<p>OK, I've been holding off, but am looking for comments and suggestions on D's list.</p>
<p>GPA ~3.4 uw, ~8 AP courses by graduation.
Good Maryland publlic school, ~15th percentile ranking
SAT: 740M, 650V, 620W (1390/2010)</p>
<p>She is interested in Engineering, but not 100% positive about that. Wants a school with engineering, but not a pure tech school (e.g. RPI). Likes the mathy stuff much more than the wordy stuff. Has ECs and classes to back up the Engineering interest.</p>
<p>Doesn't want a big school (no VT).
Within a day's drive of home.
Won't qualify for need-based aid; wouldn't mind merit $.
Not interested in girls school (no Smith).</p>
<p>Right now, the list reads as:</p>
<p>Delaware
Maryland (probably too big for her taste, though)
Case Western (EA)
U Rochester
Lafayette
Bucknell</p>
<p>Have visited all but one of these. (I like the symmetry of this: 2 small private universities, 2 LACs with eng, 2 state schools.)</p>
<p>I think the first three are likely, but nothing is certain these days. The next three will depend on how much of a hook (girl + engineering) is and how her grades are first semester with a tough HS schedule.</p>
<p>TCNJ has engineering, but is more LAC-ish, and about 6000 students. Would be OOS for you, but has a lot of merit aid. Beautiful campus, scores high on PR Happiest Students measures.</p>
<p>D will be starting at UVA in the fall in their engineering program. She leans towards science and math but was not 100% certain that she wanted to pursue engineering. After visiting the school and going on the engineering tour, she was sold. Interactions with faculty and students have been really positive. Might be a bit of a reach but can’t hurt to try.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your comments–just the kind of discussion I was hoping for.</p>
<p>Not to poo-poo the suggestions, but she & I have talked about a number of these, and scratched or back-burnered them:</p>
<p>CMU, Lehigh, and UVA (oos) distant reaches
WPI is too “techie”
GT–too big, techie, far away, un-nurturing
Drexel & Temple–visited/drove by these & neighborhoods scared her
Northeastern (some what large, far away, not interested in coop)
RIT - (visited, had a “commuter” atmosphere but remains a possibility)</p>
<p>Ones we haven’t looked into much:</p>
<p>Pitt–need to look at more, though a bit larger than she wants
TCNJ–Interesting–I had no idea. Couldn’t they have picked a better name?</p>
<p>Yeah, TCNJ is not the best name. I think they are going for the “College of William and Mary” vibe. My family can’t figure out why “The” gets an initial in the acronym. Why “The” and not “of”? </p>
<p>It used to be called Trenton State College, and is best known for education and biology/pre-med majors. When they changed their name in 1996, Princeton U got mad, since they were originally called the College of New Jersey.</p>
<p>It is very accessible from Maryland, and not in a scary neighborhood. Despite the former “Trenton” name, it is in a quiet suburb.</p>
<p>Dad: D2 is 2nd yr engr student at CMU. After being admitted, she visited Lafayette but was irritated that she had to go down a floor to find a women’s restroom in the engr dept. We visited Bucknell…beautiful campus…if only it was located in a more urban area. CMU was would be a good choice for a reach. Good luck! :)</p>
<p>My son (engineering freshman this fall) applied to privates and publics and instate publics. Best merit money (we do not qualify and did not apply for financial aid) was from privates, but not schools with engineering. (He applied to half engin schools the the rest for comp sci.)</p>
<p>Sons stats were better than your daughters, though, her hook is that she is female so it may help. Accepted to Delaware (no money), Syracuse and RIT (with about $7000 a year at each which doesn’t amount to much), Lafayette (no money), Miami of OH (no money I think), UNH (no money) URI (money but we weren’t interested anyway), VaTech ($5-7K a year I think). Ended up at SUNY Buffalo. Great engineering program with happy kids. $3K scholarship on already low in-state tuition.</p>
<p>If you are looking for merit aid, make sure she is in the top 20% of accepted students. </p>
<p>Maryland is a great school with a great reputation. In-state tuition is wonderful for you!!!
I hear NCState has a great engineering program too.</p>
<p>I don’t think that Lehigh is much of a reach, I would put it in the match category. They really want female engineering students and will tell you that. If she likes Bucknell and Laf, I would def. apply to Lehigh as well as they are somewhat similar and I didn’t think that Lehigh was any more selective than Bucknell and only a little more selective than Lafayette. My D, an engineering student also, declined to apply to Lafayette as she felt that there were too few female engineering students, she felt that she wanted a school that was small but still has more engineering women. Just her thoughts.</p>
<p>She visited CMU but also declined to apply, I still can’t figure out why. Didn’t seem to be much more selective than some other schools she looked at but it may have been too techie, she had the same problem with Case.</p>
<p>Cooper Union, you only pay room, board, books, and a few other minor expenses. it is in NYC (less then 5 hr drive from most places in Maryland and in the East Village).</p>
<p>Penn State? Young man across the street from us just left for University Park today for ChemEng – had stats similar to your D’s, but only 1-2 APs. BTW, he was rejected from UMD. He also was accepted to Ohio State, Florida and Clemson.</p>
<p>if UMCP may be to big for her, she could consider looking at UMBC. The engineering program is excellent and she would most likely receive merit aid.</p>