<p>Hi all,
I have posted a thread 8 months ago asking for suggestions to my D on schools for chemical engineering.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1526326-school-suggestions-for-chemical-engineering-p1.html">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1526326-school-suggestions-for-chemical-engineering-p1.html</a></p>
<p>Now she got 6 schools accepted and is kind of decided where to go. I just want to see what other people think before I pay for the deposit on one. Here are the admitted schools with out of pocket cost per year (including loan) after scholarships/grant. We did not pick any full ride schools for NMF and I think we may afford (with some stretch) up to $25k per year (including loans).</p>
<p>Northwestern University, McCormick (~$25k according to NPC).
Purdue University, Engineering ($23k or less)
UIUC, ChemE ($48k, can omit this)
University of Michigan, CoE ($19k, $9k if commute)
University of Minnesota, College of Sci & Eng ($15k or less)
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Engineering pre-admit (up to $41k, no scholarship info yet, may omit this as well)</p>
<p>Bare in mind that although Chemical Engineer is my D's intended major, but who knows if she may switch to another engineering field later.</p>
<p>What do you think about these schools with primary interest in Chemical Engineering and their associated costs?</p>
<p>Thank you very much in advance.</p>
<p>You must realize that each of the places on your list are excellent universities with outstanding Chemical Engineering departments? Therefore, the best advice to your daughter is for her to choose a campus that she thinks she’ll enjoy and that you can afford.</p>
<p>One definition of outstanding is that those schools have very large research budgets and great facilities/labs.</p>
<p>@LakeWashington
Thanks for your response. We picked those schools to apply for their excellent Chemical Engineering programs and location. We have visited all, except UMN, campuses last year already.</p>
<p>Well, as regards costs, there’s no advantage in passing up the bargain at U Minnesota-Twin cities, although some students/applicants are put off by the size of the place. U Minn and Northwestern at are the very top in Chemical Engineering. </p>
<p>Minnesota looks like the obvious bargain of the list. Michigan does give the cheaper commute option in future years if you believe that there is a risk of an adverse event to your family finances that will not be compensated for by increased financial aid (it is usually desirable for students at a more-residential school to live on-campus during frosh year).</p>
<p>But check carefully about the following:
- If not directly admitted into the major, check what GPA thresholds may be needed to declare the desired major.
- If any merit scholarships are involved, check what GPA thresholds may be needed to renew.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus
Good point on the merit scholarship renewal requirement. I need to check it out. It is a bit complicated from UMN as there are 3 or 4 different scholarships and one is for research. UMich gives 2 scholarships and the smaller one is not renewable that I did not even include in the calculation. Otherwise, the freshmen year would be even cheaper. I will dig out the information soon.
I do have concern in getting into ChemE at UMN as it is highly competitive there. While in UMich, ChemE has the lowest national ranking among all their Engineering programs and is far less competitive.
Thanks again.</p>
<p>Just an update that I found today Northwestern offers $2000/yr to NMF. So that may make it $2k cheaper.</p>
<p>If your D has significant AP courses (I seem to recall she does from another thread), you might also do a quick check on any major differences in credit given at these schools. Our older D will be completing her BS in ChE with two minors all in three years due to ~50 hours AP credit. Reducing a whole year of tuition was a huge financial difference in her case. </p>
<p>That’s is a good point. I have not looked up the AP credits from all these schools. She will only have 6 AP by graduation (Chem, APUSH, CalcBC, PhysicsC, Spanish, and English). There was a schedule conflict that she could not take more in senior year. The new principal messed up the schedule and put most AP classes in the same hour.</p>