Advised to Repost Here. Expectations

Parents Forum
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<p>DT Dad,</p>

<p>Of the schools you mention, I am most familiar with Rose-Hulman & Purdue. With the attributes you mention, I am fairly confident he would be admitted to both, although I am not positive regarding Purdue's qualifications necessary for those out of state. I have known several graduates/current attendees at both, and they are very happy. </p>

<p>They are very different schools as far as size. Both are rolling admissions, so if he were interested, it would be best to apply asap. I think Rose-Hulman's online ap is either free or they offer free applications to kids with certain stats.</p>

<p>Not sure if your S is interested in midwestern schools, but they are both top notch for engineering.</p>

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<p>Good luck to you and your son, DT.</p>

<p>Two comments: 1) for engineering, he'll want to take the Math 2 subject tests. 2) Unless you are a Calif resident, the UCs are mighty expensive for OOS kids, finaid is not great (lot of self-help), so I would cross the UCs off the list.</p>

<p>Emory offers a 5 year program with GaTech.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the clarification on Emory, bluebayou.</p>

<p>What about Case Western?</p>

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<p>
[quote]
What about Case Western?

[/quote]
Good one, twinmom.</p>

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<p>Just to add to the list of schools, I'd suggest RPI (Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute) in Troy, NY, and WPI (Worcester Polytechnic Institute) in Worcester, MA. I don't know about merit money or financial aid, but they are both excellent schools.</p>

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<p>RPI? Doesn't Dartmouth have a 3-2 program?</p>

<p>While geographic considerations should probably not constrain his reach schools, they may factor in for match and safeties, especially if $ are an issue and he will have travel expenses. Any preferences?</p>

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<p>birmingham southern college has a 3+2 engineering program w/Auburn University, Columbia University in New York, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
...............and in athletics.......they have entered into their transition year ........into Div. III NCAA from Div. I.</p>

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<p>Dartmouth has a 5 year program. Full financial aid for all five years, but I would personally start with those no loan schools. With the increase in the Pell Grant amounts, those no-loan places are looking better and better, IMO. Of course, the downside is that they are all extremely selective. But, just like with the lottery, 'gotta play to win'. I second Cur's advice.</p>

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<p>Take a look at Olin. It's highly selective and tuition-free: Franklin</a> W. Olin College of Engineering</p>

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<p>Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh?? I don't know a thing about engineering; I just know they're famous for Computer Science.</p>

<p>Does anyone here think it's worth the effort to look up schools by size of endowment to aim for those with big endowments, assuming they will be more forthcoming with finaid? Sticker shock--glad you figured that out before it was too late. Sometimes you can do better with a well-established, well-endowed old place even if the sticker is north of $40K. That was our strategy, 3 times (middle class family here).</p>

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<p>Look at Swarthmore, Trinity (CT) and Bucknell if he is interested in a liberal arts environment for engineering. Swarthmore has a very large endowment and is particularly friendly to minority students (57% of admitted students 2007 for class of '11.)</p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>

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<p>I would like to encourage your son to apply to WUSTL. If he goes to the common app site and selects WUSTL - he will be able to submit their pre-application online. The pre-app will let WUSTL know he is AfAm w/ high GPA and test scores. They will probably arrange for a “hosted visit” at their expense. Congratulation and Good Luck to your S.</p>

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<p>You may find the whole thread helpful: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/407822-yet-another-list-colleges-good-merit-aid.html?highlight=merit+aid%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/407822-yet-another-list-colleges-good-merit-aid.html?highlight=merit+aid&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>"Here is another version of the "pretty good merit aid" list of colleges that give an average merit award of at least $10k, annotated with the percentage of students at the school who actually receive merit aid, where that data is available. For the colleges that don't have annotations: (1) less than 22% of students receive merit aid, and (2) comments on CC suggest that more than a few merit scholarships are awarded.</p>

<p>Albion College (Albion, Michigan) (38%)
Allegheny College (Meadville, Pennsylvania) (29%)
American University (Washington, D.C.)
Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York)
Beloit College (Beloit, Wisconsin) (30%)
Berry College (Mount Berry, Georgia) (41%)
Birmingham-Southern College (Birmingham, Alabama) (45%)
Boston College (Boston, Massachusetts)
Boston University (Boston, Massachusetts)
Brandeis University (Waltham, Massachusetts)
Cal Tech (Pasadena, California)
Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, Ohio)
Centre College (Danville, Kentucky) (36%)
Chapman University (Orange, California)
Clark University (Worcester, Massachusetts)
Coe College (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) (39%)
College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Massachusetts)
College of Wooster (Wooster, Ohio) (43%)
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (New York, New York) (100%)
Denison University (Granville, Ohio) (51%)
Depauw University (Greencastle, Indiana) (49%)
Drew University (Madison, New Jersey) (32%)
Eckerd College (St. Petersburg, Florida) (36%)
Emory University (Atlanta, GA)
Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) (25%)
Furman University (Greenville, South Carolina) (31%)
George Washington University (Washington, D.C.)
Goucher College (Baltimore, Maryland) (31%)
Hanover College (Hanover, Indiana) (34%)
Hendrix College (Little Rock, Arkansas) (41%)
Howard University (Washington, D.C.)
Ithaca College (Ithaca, New York)
Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland)
Juniata College (Huntingdon, Pennsylvania) (26%)
Kalamazoo College (Kalamazoo, Michigan) (38%)
Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio) (23%)
Knox College (Galesburg, Illinois) (30%)
Lafayette College (Easton, Pennsylvania) (15%)
Lawrence University (Appleton, Wisconsin) (26%)
Linfield College (McMinnville, Oregon) (23%)
Loyola Marymount (Los Angeles, California)
Loyola University (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Mills College (Oakland, California)
Millsaps College (Jackson, Mississippi) (41%)
Muhlenberg College (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
Northeastern University (Boston, Massachusetts)
Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio) ("limited")
Occidental College (Los Angeles, CA) (26%)
Ohio Wesleyan University (Delaware, Ohio) (42%)
Olin College of Engineering (Needham, Massachusetts) (100%)
Pepperdine University (Malibu, California)
Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana)
Randolph-Macon College (Ashland, Virginia) (39%)
Rensselaer Polytechnic (Troy, New York)
Rhodes College (Memphis, Tennessee) (39%)
Scripps College (Claremont, CA)
St. John’s University (Collegeville, Minnesota) (38%)
Stonehill College (Easton, Massachusetts) (23%)
Sweet Briar College (Sweet Briar, Virginia) (49%)
Tulane University (New Orleans, Louisiana)
University of Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
University of Miami (Coral Gables, Florida)
University of Redlands (Redlands, California)
University of the South (Sewanee, Tennessee) (22%)
University of Southern California (USC) (Los Angeles, California)
University of Tulsa (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tenessee)
Wabash College (Crawfordsville, Indiana) (25%)
Washington and Lee University (Lexington, Virginia)
Wesleyan College (Macon, Georgia) (38%)
Willamette University (Salem, Oregon) (31%)
Wittenberg University (Springfield, Ohio) (26%)"</p>

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<p>Wow, </p>

<p>What great information from everyone, thank you very much!</p>

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<p>First, thank you to everyone who posted in this thread. There are too many posts with great advice to respond to each, so thank you to all! </p>

<p>Update: </p>

<p>Nov SAT should come back on the 20th and that will give some additional insight into which schools he will keep on his list. My S is very confident he did much better than the first time, no work till 1am the prior night and prepared this time. </p>

<p>He is scheduled to take the SAT subject test(Bio e/m, Chem, Math2) on 12/1 and the ACT (writing) on 12/8. His AP english, AP chem and employer all said they would be honored to write letters of REC for him. He has started working on his general Essay, some schools have specific topics, he's going to decide which to do after he gets his updated SAT on 11/20 and narrows down the school list. </p>

<p>With the help here we have created a "possibility" list and now the investigation begins. </p>

<p>Again the advice here really helped me help him, thank you!</p>

<p>Edit: The U of Chicago essay choices really excited him, made him really excited to start work/thinking on his general essay.</p>

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<p>DTDad--I hate to rain on your parade, but for your son to play in the merit pool at selective schools he needs higher SATs. Find out whether the high school offers SAT prep--often they do; if not check out Kaplan or Princeton Review. You should also have him take the ACT. </p>

<p>Another school that you should definitely look at is Notre Dame. Support for the students--especially study skills, time management, and career planning--is excellent. Notre Dame made their reputation on making first generation students successful and there is a culture of support there that I have never seen anywhere else. Their engineering students do well and the alumni network is fabulous. They are VERY generous with students with genuine need and they have a LOT of social athletics there--club sports, intramurals, and interdorm tournaments. There is a theology requirement, but students can satisfy that in many different ways.</p>

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<p>Oh, and one more ND plug--if your son loves band they have an awesome marching band, even if the football team is horrible ;).</p>

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<p>Mombot, </p>

<p>Don't appologize honest feedback is good. He took the SAT's again 11/1 this time after having the Kaplan book and with a good nights sleep. He is also scheduled to take the ACT on 12/8. </p>

<p>Once we get his 11/1 scores on 11/20 he will know which schools he can look at for merit. </p>

<p>Again, thank you for your insight it's much appreciated.</p>

<p>Edit: And thanks for the ND information.</p>

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<p>Thank you for updating. I'm very interested in seeing what the next few months hold for your son.</p>

<p>One question/comment. You mentioned the Univ. of Chicago in your last post. I'm assuming you probably know that UChicago does not offer any sort of engineering. Does his interest in Chicago mean his interests have changed? </p>

<p>(I'm not suggesting it is not a good choice; in fact, my son applied to, and was accepted at Univ. of Chicago, although most of his other applications were to schools that offered computer science as part of an engineering program. He almost went, too, but in the end decided he really wanted more hands-on, applied research than he would get at Chicago.)</p>

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<p>I just want to be realistic if you are seriously considering something like MIT. With the scores as is he is competitive for Notre Dame (well, it would be better if he could noodge up his CR score a bit)..I really recommend the ACT for another data point.</p>

<p>The way you describe him though--his employer's recommendation, his athletics, his music and his commitment to academic excellence--really screams Notre Dame to me. Check them out.</p>