Schools similar to MIT (but less impossible)

[Anonymous]

Colorado school of mines

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP back again. Thanks to all posters who have made suggestions. I appreciate having wider range of targets and other reaches. After seeing friends' kids get rejected by Georgia Tech, CMU and JHU and other science oriented reaches, I'm getting really nervous seeing my kid's dream school list. Hopefully these suggestions will be helpful for parents of other sciencey kids as well. We have mostly been focused on research universities but plan on touring a few LACs soon just to gain more familiarity with them. Neither DH nor I attended an LAC so they are a bit of an exotic animal to us, but we wouldn't rule them out. I can see how they would be better for quality of instruction, but I am not sure how the students get research experience when the faculty are primarily teaching.

This brief article should offer you insight into the relationship between faculty mentoring and faculty research at an LAC:

https://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/gordon-jones-american-physical-society-research-prize

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP back again. Thanks to all posters who have made suggestions. I appreciate having wider range of targets and other reaches. After seeing friends' kids get rejected by Georgia Tech, CMU and JHU and other science oriented reaches, I'm getting really nervous seeing my kid's dream school list. Hopefully these suggestions will be helpful for parents of other sciencey kids as well. We have mostly been focused on research universities but plan on touring a few LACs soon just to gain more familiarity with them. Neither DH nor I attended an LAC so they are a bit of an exotic animal to us, but we wouldn't rule them out. I can see how they would be better for quality of instruction, but I am not sure how the students get research experience when the faculty are primarily teaching.

This brief article should offer you insight into the relationship between faculty mentoring and faculty research at an LAC:

https://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/gordon-jones-american-physical-society-research-prize

This is great. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP back again. Thanks to all posters who have made suggestions. I appreciate having wider range of targets and other reaches. After seeing friends' kids get rejected by Georgia Tech, CMU and JHU and other science oriented reaches, I'm getting really nervous seeing my kid's dream school list. Hopefully these suggestions will be helpful for parents of other sciencey kids as well. We have mostly been focused on research universities but plan on touring a few LACs soon just to gain more familiarity with them. Neither DH nor I attended an LAC so they are a bit of an exotic animal to us, but we wouldn't rule them out. I can see how they would be better for quality of instruction, but I am not sure how the students get research experience when the faculty are primarily teaching.

My kid sought a SLAC to study science in preparation for getting a PhD. There are many threads about why that can be a great combination. We just made sure the school had opportunities for kids to do research. (Pro tip: are there posters hanging in the hallways of the Science departments, from professional conferences that list students as co-authors?)

My kid had her choice of labs, and published papers in peer reviewed journals as an undergrad. You also get to know teachers so well, they can write strong recommendations for grad school (and elite summer internships). Finally, you are not competing with grad students to work in faculty members’ labs.

She considered Bowdoin, Tufts, Mt Holyoke, Hamilton, Davidson and Haverford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP back again. Thanks to all posters who have made suggestions. I appreciate having wider range of targets and other reaches. After seeing friends' kids get rejected by Georgia Tech, CMU and JHU and other science oriented reaches, I'm getting really nervous seeing my kid's dream school list. Hopefully these suggestions will be helpful for parents of other sciencey kids as well. We have mostly been focused on research universities but plan on touring a few LACs soon just to gain more familiarity with them. Neither DH nor I attended an LAC so they are a bit of an exotic animal to us, but we wouldn't rule them out. I can see how they would be better for quality of instruction, but I am not sure how the students get research experience when the faculty are primarily teaching.

My kid sought a SLAC to study science in preparation for getting a PhD. There are many threads about why that can be a great combination. We just made sure the school had opportunities for kids to do research. (Pro tip: are there posters hanging in the hallways of the Science departments, from professional conferences that list students as co-authors?)

My kid had her choice of labs, and published papers in peer reviewed journals as an undergrad. You also get to know teachers so well, they can write strong recommendations for grad school (and elite summer internships). Finally, you are not competing with grad students to work in faculty members’ labs.

She considered Bowdoin, Tufts, Mt Holyoke, Hamilton, Davidson and Haverford.

Which one did she chose?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP back again. Thanks to all posters who have made suggestions. I appreciate having wider range of targets and other reaches. After seeing friends' kids get rejected by Georgia Tech, CMU and JHU and other science oriented reaches, I'm getting really nervous seeing my kid's dream school list. Hopefully these suggestions will be helpful for parents of other sciencey kids as well. We have mostly been focused on research universities but plan on touring a few LACs soon just to gain more familiarity with them. Neither DH nor I attended an LAC so they are a bit of an exotic animal to us, but we wouldn't rule them out. I can see how they would be better for quality of instruction, but I am not sure how the students get research experience when the faculty are primarily teaching.

This brief article should offer you insight into the relationship between faculty mentoring and faculty research at an LAC:

https://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/gordon-jones-american-physical-society-research-prize

This is great. Thank you!

It's nice to be thanked. I'm glad you found the information helpful.

[Anonymous]

I had a friend who did a transfer program from Colby to Dartmouth for engineering. This was twenty years ago, so I am not sure if they still do it. This might be the modern version:
https://www.colby.edu/academics/departments-and-programs/engineering-dual-degree-programs/

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:For a few ideas that aren't like MIT, but which would be excellent for physics and mathematics, look into Williams, Hamilton and Reed.

None of these are anything like MIT. The whole point of MIT is a theory-heavy research-heavy environment for science for social good. Look at research universities with a good campus culture.

A number of LACs offer a theory-heavy education with excellent research opportunities. That research may not be as likely to be published in Nature or Science, but it might be more likely the undergraduate leads the work, which grad schools also care about.

MIT is pretty unique, but OP is looking for good but “less impossible” options, many of which are indeed universities, but many of which are LACs.

There's a lot of distance between MIT and William or MIT and Reed. Like sure there's a strenuous connection one can make, but answers like WPI, Gtech, even Harvey Mudd are quality answers.

Not so much distance in undergrad education for the programs they offer. OP said she was less likely to be interested in engineering.

There's a substantial difference studying physics at Williams and studying physics at Berkeley or MIT. I don't understand how someone can have such an uninformed opinion.
Look at course availability alone: https://physics.williams.edu/programs/courses/
MIT:https://catalog.mit.edu/subjects/8/

There’s a critical mass of variety of courses needed for a great undergraduate education. It is possible to have too few, but that’s not a problem at any of the better LACs. There’s a point of diminishing return. At the undergraduate level, coursework is mostly about mastering a field’s foundation. The more esoteric courses aren’t as significant til the grad level.

Ohio State has more physics courses open to undergrads than Harvey Mudd. That doesn’t make Ohio State a better place for undergrad physics.

For physics, 8 of the top 15 PhD producers by rate are LACs. Berkeley is 38th.

No one is trying to downplay how incredible MIT is. No one is even saying other universities aren’t also great. But the people saying you can’t get a top STEM education at an LAC are simply not well informed.

Chemistry or physics students might need 10 or 11 courses from within their departments to complete a major. A choice of electives is desirable, of course, which is well within the scope of LACs with strong departments in these areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Georgia Tech
Carnegie Mellon
Case Western
RIT
WPI

Umm. Georgia Tech has a 6% out of state acceptance rate for engineering and a 9% percent overall OOS acceptance rate. So....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a friend who did a transfer program from Colby to Dartmouth for engineering. This was twenty years ago, so I am not sure if they still do it. This might be the modern version:
https://www.colby.edu/academics/departments-and-programs/engineering-dual-degree-programs/

This is broader information on this 2-1-1-1 program:

https://engineering.dartmouth.edu/undergraduate/dual

Note that this is a dual-degree program. A student does not transfer in the conventional sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA surpasses MIT in most cases and is tentatively less hard to get into, though in many cases is actually harder to get into for certain majors and when taking into account admissions for particular schools.

WTF??

Was that what you said when you opened the letter from Charlottesville to find that you were on the receiving end of a summary rejection from UVA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary
U Chicago
Harvey Mudd
Carleton
Cal Tech
Case Western
CMU
Georgia Tech
Embry Riddle
RPI

All great schools, but Caltech (3.1% admit rate) isn’t really less impossible than MIT (4.9%.) They are both crazy hard to get into.

Again, Georgia Tech is almost impossible to get into OOS for Engineering. 6%.9% OOS for other majors. So not much more possible.

[Anonymous]

Rice ED 1, Davidson, Emory,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Williams math alum and wouldn’t describe my experience as anything like MIT. Such an odd comparison.

When a post is introduced by "aren't like MIT," as it was up-topic, perhaps this perception already had been sufficiently conveyed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking for a school for a student who particularly excels at STEM but also wants a strong academic experience all around. Loves learning, loves a challenge, and possibly wants to go to grad school for academic research so undergrad research opportunities are important. She would love to be around other students who are enthusiastic and passionate about science. So far she has all A's, 1520 PSAT, will be maxed out on math/science courses at her school. Very involved in music oriented extracurriculars and would want to continue these in college for fun. If she could pick the school of her dreams, it would be MIT for sure, but she not have national/international level recognition or research experience. I am hoping to steer her towards schools with a similar "spirit" but which are less selective and more achievable. Any suggestions for schools to focus our search? We will likely be full pay. I think the school community and academic strength would be top priority for her rather than the setting of the school.

I'm sorry. But there IS NOTHING in the US that is similar to MIT but less impossible. All the schools mentioned here are all good schools, but I'm sorry. They are no MIT.

My suggestion is to look overseas into Imperial College in London. It is widely regarded all over the world as being on par with MIT/Stanford in STEM fields. MUCH MUCH MUCH better than the little schools mentioned in this thread. With the plus being they care less about any Research or ECs done in high school. All they care about is High Grades on AP tests and SAT.