Best fit for an international student

<p>Hi! So, my situation is this: I am attending a 4 year university that does not offer any kind of engineering, just pre-engineering A.S degree. I am from Brazil, and, obviously, an international student. I have good grades ( a 3.85 GPA) and good SAT and Toefl scores ( 1310 and 627 in the Pbt, respectively). I am looking to transfer to a respectable mechanical engineering school; however, I do not have more than 25k to spend per year, total. The big deal is I do not want to go to a bad engineering school, because I believe that it will become an issue when getting the first job. I was looking for a school that would give me a solid background, some ressearch opportunity and be at least a little bit respectable ( i.e, the engineering companies look for when recruiting). I want to work directly with engineering, I do not consider going to the consulting or financial market, so, as far as I read in the other topics, I do not need to go to a top 5 school. The universities that I am interested on right now are:
University of Minnesota- Twin Cities
University of Arkansas- Fayeteville
Texas Tech
The main reason I am interested on is because of the price and the availability of scholarships or tuition waivers.
I wonder if anybody has any thoughts on these engineering schools and some other schools tips, because quite frankly, this subject keeps is a big concern in my life right now, and I need to make a decision by November.
Thank you</p>

<p>Out of those three, Minnesota would be my pick for the best. It has a very solid program and the city of Minneapolis is a really nice place (as long as you can stand a good, cold winter). It is routinely rated as one of the best cities in which to live in the United States.</p>

<p>I have never been impressed with Texas Tech, and it is located in an absolutely dreadful town. The only people I have ever heard of who enjoy the town of Lubbock are about half of the people I have met who went there. The other half didn’t like it. I haven’t been impressed with any of the engineers I have met from there either, though I will admit I haven’t run across many of them.</p>

<p>I don’t know much about the engineering programs at Arkansas (or much at all, really), but the university itself seems to be a pretty nice place. Someone else would have to give you specifics though.</p>

<p>Yeah, Minnesota is my first choice, I checked their web site, it seems to be a really good place and the Winter is not a problem at all. Do you think they woudl give me a solid education or do you have any other school suggestion?</p>

<p>They would definitely give you a solid education. It is a very solid school.</p>

<p>As for other schools, I can’t really comment too much given your money constraints, as I am not really that familiar with many tuition rates. All I really know is that Illinois and Purdue would be out of the price range and that Texas A&M would come in around $20,000 without financial aid of any sort. Beyond that, I don’t know the tuition and fees at many schools.</p>

<p>Id recomend looking into McGill university in canada. It costs less than 25k, has a great engineering program, and a strong international community.</p>

<p>Thanks, both of you were really helpful. One last question, though. Does anyone knows anything about the Oklahoma State Mech E or Aero E program?
I could afford to pay for it, is it any good?</p>

<p>Purdue has a lot of international students and there’s no way they a vast majority of them could afford it if they had to pay full price. I have a feeling they are very generous with financial aide for international students (or said students find other sources of money).</p>

<p>I checked Purdue website, and they unfortunatelly do not offer scholarships to international students. Going to Purdue would be awesome, but I can’t afford it. But thanks for the tip anyways</p>

<p>^Financial Aid is different than scholarships.</p>