US News & World Report releases an annual ranking that usually lists he same good schools. You mentioned the east coast, which usually means the northeast so here are some of the best.

In New England,

The best public school is the University of Connecticut, it has a phenomenal business school and School of Pharmacy. However, it’s engineering programs really separate the school from others. United Technologies is located in Connecticut and they sponsor the school so a lot of graduates go to work for one of their companies such as Pratt & Whitney who are building the engines for the new joint strike fighter for the Navy and Air Force, Otis Elevators, Sikorsky Helicopters which builds Black Hawks, Hamilton which works on materials for astronauts.

Other good public schools are further south like the University of North Carolina, University of Virginia, and west are the University of Michigan.

The northeast’s bread and butter are the private schools. Their are 60 just in the Boston area. The best are MIT, Boston College, Boston University, Tufts, and Babson. You can request information from their websites. Boston College’s Caroll School of Business is world-class, and it is in Chestnut Hill an exclusive area of Boston. It has a good balance of academic excellence, social life in Boston, and sports programs.

For any engineering program, MIT is the best in the world. Their graduates are recruited into some really excited fields of study. It is amazingly difficult to get into the school but only 40 miles down the Pike is another really good school for engineering, whose graduates have gone on to be part of the wiz generation in Silicon Valley. Check out Worcester Polytechnical Institute (WPI).

As far as schools that weigh SAT and AP scores heavily. None of them do anymore. Harvard found a few years ago that one of the worst indicators of a students academic ability is their SAT scores. They found they had a higher dropout and fail out rate and as such they downgraded the weight they lend to the scores. It was published in Businessweek and US News and now most schools are following suit. The best barometer for them is an overall track record, strong GPAs, active in high school through sports and clubs, and essays.

US News is currently listing MIT as the best engineering school, where you can receive a doctorate in the country. The next two are both in California; Stanford and UC Berkely.

The best schools that arn’t Ivies arn’t in the east anymore. Take a look at Notre Dame, University of Chicago, and Northwestern in the midwest. Rice and the University of Texas also have excellent reputations now.

If you have your set on the east, MIT is the place to be. UConn will get you a great education, and a good balance of social life. Georgia Tech down south has a great engineering program and WPI has a great alumni network.

Good luck.

Take a look at state colleges. There are many along the East coast. They are less expensive than private colleges and offer great education.

New Hampshire (skiing, boating, swimming) but quiet country

Massachusetts- home of Carnegie-Mellon and MIT

New York – many city and state colleges have agreements with private colleges to access their libraries although housing may be expensive but tuition isn’t bad. Work is plentiful.

Florida – Don’t know much about it but I’m sure there are others who can fill you in about it.

I recommend CUNY or SUNY near the city because Wall Street is close and you can get an internship there during your studies.

Either way best of luck.

If finances are a concern, then you need to apply to some good public colleges in your home state. These will have the lowest overall price tag for you, and can act as a financial backup in case the financial aid at other colleges doesn’t turn out as you’d need it to. In addition, the public unis tend to have very strong computer science programs. In addition, you also want to apply to some colleges, public *and* private, where your stats are on the high side for the school. If your SATs and/or GPA are high for a school, that can increase your chances of getting some merit aid – aid based on grades – at that school. It’s unlikely that you’d get much aid at a public college that’s outside your home state. That’s something to keep in mind re: your choice of colleges. Be careful about taking on too much in student loans. When you get into a school, they’ll send you a financial aid award letter. Look at that letter carefully. Keep in mind that grants and scholarships, you don’t have to pay back; but loans, you do. And you do not want to graduate from college holding excessive student loan debt. For example, if you got into a public school in your home state, the sticker price might be $15k per year. You get a grant for $5k. The amount you’d have to take out in loans is $10k. You get into a private university. The sticker price is $40k per year. You get a scholarship for $15k, and get all excited. Don’t be. You’d have to take out $25k in loans every year. That’s not okay. You’d graduate with $100k in debt. That’s impossible to manage. The public school, even with lower scholarships, is a lot cheaper, and IMO, a far better financial choice.

Georgia Tech

Ohio Wesleyan University (www.owu.edu)–my school! 🙂

Denison University

Kenyon College

Vanderbilt

Babson College

Albion University

Vanderbilt, Rice, Notre Dame, Duke, and MIT

Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge has an excellent math and engineering program. They also are pretty well-know for their party atmosphere. And you can’t beat football in Tiger Stadium!

Thanks! very valuable information and this gives me better knowledge