The top 3 criterion that I am using to determine what school I want to attend are I want a school that has a challenging math and science curriculum; I want the opportunity to start and finish my program at the same college within four years, and I want to attend a reputably recognized engineering school.

School has always been a main priority for me, from keeping my grades up, to participating in extracurricular activities. I’ve set a goal to earn straight A’s my entire school career, and so far I’ve managed to do that. Math has always been my strong suit and favorite subject for the majority of my life. As a result, I have participated in Indiana Academic MATH Bowl every year beginning in grade school, and I am still on the team to this day. Our team qualified and competed in class 4 at the state level at Purdue for the first time last year which was a highlight of my high school career. I have also been a member of our school’s Academic Bowl Teams for Science, Social Studies and Interdisciplinary.

Having the opportunity to take high school Algebra I as a seventh grader has allowed me to take both AP Calculus I and AP Calculus II courses. Taking these classes has allowed me ample exposure to them before tackling them at the college level. Last year I took AP Physics and fell completely in love with the subject. While it was definitely the hardest class I have ever taken, I’m going to miss staying up until midnight trying to solve physics homework problems with my friends. Because of my interest in math and science, I desire to attend a college where I can specialize in a program that places emphasis on them.
Growing up, I have always had aspirations to be an engineer; however, I was never sure that was actually what I wanted to do until I took Physics last year as a junior. I learned that I am great at problem solving, improvising, and working things out. Just from taking this class, I believe that I will thrive in college. While I love working out problems with other people, I am also more than capable of sitting down and doing them by myself. I consider myself a very disciplined person who will do whatever it takes to improve and excel in anything that I put my mind to. In my college search, I have found that there are many top notch colleges out there, but not all of them offer full engineering programs. I was interested in some smaller colleges such as Depauw University and Wabash College, but when I found out that I could only complete a partial engineering degree at each of them and would eventually have to transfer elsewhere to finish my Bachelor’s Degree in the engineering field, I decided it is in my best interest to start at the same place that I can also finish and earn my Bachelor’s in four years rather than 5. That has narrowed my selections to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and Purdue University’s Main Campus.

Finally, it is important for me that the college I select has an excellent reputation as being an engineering school. Rose-Hulman has been ranked the number one engineering college for over 2 decades. This is phenomenal, and Rose is located close to my home town. If you want to earn an engineering degree in the state of Indiana, Purdue is also the “go to” for the more affordable option, whereas Rose is somewhat pricey.

Rose-Hulman and Purdue each check the boxes of my 3 criteria for selecting a college. Right now I am leaning more toward Rose-Hulman due to its impeccable reputation as an engineering school.