Boy, I couldn’t agree with you more. We’re visiting a number of programs but the savings of instate, especially with UIUC’s engineering ranking, will be tough to pass up. For better or worse, his grandfather willed him a big chunk of money specifically toward college so we’re in a fortunate situation where college is paid regardless of destination. But he also gets that money in trust if its not needed for college which would set him up for life. Unfortunately 17 year olds don’t always think long-term.
To the other posters, I did not realize the distinction between ED and EA. Good to know!
To Bluebayou, my son is worried he won’t find his niche in smaller privates (I think he’s crazy but this is his choice). He probably has the grades, test scores and extra-curriculars (varsity soccer & summer lifeguard at our city pool, & leader at our church teen retreat) to apply to at least some of them if he wanted. I’m a legacy at Northwestern as well so we’ve discussed applying there ED as his best chance at a top 12 Uni. Despite all of that, he feels like a bigger school will be more likely to have a critical mass of kids like him. His HS buddies are a good group of kids but none of them take honors courses. They’re down to earth, self-effacing and funny but they’re happy to be B students. He just likes that profile of kid more than the kids who view school as a competition. At the end of the day, we’ll probably (strongly) encourage him toward UIUC anyway given its well regarded engineering school and in-state costs. But hopefully that answers your question on these expensive OOS publics. Wouldn’t be my top choice either. That also should answer your question on Cal Tech. Its ~1/3rd the size of his high school. There’s no way I could sell that.
Again dad… He needs safeties or decision day will not be fun for him. Even though he matches Illinois and there is a push to keep our talented kids it’s not a guarantee.
Cal Poly is very interesting. There was a big push a few years ago to get kids from the Midwest to Apply. It’s a very selective school and engineering is very tough. Don’t let it fool you since it’s not GT or UCLA. But should be worth a look.
Makes no sense to me. A medium-sized Uni can feel large. (Heck, Stanford IS large – seems like you have to drive from one end to the other.) A medium-sized Uni literally has thousands of kids on campus. But, I guess he wants 2-3 x that amount. But beyond size, is undergraduate opportunities & less bureaucracy. There is just more money at the top privates and its easy to obtain. But he likes what he likes.
Definitely hard to pass up a legacy ED to Northwestern. Go Mildcats! hahaha
Sry, Caltech never entered my mind. It’s an acquired taste. You are either all-in for what they have to offer, or not.
I meant, Cal Berkeley. Generally ranked as a top 3 engineering school (with Stanford and MIT) for decades.
14000 students out of 2mm scored a 35. A parent who has a child achieve this has a rare and exceptional child in terms of testing prowess.
Anecdotes from his or her story is confined to a less than a 1% pool. It’s just not probative for 99 percent of the students. Meaning basically all irl.
@ Knowsstuff, Cal Poly is very much on our radar. We’re actually spending the 4th in SLO so we can visit it. It is also shockingly affordable out of state. Also, to your comment on Safeties, please expand if you can. My oldest is also my most accomplished but he doesn’t have the luxury of having an older sibling who went through this (nor do I). I know much of admissions is a racket to keep admission rates appear artificially low. On paper (and in real life), my oldest is what top Unis should drool over: good kid, great grades in all honors, 34 ACT, varsity athlete, summer job, leader in his church, blah, blah, blah. I went into this thinking every school had an ED (oops) and that was how you showed your cards to the one school you wanted to attend. I had naively been telling my son we just needed to find his top choice and then apply ED. The distinction between ED and EA only became clear when I joined this forum. Ugh.
@ Bluebayou, I hear you on school size although Stanford is so competitive I’m not sure I’d want that his top choice. Northwestern is tricky because we live 15 minutes from campus and he wants to spread his wings. Also, his current high school is as big as some colleges (3,000). I think that is largely why he wants a larger experience. My experience at Northwestern was incredible but my son is set on a big D1 school with good academics. When that’s the filter, options get pretty limited.
@121IllinoisDad. Well we will try to guide and educate you. Funny about Northwestern. We live by Wrigley and once I told my son I can take him and his friends out to dinner weekly he went right to his college excel sheet and took Northwestern off the list…he did a 3 weeks class there also and said it’s way to close to home.
LOL…
So do you know what type of engineering?
But look at Purdue but they don’t give a lot of aid /merit.
Anything T 25 and below might be good merit. So North Carolina State and Michigan State honors would be like 1/2 scholarship. Tons of Illinois engineering kids are going to Alabama for full rides. Other Southern states are similar. I know it’s not Michigan but the families I talk with the kids love it and their getting nice internships etc.
Just for references…engineering at Michigan avg student is 3.93 unweighted GPA with a 34 Act. The liberal arts college is 3.88 with around 32/33 Act. Not much of a difference.
Iowa State University has a great engineering program and tons of Illinois kids go there. Pretty affordable and great merit and like an automatic guarantee for your son. I know many that went there that had several job offers. The have one of the largest engineering fairs in the country.
Case Western decent merit and a really good program.
Others will chime in but this is a good list to start with.
As you stated, Illinois is a great university but it’s one of the more expensive instate options. Around $37,000 for engineering That is why lots of kids go Out of state (OOS)
Also just because your son has the correct GPA and Act for the school only means he’s in play. Doesn’t mean anything about being accepted. If he’s like in the top 75% for that school, that just gives him a much better chance. Engineering and getting into these great college has become much harder over the last 5, years.
As you build out your list be mindful that a well qualified general applicant and a well qualified engineering applicant are two significantly different things.
You could always move to either coast, so you are no longer in his backyard. lol
My kids also attended a large HS, so that eliminated every LAC: “I’m am not going to a college smaller than my HS.” That being said, they both found a mid-sized private big enough. Don’t forget that there are thousands of grad students roaming the halls, and if he’s in honors, and could be taking some grad seminars senior year.
How about Duke? Cornell? (yeah, I get, not ‘real’ D1 in football…) Both schools give a plus to ED.
For the schools you named, it would help to retake the ACT and aim for 36. Has your son taken the SAT subject tests? The subject tests are recommended for the UCs, but I’d bet that a majority of those who apply to any of the UC’s STEM fields would send in their SAT subject test scores. In the June 2018 SAT math 2 subject test, a full score of 800 was a 79th percentile. Given your son’s current stats, I am quite sure that scoring an 800 in math2 is not an issue for him. If he needs to add to his list of schools to consider, University of Maryland, College Park (Sergey Brin’s alma mater) does has a good engineering and CS departments.
Boy, I sure hope this thread isn’t a gross misunderstanding of what it takes to get into a highly competitive holistic college. Hope he has more ECs than sports, summer camp, and church. Hope some are math-science.
Don’t tax adcoms. If he retakes and focuses on that one math sub, gets substantially lower on the others, it can be trouble. Any college that looks for a kid’s thinking will wonder what’s up. Eg, is his effort inconsistent? Is he just gaming for his pride?
This isn’t the usual taking it again, after more months of growth and learning.
I cant make the decision for you, but please understand the whole of what matters, what needs to show, in holistic. It’s more than perfect or near perfect scores. You and he might be missing more effective uses of his time.
