU, you’ll be walking across a city surrounded by all kinds of people, not just students, when you go to class. Does that sound more intriguing?
As people have already pointed out, financial constraints can also serve to narrow your list. I can tell you that Minnesota has good scholarships for out of state, but Illinois does not. Also, you won’t get any help from the OOS public California universities, since they don’t have OOS scholarships, so I would just drop those from the list. Are they on there because you crave the weather in California, the culture there, or what? If that’s the case, consider adding Arizona universities to your list, as many Californians go there and it’s sunny, and the universities there are less expensive and have great OOS scholarships. I would look at your parent’s savings as your budget for tuition, room and board, because there will be additional expenses they will need to use those loans for – things like books, car, car/health insurance, travel home, spending money, study abroad, etc. Sure, your parents can afford most of the CA tuition with their savings, but what about the remaining tuition and the $16,000 a year room and board, plus the other expenses? Do you really want them/you to deal with loans when there are so many other affordable options out there?
Also consider whether you want to co-op or not. Many students who study computer science and especially computer engineering will be co-oping, and some universities have good programs for that and others don’t.
For engineering, you’ll want a program accredited by abet.org. You can search for universities on that site. For comp sci, it isn’t as important, but something to consider.
Do you want to study a foreign language in college? If so, look not only at the BA programs, but also BS programs marketed as “international” engineering – many universities offer this as an option, and it simply combines the engineering degree with study in foreign language, and often study abroad as well. Otherwise, a typical engineering program or BS comp sci program will not provide room in your schedule for studying a language. Some universities will even allow you to spend part of your degree program at another university in a different country and get two degrees, one from each university.
Just create a wish list of all the things you want to experience and learn in college, and then look back at your list again and see which universities will help you achieve those goals, that also fit a budget.
@Earthmama68 @intparent The 3/2 programs sound like a great compromise, but I just don’t think we’d be able to afford them, especially at elite institutions. I’ll be looking into them, though, thanks for the tip! Are they something you have to apply directly for, or is that something you decide once you’re at the LAC?
And Harvey Mudd is now on my list as well, so thanks for the heads up, @oreganese (I’ve knocked off a couple others).
@mommyrocks Wow! Thanks so much for the advice! I will be going through the Net Price Calculators with my parents later tonight. I don’t know if I would prefer a smaller or larger school when I’m actually there, to be honest. I went to a small K-12 school and had a great time, then I went to a large high school and had an equally great time…I can see the positives of both. I think the compromise for me would be to be in a small(er) college in a large university? But I think I’d also enjoy being at small LACs. The only problem with that is that my parents, who are immigrants from India (so all they’re thinking right now is Ivy League), believe that prestige & name is everything when going to college. They’ve already seen episodes of Fareed Zakaria where he talks about the benefits of a liberal arts education, but they don’t really buy it. I think it’s because they don’t want to tell our family and friends from India that I’m going to some college no one’s heard of. I’ll try working on it, but it the meantime, thanks for all your suggestions!
I’m not a big proponent of 3/2 programs. Few students who start down that path finish. I’m sure part of that is they don’t want to leave their friends of 3 years before graduation, and then there is the additional year of schooling and costs. I think an honors college in a large U might be the best of both worlds.
@itsmyusername our Indian friends told me that their ethnicity is a hook with LACs, but not with universities for exactly that reason. Their oldest just graduated from Williams and they’re still asking me what the benefit of a liberal arts education is! I love Harvey Mudd. Definitely not your standard LAC. More like a mini MIT exclusively for undergraduates.
Will you need financial aid? If so, that’s another way to pare down your list. Some of those schools are very generous and others not so much.
I’d dump Chicago, Amherst, CMC, all the Univ. Of Californias. Also forget about 3-2 programs. If u can get need aid out of any of the rest, fine. Otherwise go to Michigan or an out-of-state state school with good engineering and nice merit scholarships (Texas tech, Nebraska, Florida state, Kent, ucky, Alabama, Oklahoma, Oklahoma state, Pitt.) Some LAC’s have engineering…Lafayette, Bucknell, Union, Swarthmore.
First, do some campus visits. Big or small? Urban or rural? Preppy or casual? Pure STEM or LAC?
Right now, your net is so wide, you can’t possibly focus on a reasonable set of choices. Remember, you are going to need to write focused essays for each and every one of these schools!
The financial piece needs to be looked at–carefully. Run those NPC’s. Have “the Talk” with parents to make sure that your options are affordable. The worst thing to happen is to work your tush off and get admitted to your dream school and find out you can’t afford to attend.
Take a look at schools that offer merit aid for individuals with your stats. That might make the $120K sufficient in and of itself. Graduating debt-free from undergraduate should be a primary goal.
You have wonderful stats, so you should be able to make a sound, affordable choice for an excellent education.
Good luck!
why do you have amherst on there if you want to do engineering
isn’t swarhtmore a much better option? just curious