Colleges for female engineering student

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>I posted this over in the admissions forum, but didn't get much action so I'll ask here.</p>

<p>I am not sure that this is the best forum for this but here goes. My stepdaughter is a JR in HS right now and has been a high, but not absolute top shelf student. She’s always hovered between the top 5-10% of her class of 220 or so while taking a rigorous (but not the most rigorous possible) course load. She has a lot of different interests, but right now it looks like sciences are going to win out as far as her future field of study. In particular, she really likes physics the most, chemistry a little less, and there’s a good chance she’d like to be an engineering major. </p>

<p>She hasn’t taken the ACT or SAT yet, just PSAT. I expect her to score in the 1700/2400 range. If she makes 600s, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. She will actually be taking the ACT this weekend, and the SAT in June. Of course, like all CCers, assume she’ll have recs that proclaim her as just short of the second coming and a “killer” essay. </p>

<p>She has an unweighted GPA of about 3.6 with several honors and some APs too. Her weighted GPA would be about 4.0. Hopefully her class rank will stay in the top 10%. She’s struggled this year with AP Chem and despite liking the class, she is going to most likely wind up with a C for the year. She’s had a few of Bs in other honors/AP classes over the years. </p>

<p>She is the second of 5 kids, and her older brother will be in his 4th year of undergrad when she’s a freshman. We are in the real middle class. We make in the $60s, owe 80K on a 110K house, and what little we were able to save has been wiped out by her brother’s EFCs and gaps. She hasn’t really made much more than pocket money and probably won’t. She spends a lot of time studying and when not we often need her to baby-sit her 3 younger siblings. She attends a suburban public, but we live about 3-4 miles outside of town and she can’t really walk to anywhere. </p>

<p>Her main EC is track, and it is her passion. She is actually a field athlete and wants to continue to pursue that in college. I don’t think she is good enough to allow her jumping to make much of a hook at a Division 1 school (read Ivies), although she’s getting close. Unfortunately, she had injuries last year and had her wisdom teeth out last weekend, so there have been some setbacks the last couple years there. Her coaching has almost been nil as well, if you don’t run 400m or less, our HS coach really doesn’t care about you. There is no jumping coach. She’d also like to be competitive at jumping in college. A big D1 school where she is the 9th best jumper on the team is not going to get her attention. </p>

<p>She’s also been in the musical, spent 2 years as a cheerleader (resulting in the injury that killed her sophomore track season). She’s belonged to some other clubs, but never as an officer. </p>

<p>The list of schools we’ve been talking about include Penn State - Behrend, where we have visited and she likes a lot. Not the most prestigious place, but she likes it and we’re in state, so the total COA is about 19K, but PSU isn’t well known for a lot of aid. It's supposed to be a pretty good eng/bus program there too. I know there is some grant program from PA for science majors that we haven’t looked at lately, but I think it’s about 3K a year. She’ll get some PELL grant and PHEAA too, but that’s it for grants/gift aid. Other schools on her radar are Ohio Northern, Case Western, Widener, Gettysburg, Alfred, Embry-Riddle, or possibly doing a 3+2 with one of the PA state schools like IUP or Slippery Rock then transferring to PSU (again, possibly Behrend). Gettysburg and Case would be reaches, I think Alfred, ONU, Widener and ER would all be matches for her as would Behrend, and the state U 3+2 would be a safety, both financial and academically, although it potentially adds a 5th year to the cost. She’d like to stay reasonably close, she thinks, but she likes the sun too so I don’t think anywhere is totally out of the question. Of course, good aid and $5000 a year in airline flights doesn’t really make much sense either. </p>

<p>My question is how much will being a female engineering major help her with admissions and ultimately financial aid? She’ll also be a first generation college student. Her real dad is totally useless. He works in unskilled labor, and has no contact with her at all for the past 3 years. I don’t know if a school required him to provide financial information if he’d do it or not, but if I had to guess it would be no. Other relevant things are we are white, and we are from western PA. The second half of that question is what would it take for her to get looked at by some of the schools that meet 100% or close to it of need like the Ivies or some of the other super reach schools? I would guess right now her major to be mechanical engineering, with materials science or civil engineering being next in line. Would some of the technical schools with 70% men be more likely to offer her a better aid package to attract her as a female candidiate? Suggestions?</p>

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<p>She may have a shot at Cornell, if she gets a B in chem and higher sat scores. The female engineering and first generation students are great hooks. Get an SAT or ACT book and a bunch of practice tests with explanations and have her take a lot of the practice tests and read through the book, this is almost as good as taking an SAT class, and much more affordable. It would be a pretty big reach, but it doesn't hurt to apply, sometimes you get lucky. I thought I had zero shot there, yet somehow I got in :)</p>

<p>Also I doubt she would get significantly better financial aid due to being female in engineering, but she would probably be eligible for a bunch of outside female engineering scholarships.</p>

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<p>If you're in Western PA, then she should also look at Pitt. They've got a pretty good Materials Science program, and between them and Penn State she might be able to get a good offer.</p>

<p>I think with PSU in engineering you need to finish at main campus, but I'm not 100% sure on that.</p>

<p>There's also Lehigh and Lafayette further out east in the state in suburban areas as well as Drexel in Philadelphia (I think your daughter should have a good shot at there), though since they're private they might be a bit more money (not sure how they are on aid).</p>

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<p>Behrend actually has it's own self contained degrees in Mechanical, Electical, and Computer Engineering, plus a few engineering technology degrees. You can do the others by transferring to main. Behrend is Division 3 and offer she likes the coach and the facilities. They also just completed a new engineering and business building along with a very modern campus. Most all buildings are new and were renovated since 2000. There really isn't anything wrong with it, but I don't want her to leave something on the table.</p>

<p>We have talked to a few coaches and we have a pretty good idea what it will take for her to make a splash in D1 or D2. Her brother is a Division 3 wrestler, so we do have some NCAA athletics experience in the family.</p>

<p>BTW, I went to Pitt in the 80s and we're pretty close, and she's not much for the campus.</p>

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<p>My D goes to Rose Hulman and loves it. Small School 1800 students ranked #1 in engineering for 10 years straight (us news schools without phd) </p>

<p>The reason she decided on Rose was their rentention rate in females and keeping them in engineering. If I remember it was a little lower than 90%. Some of the other engineering schools she was looking at was in the low 30%.</p>

<p>She loves the school and small classes, no TAs and one on one time with the professors.</p>

<p>By the way they have a great graduation and retention rate with the guys too.</p>

6

<p>Check out University of Hartford. Their college of engineering is quite good.</p>

<p>Your daughter sounds a bit like mine. She actually matriculated at a college in CA as an undeclared major. She took the engineering sequences as a freshman and first term soph, and declared engineering her major this year. She loves the coursework but is finding the math, in particular, to be a challenge. Hopefully she'll pass all of the courses!!</p>

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<p>My D just went through admissions this year. I think that being female helps in getting in but FA is very iffy. She also applied to Rose-Hulman and really liked it. I feel that they gave us good FA for them but it still was quite a gap and there were too many loans for her. She loved the school and has had contact with the track coach. He has been very proactive, although we did not meet with him.</p>

<p>My D also met with the track coach at the University of Evansville. They have a nice little engineering dept (not Mat Sci though). It is DI but felt more like a DII or III school. Another choice of a small DI school with a engineering dept is Bradley in IL. I know these schools are a little farther away but I think that they are worth exploring for your D.</p>

<p>Another place that we've talked to the track XC coach is IIT in Chicago. Nice small school in Chicago with a DIII program, I'm pretty sure that it has a Mat Sci dept (I visited this school with my S who is a Mat Sci major). They gave my S a good FA package and he liked the school but decided on another school.</p>

<p>One I would do is have your D take the ACT. Both of my engineering kids did much better on the ACT than the SAT.</p>

<p>One sleeper school that your D might be interested in and they have a great Mat Sci and MechE departments is Michigan Tech. She should be able to qualify for in-state tuition rates with her grades and test scores. It is out of the way for everyone and is very nuturing. It's DII and I am positive that she would have the option of participating in jumping there. </p>

<p>If she is interested in jumping, it might be worth the investment of a private jumping coach. I know someone who had a lot of potential and with some coaching parlayed that into admission to a very selective school. I don't think that it is unusual for jumpers to have great coaching in HS and a little bit of money might be worth it.</p>

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<p>She might want to check out George Washington University SEAS as well, especially if she thinks she might like to be in DC. They have a pretty high proportion of women for an engineering school and, while it is an expensive school, they give a lot of money to engineering students, especially women engineering students, and if they like her, she's got a good chance at a free ride.</p>

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<p>Take a look at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken. They seem to be working to attract female students, gave my daughter a nice scholarship, and have a woman's track and field team (though mainly distance runners).</p>

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<p>Do not rule out far-away colleges based on airline ticket costs. Next to college costs, airline tickets are a bargain. You mention $5000 a year, but I think you should be able to get anywhere in the country from Western PA for $300-$400 R/T. If your D flies home for Thanksgiving, Xmas, Spring Break and for the summer, that's closer to $1500 a year.</p>

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<p>Thanks all, she is actually taking the ACT right now.</p>

<p>We did think about Rose but it doesn't look like they are much for FA. I think their average indebtedness was almost $40K, compare that with around $20K at most schools. We have been looking farther away too.</p>

<p>Any more suggestions would be welcome. Does anyone know anything about Widener near Philly? They don't have very impressive stats but they do have a fairly large engineering dept.</p>

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<p>how about any 3+2 programs(Holy Cross)</p>

<p>That was the test optional school I wrote about . I sound like your daughter, as"im interested in engineering/also science math and female</p>

<p>HC gave me(minus) the work study, 27K per year FA, parents EFC is 24K based on FAFSA but over 40K on the CSS profile, (HC) is a CSS profile school. The schools HC does the 3/2 with are Dartmouth and Columbia so no slouch degree for engineering. </p>

<p>It is definitely one Im considering.</p>