FIRST Class of 2014, Where are we going?

[Samwaldo]

THE Longest List ever:
Purdue University
Umass Amherst
Umass Dartmouth
Umass Lowell
University of Rhode Island
University of Southern Maine
University of Maine
University of Hartford
University of Connecticut
Central Connecticut State University
Stevens Institute of Tech.
Rochester Institute of Tech.
Stony Brook University
Western New England University
Hofstra University

I've been accepted to Central Connecticut, U of Hartford, and Hofstra. (No denials yet) Best part is 2 of the 3 have given me scholarship money!!! I had a below average GPA compared to all my colleges yet I have still received money mostly due to my FIRST experience. Hofstra even included a stick note citing my robotics for the reasoning for acceptance and scholarship.

[ksafin]

Application List:

University of Florida
Georgia Institute of Technology
WPI
MIT
CalTech
Harvard
Stanford
Olin
Cornell
Columbia
Carnegie Mellon
Princeton

No results yet, except a deferral from MIT.
It's really got me bogged down, I feel like I'm not getting into college now

[MrTechCenter]

After seeing a lot of students list "Boulder" as one of their colleges, and having gotten a countless number of emails from them in the last few months, I decided to check the school out. And I'm glad I did. It looks like a very great school to me, I think I'll apply!

[Calvin Hartley]

Originally Posted by ehfeinberg

My schools; ....... All big, cold, Northeast/Midwest colleges. Bring on that snow.

If you want cold and snow, try Michigan Tech. Here is their snowfall records page.

Originally Posted by AcesJames

Libby is absolutely correct. Clarkson has an incredibly unique setup for our FIRST mentors....

I might need to look into this...


In all actuality though, I am looking at Grand Valley State University. I've recently learned of a few other schools that interest me as well, but GVSU is my main consideration right now. I'll probably do some courses at 'CC (Grand Rapids Community College) next year, and then go to GVSU for Mechanical Engineering.

[Christopher149]

MTU, great choice. There's like two feet of snow outside right now, broomball and winter carnival can be a lot of fun, and there are local teams that you can mentor.

[Calvin Hartley]

Originally Posted by Christopher149

MTU, great choice. There's like two feet of snow outside right now, broomball and winter carnival can be a lot of fun, and there are local teams that you can mentor.

I have a few friends there, one of which I talked to recently who says you can't go a day without seeing some FIRST garb.

[Nathan Streeter]

Just wanted to mention I'm stunned that no one's mentioned Northeastern University!! So, I'll have to take a couple minutes to try to remedy that by tooting my school's horn! ;-)

They're usually a popular school for FRC students, with their competitive Engineering education, top-notch co-op program, and significant involvement with FRC... 125 (the NUTRONS, a great team in terms of both robots and impact) are based there and they've hosted Beantown Blitz for 8+ years and will now be hosting the Northeastern District Event!

It's a great school that's only been getting better and better over the past 5, 10, and 20 years! I very highly recommend applying! The big selling points for me were their passionate and friendly faculty, great engineering programs, excellent co-op program, and location in Boston... these elements have all proved every bit as great as I thought they would.

Really though, the co-op program is what I have to focus on... Northeastern's partnered with hundreds of great companies (GE, Apple, BAE Systems, Raytheon, QinetiQ, DEKA, Farm PD, Keurig, Johnson + Johnson, Kiva Systems, to name a few) and provide really great opportunities doing real work in Engineering that will pay well too. These companies send a list of job descriptions to Northeastern every year for positions for NEU co-ops to fill... your co-op advisor will work with you throughout the whole co-op hunt process... NEU has high enough demand for their co-ops that they have 100% co-op placement in Engineering!

So, give at least some consideration to Northeastern... I really doubt you'll regret it!

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by Nathan Streeter

Just wanted to mention I'm stunned that no one's mentioned Northeastern University!! So, I'll have to take a couple minutes to try to remedy that by tooting my school's horn! ;-)

They're usually a popular school for FRC students, with their competitive Engineering education, top-notch co-op program, and significant involvement with FRC... 125 (the NUTRONS, a great team in terms of both robots and impact) are based there and they've hosted Beantown Blitz for 8+ years and will now be hosting the Northeastern District Event!

It's a great school that's only been getting better and better over the past 5, 10, and 20 years! I very highly recommend applying! The big selling points for me were their passionate and friendly faculty, great engineering programs, excellent co-op program, and location in Boston... these elements have all proved every bit as great as I thought they would.

Really though, the co-op program is what I have to focus on... Northeastern's partnered with hundreds of great companies (GE, Apple, BAE Systems, Raytheon, QinetiQ, DEKA, Farm PD, Keurig, Johnson + Johnson, Kiva Systems, to name a few) and provide really great opportunities doing real work in Engineering that will pay well too. These companies send a list of job descriptions to Northeastern every year for positions for NEU co-ops to fill... your co-op advisor will work with you throughout the whole co-op hunt process... NEU has high enough demand for their co-ops that they have 100% co-op placement in Engineering!

So, give at least some consideration to Northeastern... I really doubt you'll regret it!

I don't regret it! It's crazy right now to think that, because of the co-op program, a year from now (as an NEU freshman), I'm gonna have a "real-life job" with real-life engineering experience. The co-op program at NEU is really amazing, and as college rankings take that into account (ie. less emphasis on graduating in four years), Northeastern is going up and up in the rankings. I'm sure Brandon Holley can speak more as to the strength of the co-op program.

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by MrTechCenter

I'm strongly considering applying to WPI, I'm just not sure yet. Any insight from anybody that knows a lot about it and/or has been able to visit the campus?

I'm currently a graduate student at WPI. Any WPI questions, feel free to come to me - I can at least point you in the right direction.

Same goes for Clarkson University - I just graduated this past May & spent some time leading the FRC mentoring organization as well as being 'floor mom' for the FIRST residence hall during my years there.

Don't hesitate to message me about either!

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by Libby K

FIRST residence hall

Did I read that correctly?

[adlasa]

I am applying to most of the University of California schools:
UC Berkeley (#1)
UC Davis
UCLA
UC Santa Barbara
UCSD
UC Santa Cruz

I am also applying to Cal Poly SLO and San Jose State. I guess you could say I am a California boy! I'm applying as an Electrical Engineering major, and may also include Purdue and University of Illinois on my list.

[Coin3]

Wow, those are some long lists. As for me, I've only applied to one college so far, and that is Oregon State University. (OSU)
It has been my first choice for quite a while now, and I was just accepted a few days ago so I can be pretty sure when I say I'll be going to OSU for Manufacturing Engineering.

Very excited!

[Knufire]

Shameless plug for Rose-Hulman to anyone whose looking for a top-tier engineering school without the giant state-school feel.

I too (Class of 2013) applied to a ton of the big Midwest schools (Michigan, U of I, Georgia Tech, WPI, Carnegie, etc). What really drew me to Rose, however, was the small, tight-knit community, much like FIRST. It's also been consistently ranked as one of the top engineering school in the country for the past 15 years*, and I can attest that you'd be getting a great education here.

If anyone has any questions about Rose, feel free to PM me as well. It's most definitely not too late to apply, they work on a rolling admission process.

*#1 engineering school for universities without a doctorate program per US News and World Report

[AcesJames]

Originally Posted by Gregor

Did I read that correctly?

Gregor,

Libby is absolutely correct. Clarkson has an incredibly unique setup for our FIRST mentors. Aside from Team 229, which is comprised of about 50 HS students from 2 schools, 2 HS teachers, and 20ish active Clarkson mentors (did I mention our shop space is at Clarkson too?), we have a suite-style dormitory for FIRST Alumni and Mentors. Currently our housing is a single floor with 20 students (12 freshmen and 8 sophomores), but we have plans to occupy up to 3 floors next year with 60 total students.

Each dorm room holds two people and is connected to one other room through a bathroom (2 people per room, 4 per bathroom). All the rooms face inward toward a central lounge which has (among other things) a 60" TV, a workstation computer, many laptops, some field components, and whiteboards for studying/mentoring.

Our residents are not only FRC mentors, but also JFLL, FLL, and FTC mentors on the weekends. We provide coaches clinics (our students coach other local adult coaches) to 18 FTC teams and 24 FLL teams, host our own FTC and FLL tournaments and scrimmages, and even travel around Northern NY in our robotics van doing demonstrations with quadcopters, FRC robots, humanoid robots, etc.

Feel free to PM Libby or myself with any questions you might have.

[Brandon Zalinsky]

I originally considered Clarkson, but I don't know if I could handle the Canadiens fans (Go Bruins!)

I've applied to, in order of preference:

1. Florida Institute of Technology
2. Virginia Tech
3. Wentworth Institute of Technology (Accepted)
4. VCU
5. Clemson
6. UNH (Accepted)
7. RIT