Which schools on my list seem out of place?

Colleges & Universities Stanford University
1

<ol>
<li>Stanford
I know I love Stanford for its engineering, its athletic nature, and its location. And for a bunch other stuff.</li>
</ol>

<p>I have 15 other schools on my list and today someone told me its too many.
Here they are, which ones seem out of place from my whole list, and very unlike Stanford?</p>

<ol>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Rice</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>UPenn</li>
<li>Vanderbilt</li>
<li>UMich</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>USC</li>
<li>Uconn</li>
<li>RPI</li>
</ol>

2

<p>that is kinda what YOU are supposed to do…
deciding what schools to apply to is kinda part of the college application process…</p>

<p>but to help out, these are my opinions:
northwestern-similar in many ways but not as athletic
MIT-definitely not athletic
Cornell-different caliber school
Rice-i dont know enough about rice
Columbia-very different-rigid structured undergrad programs
johns hopkins-i dont really know what my opinion is (in terms of fitting or not) but its a great school
Princeton-i have thought about this for hours because i was between the 2 schools, and they are very different
UPenn-pretty similar in many ways although engineering isnt the main focus at Penn, and sports isnt that big
Vanderbilt-different caliber school, but i dont know enough
UMich-very different type school, not as academically known for undergrad (but great for grad)
UCLA-dont know enough
USC-i think its similar
UConn-extremely different school…
RPI-very techie but not athletic</p>

<p>my opinion doesnt really matter. what matters is what type of school you want. then learn about the school, and see whether they are the types of schools you would want to go to.</p>

3

<p>

I know…this is the list I was originally set on doing. There are great things about all of these schools I like. But I was told I definetley need to be more picky, and shorten it down.</p>

4

<p>This is very similar to the list I had at some point and I’ll say what I did and what, in retrospect, I should’ve done.</p>

<ol>
<li>Northwestern (didn’t apply, because i was within running distance, but should have)</li>
<li>MIT (applied, but probably shouldn’t have. seems way to math/science centric and not good enough athletically for my tastes, especially now since I’m pursuing things like political science and film).</li>
<li>Cornell (applied, got waitlisted, never really did much research but it seemed a cool place)</li>
<li>Rice (applied, got in, was going to attend until I got into Stanford. this place is awesome and very comparable to the Stanford undergrad experience it seemed). </li>
<li>Columbia (didn’t apply, but it seems cool if you like the area it’s in. I wasn’t too into cities then but I’ve gotten over that now so maybe I’d apply).</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins (seemed similar academically to schools like Rice and Northwestern and stuff, but I don’t know I just never considered it).<br></li>
<li>Princeton (applied, got rejected. Seems like a good place for engineering).</li>
<li>UPenn (never applied, because I don’t think the engineering is that strong).</li>
<li>Vanderbilt (never applied, because I didn’t think it was academically strong enough for me)</li>
<li>UMich (applied, accepted, and was going to attend over a cheaper UofI for engineering because I liked the feel of the campus and student body better)</li>
<li>UCLA (didn’t apply, idk didn’t seem academically strong enough in engineering for me)</li>
<li>USC (ditto)</li>
<li>Uconn (ditto)</li>
<li>RPI (ditto, even though I got offer to play golf there)</li>
</ol>

<p>So I’d cut RPI, UConn, USC, UCLA, Vandy, and JHU. That’s just me, though. I bet a few of the later ones were safeties, right? Well, you can always apply to Umich “early” if you think you have good chances there, then if you get in there you could probably cut your list down to 11-12 at that point. </p>

<p>At some point you may have to decide whether strong general academics is better or strong engineering is better. Because say you were choosing between UMich, and like Penn or something, which isn’t as well known for engineering, that’s a dilemma you’d face. If you figure out that question now, you may be able to eliminate a few more schools from the list and possibly add in others.</p>

5

<p>Ok, thanks very much Senior099, good suggestions. Congratulations on the Stanford acceptance (my dream at this point in life).</p>

<p>

Well that’s a tough question. I don’t even understand what makes strong engineering strong engineering. I mean, I am looking for balance and a decent liberal arts curriculum/humanities in addition to engineering. Can you help me answer this question?</p>

<p>

Yes they are safeties, and obviously not exactly what I’m looking for. But are you saying safeties really aren’t important, and a good way to shorten your list is to get rid of them? And I want to do Stanford REA, so I wouldn’t be able to do that. Well actually I could apply to my instate university early too, so that’d be UConn. But yeah, if I do get a very good scholarship there I could get rid of some.</p>

<p>

Oh, why? Cause its not ranked well?</p>

<p>Great suggestions, thanks a lot. The hardest decision to make will be whether or not I apply to MIT.</p>

6

<p>

I don’t know what goes into the myriad rankings, but there is a pretty well-held consensus in the industry of top engineering schools. My dad is involved in engineering a bit, so he would ask the engineers he worked with and the same schools would always pop up. If you read some engineering publications, the same schools will generally pop up. These schools generally have bright students, top faculty, large research budgets, etc. Consider though that a lot of what factors into general engineering prestige is the quality of the grad department, which won’t affect you much. Given that and your desire for a well-rounded education, avoiding weaker schools with strong engineering (like UofI, or RPI, or whatever) is probably advisable. </p>

<p>

If things haven’t changed in the past two years I think you could do UMich, UConn, and Stanford REA all at the same time. I did UMich, UofI, and Stanford REA. Safeties are important, but not after you get into your top safety (provided that it’s affordable). </p>

<p>

I don’t know really. Again I never really heard much about their engineering department, and a lot of what factors into my impression too is where students in the year above and my year applied for engineering or science. UMich, UofI, MIT, Berkeley, Caltech, Stanford, Princeton, Cornell, etc. were all talked about a lot in my science/math classes, for instance. Not so with UPenn.</p>

7

<p>Good suggestions, but I had to keep some for my own reasons obviously.</p>

<p>I now have:</p>

<ol>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Rice</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>Vanderbilt</li>
<li>UMich</li>
<li>USC</li>
<li>Uconn</li>
</ol>

<p>I can only apply to Stanford, UConn early (home state), and USC early (for scholarships), and even UMich but not under early action just under rolling.</p>

<p>I’m still looking to get rid of a few, particularly the reaches (1-7)</p>

<p>Any ideas?</p>

8

<p>Princeton and Stanford are immensely different; just putting that out there. If you’re looking to get rid of some from 1-7, it’s honestly going to come down to your specific tastes (i.e. location, student vibe, culture, exc.) and what you want for an undergrad experience.</p>

9

<p>Northwestern</p>

10

<p>^ why is that? Northwestern has solid engineering, good sports/athletic nature, and good frats.</p>

11

<p>For the first seven schools, you probably want to keep </p>

<p>Stanford
MIT
Princeton</p>

<p>as they are about the same in any sense.</p>

<p>Cornell and Columbia are close to your home.</p>

<p>Rice is relatively easier to get in and … that is my next choice to scratch.</p>

<p>Northwestern is fine in engineering, but you have Michigan in there too. I don’t see why you want to apply both.</p>

12

<p>

Everyone needs something close to a match.</p>

<p>Okay, why should I apply to only UMich or only Northwestern?</p>

<p>Sorry it sounds like I’m just disregarding what you say but please tell me more.</p>

13

<p>They are about the same. You can apply both, I would. But, you want to reduce your list, right?</p>

14

<p>Yes I do. Actually if I probably can’t get UMich scholarships I should probably not apply. Wow I never thought of it that way thanks.</p>

15

<p>Now that UMich ended their “early” program I’m pretty sure you can’t hear back from Michigan before you’ve sent in applications in the RD round to other schools. That decreases its value as a safety. I would say NU seems to be better than Michigan in many regards, first of all being that the Wolverines suck :). Anyways I always think its better to scratch off at the bottom level. You are practically guaranteed, if you apply to a fair number of schools, to get into a high match or low reach. </p>

<p>There are cases where one only gets into the safety school, and I know someone in this scenario. But this is rare. So as long as you can get into a safety school that you’d enjoy going to, aim higher. Apply to enough schools to all but guarantee a match acceptance, and apply to enough reaches to have a good shot at at least one of those.</p>

16

<p>UMich is generally pretty sheisty with OOS scholarships. I thought I would’ve been decently competitive for at least some form of merit based aid (2250, 34, 4.0 UW, 4.7 W, ranked 4th/568) and I didn’t get a single penny. Granted they lost one of my financial aid documents and I applied a little late for the aid (finally heard back a couple weeks ago), but I didn’t get any need based aid (would’nt’ have qualified; dad makes <500k) either.</p>

17

<p>It depends what type of difference you are talking about – UCLA is different than Stanford in that it’s a large public and has a larger percentage of students of Asian descent. On the other hand, if you care about weather, Northwestern is very different from Stanford. Northwestern in January can be brutal for people who don’t like cold weather. Evanston is a suburb, while USC is in the middle of the city. A very large college town in Michigan vs. downtown LA? All of these are great universities, but in terms of location/size/feel, several are different enough that you could probably cut some if you think about what you really want. Remember a couple of safeties.</p>

18

<p>Evanstons weather isnt a huge turnoff, and I got rid of UCLA.</p>