I was impressed by our tour//info session at Rowan, but there aren’t a lot of OOSers.
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UNH is on his list and close to one of my fave places, Portsmouth, NH!
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Kettering Univ in Michigan was originally founded as a university for the car companies in the area and continues to cater to students who like cars.
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Here is info from the RIT website. Even though S23 ended up not applying to RIT the website is a wealth of information about majors and jobs. I thought their youtube videos about their different majors were interesting as well. Engineering vs. Engineering Technology | RIT
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sounds like he’d love the hands-on, project-based focus of WPI even though it is a reach. If it is near the top of his list, I highly suggest he attend one of their camps. Every kid I know who attended their camps was accepted.
I’d also add UMaine to the list.
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I was also going to suggest RIT.
UNC Charlotte, U Maine, WPI all are worth a look. Not sure if Rose Hulman is within reach, but my understanding is that the teaching is excellent.
Admission to a college where one can study engineering with the given stats is certainly possible.
However, strength in academics and willingness to handle to workload are necessary to succeed in college as an engineering major.
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Seconding UMaine, RIT, Clarkson, Wentworth, Penn State Behrend, WPI as a reach.
Look into St Louis University, U St Thomas (Twin cities). Some larger, less selective universities like Iowa/Iowa State or UNebraska (Lincoln) would probably admit him but being in large classes without much support might not work well.
A PG year with AP calc and AP physics 1 would really help if he hasn’t taken those.
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This was about 8 years ago, but we have an engineer friend who impressed with York’s program - it was very hands on.
Two other friends have kids who went there (non-engineering) more recently and had a good experience. I get the impression (in a good way) that they are normal, every day kids there.
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UDel?
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My friend’s son also had a very good experience with engineering at York. He graduated a few years ago. He had good co-op experiences and got a great job after graduating.
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You can plug in your stats right on the Iowa/Iowa State websites and figure out if you are an autoadmit. S23 got his acceptance before he even started senior year.
University of Dayton is another one to check out. Exploratory majors in both engineering and engineering technology.
Both Iowa and University of Dayton tend to attempt to keep students in the engineering program rather than weed them out.
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What math and science classes has he taken (assuming As in them)?
Did he enjoy these classes or at least find enough motivation to pull through the arduous parts?
A typical engineering program is going to be light on Humanities&Social sciences but they are required for ABET accreditation and he’ll need to take those classes seriously since they’ll help him understand society and others better, sth he’ll need as an adult in the working world.
(To maximize “understand others for professional purpose” he could take classes that emphasize groups he’s not part of -women’s studies and other “studies” courses, which at the introductory level would cover a lot of ground and topics for maximum exposure, plus communication classes like speech, interpersonal, intercultural comm… which would have practical exercises.
He may also take a relevant foreign language class - German for the automotive industry may be useful for instance… Not as directly useful as the above though.
He’ll likely have a freshman composition class but some colleges have topics for those, so you could inquire whether the colleges he’s applying to do and if they do, which topics, bc if he’s into, say, sci fi or graphic novels or the space race or disaster films… and his one English class focuses on that area of interest, it may make the class easier to swallow!)
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I don’t know what kind of cars he is into, or if he would want to go as far away as NC, but this is an interesting looking program for a mech E interested in cars: https://motorsports.charlotte.edu
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I believe ABET accreditation requires 15 semester hours in these, including 2 writing courses. These were not my daughter’s favorites, but she had to slog through them while doing the ‘fun’ courses of calc and physics and fluids and other things I would have been lost in.
She now complains that she has to write too many reports and proposals as an engineer, so they weren’t just filler classes. She’s also grateful (although certainly was not at the time) she attended a catholic grade school and learned grammar. She knows the difference between to, two, and too and many of the people she works with do not. She is not a fancy writer, but solid.
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I wish, second half of Junior year and now it all connected and he realized that he needed to try to get A’s. But this is why we are debating a PG year, he’s coming on strong, but we think he might need more time to show his dedication. Our oldest was totally self motivated, so it was just a different process. This is a super smart, capable, social kid, but he just connected the dots on school and success a little bit late.
Can you list courses taken and grades received?
Because that’s going to matter a lot.
What about a polytechnic area - like at Purdue? Purdue has engineering and Polytechnic where you can get an engineering technology degree. It is a great program for those that want more hands on learning.
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What about WVU? My kid was a happy theater tech major there, so I can’t help you with details. But WVU is ABET accredited and its engineering school is well-regarded. Plus, that li’l ol’ VW emissions scandal? A WVU team of students discovered it.
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I would be very wary of WVU at the moment. They’ve started to cut everywhere (in ways that sometimes make little sense and/or using criteria that don’t) and another round is coming. Engineering is not preserved nor protected.
I would agree for other majors but I think engineering is safe.