We are in a pretty good spot here. My oldest is interested in engineering, and he has been accepted at 5 schools. All of them have offered him very nice scholarship packages. All five are good financially. At first, one school was his front runner, because he did a summer program there and really enjoyed it. We took him on campus visits for the other four schools and he arranged to have interviews with the engineering departments, talk to current students, and get a feel for the colleges. Guess what? He found something that he loved about each of the schools.
Now he really has a lot of considering to do. I’ve asked him a few times casually if he thought about what his decision criteria would be, and if he’s started to think about the pros and cons about each college. He says he isn’t ready to think about that yet. I’m not pressuring him at all, as he has about 5 more months to think this over.
Does anyone have any tips or strategies that helped their son or daughter make a decision? Did they do more campus visits closer to decision time? Did they use any tools to help with the thought process?
My son had a basic list of criteria (city with a green space; good Econ/Finance Program; he could run varsity XC/Track)…and I had one (affordable). When decision time came…he seemed to forget about these. So we put them on a whiteboard to make it visual. I still wanted to strangle him as he stared at the whiteboard with only school school checking every box and he said “well this just isn’t clear cut is it?!”. Argh!
If you didn’t do the criteria in advance, go through school by school and ask him why he likes it and tease out the criteria. Do this for each school. Then assemble the list of criteria from this exercise and whiteboard away!
We asked our kid who had a lot of good choices to narrow it down to her top 3 choices, then we went to accepted student days. She had visited them all before, but 24 hours on campus was pretty revealing and helped her decide.
We did have a spreadsheet to “score” the schools, but we definitely weren’t bound by it. It was a good way to see them side by side. But those accepted student overnights were key.
We did a few accepted students day visits to his top choices with my S and that helped him to solidify his final decision. Congratulations – sounds like your S is in a fantastic situation!!
My son has 5 schools on his list (haven’t received any decisions yet) he has a loose ranking, but in reality they are all very close & very similar. These are the questions I gave him to help him rank his schools. For what it’s worth, he said it was very helpful. He said the open-ended questions actually helped lead to other questions, as well.
How do I feel when I step onto campus?
Which school best matches my list of must-haves?
Which school can I best imagine myself as happy and successful?
Which school can I best financially afford, both now and down the road?
Do I really want to live in (city/town/area) for the next four years?
(For athletes) Do I want to go to the school w/ the best team/coaching or the best chance for playing time?
Are the traveling logistics too daunting/expensive between home and school for how often I’d like to come home?
At each school, is his major open or limited admission? If the latter, does he have direct admission? How difficult or competitive is it to get in (or stay in) the major after enrolling at the school? How difficult is it to change to a different engineering major?
My D’s spreadsheet was in order of most favorite to least favorite for all things except finances which we wouldn’t know until admits and packages were received. In the end I think there were 4-5 contenders and she had a hard time between three of them. We revisited the one she is attending when she just couldn’t decide, I think she had a day or two before decisions were due. I was becoming very impatient with her and said “just buy the damn sweatshirt would you?” and that’s pretty much how it happened lol. She continues to be terrible at making decisions. Its an issue.
Ask him make a list of factors that matter to him. Distance from home, clubs, class size, number and qualify of engineering labs, campus, dorms, food etc. Also does the cost of travel the same or is that a factor? Look up airplane flights or figure out
driving costs. Does he need a car on any of the five campuses, and its that a factor in costs? Then evaluate each campus on his important factors. Visit again, if he can, to the top two or three. Sometimes gut feel is the best way to go.
Do you or your spouse have any preferences for him? US News Engineering Ranks are good, so not the overall rank but search on the graduate engineering US New Ranks. That rank is underutilized and you may spot that one
school is somewhat weaker in some engineering fields. Another measure might federal dollars in the field he is interested in. More federal dollars may lead to very good labs experiences, the amount of federal dollars brought in by the faculty at each campus.
Do all five schools have graduate schools associated in engineering? Sometimes some schools are more undergraduate focused than others, if that matters to him or you.
@ucbalumnus None of the schools that he is looking at are uber competitive (most accept 50% or more overall). He was direct admit for engineering at all in the choice of major that he selected. He picked chemical engineering at some schools, biomedical engineering at others. The more competitive schools were all out of our financial range, so our son will be at the top of the applicant pool at most places he is looking at. He has graduate school in his future, and all the schools that he is looking at have strong graduate programs. All are research universities. All seemed to have good opportunities for internships, research opportunities as undergrad.
We are not bothering with US News much, all the schools ranked high are out of our price range. We have to make do with what we can afford. The schools are good, but are not at the top of the rankings. That’s ok, because he’s got graduate school in his future, and he can chase prestige there if he wants.
The car is a big one - we don’t plan to have him take a car with him at all freshman year. He doesn’t own one, and we don’t intend to buy him one.
Research opportunities is a huge item on his radar, and one of the major factors for him is whether or not he’ll have the opportunity to participate in research right away as an undergrad.
All five schools do have graduate programs that interest him.
I have a preference - mainly because I like their football team So I’m keeping my opinion to myself at this time.
University of Alabama
University of Mississippi
Mississippi State
University of Nebraska
University of Alabama Birmingham
He is waiting to hear back from Tulane, but that is a long shot from a financial and an admittance perspective - so it is likely to be eliminated.
One of his big criteria is that he wants out of the midwest - the only school remaining in that category is Nebraska. He doesn’t like the long, gray winters and finds them depressing. He is looking to go south.
If you can check for OSHA violations in the labs, I would do that. Health and safety in labs has been the biggest gripe I’ve heard over the years from engineering students although I think a lot of the time the labs are not subject to OSHA rules. Asking the question of the department chair, you would probably get an answer that would give you an idea of how seriously they take safety. I have heard horror stories about both of our local engineering schools which are top, top programs from undergrads and grad students.
Alabama seems to be the top engineering pick for students looking for merit and trying to leave the Midwest. At least from the families in Illinois I have talked to. Seems like every kid is going to Alabama.
Most schools it’s hard to get a freshman research spot. He should reach out to engineering /research and educate himself. Sometimes reaching out to professors directly once admitted is a good plan.
.
I meant to add… We made an excel spread sheet with like everything on it to compare.
Personally he sounds like my son… Give him time to digest this all. Even if he had 5 months
Are there any other schools he is waiting on? My son wanted to wait till every possible schools decision was int. Even if it wouldn’t of changed a thing.
When he got stuck between two we made him a pro /con list (he asked for help with this). We think that helped or he was just screwing with us [-(
Alabama is trying to improve their status & quality. They are actively recruiting top students from the deep south, essentially guaranteeing aid for ACT scores. My S has alot of friends at Bama for that reason. One of my son’s very good friends describes campus as a big school with a small town feel.
The schools on your son’s list that are down here will definitely be a big change for him coming from the midwest. Has he visited?
Did he get into the honors research program at Alabama Tuscaloosa? Only a few students get into that program but it provides a lot of mentorship if he did get into that one, that might compel him to attend Bama. Is it the Lincoln campus on Nebraska? Lincoln is up and coming very artsy city. You mentioned chemical engineering, but I would search on all engineering ranks, to see if anything falls off the bottom.
Search on Best Undergraduate engineering in US News. Based on that, I would cross off U of Mississippi, but leave the others on there, for now, (Unless U of Miss has other compelling programs, he is interested in ) .
If you are from the south and he wants a midwestern experience, Lincoln Nebraska might be fun.
He can try to choose a college based on factors other than academics, too, if those factors are important to him.
@Coloradomama He has been accepted into the honors colleges at all thus far (still waiting to hear from Ole Miss). Yes, it is University of Nebraska - Lincoln, and honors there also. Ole Miss has a phenomenal honors program, and he’s also interested in their Center for Manufacturing Excellence, but he thought MIssissippi State had the superior Engineering program. He is applying to some of the research programs in addition to honors.
There was some fantastic compelling thing at each school, that’s the problem
@ChaosParent23 Yes - he actually spent a month living on campus in Tuscaloosa this summer taking a couple of classes. I wanted him to make sure he REALLY liked the south before committing. He loved it.
So I’m keeping my opinion to myself at this time.