Electrical Engineering - my son's search

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm appealing to the collective wisdom of CC to help identify colleges that my son might consider.</p>

<p>He is a junior in high school. He's always shown an interest and aptitude in building things - starting with elaborate Lego structures as a toddler, moving on to circuit kits, taking apart and building computers in grade school, then building his own gaming computers in junior high. He's gone to computer camps in the summers which are software-oriented, but his passion seems to be more on the hardware side.</p>

<p>He's taking honors and AP courses in almost everything except English, but he's not so motivated at school and his grades reflect this. He's also not very interested in clubs as he's very quiet and shy. However, he's joined the robotics team this year and is enjoying & contributing. His main EC is marching band which he'll do for all 4 years of high school. No volunteer work, no outside jobs.</p>

<p>His overall grades are:
3.86 weighted
3.54 unweighted</p>

<p>His 10-11 grades are:
3.89 weighted
3.28 unweighted </p>

<p>He'll be taking the SAT in March, PSAT score was around 190, with a 71 on the math part.</p>

<p>He's a bit in the fog as far as his college search, but he has some definite criteria:</p>

<p>1) stay on the west coast
2) attend the same school for all 4 years
3) attend a small- to medium-sized school
4) have the opportunity to get to know the professors (small class sizes)
5) schools with a strongly religious slant don't appeal, although he's got a couple of Jesuit schools on his list.</p>

<p>He thinks that electrical engineering is the right major for him, but might consider other engineering programs. Computer engineering, surprisingly enough, doesn't appeal, nor does a pure physics program.</p>

<p>His search so far has turned up the following colleges:</p>

<p>UC-Santa Cruz
Cal Poly SLO
University of San Diego
Santa Clara University
University of Seattle
Oregon Institute of Technology
Harvey Mudd (I'm assuming this is a super-reach)
University of the Pacific</p>

<p>Two more that I've asked him to consider are:
UC-Merced (seems like it will have an EE program within the next couple of years)
Occidental College (has a 3-2 Engineering program w/CalTech)</p>

<p>I know there are other 3-2 programs at LACs, but for some reason that he can't articulate, my son doesn't think these are good matches for him.</p>

<p>Are there any other colleges that he might consider?</p>

2

<p>Any of the UCs with EE should be fine for him.</p>

<p>Berkeley
UCLA
San Diego
Davis
Santa Barbara
Irvine</p>

<p>USC
U Washington</p>

3

<p>Harvey Mudd should be a great fit for him, as long as he can get his SATs up a bit. Cal Poly is a good one too. The program at Occidental also seems interesting.</p>

<p>In addition to the UCs, which are great options, USC actually has a really good program too, and would be within the realm of possibilities with his stats (again, pending on the SATs). U Arizona would be a good safety.</p>

<p>And I'd eliminate Seattle and USD. They're not really known for being a good engineering school.</p>

4

<p>How about Washington in Seattle? It's a pretty good school and won't be a huge reach like Harvey Mudd. I don't know how their EE is but I'd imagine it's decent with Microsoft and Boeing in town. USC is also another more realistic option than HMC.</p>

<p>I'd be cautious about 3-2 at LACs, given how your son seems to be unmotivated for things outside his interest. Occidental website says you can take courses at CalTech but I didn't find any info on 3-2. Without knowing anything more, I highly doubt this is anything automatic given the gap in caliber between the two student body (no Harvard/MIT). If there's a 3-2 program, I bet the GPA you get from the CalTech classes would be a huge factor. So the backdoor to CalTech may not be open.</p>

5

<p>Thanks so much for your thoughts so far. </p>

<p>My son eliminated most of the UCs because of their size. I have to agree with him on this - I'm pretty sure he'd be lost at Berkeley/UCLA/Davis/Irvine. He liked UCSC because of its college environment which made it seem more manageable. He might have the same objections to U Washington & Arizona but I'll mention them to him.</p>

<p>I didn't even think of USC! I just assumed it would be too much of a reach. Also looks like a big school (16,500 undergrads) but might be worth a visit, thanks for mentioning it.</p>

<p>Agree about 3-2 at LACs, probably not a good fit.</p>

6

<p>Vballmom, LMU and University of Portland both have it. They are both Catholic, but they are smaller in size.</p>

7

<p>Oregon State is worth a look.</p>

8

<p>My son looked at University of Portland and had a hard time differentiating it from U of Seattle and U of San Diego. Any thoughts?</p>

<p>Neither of us considered LMU, I'll have him look at the website - thanks for pointing it out. </p>

<p>Since Oregon State isn't in the Western Undergraduate Exchange, it didn't come up on our search (OIT is part of the Exchange). I'll have my son take a look at it as well, thanks.</p>

<p>USC might be out of reach financially (as if the other private universities aren't expensive enough!)</p>

<p>I'm guessing my son's stats aren't going to make merit aid likely.</p>

<p>Any thoughts about EE at San Jose State?</p>

9

<p>Vballmom, honestly I don't know that much about Portland only that it had that particular major. Sorry I can't be of more help.</p>

10

<p>Good call on cutting out the big UCs. If one doesn't like the greater size (I thrived) or one isn't into the academic intensity that engineering requires at esp. Berkeley, e.g., it would not be a good choice.</p>

<p>If you have the cash, I'd go with Harvey Mudd. I think part of choosing the school is finding one with the right ethos. UCSC is a beautiful campus and has some absolutely first-rate faculty, but I'm always impressed (whether justified or not) with a kind of, for lack of a better phrase "dope-smoker's" ethos there. I could be way wrong now, 'cause it's been awhile since I spent time there. USC could be a good choice if you seem him reaching out and blossoming during college and needing a bigger environment.</p>

<p>San Jose State: good school, but like so many others, feels like a commuter school. Among the Cal State schools, I really think Cal Poly would be absolutely top-notch for his needs and might be the right fit socially. And that's a school that allows for a launch into lots of good things, if he does well.</p>

<p>My ultimate vote: Cal Poly -- or Harvey Mudd.</p>

<p>But who am I? Oh yeah: I'm Bedhead.</p>

11

<p>I wouldn't count out the larger UCs because of size. While many of your lower division classes (first year or year-and-a-half) will be enormous, they are divided into smaller discussion/lab sections (~20 people) where you can get to know fellow classmates and your GSI. And upper division coursestend to be tiny, with less than 30 students in a class. Also, professors are generally very approachable, you just need to make the effort to go see them.</p>

<p>Just my two cents as an engineering student at a large UC =P</p>

12

<p>If your son is really interested in EECS, he should shoot for the top two schools on the west coast for this major - Stanford and Berkeley.</p>

<p>Harvey Mudd is a great engineering college, but it will not give your son a BS degree in electrical engineering.</p>

<p>The 3/2 program with Oxy/Caltech is good, as well as Cal Poly SLO. I would not consider UCSC for engineering.</p>

13

<p>


</p>

<p>Sam, you spend 3 years at Occidental and 2 years at Caltech. So, your grades at Oxy are of utmost importance.</p>

<p><a href="http://admissions.caltech.edu/applying/32%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://admissions.caltech.edu/applying/32&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

14

<p>Just curious, why wouldn't you consider UCSC for engineering?</p>

<p>I see Stanford as a huge reach. I guess at what point do you encourage a kid to aim high, versus having him look at more realistic options and get excited about those possibilities?</p>

<p>Thanks again for all of your thoughts.</p>

15

<p>UCB,</p>

<p>Look at OP's son GPA. It's unrealistic to apply to Stanford and Berkeley and it'd be a waste of money and effort. The PSAT score of 190 translates to 1900 on SAT? If that's the case, it's a decent score but well below Stanford's average. </p>

<p>I also wouldn't recommend Occidental given his son's skewed interest in engineering; what <em>if</em> he doesn't do as well as you need? It's very possible given that the OP said his son is not very motivated for things he's not most interested in. Then he's stuck with a liberal arts college and there's nothing close to EECS at Occidental. I don't believe CalTech is that easy to get in anyway but maybe one can find out what the success rate (and typical GPA required) of getting into CalTech from Occidental is.</p>

16

<p>Thanks Sam, you get it. And good point about Occidental. I don't think CalTech is a good match for my son anyway, so we should probably cross Occidental off the list. I'm a believer in liberal arts colleges, but they might not be a good fit for my son. I mainly want him to come up with a reasonable list of colleges where he has a good shot at being accepted so he can feel good about the process.</p>

17

<p>Santa Clara, UoP, LMU and CalPoly sound like the best choices to me. Just depends what kind of town he wants to go to school in.</p>

18

<p>True, I didn't read the post clearly...I thought your son was a sophomore and had a chance to improve his grades, since you were taking about PSAT...my apologies.</p>

<p>I would shoot for Cal Poly SLO. It has a very respected engineering program, and is strong in most disciplines, even if your son does not go thru with electrical engineering.</p>

<p>UCSC is probably the weakest UC in engineering, IMO...I don't think the school is a strong recruitment base for companies that employ engineers.</p>

<p>If I was considering a UC in his range, I would choose UCSB...it has a much stronger reputation in engineering/sciences.</p>

19

<p>
[quote]
Berkeley and it'd be a waste of money and effort.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>If he's applying to any of the UCs, he may as well shoot for the best in his intended major... =P
The only extra effort is checking off Berkeley on the app and paying an additional ~$60.</p>

20

<p>Another reason that Berkeley isn't on his list and Cal Poly is, from what I understand, is that Cal Poly is more hands on in EE, and Berkeley is more theoretical. This could be an oversimplification. My gut feel is that he wouldn't fit in at Berkeley.</p>

<p>We'll take a closer look at UCSB.</p>