My HS junior son wants to study mechanical engineering. He is thinking of applying to Purdue, University of IL, University of WI-M, VA Tech, NC State and Georgia Tech would be his first choice but not likely to be admitted. His SAT is 1450 with 770 in Math and he is planning to retake it this spring. Current unweighted GPA is 3.65. Weighted GPA is 3.86. What other schools should he be looking into as these school seem very difficult to get into? Also would be interested in schools that might offer merit awards. We are near Chicago. Thanks.
The University at Buffalo would be a good addition for excellent mechanical engineering with the possibility of a merit scholarship.
For a specialty engineering school, look into Rose-Hulman.
Minnesota.
Illinois Institute of Technology. IIT is a wonderful smaller university in Chicago, and your son should receive decent merit aid. If his Sat increases even just a bit, he could very likely be eligible for consideration for full tuition scholarships.
Ohio State- here’s the Common Data Set https://www.ohio.edu/instres/commondataset.pdf
Michigan State- https://opb.msu.edu/functions/institution/cds-2017-201821.pdf
It looks like you have a good realistic list. Students and alums LOVE Virginia Tech.
I always like to throw out Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in MA, because it was one of our favorites out of many schools and it is not as well known as some other comparable, excellent schools. Check out its ranking on USNWR national university rankings.
Mid-size national university, nice campus in a nice part of Worcester, a gentrifying old industrial city, actually 2nd or 3rd largest in New England. We loved the vibe; students were very impressive. It has a unique hands-on, project-oriented approach, which may or may not appeal to your son. Many classes are projects, 3 classes at a time for all students, on a quarter system. It also is much more gender balanced than a lot of STEM universities. It gives merit aid to a broad range of students, although usually still expensive.
Also check out this merit grid for Miami of Ohio,
https://miamioh.edu/admission/merit-guarantee/
Good luck, and have fun with the process!
That is the common data set for Ohio University in Athens, OH in post 4
This is Ohio State’s https://oaa.osu.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/irp/cds/columbus/IRP_CDS_2018-2019_Columbus.pdf they have a First Year Engineering program (everyone takes general engineering then commits to major later). https://engineering.osu.edu/about/report
University of Dayton (private)
A financial safety would be University of Toledo (big automatic out of state merit)
@ILMomof2 You have a good list and I am from Illinois also and involved with this with my son being at Michigan engineering. UIUC is getting really hard to get into and they don’t give much money but this year things are supposed to change. Unweighted GPA is what you are looking at. He needs to take the most rigorous senior class to get into some of these schools. A lot of kids with this stats are getting like pre-engineerring at UIUC. Georgia Tech for OOS. Far reach. VT is not easy to get into and OOS for Wisconsin is harder each year.
Purdue might be good. I really like NC State and Michigan State and someone mentioned Illinois Institute of technology which is a sleeper school but they get placed nicely. UI - Chicago is another choice.
Rose Hulman is interesting but very small and like just engineering.
If from the Suburbs then you have heard many kids are going to Alabama for close to free rides for engineering and loving it.
Also Iowa State University is a great engineering school with great merit, one of the largest engineering fairs with great placement and amazing school spirit.
These are good schools to look into.
I second the decision for Iowa State University. Great Engineering School !
We were very impressed with the engineering tour at UMaine, and through their flagship match program, it looks like you’d get about $15,000 in merit.
https://go.umaine.edu/apply/scholarships/flagship-match-first-year/
To Iowa, add Kansas state, beautiful campus, nice college town. Also University of Kansas. Both have good engineering programs. Also, ASU and U of A in Arizona, if thinking southwest and warmer weather.
The important question: can you afford the out-of-state public schools on your list and which others here are suggesting?
How much merit do you need? What is your actual budget. I would doubt any merit at Purdue.
Yea, maybe I should of taken Purdue off but seeing she had a few other OOS options that don’t give merit either I figured to add it. Most of the others I suggested would be less then UIUC with merit and his scores would indicate he would get some. UIUC is pretty expensive instate. They are suppose to have more money for financial aid and scholarships starting this year so I am really curious how it ends up. It sucks when your instate option is to expensive to go to
We are willing to take out loans etc to help pay for the college but I was also looking to see if there were some more reasonably priced colleges as well. I have looked at Iowa State and I like what I have seen so far and we are planning on doing a visit probably in March. If the merit for 2020 stays the same as this year we would get a fair amount of money from Iowa State. There really doesn’t seem to be much financial benefit to go to U of I but I guess we will see where he gets it. Are there any other schools you can suggest besides Alabama that would be a good safety school for him?
I second IIT. The problem with looking for merit is you need to find schools where your sons grades are above average and given how competitive most ME programs are a 3.86 weighted isn’t going to qualify for merit at the most popular engineering programs. I would look for in-state schools or schools with which your state has reciprocity. Look at U N. Dakota and IU - both are in the MSEP and have lower average stats than Purdue or U MN.
Case western and Colorado School of the mines.
My suggestion is to look up https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate
And start with number 30 and go towards 50. By pass WashU, Brown and Vanderbilt.
Then look up this list :https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-overall
There are a ton of great enginerring schools.
Milwaukee school of engineering comes to mind. Plus the area is nice.
Rit and rpi might be worth a look.
If his scores or GPA changes that is also a plus and a. Better chance at Illinois
Keep in mind, enginnering schools are expensive. Taking out loans for all his education is also expensive if you have nothing put away for him. Talk to your lenders now to get a feel for it. I think UIUC is like $36,000 for engineering /year instate. But even with half scholarships from the schools I mentioned that is about what you will pay to go out of state.
Lots of Illinois students go here due to their merit programs :https://miamioh.edu/admission/merit-guarantee/index.html
Something that was very helpful for us was to create an excel spreadsheet. We put like everything on there including due dates of things that were important plus everything financial so we could compare apples to apples when acceptances and scholarships came in. We averaged books, spending money, work study or just working since those tend to vary and now with 2 kids in college know more realistic numbers for those.
SD Mines is also a super-affordable, high-quality engineering school. A great option if a smaller, more close-knit school would appeal. (CO Mines is great for MechE too, but expensive for OOS.)
Look at schools like U of Alabama and Alabama Huntsville where the number of students getting merit isn’t limited.
Engineering is very standardized and regimented. You don’t see a big difference in compensation based upon the undergraduate name. In our experience, the school which offered the earliest opportunity for research and most merit was best choice for my oldest. He is successful employed with a great job in a region outside his school and smack in an area with a well regarded Engineering college. His Employer was certainly open to schools outside their region.
We are looking into the Alabama schools. My concern is if the culture is very different there. Seems like Tuscaloosa is very heavy inot Geeek life so he was thinking Huntsville might be better. He is against IIT and also MSOE. He says he wants to go to a typical college. He really feels he has worked hard and should not have any problems getting into any of the schools on his list except Georgia Tech. I am trying to show him that all of the schools on his list are hard to get into and it doesn’t mean anything negative about him. His GPA isn’t the greatest but his 1 C that he got in sophomore year was in Spanish 3 so hopefully that will be considered. I will look into the other schools suggested.