IvyWise KnowledgeBase
College Lists

I work with a lot of STEM-oriented students, many of whom are interested in engineering. When we start discussing their college list, it’s a parade of the usual suspects: MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech, Cornell, University of Michigan, etc. But these schools aren’t right for everyone for various reasons — including size, location, and selectivity — and I enjoy telling families about other options that they have either never heard of or that might not be top of mind for them. Let’s look at four of these schools with strong engineering programs.

Before you begin your final year of secondary school, it’s important to finalize your college list — a complete list of all the colleges or universities to which you will apply. We recommend a balanced mix of 13-15 likely, target, and reach colleges for this list. But how do you get to this point?

When you’re looking at colleges, you might come across the term “consortium,” which refers to a group of colleges that collaborate to expand the resources and opportunities available to their students. For high school students considering their future college options, it’s important to understand what consortium colleges can offer. Let’s dive into what these consortiums are and highlight some examples to help you see the unique opportunities they provide.

Embarking on the U.S. college application journey as an expat can feel as puzzling as your first day at your new international school — despite your well-developed cultural adaptability, cross-cultural communication skills, and unique global perspective. Having spent my formative years attending an American school in the Netherlands, I felt equally perplexed by the U.S. college admissions process. I was excited at the prospect of living in the U.S. for the first time since I was four years old; however, I was scared to be an ocean away from my family and nervous about how to navigate the process.

Embarking on the college journey feels like stepping into a world full of unknowns. With tests, essays, and recommendation letters swirling around, one important factor often gets pushed to the side — visiting colleges in person. That’s where fly-in programs come in.

“I got a B in AP Calculus,” a student recently said to me. “I guess I won’t have a shot at my dream schools, since I know colleges automatically reject students who don’t have straight A’s.” This is a conversation I often have with students this time of year. I assured my student that one B on his otherwise flawless transcript does not make it or break it. However, having worked in the admissions office at Columbia University — which has a 4.1% acceptance rate — I’m not naive about the selective review process.

When it comes to researching colleges, there is certainly not a lack of information available — so much so that it can be overwhelming to figure out which data points are most useful. Numerous ranked lists are published annually, there are websites that provide students’ reviews of colleges, and then there’s my personal favorite, the thick, desktop Bound-For-College Guidebook.

Have you dreamt of an intimate and intellectually rigorous college experience, one where you engage in deep classroom discussions around a single table with your professor and classmates? Seminar style classrooms, like the one described above, is the bread and butter of liberal arts colleges.