In search of colleges and universities with strong engineering programs?
Look no further, we've identified 60+ schools that fit the bill. To make the grade, we looked for public and private institutions that granted engineering degrees to 10% or more of its graduates last year and were consistently ranked highly by a variety of third party sources.
There are plenty of household names like MIT, Caltech and Stanford on the list, in addition to several lesser known gems. If you're 100% certain about engineering, you might consider schools like Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering or Webb Institute, or if you're looking for engineering in a liberal arts setting, consider checking out Harvey Mudd, Swarthmore, Bucknell, Lafayette, Lehigh, Trinity or Union Colleges.
To help you categorize schools into safeties, targets and reaches, we've included admission rates, mid-50th percentile SAT and ACT scores. We've also provided links to each school's website to help you explore fit.
Click on Continue Reading for the details.
Many colleges and universities have begun updating their websites for the Class of 2022 (2017-18) admission cycle. While we expect the activity to continue into the late summer, several of the changes we've observed are worth noting. 
Here's our latest list of regular decision notification dates for the Class of 2021. As many of you know, schools often post results in advance of their "official" notification dates, so we've compiled the most recently updated dates for you here, along with the notification dates from last year. Bookmark this site, as we'll post updates often.
In search of schools with generous merit scholarship programs?
U.S. News & World Report released their 2017 college rankings earlier today. Over 1,800 schools were covered nationwide and evaluated on multiple measures of academic excellence and outcomes to produce the final rankings.
The Common App for 2016-17 is now live, and we've just wrapped up our analysis of the real number of short answer/essay prompts required for each school. If you've been through this process before, you know that just because a school lacks a writing supplement doesn't mean there are no additional essays to complete. Many schools in fact simply embed these prompts in the main application itself.
A group of 80 higher education institutions called the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success will be introducing a new alternative to the Common Application in 2016. Designed to level the playing field for college admissions, the Coalition will deliver free tools to increase transparency around admissions and financial aid and promote awareness and engagement prior to senior year.
An update to College Kickstart 2015 has just been posted! 
With your college list more or less finalized, give some consideration to early admission—many schools offer it and can be a terrific way to boost odds and minimize wasted motion. All you need to do is apply 45-60 days earlier than you normally would. 
Here's a useful series of articles from the Washington Post for those of you about to embark on the college admissions process. It chronicles the admissions journey of a high school senior, Samantha Fogel, and includes perspectives from her high school counselor as well as parents.