Could somebody possibly help me find a list of rankings for (US) universities in the field of engineering/technology?
I can’t find a related site
MIT, Stanford, Berkley, Cal Tech for engineering.
You can pick-up US News magazine for rankings of various colleges by major and the like.
First off, all this talk about getting academic scholarships, Ivy League Schools do not offer instituition ATHLETIC OR ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIPS.
From my own experiences with Columbia as well as my fiancees, here is what Columbia does.
Well first with my experience which is limited. Back around 6 years ago, I’m not sure if they do it now, they gave athletes a code to write on their admissions papers which is basically a code for the sport they play. I believe this was just so that admissions is aware and attempts to field a full team for the coach, as the standards at these schools are very high. I dont know how this ended up, as I never actually went through applying as I was not looking for an Ivy school.
My fiancee applied to a grad school at Columbia last year and got accepted but rejected the offer. They offer pretty substantial financial packages, but it is NOT based on academic performance, only need. And need is very subjective as even well off families get financial aid due to the high cost of the Ivy schools. I believe some of the individual schools have the option to give out scholarships, but this is controlled by the head of the department. I am not positive about this, as my financees school did not have these funds, although they were ranked number 1 in the nation for the program. However, she did still get financial aid scholarship funding. Once again NOT academic. The Ivys attempt to compete on need based funding, giving better funding to the very top of the class, but thats about the extent of it.
North Carolina State, Virgina Tech, Georgia Tech, all compare pretty decently as strictly engineering schools and all have more money to throw at you for strictly athletics than Cal Tech or MIT ect.
As another aside, NCSU probably has the most extensive online engineering program around.
I don’t know how much money they’d be throwing at a 14.0 guy over the 36’s international youth hurdles. That’s about a 14.3 at best over the 39’s and 14.7+ over the 42’s. It’s hard to convert a 36’s time to meaningful data on whether anyone/who wants to give you a full ride or not. However, if he writes to places that he wants to go the can find out if they have a reciprocal intrest.
Columbia has a really good engineering program, as an aside.
also, as Mekstrand alluded to getting through the NCAA clearinghouse is the most important thing. It’s tripped up more than its fair share of great atheltes, american or otherwise.
edit: if he has another event that he could score in for a lower Division 1 school, then he’d have more options on where to go, because while they are allowed 12.5 scholarships to make up their XC/Track program, most schools don’t give them the money to use all 12.5
That’s why I think he’d have a better chance going somewhere that offers “need based” and/or “academic” scholarships to their athletes. Cal and Stanford would probably be good choices for that–GT is also good, but only if he’s strict with engineering.
Cornell has a few great athletes (I think 2 guys over 50ft in the triple), but I’m not sure if they have engineering.
14.0 in the 36’s probably gets you into stanford or cal for track, but your aid won’t be coming from the track fund and how much money you get is still iffy, neither cal nor stanford operate in an Iona or UTEP style.
I think, if he’s strictly going engineering, then go to somewhere that will give you athletics money or a combo of athletics, and academic money, and then get your degree in engineering.
edit: yes, columbia has the fu foundation school of engineering, which is basicly almost a seperate entitiy.
Cornell is about a 45 minute drive for me. They have a great engineering program. I remember one of my professors who went there for undergrad saying how going in his first day he had a 1580 SAT and recalling hearing the two people next to him saying how the one messed up, then asked him what he got, and it was a 1590 with the other kid getting a 1600.
Anyhow, that was a while ago, and stories are just stories, not really applicable, but I do know they are a strong program, I believe probably top 10 or 15, you can look. Also cost of living in the area is nothing, beautiful scenary with the finger lakes and wineries, and it is all country life which is why I love the area.
However I would say it is a very, very liberal area, which is not a plus for myself.
Thanks, very useful info so far! I’ll pass it along.
Small parenthesis: while many people stress the importance of high (nearly perfect) SAT scores for schools like Cornell, MIT etc, perhaps they are more lenient with some cases, particularly students from abroad. For instance my sister was applying from Greece with an SAT of below 1000 and she was accepted by Cornell.
She chose a different undergrad program for various reasons, but she eventually did a masters at MIT in engineering with a GRE score well below average.
Needless to say she’s a horrible test taker :o (I know any SAT score below 1000 is not horrible, but she’s still a horrible test taker… :rolleyes: )
Not bad in academics at all though 
Not uncommon at all for foreigners and athletes. I know two guys–one at UPenn and one at Cornell–and neither were the complete package academically (one bad SAT, good GPA and the other good SAT and horrible GPA). There is a certain threshold that you need to surpass (even if you’re from the states) where it starts to become less important.
She chose a different undergrad program for various reasons, but she eventually did a masters at MIT in engineering with a GRE score well below average.
Needless to say she’s a horrible test taker :o (I know any SAT score below 1000 is not horrible, but she’s still a horrible test taker… :rolleyes: )
Not bad in academics at all though
If you’re from a foreign country and haven’t been brought up taking standardized tests like most people in the States, they may be hard. If you are poor with reading comp and don’t brush up on elementary math, then it’ll be even harder. Good schools tend to see that, I think.
A good SAT certainly doesn’t hurt though!