The family is putting the wraps on S22’s college acceptance and is turning to D24. She is much more involved in the process and has already stated some of her intentions and preferences. We have a preliminary list, but would certainly like any input and/or advice on our list of things we may have left off. Thank you for your consideration.
D24 is a rising junior at a full IB private school. She will be taking HL Maths AA, HL English, HL Chemistry, HL Spanish, SL Art, and SL Psych.
No ACT as yet.
Scored a 1340/1520 on the PSAT as a sophomore.
Weighted GPA of 4.08/Unweighted 3.92
Very outdoorsy (Master SCUBA diver [40+ dives] and rock climber – we are in Memphis BTW). Openly gay.
She is interested in engineering. She is unsure whether she prefers chemical, environmental, or mining (I will explain). She does not want to work at a desk (like I do). She is a former Girl Scout, and somewhat of a pyromaniac (the apple didn’t fall far from the tree). She likes the “idea” of mining engineering because certain schools allow you to couple it with a minor in explosives. This is beyond cool to her.
Budget (its always this, isn’t it?) – under $50K (guts, feathers, and all) per year.
She does not want the northeast, California, Texas, or Florida. “Brand recognition” is not a thing to her, value is.
So far she is considering:
Colorado School of Mines
Arizona
Utah
Virginia Tech
Georgia Tech
Oregon State
Iowa State
Alabama
I was thinking Mines and Va Tech. Don’t forget S. Dakota School of Mines.
So I see Scuba - would she rather be coastal than mountains?
Montana State - but not sure it’s the best place to be gay. CU Boulder and CSU are both fine schools - since she likes Colorado. Utah and Nevada Reno could be worth a look too. And Michigan Tech.
CU Boulder? I personally wouldn’ t send my LGBTQ kid to any of these - Arizona, Alabama. Iowa. Remember you need to carefully consider the surrounding community for safety and acceptance, nor just the school itself, though I heard negative things about these schools as well in terms of not having an open and welcoming lgbtq scene. Take this advice with a large grain of salt appropriate for advice from a stranger of course.
Here are some possibilities to consider. These all have mining engineering, chemical engineering, and environmental engineering and fall in the $50k budget unless otherwise noted. There’s also a decent chance for merit aid at a number of these.
• U. of Nevada, Reno, about $37k
• Missouri Science & Technology, about $41k
• Michigan Technological U., about $50k
• West Virginia, about $40k
• New Mexico Inst. of Mining & Technology, about $31k
• U. of Kentucky (doesn’t offer environmental engineering…only environmental engineering technology), about $45k
• U. of Pittsburgh about $46k (doesn’t offer environmental engineering…this is close to the Midwest and WV, so I don’t know if this counts as northeast or not)
Canadian universities are a bit different from the U.S. (admission is much more based on stats) and the cost is lower, but I’m not sure if they allow undecided majors. But if interested, I’d take a lot at:
• U. of British Columbia
• U. of Alberta
University towns are often much more progressive than the state that they’re in. I would look at each suggested university (on this list and any other list) to see whether you think it’s an environment where an LGBTQ student would thrive (the university and the surrounding town, and extending as far as you deem prudent).
S22 is gay and will be attending Alabama. I take it that you aren’t aware of the long LGBT history of Alabama stretching back to 1972? It also happens to be one of the first universities with a GSA recognized by the university and student union. Honestly, I hear a lot of derogatory things about Alabama, because you know Alabama, but what I find is that those that say these things generally don’t know about the university and are basing their opinions on stereotypes anyway.
I wish him all the best. People have different views. Campus pride index of only 2.5 suggests others share my views (which aren’t based only on hearsay). But OP can certainly do their own diligence.
This goes back to a debate we often have - whereas some say, choose a school based on the school and not the state politics - i.e. your point on Alabama, and my son goes there, and he sees no political or social bullying.
Others, point out, you need to look at the political climate because you have to see how the state would treat you.
There are often discussions about Rice and Case Western - both gay friendly but others say they’d never let their kids state foot in that state.
I’m not sure the right answer - I suppose each needs to make it for themselves.
I know your daughter has certain requirements including gay friendly - but here’s a list of mining schools. Maybe she can bounce it off the campus pride index website which will at least guide in regards to being gay friendly.
Most engineers have a high percentage of desk work. My daughter is in civil - probably 80-90% desk work. My nephew’s girlfriend is in environmental engineering. Mostly desk work (especially since covid). BIL in civil and while he’s done a lot of field work, most of it ends with many hours at the desk, writing up the results. He worked at they molly mine in Leadville for a few years and was in charge of the surface facilities, and still spent most of his time at a desk.
Now I did know a family of engineers who blew things up. They blew up most of the old hotels in Atlantic City before all the big hotels went in many years ago (Trump Palace, Bally’s, MGM) and old buildings, stadiums, stuff all around the US. However, most of them were related to the two brothers who founded the company. Even they spent a lot of time at a desk, planning the demolition.
SLC is not representative of the rest of Utah, for example they had a gay mayor until 2020. Yes you see the Mormon influence, it was quite a surprise when one of D’s classmates got married after sophomore year, but she’s been fine as a liberal atheist.
And it is cheap: the western states get WUE and others can get residency after the first year (which reduces the cost from $45K to about $25K per year). The honors dorms are great and very new.
As someone explained above, most engineers spend most of their time in the office. Certain environmental jobs have a lot of site visits. But some other thoughts for people who want to be outdoors and/or like explosives
Land surveying - licensed surveyors are becoming a rare breed and are pretty well paid. (the survey crew OTOH, not so much) Pros - definitely will spend most of your time outdoors. Depending on location, it could be in the mountains, sometimes they wade through creeks, but they also do a lot of stake out for construction sites. With construction comes destruction! Our area doesn’t have a lot of rock, but from time to time, we have had blasting companies come. Also, if she ever became a small woman owned business, she would be a DBE and those are golden for contractors on federally funded projects. Cons - it’s not easy work. They often spend a lot of time out of town. And it may not be the most gay friendly. I would hope that is changing, but it needs to be put out there. It might also be a thought for a summer job to see if she liked it. I don’t know if they would hire high school kids, but they might. I know my area is desperate.
Construction Engineering & Management/Building Construction - I know VT (my alma mater) offers the former under their civil engineering, but I think Building Construction is separate. Pros - they will spend more out on the job site. I once knew of a woman in a large global company who would spend 2-3 years on a site somewhere around the world. Once it was done, she would go to another site. It wouldn’t be good for a family person, but she did extremely well and was VERY well paid. Was able to comfortably retire in her 40s. Cons - you need a backbone of steel to be a construction manager. And the same applies for the work being gay friendly. In general (and I am stereotyping) the more white collar the job, the more progressive; however, the more office work there will be.
My Dad actually did research & design for ballistic missiles (among other things) for most of his career. His last job was primarily in the office. However, the previous job was at a think tank type company. There, he had a testing facility where he would go from time to time to go blow things up. His degrees are in aerospace engineering and applied mechanics. He used to joke that I build things and he makes them go BOOM! Or did, he retired over 10 years ago.
This is very helpful. As a real estate attorney, I work with a lot of surveyors. Locally, they are a lot of good ole boys, so I am aware of the issues there.
I have heard that Canadian universities are cheaper, but my research does not show that. Am I missing something? Are they on a three year English-style program?