Child has about 3.7 at competitive school with a challenging schedule and 36 [ACT]
Lots of good EC’s but nothing crazy like research or competitions. private pilot license.
accepted: [UIUC]Boulder, Michigan
Denied: [Purdue], GATech, UT
Waiting on few others.
OOS for all schools.
Updates below. Shows how random admissions can be.
Denied: UW
Accepted: UCDavis
S23 (W GPA 4.27)
Waitlisted UC Davis. Have not heard from Cal Poly Slo so assuming either a rejection or a waitlist. Crossing fingers for UC Irvine and UC San Diego.
As I mentioned earlier, he was accepted for aerospace eng at Cal Poly Pomona, SDSU, San Jose State, CSLB.
Disappointed about Slo and UC Davis. But been reading a lot of great things about Cal Poly Pomona which is now his 1st choice.
During the process of evaluating various schools, one dilemma keeps coming affront - Mechanical vs. Aerospace. The Cornell’s video (Why is Aerospace Engineering Not a Major at Cornell Engineering? - YouTube) puts our dilemma in best manner.
I primarily work in Oil & Gas sector and I do see huge ups & downs in this domain’s career. People get paid insane amounts and get BMWs as their yearly bonuses, and in couple of years, the same guys is seen claiming unemployment benefits.
I like to know what you guys in Aero industry think. Really appreciate if you guys (@DubCADad and @momocarly and others) can share your thoughts.
FWIW, all our friends at NASA studied mech e. My D only knows one aero eng working in the industry. The rest are all mech es.
The composition of the staff within NASA depends significantly on which org within NASA you are talking about. Flight research? Yeah… lots of aero. Nanotechnology or astrobiology? Not so much. There are lots of aero engineers throughout NASA, but some branches/divisions just don’t have the need… some don’t have the need for MechE either. Many NASA orgs are fairly diversified technically and often hire the best available talent because much of the research is longer term and they are simply looking for talent rather than an immediate need for a specific task. MechE is more broadly applicable in general, but aero is not by any stretch a hindrance to employment at NASA… here is a list of current openings (mostly aerospace and electronics engineering): USAJOBS - Search
I think the aerospace industry is somewhat susceptible to ups and downs, but that such volatility is less than it has been in decades past due to the commercialization of space launch services and the emergence of new aircraft types/operations. The Cornell video mentions catastrophes and program terminations leading to industry volatility, which I believe is referring to the shuttle accidents and the end of the shuttle program. It is specifically the government response to the former (years without shuttle launches as investigations were conducted) that provided the urgency for the latter and the stimulus for commercial launch services. Air transport is diversifying as well with UAS and UAM; if they are able to support urban and regional economies as predicted/expected, aerospace will become even more stable in the decades to come. In short, I’d say a MechE degree is probably more stable, but the difference is no longer as significant as it once was. One way to mitigate such risk is to supplement that BS degree with an MS in another field (e.g., BS-AE, MS-ME)… they are closely related enough that any additional undergrad coursework will be minimal at most schools. Who doesn’t like more school? (Parents raise hands).
Thank you.
BS-Aero plus MS-Mech vs. BS-Mech plus MS-Aero
Which one is preferable for a preferred career in Aero.
These are all the extended analysis just to be sure we thought through before we fix on something.
Hmmm… not sure it matters a whole lot at that point… maybe just whichever school feels a better fit for your son? Specific to your son’s interest, might also consider BS->MBA, and with an interest in the entrepreneurship (never know where opportunities may arise), ME would be more broadly applicable and might be a better choice?
Ugh… rough day (and week if you include last Friday). Denied today by: UCSD, UCI, UCLA. Waitlisted last week from UCD, no update from SLO (which means waitlist or deny since they sent out acceptances). These are good aero programs, but he’s been accepted and/or waitlisted into programs at least as good (and in some cases better). I seriously hate the UC admissions process.
Just found this thread! My S23 recently accepted his offer to Purdue. Other admits he got were: UIUC, CU Boulder, Georgia Tech, Iowa State (go Cyclones!), and UA-Huntsville. No rejections. GT was the only school that didn’t offer him any merit aid (well, I can’t say for sure that UIUC did as he didn’t open everything up from them nor from Boulder as he had already decided they were no’s). It was a bit of a disappointment because GT would have been his top choice. But, he went into this saying he was going where they offered him the most money. We did tell him that it was great to consider money, but he didn’t need to let that drive his decision (Huntsville gave him the best offer). Purdue was a close second so he was ok with it. He knows it’s not a direct admit to aerospace but he likes the odds of getting in. He also got into the honors college so that helped. He’s been filling out the info in his portal—today was housing day, so it’s feeling real!
Congratulations on successfully concluding this tedious process! We are in the same boat; Purdue offered zero-cost, Umich and GaTech costing almost the same due to UMich’s generous engg. departmental merit scholarship. GTech didn’t offer any merit, but hopeful of some private scholarships to come to rescue.
Still not committed to anything yet and I know housing is going to be a problem as we keep delaying. My son wants to wait for two more RD decisions (to be released on Ivy Day) before committing to anything. If he were to pick today, he might pick UMich as it is well rounded in its curriculum, national ranking, student:faculty ratio, etc.
Better week than last week… accepted to UCSB MechE, waitlisted GaTech and CalPolySLO.
OK… DS was waiting for RD results of UPenn and Stanford; and both are negative.
So, he now has Purdue, Univ. Michigan (Ann Arbor), and GT as shortlisted ones (Withdrew from A&M, Univ. Wisconsin - Madison, CU-Boulder, SUNY-Buf, UMD; Rejected by MIT, Caltech, Stanford, UPenn, BU)
He is inclined to go with BS-ME with +1 year for Aero MS - not finalized, but inquiring all his sources on that combination. The fight is between Michigan and GT, Purdue being considered as 2nd choice although Purdue essentially offered free education. GT and Michigan right now costs same and finAid from GT is awaited.
Cradle of Astronauts…just saying ; ).
All kidding aside, congrats to your son on wonderful acceptances. He can’t go wrong at any of these schools.
D23 scrambling to visit 3 schools before May 1st. Short list in order of estimated COA:
CU (in state)
UMnTC
Purdue – no merit aid
CWRU
CalPoly SLO – no merit aid
UW
Union College (ME)
USC (Astro) – originally deferred EA
Waitlisted: Harvey Mudd
Rejected: Swarthmore and Stanford
4.0UW / 5.1/5.2W (all but 2 classes were honors/AP/IB)
1530 SAT (780 math)
IB diploma
ECs: robotics captain; dance; orchestra
Was leaning towards a small LAC with engineering and loved Swarthmore while I preferred HMC. Lots of good choices. This is going to be hard…
Which schools has your D already visited? Where is she leaning, I’m curious? I notice that she is looking at several of the same schools that are also on my S’s short list (UMN, UW, Cal Poly). He already crossed off CWRU as it is too small to have everything he wants, and withdrew himself from USC after the EA deferral, since it’s so much $$$. Visited CU but just didn’t like it for some reason, so didn’t apply there.
We spent a week on the east coast and a week on the west coast and somehow the short list has 5 schools we’ve never seen. Ended up not applying to most we toured. If Dad got to pick–he’d choose the closest; if Mom got to pick–she’d chose the school with a 5 year BS/MS with career connections to Colorado; D23 is looking for social fit mostly.
I set up a meeting with Cal Poly’s AE chair over the summer but he was a no-show. A professor saw us aimlessly walking the halls and asked if he could help. We explained we were touring schools and were from Colorado. He introduced us to Professor Kira Abercromby who graciously spoke to us for 30 minutes. She received her MS and PhD from Boulder and was the most engaging professor I met on our tours. Tried to get her to answer–should we choose CP or CU? She said the hardest thing was getting accepted to CP which I agree as so many high stats students didn’t. Then she asked Cody Thompson to give us a tour of the facilities. We walked away with a great impression. I liked you could choose your concentration-D23 is focused on space; few, if any, grad students teach undergrads; the upside-down curriculum allows you to intern after sophomore year; and 2 years required to live on campus (in full disclosure–I am an alum though not in engineering).
I appreciate how much Purdue has communicated directly to the parents since acceptance, but is not on the list of 3 were visiting due to she really doesn’t want to live in Indiana.
Plan to spend 12 hours in Seattle to tour UW. We can’t make the admitted students Saturday so trying to schedule a meeting with AA dept and others to gauge “fit”. I have researched this school the least. D23 likes the research opportunities listed and dance opportunities. Am concerned you have to compete, again, for your preferred major but agree it deserves a trip.
I like CWRU as it is smaller, states you can get a BSME and BSAE with only one more class but am not thrilled with the new president and his goals of increasing revenue by increasing tuition and class size.
Toured and liked USC but agree it is too steep to consider. Like CU too. Smead building is amazing. Tour guide mentioned they offer two humanities courses in the Smead building so you don’t have to trek back to the main campus. “It’s like a TED talk with a former astronaut.” D23 just beamed.
It is taking interesting turns… We are waiting on GaTech financial aid information, but when my son spoke to a current Purdue sophomore, things have changed 180-degrees.
Here is the gist of what current Purdue student said:
At BS level, there is practically no difference between three schools; We have exact same access to profs, advisors, course work collaboration, academic help, Undergraduate research oppotunities, and finally Coop/intern opportunities. All the employers who hire at GT, also hire at Purdue and so at UMich.
So, the purdue student told that being a Presidential Scholar, your resume at a coop/career fair looks bit better than a similar guy at other two schools.
Getting full ride tied to Presidential Scholarship (essentially free housing, dining, etc. for all 4 years as long as 3.2 GPA is maintained) is not a joke at Purdue. That weighs a lot that Purdue invested in you and believe that you will excel. If your parents make that $100k - $150k of regular 4 year Purdue/GT/UMich fee available for you to fund your entrepreneur aspirations, and if you utilize advanced labs at Discovery Park, latest Scale lab to develop prototypes, Purdue will file for Patents, and helps to gain more funding from its Alumni. So, you immediately have access to about $100k in liquid funds, and nations top incubator. With help from professors (of course of same caliber as other two universities), you have high probability of reaching your ambition much faster than other two schools.
This above point weighed in a lot in our minds and it appeared to be very true. Having angel funding of $100-$150k ready for developing his ideas into prototypes puts the kid at a different plane compared to other schools.
So, we now think that unless GT comes up something as good as Purdue offer, my DS may actually go with Purdue… which was just not even considered until few hours ago…
One of my colleague cautioned that kids should not make decisions based on financials; they should go where their heart is… As with any 17 year old, my DS is as confused about that statement. His heart is at GT, mainly because most of the MIT alumni said “GT is a credible alternate to MIT”. Since MIT rejected him, his natural inclination is GT.
But after talking to current Purdue student, he thinks that he will be super happy if he can pursue his dream of working on his ideas and turn them into viable business products.
Any advice from experienced parents is highly appreciated…
One of my D’s close friends was a presidential scholar at Purdue and she had an amazing experience. She has done all kinds of research, travelled to present around the country, had wonderful internships, and is now doing a fully funded PhD. I dont think I realized that your son had won scholars! That’s amazing!
Yes. DS is awarded a Presidential Scholarship - OOS.