Have you looked at Loyola Marymount in LA? They have an engineering school and seem to have some service focus
@katrina1, here is what ND says about applying early action: Because the Admissions Committee is unable to extend all of its offers of admission in the Restrictive Early Action process, it is highly conservative when making Early Action admission decisions. The Admissions Committee advises students to apply in the Restrictive Early Action process only if they are in the very top ranges of our applicant pool.
@katrina1 I encourage your daughter to speak directly with her ND admissions rep. Anecdotally, living in Indiana in a region which sends a lot of students to ND, we hear every year about students who have been advised by their ND rep not to apply EA because they are not in the top of the applicant pool and therefore at some risk – I don’t know how significant – of outright rejection rather than deferral.
At ND, EA appears to be used to admit the super-competitive prospects who will likely have other top acceptances, and welcome them to the ND family early. Only the ND rep can say where a student falls on that spectrum, so get their advice early on. We do know students who disregarded the rep’s advice and were rejected in the EA round and --at least from the outside – appeared similar enough to students who waited and were admitted in the RD round.
Case Western Reserve University has a strong engineering curriculum, arguably stronger than Notre Dame’s in fact,
and every freshman is required to do a service project as part of their SAGES core curriculum. SAGES includes three reading and writing seminars, and often students are engaged in a project, some international projects , through SAGES.
Also one of the four housing themes at Case Western is service. My son lived in the Service Residential College in freshman year, and he worked on community gardens in Cleveland, and he tutored middle school students in mathematics as well.
See Mistletoe Residential College–
https://students.case.edu/campus/class/firstyear/
Cleveland is more vibrant than South Bend Indiana as a college location as well. Art and Music abound in the Cleveland community and Case is well positioned in University Circle so students can walk to a world class art museum and walk to the Cleveland Orchestra. Sports are also big in Cleveland. Its a nice place to live.
Notre Dame is a very top college for liberal arts and ethics though, and a beautiful campus. Its not as strong in
engineering, but the Notre Dame alumni network is phenomenal. I think the job ties at Case to top west coast jobs are stronger than Notre Dame though.
There are more “social restrictions” and rules at Notre Dame, than at most Jesuit universities.
Dorms are strictly single gender at Notre Dame and no over night visits are permitted, of opposite gender.
Notre Dame and Case Western might be in the same ball park for engineering. FWIW, they are tied at #43 for Best Undergrad Engineering Schools, per the US News rankings that just came out. Neither school is shown in the more specific list for top Civil Engineering programs (only the top 27 schools are provided).
Also, per US News, the median starting salary of alumni for engineering major is –
Notre Dame $69,900
Case West. $66,600
Cleveland sounds like a nice city and the service residential college sounds like a great idea. Both schools will certainly get their fare share of lake effect snow 
DS was waitlisted for ND with almost identical stats. He’s at Tulane now. Their students are , on average, 800 miles from home. Also service is required - my son is a Cell Bio/Math double major and spends Wednesday evenings teaching english as a second language.
@katrina1 You asked on another thread about becoming a PE.
A PE is a licensed professional engineer. Here are two links you may find helpful:
https://www.nspe.org/resources/licensure/what-pe
https://www.nspe.org/resources/licensure
I would encourage your daughter to apply to, and complete supplements, to at least one of two other schools
PRIOR to hearing back from ND.
She can hold off on submitting the RD applications until she hears back from ND.
The reason is that if she is deferred or denied, she likely won’t be in the proper mindset to do a meaningful supplement and/or application to her alternate schools.
If she submits to ND, then completes her other application and holds them until the REA results,
then she can simply hit the submit button prior to the RD deadlines, should need be.
.
^^ very good advice from @hop
The whole ABET/PE information is somewhat overwhelming. I never heard of either! I’ll have to review the information and also see what colleges have ABET.
Don’t worry about the PE stuff. That will come later in her career if she sticks with civil. Most schools with civil are accredited, and you can easily verify that using the link in post #41.
You have to check which PROGRAMS are ABET. Sometimes one engineering program is certified and another is not.
Good luck on your college search. I have no doubt it will all work out! We have civil engineers in the family - it’s a very rewarding career!
FYI, Boston College is not in the city…it’s in a quiet little suburb about 15 minutes away by T. Boston University and Northeastern are both in the city proper. Be sure you look carefully at the stats from Notre Dame so her expectations are realistic. The student I know who got in was shocked, and she was in the IB program, had 34ish scores, and a slew of ECs. It’s truly a crap shoot for even the best students.
I have the luxury of a little time while my daughter is working on her essays to find out more about what she wants. She did tell me yesterday she really like the sense of community at Notre Dame. We stayed at the Morris Inn one night and walked around campus with our dog and met students. It was a good way to get a feel for the campus.
I know it is a crap shoot for the top colleges. She seems more willing to attend the state university than I had expected. Maybe she is right about just applying to two colleges. It will take some time to sort out.
Well, my daughter let me know something I did not understand which is that she would be happy at her safety school. She has a reach school and a state university and she will be happy to attend either.
“We were just in Boston last September, however, and she didn’t really like being in the city.”
Neither does BC…it’s in the suburb of Chestnut Hill.
If your daughter is happy with the public university…and wants to apply to only one other college…let her.
IIRC, she will be applying restrictive EA to ND, and will have her decision early in the admissions round. If she is deferred or not accepted, she can re-think other options IF she wants to.
Our kiddo only wanted to apply to 3 colleges…all were safety options given her stats. She applied EA to two and rolling to one. Got accepted to all three. We parents insisted she apply to ONE school closer to home just in case she changed her mind (she didn’t)…and she then asked to apply to a reach (not accepted).
Those last two applications were a waste of time…and money. She never was really going to go to either…and had her acceptances to her top three choices.
She is the Santa Clara grad.
thumper1, We are letting her apply to just two colleges. I have tried to find other colleges that might be a good fit for her and have come up empty-handed which is why I got on the parent forum to ask for suggestions. There were some good suggestions and insights, and I learned about ABET, but there were no colleges that looked like a fit.
We do try hard to let our kids explore and make their own decisions. This is the fourth and last kid. She’s been on many college tours and has a solid understanding of what she wants. Thanks.
She might consider the University of Dayton, a medium-sized Catholic school. It has ABET accredited civil engineering. Certainly a safety for her. Fwiw, a niece and nephew of mine were admitted to ND (current students) with similar stats.