<p>Hello everyone, I am a high school junior looking at several different colleges.
I am interested in aerospace engineering, and I have found several schools that have the major, but I have no idea how the programs compare. I have narrowed it down to (unless anyone has another suggestion) the Air Force Academy, MIT, the University of Alabama at Huntsville, and Auburn University.
In case it helps with choosing one, I have a 34 ACT and a 3.9 GPA. I have no problem with having a commitment to the Air Force if I go to the Air Force Academy (they list the major as "aeronautical engineering," while the others list it as "aerospace engineering").
I plan on attending college in the fall of 2014, so there's not a huge rush, but could anyone provide some insight into the quality and thoroughness of some of these programs?</p>
<p>If you want to be an officer in the Air Force, then the Air Force Academy is an obvious choice. But also check for Air Force ROTC programs at other schools, since the Air Force Academy is not easy to get into.</p>
<p>UA Huntsville has in recent times given automatic full ride merit scholarships for students with 3.0 GPA and 34 ACT (full tuition with 31 ACT). If they keep doing that, it may be a good safety school. Note that it is next to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The only disadvantage is no Air Force ROTC.</p>
<p>UA Tuscaloosa has an automatic full tuition + $2,500 per year scholarship for engineering majors with 3.5 GPA and 30 ACT. There is an Air Force ROTC unit there.</p>
<p>If you like the military, don’t make it into the AFA, and want a nice engineering school, consider Virginia Tech. They have a Corps of Cadets lifestyle that is similar to the academies and a good AE program. Here’s a link:</p>
<p>[Aerospace</a> and Ocean Engineering | Virginia Tech](<a href=“http://www.aoe.vt.edu/]Aerospace”>http://www.aoe.vt.edu/)</p>
<p>One of their headlines is:</p>
<p>Oct 16, 2012
Aerospace engineering student team wins space vehicle design contest</p>
<p>It has a link on the page if you are interested.</p>
<p>You have MIT but not Stanford? Why? [Aeronautics</a> & Astronautics Home](<a href=“http://aa.stanford.edu/]Aeronautics”>http://aa.stanford.edu/)</p>
<p>That’s a rather short list. Have you dismissed all the other schools that have aero?
RPI, WPI (also has AFROTC), BU, Case Western,</p>
<p>Here is the Air Force ROTC college locator:
[U.S</a>. Air Force ROTC - College Life - College Locator](<a href=“http://afrotc.com/college-life/college-locator/]U.S”>College Locator | U.S. Air Force ROTC)</p>
<p>Here is the ABET accreditation listing where you can search for aerospace engineering degree programs:
[Accredited</a> Program Search](<a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx]Accredited”>http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx)</p>
<p>Here is the big automatic merit scholarship list if cost is a big concern:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>Note that Virginia Tech’s real name is Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; in the AFROTC and ABET listings, the real name or a close variant is what appears.</p>
<p>I haven’t dismissed any schools, I just looked around and found the first few I could to send ACT/SAT scores to and refined my list from that group. I’ll look into Virgina Tech and Stanford, I just hadn’t heard about many other schools with aerospace engineering programs.</p>
<p>You can also use college search engines to find schools with aero. eng. , there is one here on CC called SuperMatch. It allows you to put in your major, GPA and test scores as well as a bunch of other criteria that matter to you and it tries to predict best “fit”. It returns 20 results but you can modify that at the top.</p>
<p>There is also the College Navigator, which is very good and provides results that can be downloaded into a spreadsheet. [College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics)</p>
<p>And the American Society for Engineering Education has **detailed **profiles of all engineering schools. [ASEE.org</a> - ASEE - Publications - College Profiles - Search the Profiles](<a href=“http://profiles.asee.org/]ASEE.org”>http://profiles.asee.org/) Click on any school and then look at the categories on the left, basically anything you would ever want to know and more.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help! ASEE is very detailed, and it saves me a lot of searching through multiple colleges’ sites for things like what they look for in applicants and their student data.
But does anyone know about any of these colleges’ (or any that weren’t mentioned here) facilities and such?
I guess my main question is this: do different colleges have different qualities in their programs? Like do certain colleges specialize in aero while others just teach it as an afterthought?</p>
<p>If there is enough aero to have its own ABET-accredited major, then the college obviously has a decent amount of it (as opposed to an elective or two under the mechanical engineering department).</p>
<p>I believe that Notre Dame has a good program in aerospace engineering as well as AROTC.</p>
<p>You need to apply to a bunch of schools anyway, so you can continue to do more research online to see what they have for facilities or special programs for aero. You don’t have to “choose” now. Can you visit any of them?
Also look at the US News grad school rankings for aero engineering, it might give you an idea of which ones would have the best facilties, though it may not translate into which ones would give you the best undergrad experience.</p>
<p>I’m considering visiting some of them, especially the AF academy and any others in that area. I haven’t heard of an ABET-accredited major, is that just where the college can put something on their advertisements as a major they offer?</p>
<p><a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx[/url]”>http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx</a>
Basically, ABET is the organization that accredits engineering degree programs. An ABET accredited degree program should be reasonably good for that major (though some may be better than others for specific purposes). There are some situations where ABET accreditation is necessary or highly desirable, such as Professional Engineer licensing or patent law.</p>
<p>For most traditional engineering areas, such as aerospace, chemical, civil, electrical, industrial, materials, mechanical, and nuclear engineering, any decent degree program in the US will be ABET accredited. In a few areas where licensing is not much of an issue, some good degree programs do not have ABET accreditation (biomedical engineering, computer science, engineering physics).</p>
<p>“Air Force Academy, MIT, the University of Alabama at Huntsville, and Auburn University”</p>
<p>Umm, you’re looking at MIT (a top school) and Air Force (a service academy) and two schools with horrendous academic reputations. I think you really need to take a step back and start with a new list.</p>
<p>You should take your SAT and GPA and determine which schools you can get into that have a program you are interested in (if you can even get considered by MIT, you should not be applying to a school like Auburn, for example). </p>
<p>Here is the ABET accreditation listing where you can search for aerospace engineering degree programs:
[Accredited</a> Program Search](<a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx]Accredited”>http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx)</p>
<p>You should make a spreadsheet of the schools with your program, figure out their SAT and GPA ranges and determine which are reaches, targets and safeties. Apply to a few of each to be safe.</p>
<p><a href=“if%20you%20can%20even%20get%20considered%20by%20MIT,%20you%20should%20not%20be%20applying%20to%20a%20school%20like%20Auburn,%20for%20example”>quote</a>.
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<p>While you are entitled to your opinion (and I find most of your opinions trollish, so I’m wondering if that was your true intent), I firmly disagree with it.</p>
<p>ALL students considering top “lottery” schools should also be applying to safety schools. Auburn and UA are well-known as two to apply to BECAUSE they are well-known for both good financial opportunities and decent academics. Are there better academic schools? Undoubtedly, but not everyone gets into nor can afford the packages at higher level schools.</p>
<p>My guy used UA as an academic and financial safety and I’d have him do it again with no regrets. He got into a higher academics research U with enough money to make it affordable (actually, less expensive than the full tuition at UA, BUT we had no idea until we had the full package that it would work out that way).</p>
<p>The AFA is great if you want that route. I see no problem with the OP’s list - esp if also considering some others mentioned (like VT 
).</p>
<p>Definitely looking into Virginia Tech, and this is by no means a final list. In response to Informative, I am not familiar with the academic reputations of UAH and Auburn in general, but as far as aviation is concerned, Auburn has an excellent program from what I hear, and UAH is in Huntsville with the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center. I hear it’s also pretty strong in AE because of its proximity to such facilities.
And Creekland, excellent point, it never hurts to have backups.</p>