My son has been accepted at the above mentioned Colleges of Engineering. Costs of attendance are similar at all schools (except Utah, which has given him a good scholarship, albeit 1 year). Any comments on the facilites, professors, instructional practices, graduation rates as he/we begin to evaluate the options? Any other things we should try to find out as we go back for second visits?
The Utah scholarship is more powerful than just one year. If he stays over the summer between freshman and sophomore year, he’ll be eligible for instate tuition the following three years. If cost is s big consideration, you should redo the math figuring in state for three years.
They’re all good programs. Be wary though of MN and UW (if that’s UDub). They don’t usually admit directly to the major, rather starting as pre-engineering.
I can only comment specifically on Utah. It was one of my son’s final choices. The facilities are nice. The dorms are great. The ME curriculum starts in earnest freshman year, it’s great for outdoor activities and SLC is a diverse, dynamic town. The student support of athletics is amazing. It doesn’t have the reputation of the rest, but it isn’t Podunk U. There’s a lot to like there.
Have you visited any of them?
Pay attention to whether the student is directly admitted to the major, to a pre-engineering status, or in general admission. If not directly admitted to the major, check how difficult (GPA, competitive admission) it will be to enter the major later.
@eyemgh: He applied to Utah based on your recommendation and we are scheduled to visit early next month. I am aware of the instate residency option which they explicitly detail in the scholarship award letter. Good for others to know however. I am curious why some state schools actively seek to have these out of state kids become residents while others make attaining residency virtually impossible. He has been admitted to Pre-Civil Engineering BS at Utah.
@ucbalumnus: Good advice on the pre-engineering status. He has that status at both Utah and Minneosta. At Purdue it is FYE, but then he will still have to qualify for the major, which does not seem difficult 2.0GPA. The only program where is is already considered a Civil Engineering student is UIUC, which was his reach school, so we are pretty happy about that. In fact, he did not specify a second choice as he was not willing to attend if he did not get CE.
@msd228, the ability to get instate is really based on two things, a state’s overall budget, and the school’s desire to move up in the rankings (incentivizing top students with scholarships, tuition breaks, etc. drives up their ranking).
I forgot that Utah does pre-engineering, because our son was a direct admit to ME.
I’d visit them all and see what he thinks.
The only one I’d council you away from is UW if it’s Washington, Wisconsin is good. So is UDub for that matter, but not only is direct admit to a major rare, getting a desired major is competitive. He won’t be guaranteed a spot by hitting certain minimums. He will have to beat out fellow students for the spot. It seems too risky.
He has lots of great choices. Tell him Congratulations!
@eyemgh, UW Madison is the school I referred to. He has actually been postponed, so if his first semester grades ae enough to gain him admission, we will see what he is actually accepted to. He may not want to risk having to apply to get in. It is his favorite school with Minnesota a close second. Thanks for your encouragement.
For civil engineering:
Minnesota: 3.2 technical GPA assures admission to the major; otherwise competitive: https://cse.umn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/CivilEng.pdf
Purdue: does not specifically state whether civil is more or less competitive to enter: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ENE/Academics/FirstYear/T2M
Wisconsin: 2.8 core GPA and 2.5 overall GPA for assured admission to civil in 2015-2016: http://www.engr.wisc.edu/cmsdocuments/First-year_GPA_requirements_to_accompany_GCR15.pdf and http://www.engr.wisc.edu/current/coe-egr-general-college-requirements.html
Utah: seems hard to find what the criteria to enter the major is.
If has good enough stats to get Merit Aid, he likely has the stats to be directly admitted into the College of Engineering at Utah, that comes with an automatic admit to Civil Engineering. That changed for 2016. It was in response to the ASEE and other groups recommending students engage in engineering in a tangible way from the get go, to help reduce dropout.
http://www.coe.utah.edu/admissions
Here’s the Utah Curriculum Flowchart: http://www.civil.utah.edu/files/2014/08/2015-Flow-Chart-Eng-Calc-Sequence-2.pdf
Looks like from the link in #7 that students admitted to Utah may be either directly admitted to their desired engineering majors or to pre-engineering status.
Thank you both for the links. I am curious as eyemg stated that even with stats high enough for a $12K scholarship he was not direct admitted. I will enquire before our visit. Perhaps the U will slide further down his list because of this.
I’d call admissions and ask. That’s surprising to me that if he earned Merit that he wouldn’t have done well enough to get direct admit. It isn’t clear on the criteria found on the web page.
@eyemgh Good advice! I talked to his admissions counselor today and found out that his GPA was not high enough for direct admit. The threshold is 3.6. With his first semester grades the cumulative is now 3.531 so they are planning to take another look. The Civil Eng program is considered a very open program with only a C average in the prerequisites to get in so it may only make a difference if he wants to apply to live in the Engineering LLC.