Advice about Colleges for a Junior Looking into Computer Engineering?

Parents Forum
1

<p>I come from an extremely rural area of North Dakota, that is, my school does not offer any sort of AP classes. I'd have to travel 100 miles just to take the SAT. Anyway, I've been working on my college search and I'd like some input on what colleges I would have a decent chance to be accepted into. (I'm female as well, so an all-girls school would be fine)
My GPA is 3.9 unweighted (as we have no AP classes there aren't weighted GPAs)
ACT scores are
Composite 32
English 34
Math 29
Science 29
Reading 35</p>

<p>ECs include
Piano for 11 years (attended summer camp 9-10-11)
Mentoring 11th
Varsity VB 11th (lettered)
Speech 9-10-11 (lettered)
Summer Drama 9-10-11
Speech Play 11
Girls State (coming up)
Relay for Life (participated in last year, will this coming year)
Yearbook Staff 9th
Babysitting 9-10</p>

<p>Thanks and I do appreciate it!</p>

2

<p>Your grades and test scores look great, and the fact that you did not have access to AP classes will be taken into consideration (your school will send colleges a school profile indicating they don't offer them). It sounds like you are a great candidate for many colleges --- so, first, figure out what you are looking for in addition to the computer engineering, and then ask for more directed suggestions.</p>

<p>Here are some questions to answer, for a start: Do you have any limitations on distance from home? Are there particular areas of the country that you would prefer? Will you need financial aid? Do you have any preference for an urban, suburban or rural environment? Do you want a school with frats/sororities? Do you have other interests besides computer engineering that you want your school to have? And so on...</p>

<p>I'd recommend you go to this site: <a href="http://www.tryengineering.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.tryengineering.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>It is a site for students interested in majoring in engineering and related fields, including computer science and computer engineering. They have an excellent searchable database there that will allow you to find accredited computer engineering programs easily -- a nice thing is they show the stats for admitted students for each school, so it is fairly easy to sort out options where you'll have a good chance. If you give the folks here some clarification of what you are looking for in addition to engineering, I'm sure you'll get some other suggestions as well.</p>

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<p>A lot will depend on how far you are willing to go. If you are willing to apply to school that are male heavy you will have an extra edge. I think you have an excellent chance of being accepted to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.</p>

4

<p>How about Rose-Hulman? They are happy to get more female applicants!</p>

5

<p>becmojo</p>

<p>My sons are also looking at Computer/Electrical Engineering and we are from Montana. Not quite as rural as you are though.</p>

<p>They have gotten good to great Scholarship offers at a variety of schools in the west with very similar test scores. Composite was the same as yours but math was 35. That 32 ACT mark seems to be a break point for many of the schools Automatic scholarships. We focused on tier 2 schools where there was still a large group of talented students with similar scores yet schools would offer some merit aid. We felt the engineering programs were very solid at the list below.</p>

<p>My sons liked the bigger research schools not the small LAC, although we visited a few of those.</p>

<p>OF the most selective schools
USC was very generous
Waiting on Northwestern
Waiting on Penn</p>

<p>State Schools
Colorado School of Mines -- offered a great 100% need met package
Washington State -- great merit for OOS
Arizona -- great merit for OOS
Univ of Wyoming -- Very generous
Oregon State -- OK Merit Aid
Utah -- Good Merit aid but with strings</p>

<p>One Son is going to Washington State. He liked the rural atmosphere.
Other son is torn between USC, Northwestern, and Arizona. Utah is a darkhorse with a new scholarship offer.</p>

<p>PM for info on the schools if you are curious</p>

6

<p>Smith has an excellent engineering program. Really.</p>

7

<p>Aside from the obvious MIT/Stanford/Berkeley/CalTech, which are a reach for pretty much everyone, some of the best CompE programs include: Illinois, Carnegie Mellon, Michigan, Ga Tech, Cornell, Wisconsin, Texas, and U of Wash (in no particular order). For better or worse, most top-but-not-elite engineering programs are at large state unis. A few smaller options would be Rice, Northwestern, Rochester, RPI, and Rose Hulman.</p>

<p>In any event, your geographic diversity will be a huge admissions boost at most of the private schools, and will likely more than compensate for any disadvantage of not having AP credits. (As unsolicited advice from one who came from a similar background, be prepared to adjust your study skills accordingly next year to "catch up" with peers, however!)</p>

8

<p>University of Illinois for CompSci!</p>

9

<p>Wow, lots of responses!! :D I'll look into the colleges suggested.</p>

<p>To narrow down my search, I'm going to need a LOT of financial aid. My dad farms and that is our primary source of income. (My mom works a few days a week part-time but not much) Savings aren't substantial and wouldn't even cover a year in most private colleges. I'm not so sure about the city size I'm looking at, though I think I'd prefer a very large city where I wouldn't have to drive. (For a bit more background, my town has 600 people, though I live by a reservation that has a couple thousand; I haven't really driven in larger areas)</p>

<p>I'm considering retaking the ACT because of my writing score (I got a 7. Very bad) but I'm wondering about the SAT. I know a few of the top schools I've looked at require the subject tests (do you take them the same day as the SAT?) but I'm afraid that I won't do near as well on them. My PSAT was 187 when I took it this year.</p>

10

<p>The financial aid side of the equation is an important place to start. One possible issue to be aware of right up front is that, assuming your father owns the farm and has equity in it, it will be treated as a family asset by some schools and that may affect the amount of financial aid you will receive. I would, therefore, suggest that as you research schools, you directly ask the financial aid office of every college that interests you how the farm equity and ownership may affect your financial aid package. I'd also recommend that you and your parents get as smart as possible NOW about the process of applying for financial aid and the different factors that may affect your eligibilty. If you PM me or email me, I will be happy to send you a list of resources to help get you started on that end.</p>

<p>Regarding driving: I wouldn't worry about that being a factor! In truth, at most colleges you will not need a car (nor will you want the expense of having one), so don't limit yourself to large cities. In fact, relatively few colleges and universities are actually located in large cities, so focusing just on large cities will somewhat limit your options. At this point, try to cast a wide net. </p>

<p>As a start, What you may want to do, if possible, is try to visit some schools that are within a reasonable driving distance from your house and take a tour (scheduled through the admissions office) to get a sense of the size and type of school that feels right to you. For example, in Nebraska, you might visit the U of Nebraska-Lincoln (or the U of Illinois or U of Wisconsin) for an example of a larger public university, Creighton University (or Northwestern or Washington University) for an example of a smaller private university. Rose Hulman in Indiana or the Illinois Institute of Technology would give you the feel of a specialized engineering school. While none of these schools may end up on your final list, just getting on a college campus and seeing the differences will help you narrow down more national options and give you an idea of how far from home you want to go.</p>

<p>Finally, if you go to the College Board website (<a href="http://www.collegeboard.org)%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.collegeboard.org)&lt;/a>, and click on the information about subject exams, you can find a list of the subject exams offered, and the dates when they are offered. The general rule of thumb is to choose subject exams that are in your strongest subjects, and take them at the end of the highest level course in the subject. However, some engineering programs (Cal Tech, for example) do have specific math subject exams that they require. You can not take the subject exams on the same day as the SAT. There are actually very few colleges and universities that require subject exams, so, depending on your college list, they may not even be necessary. To research which colleges require or recommend subject exams, and which ones, a useful site is: <a href="http://www.compassprep.com/admissions_req_subjects.aspx%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.compassprep.com/admissions_req_subjects.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

11

<p>^ Excellent advice from Carolyn. Listen to it and good luck! You sound like a great student. :)</p>

12

<p>I believe you can go to Uminn and pay instate tuition. Uminn is very good in engineering.</p>

13

<p>Last fall, my son and I attended an information session about Carnegie Mellon University, being held in the Kansas City area, and the speaker apologized for one of the slides because it said "we have students from all 50 states". She said that it was no longer accurate and wondered if anyone in the audience was from "one of the Dakotas". We laughed, thinking she was joking, but when one kid raised his hand, she told him to wait and talk to her afterwards, and she wasn't kidding. She got his name and number. They're looking for you!</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon does require SAT II tests, three of them, for both School of Computer Science and the Carnegie Institute of Technology. (You apply to a particular school within the University.) The required tests are different for the two schools, for example, CIT will not accept Bio as the science, but SCS will. You need to plan ahead if Carngie Mellon interests you. You take the subject tests on a different day than the SAT I.</p>

<p>University of MN, as barrons mentions, has a good engineering school. It has been generous in its scholarships to many kids I know from Missouri.</p>

14

<p>engineering schools are ABET acredited. This means that no matter where you go you will be taking the same courses. Harder versions at top-tier schools, to be sure, but the same material. Comp. Eng. is a newer discipline so not all schools will be acredited for it, but make sure that their EE program is.</p>

<p>Since the curriculum is more or less the same, pick schools with the advising, types of kids attending, size, finances, etc. that you prefer.</p>

<p>Quite importantly, BTW, be sure to pick one you'd be happy to attend if you were NOT an engineer. I have no prediction about what will happen to you, of course, but if we were to look at 100 people who are planning on being engineers then research shows most of them won't make it! According to a trade publication
[quote]
the majority of engineering undergrads drop out or flunk out of the curriculum within the first two years. With a few notable exceptions, U.S. engineering schools typically have attrition rates hovering between one-half and two-thirds.
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/buzhg%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://tinyurl.com/buzhg&lt;/a>

[/quote]
Since you have mentioned finances as a concern, have your parents fill out one of the FAFSA calculators on the web and get an estimate of what colleges will expect them to contribute. You don't want to spend a lot of time researching schools you can't afford to attend. And pay particular attention to schools that have strong internship and coop programs. These pay, and for engineering pay quite well.</p>

15

<p>Becmojo:</p>

<p>Register to take 2 SAT-II tests in June. Since you want to do engineering, take the SATII-math 2C (it covers math through pre-calc) and a science SATII. It is best to take the SATII at the conclusion of a course, when the material is still fresh.</p>

<p>If necessary, take another SATII test next October. Don't bother taking the SAT since you've already taken the ACT.</p>

<p>The fact that you are female wanting to major in engineering, your geographical location and farm experiences will make you stand out among applicants. There are many good suggestions in the previous posts. I also strongly recommend filling out FAFSA so that your family gets an idea of what financial aid you should be looking for. This will have an impact on where you should apply. Some schools give need-based aid only, but their definition of need may not accord with yours. Others give merit aid to applicants they really want to attract. Some merit aid is predicated on maintaining a high GPA which can be difficult in engineering.</p>

16

<p>Absolutely look into the co-op programs. You get valuable hands-on experience, and the money is good!</p>

<p>My H put himself through school on co-op (after freshman year.) His father was laid off about then (the recession of the 70s) and really couldn't help him out. He ended up with one tiny loan.</p>

17

<p>Again, thanks so much for the input. I think I should take the SAT IIs, (Are these online or are they at test centers?) but I'm worried about the classes I've taken; with my small school (180 kids k-12) I don't really have the opportunity to take many classes; highest math class I can take is 'Senior Math' next year which covers some trig but doesn't get too advanced. I'm afraid that I don't know as much in some areas of math as I should & I definitely have the most trouble with geometry.</p>

<p>I'll talk to my dad about filing online fafsa estimators, he's not comfortable doing them online and when they're not the real thing. He gets really testy talking about money and hates forms but I'll have to convince him this is worth it.</p>

18

<p>bec:</p>

<p>You can register for the SATIIS online, but the tests themselves, are at test centers. They last one hour each. You should buy some SATII review books to see what materials are covered and to do one or two practice tests. If math is your weak area, though you may want to apply to schools that are not all about engineering. You could switch majors as so many students do when you find something you really enjoy and and less trouble with.</p>

<p>The online fafsa estimators are just that: It's not information that is sent out for the world to read.</p>

19

<p>University of Minnesota has an honors program that gives you smaller classes the first few years. They offer tours throughout the summer and special information days during the fall. I suggest you apply early if interested at all. Based on experience, applying early seems to be beneficial to admission and admission to the honors program. They have rolling admission, so you could hear early.</p>

<p>You may also want to consider University of Minnesota Duluth or Morris.University of Mn. Morris is like a public liberal arts college but has a computer science major. A co-workers D loved it there. UMD has engineering but is smaller than the Twin Cities campus. The classes transfer well between Universities.</p>

<p>University of St. Thomas in St. Paul also has a very good engineering program. It is smaller. Two of my D's girlfriend attend and really like it. They also have a very good business program, and a lovely campus. I've heard they are pretty good with financial aid.</p>

20

<p>A few more comments. Just so you know, electrical engineering in college consists mostly of math classes (calculus, differential equations, etc) and many EE classes that are for the most part applied math. Go to the websites of a couple of colleges and look at their EE program; they'll have the class requirements and course descriptions online. This doesn't mean that math has to come easily to you or that it's your favorite subject; but you should be aware up-front that to get an engineering degree you'll be taking a LOT of math. I think this discovery (and the work involved in learning the material) is part of the reason the majority of kids starting in engineering drop out.</p>

<p>I understand your school doesn't offer a lot of math classes, but is there a community college nearby where you could take more advanced math classes than senior math? Or a televised course from a CC that you could take with a math teacher at your school serving as your advisor? The more math you take in HS the better.</p>

<p>There are books out there (about $20 apiece) called things like "Calculus Problem Solver", "Geometry Problem Solver", "Physics Problem Solver", etc. When you take classes in HS or college these can be an invaluable resource since they have thousands of problems with worked solutions so you get a chance to practice. And practice is what its all about. If you are determined to reach a goal in school and are willing to put in the work, you can get there! Maybe it comes a bit easier to some, or its review to others from bigger schools, but I truly believe that if someone puts in the work they can master just about anything.</p>

<p>Lastly, your dad may hate talking about money and filling in forms. That's his choice. Of course the consequence of his choice will be that he's on the hook for the entire cost of your college education.</p>