Colleges to apply to for an engineering major?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, so I’m about to go into my senior year in high school and I’m having a hard time narrowing down my list of colleges. I’m thinking of doing engineering as a woman, more specifically mechanical or aerospace right now. I am considering electrical engineering though. It’s very difficult for me to choose haha.

So some background: I have a 35 ACT and I superscore to a perfect 36 (although the cost of applications is a bit high so I don’t really want to send all my scores unless I have to [I took the ACT 3 times, everytime a 35]). I have a 1530 SAT, but I do not really want to use it. I’ve gotten 5s on all my AP tests so far (APHG, AP world, AP chem which I took sophomore year). I’m waiting to hear back about APUSH, AP physics 1, AP stats, AP calc BC, and AP Lang in July. I’m taking AP physics c, AP economics, AP spanish, and AP lit next year along with calculus 3/differential equations paired with a local college next year.

I have a 4.0 unweighted and a 4.6 ish weighted all on a 4 point scale.

Money is a huge constraint for me and I’m looking for merit scholarships because I will not get need based financial aid. My parents hope for contribute up to 12k maximum a year and I can take out a loan of 5,500 the first year as the federal government allows.

I live in the midwest, but i have no geographic preference which makes it easier for me.

I want to go to a good engineering university but one that will not put me into (significant) debt, hopefully none at all.

So far, I’m thinking of

USC
TAMU
UIUC
UWMadison
Purdue
UMichigan
maybe Rice
MIT and Princeton just to see if I can get in and possibly magically get money
Vanderbilt
University of Notre Dame

Do you think that these are good schools? I’m really having trouble finding schools that will fit me financially and are of good ranking.

Any other suggestions for schools, please?

Thank you!!

2

Oh, I’m also thinking of Rice, possibly, but I haven’t looked into it much yet.

3

They are all great engineering schools but they are all reaches except Purdue and Madison.

4

MIT and Princeton do not give merit scholarships. Not worth the application if their net price calculators show unaffordable. Given your financial constraints, everything else on your list is a reach to get the needed merit scholarships.

You need a safety that has your major and is definitely affordable at list price or with automatic for stats merit scholarships that are large enough. See http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21089443/#Comment_21089443 for a list of scholarship schools; check for your major. Also check for automatic scholarships at your in state public schools.

5

Definitely check out the automatic merit at UA Huntsville.
Huntsville is a smaller and more STEM-oriented campus than UA Tuscaloosa. It is especially known for Aerospace, as the city of Huntsville is a major hub of the aerospace industry. But UAH has strong engineering programs across the board, and your stats would qualify you for full funding for tuition + housing. https://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/merit-tuition-scholarships

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When @TomSrOfBoston says these are reaches, don’t take that the wrong way. By the admission stats, you are a match at all of them, even MIT and Princeton. The issue is, they get SO many fully qualified applicants, that they don’t have enough spots. Far more fully qualified applicants get rejected than get accepted. By the law of averages, no one, outside of highly hooked applicants like celebrities, can consider them matches.

Personally, and I don’t make it a habit of doing this, but I would say you are probably a match at Illinois. TAMU is a bit weird, unless you’re from Texas. As a Texan, you’d probably get an auto admit, based on class rank. They have so many auto admits though that the spaces for OOS students are limited.

I’d expand your list to schools seeking high stats students to boost their rankings. @ucbalumnus has a great handle on this. Alabama is frequently mentioned, but there are others too.

Good luck.

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Note that AAMU is across town from UAH, offers ME, and has even better scholarships, though with a 500 word essay: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21409189/#Comment_21409189

8

RPI, RHIT.

9

Missouri S & T
Iowa State
U Minnesota Twin Cities
Michigan Tech

10

The problem with generous privates, is that they will still have a fairly high residual price since their list prices are so high. The OP said they will not be eligible for need based FA. RPI’s list price is currently over $280,000. The max the OP can afford between family contribution at loans is $70k. I doubt any school is going to pony up more than $200k in merit only aid.

@nushka11, what state are you from?

11

I’m from Illinois

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go in-state to a low-cost public or to a public in a neighboring state that has reciprocity agreements with Illinois (if they exist). Ranking doesn’t really matter because engineering is different than most other majors. Engineering majors are standardized by ABET so you’re taking roughly the same courses no matter where you go. I don’t think you will be complaining about a lack of rigor no matter what school you attend. And at interviews it’s not hard to find out whether or not you have learned the material.Think of engineering schools as having a few tiers; there are the top schools like MIT, Caltech, etc. where the competition is keen to just get admitted. A broad swath in the middle, and then perhaps a lower tier where the admission standards are more lax. Do well at any ABET program and you won’t have trouble finding a job (esp. if you get internships while in school).

The problem I see here is one I think you may not have anticipated. It’s whether you’ll really see an engineering degree thru. Nationally the dropout rate for engineers is over 50% and I think for many it isn’t because they can’t do the work, its because they don’t see the point of it. Kids with an aptitude for math/science are steered into engineering and start college taking tough classes while their friends are seemingly having much more fun & free time in other majors. It takes a lot of motivation to make it thru, and the kids that have decided they are going to be a MechE or EE or whatever seem to be the ones that finish. Being kinda iffy about what you want to do may place you in the group less driven to see it thru.

Coupled with that, be aware that at many colleges it is difficult to change majors even if you already are in the College of Engineering. I know someone that had no real idea of which branch he wanted so more or less at randome chose ChemE. By soph year he realized he liked EE (in almost all engineering majors you take an intro circuits course) but he couldn’t switch majors because they only allowed a handful to change each year. I don’t like a system that makes you decide at 17, but for the most part it’s the way it is.

Summary:

  1. choose from affordable colleges with ABET-acredited majors
  2. talk to working engineers this summer and find out more about the fields thru other research so you improve your odds of applying for the engineering major that is a fit
13

A few schools that you might be able to afford after merit scholarships and/or tuition waivers:

Florida State, Florida International U., Texas Tech, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, U of South Florida.
FIU looks like best bet: full tuition/fees/books.
http://admissions.fiu.edu/costs-and-aid/scholarships/index.html

14

Edit: nevermind, saw you won’t qualify for need based aid

15

Main issue is that in-state Illinois publics may still be too expensive on a $17-20k price limit with no financial aid (which is not good at Illinois publics anyway, even for in-state students). Most seem to be $26k or higher, though one of them may be barely in financial reach if within commuting distance.

16

Cal Poly SLO is an excellent engineering school and one of the more affordable California publics for out of state students.

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CPSLO would not be within a $17-20k per year budget for an out-of-state student (about $39k according to https://financialaid.calpoly.edu/coa1718.html ).

18

Try Illinois Inst of Tech and other smaller Tech schools. Some offer a lot of merit, and if you can mix that with some outside local scholarships that might help. South Dakota Mining and Tech. Missouri schools as you can get instate tuition for the later years.

19

Comment deleted as @ucbalumnus beat me to it. :smiley:

Adding to it though, they offer very little merit aid, $2k/yr max.

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Make ure you read the fine print on the Texas Tech site: you’d only have to pay the in-state tuition AND you’d get a scholarship that would cover that. So basically you’d pay no tuition.