I applied to one school only and got accepted. Should I apply to more?
I applied to Illinois Institute of Technology early action and got in. I was originally going to apply to University of Portland and Hofstra University just for fun (cause I got the opportunity to apply for free) but I ran out of time before the deadline. I knew I was going to get accepted to IIT so I didn't worry too much about getting rejected. I'm happy to go there (even though I haven't toured it in person), but I'm wondering whether I should apply to more selective schools or just others schools in general.
(So apparently I got flagged for sharing my stats (SAT score, GPA etc.) Based on my stats though I feel like I could get accepted at more selective schools than IIT. I'm sharing because this could be a factor in your answer. Lastly, I'm looking to major in Electrical Engineering)
A big reason why I applied to IIT was the fact that it was located in the city. I really want to go to a school that's in a city because that's where I feel the best and most inspired. Plus I've been waiting all my life to have a chance to live in big cities, but now I feel like this could restrict what schools I consider. Should I consider schools that are away from cities? Do other factors play a more important role than setting? Could I eventually get used to not being in a city?
Thanks in advance!
Oops, I made a mistake. I meant Early Action. I always get the two confused!
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3 answers
Congrats on IIT !
But honestly, I think you only live once and only apply to colleges once so you should try a variety of schools since you already have a fallback.
I think you can do better.
Keep an open mind and watch some videos on these schools and perhaps you will feel inspired to apply.
Harvey Mudd College
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZY69fgt_ZY&list=PLee4zWyLfi9vb6p0fJaWDLpy3hz3DuUi5
Olin College of Engineering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55f6OO0hKac
Columbia College Fu School of Engineering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHyTs4juQJs
Cooper Union (NYC)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y_WfvTKWH0
Carnegie Mellon University
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwI2HyZy2Pk
Cornell Engineering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcR8fq9ljeE
I don't know what your reaches are but I'd suggest UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, MIT, CalTech, Stanford.
Good Luck
If you are interested in options beyond IIT and eager to attend college in a city, consider exploring other urban schools with strong engineering programs. There are in fact a lot of schools that fit this criteria including Berkeley, UT, Penn, Georgia Tech, BU, Drexel, Purdue, NYU Tandon, and Carnegie Mellon.
It's worth getting very clear about why exactly you are drawn to big cities and determining if those characteristics could be fostered on a suburban/rural campus. You say that you're most inspired in cities. Why? Could this inspiration be cultivated at a school in close proximity to a city, where you take the train into town every Sunday? In a tight-knit seminar where you and your classmates passionately brainstorm electrical engineering projects?
I advise you to look at suburban and rural schools whose academic and social culture could be a potential fit for you and think critically about if you would attend any of these schools over IIT if accepted. Talk to a few electrical engineering students currently attending these schools. Ask if they like the town where the campus is located, what social life is like on campus, if the student population is diverse, etc.
Also remember that selectivity isn't necessarily indicative of the quality of the education you would receive!
I briefly looked at IIT and at least for me it doesn’t have a whole lot aid so if you can afford and you see yourself there you can stop looking but as Cameron said you only do this onc so I’d look at more schools.
But to focus on your question about city environment as someone who lives in a city with 600k people along with 2 of the 5 biggest cities in US adjusting from huge city like LA to a more “suburban” feel city like Fresno (made up to make a point) it was perfectly manageable but I’d absolutely not be interested in a rural school or college towns not near notable population centers. So keep in mind the campus setting such as huge city city college town or rural but don’t do it solely based on that.
You attend colleges for education not the city life. So make sure the school you are interested meets what you want in an academic setting before you evaluate the campus.
You can definitely adjust to it but if you are a city girl/guy at heart definitely do what you want to do.
You did mention IIT so I presume you’d be interested in STEM based fields so some great prominent STEM schools in notable cities are
Houston
San Diego St
San Jose St
GTech
Maryland
Case Western
Temple
Temple and Maryland are not as “STEM-y” as other schools but it’s worth a look.
Swathmore and Lehigh are both very selective liberal arts schools with notable STEM majors. Lehigh is definitely more rural as it’s almost exurban but IMO is worth a look. Also I wish to second Cameron’s Harvey Mudd as that’s essentially a west coast swathmore. Also CIT may be worth a look but I can’t say anything about it besides it’s a selective urban stem focused school.
Hope this helps and feel free to comment if you’s like clarification as I’d be more than happy to help!
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