Best wue schools

Your child would qualify for WUE Plus (in state tuition) at U of New Mexico:

https://scholarship.unm.edu/scholarships/non-resident.html

Total annual COA would be less than 20K (excluding airfare from HI). Mountain biking and hiking are easily accessible; skiing too, assuming snow.

NM Tech is a very small campus in a teeny tiny town.

NAU is also a really nice school. More snow there than in NM.

I also recommend ASU, in part due to ease of transportation. I think there might be direct flights from Phoenix to HI. The climate is very hot, however, and the campus is huge and urban/suburban. The Barrett Honors Program helps to make a large school smaller.

Be aware that not all WUE scholarships are available for transfer students. Wyo has a limited number of WUE scholarships but its Rocky Mtn Scholarship can be the same value as the WUE. No WUE for transfers and the transfer scholarship is different than the Rcoky Mtn scholarship for freshmen.

He does have a list and we are applying. I just wanted to get some feedback about our choices. He is applying to 10 schools.

What in particular does he not like about University of Hawaii? Knowing that may help others suggest WUE schools that do not have the undesired characteristic.

What are your ten schools?

University of Alaska Fairbanks has a fairly large Native American population.

https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/university-of-alaska-fairbanks/student-life/diversity/

When I was going to UAF, I don’t think WUE existed, but there was some kind of arrangement where students from Alaska and Hawaii could attend each other’s schools at in-state tuition, so we had a fair number of Hawaiians at the school. I’m sure a lot more Alaskans went to Hawaii than vice-versa, though.

Uc merced, Colorado State-Fort Collins, Colorado State- Pueblo, University of Colorado, New Mexico University, Western Washington University, Washington State University, Oregon State, Oregon Institute of Technology, University of Hawaii. Have considered Northern Arizona University. Any thoughts?

I think he just wants to go away for college.

If you are on Maui, University of Hawaii - Manoa is on a different island at least.

Western Washington does not have mechanical engineering. It has electrical, manufacturing, and plastics engineering, and computer science, among its ABET accredited programs: http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=356&ProgramIDs=

Colorado State - Pueblo does not have mechanical engineering. It has engineering and industrial engineering: http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=330&ProgramIDs= . The program web site at https://www.csupueblo.edu/engineering/degrees-offered.html indicates that the engineering major is focused on mechatronics, with some mechanical and electrical engineering.

University of Colorado is not in WUE for the Boulder campus. The Colorado Springs and Denver campuses are in WUE and have mechanical engineering.

Have you thought about ease of transportation to these campuses? Assuming you are in Maui, there are 2 AA nonstops OGG-PHX, one of which is a red-eye. Flagstaff/NAU is a 2 hour drive north of Phoenix. And as I mentioned in #16, merit aid puts ASU/Barrett in Tempe close to the same cost.

I also found this website of statistics about diversity at NAU which says it is “above the national average” in terms of diversity. https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/northern-arizona-university/student-life/diversity/

I think @Corinthian is right to focus on transportation. Figure out how your son would get to these places.

For example, Boise State might be better than U of Idaho from the distance to major airport perspective.
U of New Mexico is much closer to the ABQ airport than the other NM WUE options.

Oregon State used to participate in the WUE program, but no longer. Out-of-state students remain eligible for financial aid through other programs. However, I would not be surprised if the out-of-state cost for OSU turns out to be significantly higher than at WUE schools.
http://admissions.oregonstate.edu/parent-faq

My pick for a WUE school in Oregon with ME would be Portland State.

Hi @mauimama. I’m on Oahu and my daughter is a 2nd year Mechanical Engineering student. We looked at WUE schools, but she didn’t end up at one. Like your son, she had zero interest in University of Hawaii. I think it’s good for island kids to get a mainland experience for college, if possible. We visited Chico and Colorado State. Chico was a huge surprise for my daughter. She loved the town, the campus (especially the rec center), and the friendliness of the people. It was a great size with a lot of outdoor activity options. My best friend’s daughter goes there; definitely a party campus, but plenty of kids who just have a work hard / play hard mentality. If he joined the honors program, along with a ME course load, he probably won’t be hanging with the party crowd. The other thing was 150% of in-state was lower in California than most other state’s WUE schools.

Colorado State was a meh for us, but we visited in the summer, so that could have been part of it. We know a couple kids from here that have gone. No wild praise but none have transferred out either.

I worked really, really hard to talk her into checking out University of Utah with no luck. It’s bigger than your son wants, but so many outdoor activities so very close. SLC is not as Wonder Bread white as the rest of Utah. I went to Southern Oregon University back in the day. It checks off a lot of his requirements, expect no engineering.

Good luck & aloha.

Thank you!

The San Francisco Chronicle had a similar reaction to Chico earlier this year:

You simply aren't going to find reviews like this for Pomona, or Merced, or any of the other WUE campuses in California that offer ME. The review does mention Davis and San Luis Obispo as comparable, and that's true, but UCD and Cal Poly SLO aren't WUE.

U of Colorado is not a WUE school. Not big in diversity. It is beautiful, has a great engineering school. Compared to the other schools you’ve listed with WUE tuition, CU will be very very expensive. OOS tuition in engineering is about $37k, with COA at $52k.

The flagship University of Colorado campus, in Boulder, is not WUE. The less selective University of Colorado campuses, in Denver and Colorado Springs, both have ME and are WUE.

Basically, the best-known and most popular state universities in the West are the least likely to participate in WUE. None of the UCs (except Merced). None of the most popular CSUs (like Cal Poly SLO or San Diego State). No Oregon, Oregon State, or UW. No Colorado-Boulder or Colorado-Mines.

This is not to suggest that the schools that do participate in WUE are bad. On the contrary, an ME degree from any WUE school is going to be a solid, valuable qualification. But I question whether any WUE engineering degree is going to stand out as significantly more marketable than any other. So I would choose a WUE campus primarily on non-academic factors, like personal fit or cost/merit aid.

I toured Boise State engineering in May of this year. The academic facilities and staff seemed terrific, and I loved the town.

^^ but the blue football field. It hurts the eyes.

Don’t diss the Smurf Turf until you’ve seen it in real life