Any disadvantage of choosing NCSU over VT and PSU? (Mechanical Engineering major)

College Search & Selection
1

Hi! I am a senior who is trying to decide which college I should commit. I visited NCSU and VT and
I totally loved NCSU’s location and campus over VT’S. I know VT has a slightly better program than NCSU but would that matter a lot?

2

I’m OSS for all 3 and NCSU is also 4k cheaper than both

3

NC State is fine, the difference isn’t that much between the two programs, and $4,000 is $4,000. Nothing wrong with choosing NC State, if that’s the school you prefer.

4

Nothing at all wrong with NC State, as much as I love VT.

5

NC State is a superb university. Equal to VT, FWIW. The cost difference is very little, so why not take a shot?

6

Looks like all three admit to a first year pre-engineering or general engineering program, where you may have to compete by college GPA to get into your desired major. You may want to try to find out what the threshold GPAs are for your desired major.

VT engineering assures major with a 3.0 college GPA (some majors may allow lower GPAs on a competitive basis). PSU thresholds are linked from http://www.engr.psu.edu/AdvisingCenter/ETM/ . It is not clear where NCSU’s thresholds are posted (see https://www.engr.ncsu.edu/academics/undergrad/coda/ for general information), so you may want to ask the department what historical GPA thresholds were.

7

If NCSU is the cheapest, it’s equivalent to the others so it seems like a no-brainer.
HOWEVER, the information above (#5) is super important - check the thresholds and consider this carefully, as the higher the threshold, the harder it is to get your major. (It’s common for engineering majors to have 2.7-2.9).

8

Thank you so much for taking your time to help me! I appreciate it very much!

9

“Only students in the Engineering First Year program with an ESS greater than or equal 2.0 and a “continuation” GPA of 2.0 will be guaranteed entrance into at least one of the remaining programs with available seats.” Got this from the link you posted. I think I will pick NCSU!

10

Re: #8

However, this assurance into an engineering major with available seats with a 2.0 GPA does not necessarily mean assurance into your first choice engineering major.