My son who wants to study engineering was accepted to a number of schools. He received no money from Purdue which was his first choice so that is no longer under consideration. As a NMF he received good $ from University of Minnesota which brings the cost down to $11K per year. And Arizona State he would be free and be in the Barrett Honors program. He’s leaning towards Arizona State but having a hard time making a final decision. Any advice would be appreciated!
If both programs are ABET accredited (and they probably are) then I would go with Arizona State. Usually honors programs get you some good benefits like being at the front of the line for class choices. And maybe you could put the $11K/year aside as a pot to start his life after college.
Are you sure Arizona State is free?
Barrett honors has an extra fee and the housing honors students have to live in is also pricey ($13,000 a year?).
Did he look at the Barrett honors requirements of courses he has to take? Would that fit in well with his interest in engineering?
He should compare U Minnesota and Arizona State based on his engineering interests.
ASU appears to admit directly to major, while Minnesota admits to a pre-engineering program.
https://engineering.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Admissions-req-2018-2019.doc (bottom) says that frosh admitted to ASU engineering just need to maintain good academic standing to change to another engineering major.
https://www.advising.cse.umn.edu/ indicates that Minnesota pre-engineering students can declare their majors with a 3.2 technical college GPA; others are admitted in rank order by this GPA. Some majors admit all the way down to the 2.0 minimum, but others are more competitive.