What is NPC Calculator ? 
And by the way - somebody on this site told me about CDS data - gold information, people are so nice 
Cds is gold. But look at Purdue. The school itself is not a hard admit. But engineering is so impacted that it is. The CDS wonāt help you with a specific department. Just the overall school.
Itās a safety if he studied English or political science or even aero engineering tech.
But not engineering. Itās a difficult but not impossible admit.
You still had UMD a match. But again what can you afford ?
You mentioned loans b4 so you have a budget. How much can you pay ?
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I think Virginia Tech in engineering needs to be moved off your current āsafetyā list, as a couple of us have previously mentioned. Good luck!
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I have never heard about National Merit. I donāt remember his PSAT score, I donāt think it was stellar as he didnāt concentrate much on it, he considered it not-important at that time. Also, because of COVID, they took the PSAT at the beginning of Junior Year, when he already was working on his SAT.
If he would have qualified for National Merit I would have known about this by now, right ?
Momocarly - exactly my point - experience and communication skills are being gained in time, from internships. The more internships the school offers, the more easier to get one, the more organic will be to get experience. and somehow we are running in circles as my feeling is the more prestigious schools are getting more interest from industry (I could be wrong though)
Coding is not his passion. He took the AP Computer Science class and decided is not for him.
UT is reach for OOS. And all fin aid is need based only. TAMU if you get an OOS waiver is way better value as the two engineering programs are basically same reputation with employers. However, TAMU has a fanatical alumni network for career opps. Just some added thoughts on Texas schools.
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Itās a little redundant the way I typed itā¦Net Price Calculator. Every school has them. I linked Purdue.
Schools donāt offer internships. Companies do. Some come to campus and interview or via job fairs. Or simply post jobs with career centers. More and more students are finding jobs on line on their own.
Your son will find internships and / or co-OPs. With few exceptions, a school wonāt simply hand him one.
He needs to chase it.
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With only 50 ABET AE programs, there are opportunities at every school. A 3.7 student from Podunk U will have far more opportunity than a 2.0 from a name brand school.
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Not necessarily. I think the semi finalist list comes out early fall. Others on here can give better guidance on how to use the info from his PSAT to figure out if he is likely in the running. It really could mean, for example, full ride at UA and super low tuition at TAMU, also free ride at USF. And probably others.
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100% agree. Especially if he gets honors program at podunk U as those are the ones recruiters will chase after.
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I see Penn State as a match for admission to engineering but Penn State is notoriously stingy with merit and need-based aid, for both instate and OOS students. Most admitted students receive no merit or institutional need-based aid, regardless of stats. NC State, like all NC public universities, has strict limits on % of out of state students, so it would probably be a reach for admission.
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Itās summer, so he might have time to chime in. @boneh3ad has a unique perspective as he has a ME BS and an AE PhD and now teaches and does research in AE.
@HPuck35 also has a unique perspective as heās a civil, but worked in aerospace, even for NASA.
Hopefully their responses will help your son articulate why he feels like he needs an undergraduate degree in AE, when maybe he could do everything he wants with a ME degree.
Why is that important? There are only 50 or so AE programs, but over 400 in ME.
Good luck!
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The idea that my summers are any more open than the rest of the year is good for a chuckle.
Full disclosure, I did not read the whole thread.
Itās difficult to compare places like UF and ERAU since they are so different. One has a full traditional research and PhD program with a diverse set of majors (UF) while the other has a very rightly focused set of degrees, more limited research, and more undergraduate focus (ERAU). Iām not sure itās possible to directly compare prestige. US News doesnāt even try; they have schools with PhD programs and those without in separate categories.
What I will say is that admission rate should not be used as a stand-in for prestige. There are so many ways to game that system and there are so many differences in who applies to a different school that itās sort of useless.
Iād also caution against using average starting salaries as a stand-in for prestige. Starting salaries are so geography dependent that youāll get all kinds of skewed information. Schools located in the rust belt will tend to have lower starting salaries than schools located on the coasts simply by virtue of their locations.
Honestly, none of the rankings are perfect and theyāre all pretty subjective and have various flaws. If youāre just trying to get a scope on the problem Iād probably just start with US News and understand that at best itās decent at sorting schools into tiers, not coming up with exact ranks. There is probably no real difference in prestige between #4 and #6 or between #24 and #32, but thereās definitely a perception difference between #60 and #7.
After that, find the best fit. Prestige is not nearly as important in engineering as in some other fields.
As for AE vs ME, I donāt personally have a strong feeling. If someone really wants to do aerospace and knows thatās there passion Iād argue thereās basically no risk. For someone on the fence, ME is a little broader but is essentially the same science as AE with different examples and makes one eligible for most (but probably not quite all) AE jobs.
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The CDS doesnāt break down stats by major, itās for the overall university. COE and CS stats at these schools are much, much higher than the CDS.
UT also has a state mandate to fill the vast majority of their class with instate residents. I believe 90% must be from TX. That makes it a reach for all OOS students.
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On the other hand, if kids have a solid idea of what they want to study why wait until grad school?
I have one kid who has no specific idea and another kid who has an exact idea. One kid would not want to study general topics when a specific area is the key interest.
Regarding AE, I know two '22 kids who are going into this field. Both are going for AE. One is going to Colorado and the other to Embry. Iād imagine both would have a better chance of getting a job in AE by taking AE rather than a general engineering program. AE is a narrow field and Iād imagine fairly competitive. Having connections to others in the field can be helpful in the long run. Some kids also canāt afford to go to grad school right away ( or may never go)
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Net price calculator. On a collegeās web site (in the financial aid section), it will give an estimate of financial aid (and sometimes scholarships) based on financial information (and student stats if it also estimates scholarships).
Purdue stats for engineering I believe the average was a 3.9 for this years pool.
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i agree: know a software engineering major at a midwest school; not as many companies recruiting on campus as kid wanted; so kid flew to a career fair at a big name school - introduced themselves, networked, gained a great internship - and itās been big-time ever since. School name on resume wasnt an issue; thinking outside the box.
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