Outdoorsy Schools with Good Engineering

College Search & Lists
1

<p>I’m a rising senior, and so far I have several reaches (Stanford, MIT, Cornell) and safeties (University of Colorado-Boulder and University of Vermont) but no matches.
Location is very important to me, because I love to do things outside (hike, run, ski, bike, etc), so I want to go somewhere probably in the northeast, rocky mountains, or west coast (not too urban or hot/humid).
I’m interested in Engineering, which leaves out most liberal arts colleges. Any suggestions?</p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>Student:</p>

<p>User Name: sberlin
Gender: F
College Class Year: 2013
High School: Public
High School Type: rarely sends grads to top schools (it’s an ok school, but most brilliant kids end up going to schools with full ride scholarships)</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>GPA - Unweighted: 4.00 (we don’t weight, but I’ve taken as many honors/college/ap classes as possible)
Class Rank: top 5 students
Class Size: 160</p>

<p>Scores:</p>

<p>SAT I Math: 790
SAT I Critical Reading: 740
SAT I Writing: 740
ACT: 34
SAT II U.S. History: 700
SAT II Math Level 1 (IC): 760
SAT II Chemistry: 760
AP US History: 5
AP Statistics: 5</p>

<p>Employment:
School District Paid Internship - Technology (summers 2007, 2008)
Medical Office Assistant Secretary (summer 2006)</p>

<p>Leadership positions:
Varsity girls cross-country running team Captain</p>

<p>Athletic Status - list sport and your level: (I train daily all year)
Triathlons: Compete individually, national qualifier
Cross-country running: Varsity, All-Conference (2005-present)
Nordic skiing: Varsity, All-State (2005-present)
Track: Varsity (2006)</p>

<p>Volunteer/Service Work: (I’m not very good on this, don’t have much spare time because of sports)
Global Connections Club
National Honor Society
US Forest Service</p>

<p>Honors and Awards:
Principal’s Honor Roll - 4.0 (every semester)
Wyoming Math Contest State Champion (2006), 3rd place (2007)
Microsoft Certified Professional (2007)
Rotary Club Academic Student of the Month (2005)</p>

<p>College Summer Programs:
University of Colorado-Boulder High School Honors Institute (Engineering) - July 2008
Summer Enrichment Program - U of Oregon (2005)</p>

2

<p>Cornell University
sailing
kayaking
skiing
hiking, especially in the Adirondack Mts. over a weekend. I think Adirondack Park is the largest park in the US.
Winter Olympics were once held in Lake Placid.</p>

<p>active outdoor education program</p>

<p>It is on a hill overlooking Cayuga lake, one of the largest NYS Finger Lakes.
Maybe 90 minutes from Lake Ontario.</p>

<p>One of the best engineering programs in the world.</p>

3

<p>Colorado School of Mines or US Air Force Academy</p>

4

<p>Honestly I would say Cornell is definitely a match and not a reach for you… your stats are great, and you do things which the typical applicants to elite schools aren’t really going (ie, serious athletics vs just being on the track team and doing a bunch of science research you got through connections). You’re also a girl who’s interested in engineering with high SAT scores, and the fact that there simply aren’t many female engineers also plays in your favor</p>

<p>However, I wouldn’t shun many schools just because they’re too “urban”. I’m not sure how you would find time to ski on a regular basis in college unless you’re on the ski team. Some cities are more bike-friendly than others, so I’d suggest really looking into that. Ann Arbor in particular is pretty good as far as biking goes, and UMich engineering is a great program.</p>

<p>Don’t forget that many schools in “city” environments have outing clubs and the like. Here at Brown we have a fairly active one, and Brown isn’t really anywhere near any outdoorsy-type stuff other than the beach. You should look more into schools you just think you would enjoy being at, you’ll find other outdoors-types once you get there</p>

5

<p>Darthmouth, particularly since you seem to be open to the idea of a smaller, LAC-like institution?</p>

<p>[Dartmouth</a> - Campus Life - Athletics & Outdoor Programs](<a href=“Athletics and Recreation | Dartmouth”>Athletics and Recreation | Dartmouth)</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the responses!</p>

<p>Yeah, I’m definitely going to apply to Cornell.</p>

<p>Colorado School of Mines does sound pretty good, and I like that area, had thought about that one</p>

<p>I hadn’t looked much into UMich, but it does have a great engineering program/reputation and not a bad location, and probably merit scholarships, too…</p>

<p>We looked at Dartmouth this spring, and I loved the campus and area, but I’m not sure if I’ll apply because it really did seem liberal-arts focused, and to get a Bachelor of Science degree you had to stay an extra year, which didn’t seem great…but I might just apply anyway, depending on other things</p>

7

<p>^ Michigan has a terrific engineering school but not much in the way of merit aid. You might also look at Wisconsin-Madison and Minnesota, both good engineering programs in locations where it’s easy to do the outdoor rec you want. Especially Nordic skiing, but others too. With your stats both should be easy matches/possible safeties, neither has a cap on OOS admits, and at least at Minnesota they’re doing quite a bit of merit aid these days—don’t know about Wisconsin.</p>

8

<p>Harvey Mudd? It’s probably not as outdoorsy, but they do have intramural sports within the Claremont Colleges besides that it’s really close to the mountains where you can Hike and Ski. Best thing is that it’s a liberal arts college.</p>

9

<p>Cornell University
University of California-Santa Brabara
University of Colorado-Boulder
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
VirginiaTech</p>

<p>With the exception of Cornell, you will probably qualify for some merit money at most of those schools. As Bclintonk said, Michigan is not generous, but with your stats (4.0 unweighed GPA, AP course loand, 34 ACT and 2250+ SAT) you could get quite a bit of merit money. Make sure you apply to Michigan before October 1.</p>

10

<p>Sigh! Another one of these…near perfect SAT’s, gpa and AP scores and “searching for schools?” Sorry…I have a hard time with these threads.</p>

11

<p>^ So do I when the poster’s preferences amount to “Location and size don’t matter, should be prestigious,” but that’s true regardless of how good the stats are, and this is not one of those threads. This poster is looking for a specific set of attributes. No complaints from me.</p>

<p>I’m not sure Harvey Mudd is exactly what you have in mind, but I do think it’s worth looking in to. I wouldn’t go out of my way to call it an outdoorsy school, but I do think it has a fair number of outdoorsy students, and it offers them lots of options (especially, though not exclusively, if they have cars), particularly hiking, climbing, and downhill skiing. </p>

<p>In general, Mudd is rarely if ever a match school, but I think you could very legitimately consider it a match/likely reach. If you took the SAT II Math 2 and scored >750, I believe you’d also qualify for a $10K/year merit scholarship.</p>

12

<p>Regarding Mudd, a car isn’t a necessity for outdoor activities. As long as you plan in advance and can get a group (4 or 5 people, I think) together, you’ll have access to college provided transportation and even funding if your activity is open to others. Plus, the school’s location gives you the opportunity to choose between the beach and the mountains for recreation–although the beach is about an hour drive through LA. </p>

<p>How big of a school environment are you looking for? Although Mudd feels bigger than one would think because of the 5C consortium, it isn’t comparable to Cornell in size. S1 didn’t seriously consider Cornell for that reason, while others would just as readily make the opposite decision.</p>

13

<p>i dont like to come off as a shill for my alma mater, but bucknell is a lac that seems to fit all of your needs.</p>

<p>solid engineering options; smaller school (lac) in a rural area; good outdoor opportunities, generally outgoing, athletic students; and merit aid available for top students with financial need.</p>

<p>it should probably be considered as safe a match as possible and might be a good option to have come april if you decide a larger or more urban school ultimately isnt for you.</p>

14

<p>u got a lot to choose from, that always good.</p>

15

<p>Berkeley! </p>

<p>hiking
biking
sailing</p>

<p>All within a couple miles of the campus.</p>

16

<p>^^ second that. But OP does not have Math IIC score, if she keeps this current setting going in, she’ll be rejected immediately. All Engineering majors require Math IIC.</p>

17

<p>Consider Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. Half an hour from the coast, with lost of beach and hiking activities; an hour or so south of great hiking in the Pinnacles Natioanal Monument.</p>

18

<p>SUNY-ESF if you’re looking for bioprocess/environmental engineering could be a safety. Very outdoorsy</p>

19

<p>I’ll second Alexandre’s suggestion of Virginia Tech. It would definitely be a safety for you and a good safety at that as its Engineering school is outstanding. It is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains with the New River right nearby and tons of acitvities for those kids who love the outdoors (my son had that criterion on his list, too.) You have obviously worked so hard; best wishes to you and your search!</p>