While overall good advice, I’d be hesitant to put a lot of faith in the retention rate as indicating the quality of the school. Without knowing the actual numbers, I’m going to bet the dropout rate at places like MIT or Stanford as per se reflecting the support provided to undergrads. Students are not randomly assigned to colleges; the type of kids that make it into very selective colleges tend to have the intelligence and tenaciousness to succeed at anything they choose.
That said, asking about support is a really good idea, although some of the info is best gleamed from current students. Are undergrads part of the mission of the college and helped by the faculty, or are they seen more as an annoyance and interruption from the real business of producing PhDs? Is tutoring available? Are the TAs helpful or more interested in getting their PhD and just doing it to earn their stipend? Does the college help with finding internships (or, better, guarantee them for anyone wanting one like a few coop programs do)?
I agree with applying for more matches and less reaches. I wish I had done that with my D - who applied to too many reaches and not enough matches.
UF, Purdue, UT-Austin, TA&M, V-Tech is a great list. (I'd drop Minny unless she's going to do ChemE (their strongest suit) and because of the cold.) Not so familiar with Purdue, but UT and TA&M have excellent engineering school, TA&M in aerospace engineering in particular (what kind does she want to do?).
I'd add Rice and Duke as reaches - you never know what the final numbers will be until you apply. And if she gets admitted but then decides to go to a less expensive school, she has that satisfaction of knowing she was admitted. (I totally relate to what you said about wanting your D to go somewhere where she feels like her hard work in school paid off. I felt the same with my D. And though she didn't get into her top 3 reaches (Stanford, Chicago, Cornell), she did get waitlisted at 2 of the 3, and just that in itself gave her a huge boost and feeling of acheivement. And in the end she chose a school that gave her more aid but was "lower ranked" than another school that gave her less aid, but she still had that satisfaction of having being accepted to the "more famous" school. On the other hand, none of my D's reaches were "dream schools" in the sense of her wanting to go to them her whole life, so there wasn't any disappointment. If your daughter has been dreaming of Duke since middle school, then getting in and not being able to go cuz Mom and Dad needed to save money for her siblings may be harder to take.
I'd add GTech as well - yes it's tough, but it's not Caltech or MIT level tough.
Northeastern is another good option if she like co-ops.
And if she can handle the cold winters and wants a smaller school, then RPI or Lehigh.
My D2 has similar stats to your D (32 ACT). She is a chem E major in the college of engineering at Lehigh and it is a good fit for her. There is high rigor, and and significant homework but it is manageable. A great option.
If she wants smaller/more personalized and offering merit scholarships, there’s Lafayette. RPI and WPI would certainly offer her merit too.
What about Northeastern in Boston?
McDermott minimum eligibility is 1500 new sat (not sure what it corresponds to old sat, but top 1%.)
I agree Duke and ivies are best crossed out, since they don’t offer merit scholarships (only need based - since everyone there is 'merit-worthy ’ in the typical sense.)
UDel, UVermont are smaller public universities and they offer merit.
Pitt has merit for scores (34+act).
Penn State has a top honors college nationally - admission based on curriculum rigor, grades, essays, recommendations, ec’s. The automatic honors scholarship makes it within budget and there are engineering scholarships for female applicants.
For tech - focused universities, you can’t go wrong with Purdue, Vtech, ncsu.
Since its still Sept and apps are not in yet, there’s a question that’s been in the back of my mind that I want to raise. The thread is about applying in “Engineering”, not about a particular type of engineering. Yet the work a chemical engineer does is quite different from that of a civil engineer, and neither has a lot in common with an electrical engineer. So I wonder if the D in question has spent time talking with engineers and getting to know the type of work they do in order to really know its right for her, and a probable identification of which field?
Becoming an engineer in college is quite different from the liberal arts. In the latter it is common to spend the 1st 2 years of college taking lower-division classes in a variety of subjects (econ, philosophy, history, etc) and then finally settling on one. Many kids change their listed major more than once, and even junior year there is often time to change. In engineering the 1st 2 years are loaded with lots of basic science and math classes, perhaps just 1 year-long sequence in the intended engineering field included. So a prospective engineer is not going to get a chance to sample the various engineering disciplines the way a liberal arts student does.
I don’t think its a great system, but its the one we have. The point I want to make is there is little that will happen in college the 1st two years that will help decide whether engineering is really the right career or not, and if so which is the right branch (at least at the schools I know about).
While it is true that most of freshman year is taking basic STEM courses - calc, chem, and so on, as well as gen ed requirements, some schools do have an “engineering uncommitted” major where they offer a general engineering course that exposes students to the different engineering disciplines offered at the school to help the experience the various branches. It’s not foolproof, but at least it does help kids understand the difference between branches such as civil, mech, chem, electrical, and so on.
@mikemac I wish I could say that she has spent a lot of time talking to various engineers (we actually know quite a few) but she has not. She spent 2 weeks at a camp at UF for biomedical research where she determined that biomedical engineering was not for her. She also did a 3 week camp for ocean engineering which she loved. Lastly, she spend 2 weeks shadowing at a prosthetic and orthotic clinic which she also loved. She is leaning towards mechanical engineering if she has to choose and engineering unspecified if she doesn’t have to choose and hoping to take one of the courses @InigoMontoya mentioned where they can expore the different disciplines. She loves math and science and I think even if she leaves engineering, she’d likely do something in STEM.
Agree, @mikemac, and asked the “why?” question earlier. Many kids who want E have no idea what it’s really about. They did well in math and have an idea engineers solve world problems.
We don’t even know this kid’s strengths. No math-sci ECs have been mentioned. That’s one reason talk about retention is off, IMO.
Sometimes feels like every other wannabe out there cites wanting to design prosthetic limbs. It’s tangible. They can envision the good. But the real day to day work is a process you’re part of.
Just an FYI. DD got her bachelors in engineering. About half way through college, she realized she NEVER wanted to be an engineer…ever. But she wanted to finish the degree because she started it. She picked up a second major.
At DD’s school, engineering majors all pretty much took the same courses for the first and second years…then split off into their engineering areas after that.
This OP should make sure that the types of engineering her kid is interested in are offered. For example,mat Tulane, a bunch of engineering programs were eliminated post hurricane Katrina. So…the variety isn’t there any more.
It will tell you the size of each program, the degree’s offered, and amount of research. By far the best aspect, is the listing of degree programs offered at each school. Not many schools have a costal and oceanographic engineering program.
Two programs that are matches with likely merit, in the southeast, would be Auburn and Clemson (both are popular with Georgia students that just miss out on GT). NC State and VT (which is very similar to TAMU) would also be matches.
Here’s a list of faculty labs within the UF Mechanical and Aerospace department. As you can see they research a wide range of subjects.
You’ll notice the lab includes 5 grad students and 9 undergraduates. You don’t have to be a ME or BME to participate in the lab, one student is a math major.
“make sure that the types of engineering her kid is interested in are offered”
Even though she may not know which major wants to be in, she may know which ones interest her compared to others. The most common engineering majors are probably mechanical, electrical, chemical, biomedical, and computer science. She should be starting to consider which of these may be a better or worse fit for her.
It is also important to be careful with engineering programs, because they often make it difficult to access the major you want or to transfer to another major. If there are gpa requirements that are set high, or if you have to apply for a major after a year, or have to apply to transfer, then you may have problems.
Case Western Reserve and Lehigh are two engineering programs that make it easy for the student to choose any major they wish, or to transfer to another major if they change their mind. Most of the Public U’s have constraints.