Anyone have experience with Embry Riddle from a female perspective? What is the culture like on campus (daytona & prescott). Considering for aerospace engineering. Curious about the student body being 75% impacts over all campus culture. (College list currently consists of 1. Ga Tech (in state) & 2. Embry Riddle.
Also, the admit stats seem low, is that why the grad rate is low? Do student with stats significantly higher than avg, have higher grad rates? Are higher stat students more likely to receive aid? I know not to equate admit stats with quality of education. I am assuming education quality must be good based on job placement rates.
@CourtneyThurston attends
The Grad rate is low, likely because the transfer rate is high. Transfer rates are high, due to a combination of students being OOS (home sick), cost, and switching majors. If you’re attending ERAU and want to switch out of engineering, you’re likely going to look at also transferring to another school. I bet a lot of students that want to switch from Aero Engineering to another engineering field, also end up transferring.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the graduation rate, ERAU’s AE program is good, instead focus on “fit” for your child.
If cost is a concern, you may also want to look into UCF, which has a solid Aerospace Engineering program, offers decent OOS merit aid, and gives you the options that come with a large university (like easily switching majors, etc.).
UF has a better program (the UCF folks would argue otherwise!), but it’s stingy with OOS merit aid. My DS17 is starting as a freshman at UF as an AE, but we looked at GT, UF and UCF. He past on GT due to cost (OOS tuition vs in-state tuition+Bright Futures+Florida Prepaid, but we were grateful that GT did accept him!), and UCF (even though he got a obscene amount of merit aid, we may regret passing on them in the future. 
).
You may also want to take a look at the University of Colorado-Boulder and Virginia Tech (for Aero). Each has very good programs and offer OOS merit.
With all of that being said, sometimes a smaller, more personal campus like ERAU is a better fit. 
Good Luck!
Most important questions first:
“Do student with stats significantly higher than avg, have higher grad rates? Are higher stat students more likely to receive aid?”
Yes, and yes.
Riddle financial aid is generally not very good, but MERIT aid is good. I’m on a merit full ride here, and it’s been fabulous financially.
Riddle grad rates are low because they over-accept students who aren’t qualified to be here to pay the bills: it’s a specialized school, and we have lots of expensive equipment and real estate. Lots of filled freshman beds pay the bills; kids who aren’t qualified drop out in hordes after their first year. Same thing happens frequently with transfers, and kids who attempt to go here part-time. Kids who are qualified, and go to school here full time, rarely have problems (saying this anecdotally but I believe this).
Culture is a bit lacking. The student body overall is less than optimal due to the 3:1 male-female ratio, but the faculty is very supportive and in my opinion that has balanced this out for me.
My opinion: ERAU is more supportive of students than GTech. GTech is probably more affordable. Both schools have similar placement rates. I’d choose ERAU if they give your kid huge merit, like they did with me, which is why I’m here.
btw – women in engineering and other impacted majors get an automatic 20k merit scholarship on top of GPA+test score based awards.
Mostly, Yes, and Yes.
Don’t focus too much on admit stats. Embry-Riddle is unique in that they are much more specialized than your typical broad spectrum state or LAC. They are also private and relatively small (~1800 students). The combination of being private, small, and specialized means they need to cast a wider net to keep matriculation where they want it to be.
They make up for the middling entrance criteria with more stringent exit criteria. This means that getting in may be more lax than other schools of its caliber, but once you are in the curriculum is quite grueling, and graduation standards are high. This is reflected in the graduation rates. Also keep in mind that most of the transfers/dropouts tend to occur with flight students rather than engineering/science students. The flight program is very expensive and some flight students realize a few semesters or years in that they can’t afford it, or that there are more attractive/cheaper alternatives (i.e. attending a state college and training at a local FBO)
Bottom line, ER is a fantastic school for engineering, with high quality standards, excellent labs, and excellent faculty for the most part. I would most definitely keep it on your list. The Prescott campus and local area are beautiful as well!
ER DB is not anywhere near 1800 students. I assume this was in reference to Prescott or something? DB is about 6,000
Hi, I’m a female (aerospace engineering major) freshman currently attending ERAU in Daytona Beach. It seems like most people already answered the statistics questions, so I’m going to focus on the culture bit you asked.
Personally, I’ve fallen in love with it here. This is a very diverse school with students coming from all over the country and from all over the world. Plus, everyone is united in their interest in STEM and/or airplanes and/or space. There are so many amazing opportunities I’ve had since I’ve been here. Literally, an alumni stopped by the other day in a F-18. That’s definitely not something that happens at other colleges. Everyone here is geeky/nerdy to some degree, and will gladly have discussions regarding anything from Elon Musk’s plans for traveling to Mars, to which airplane is the best. Now, don’t get the wrong impression and assume EVERYTHING revolves around planes. We have lots of fun on campus as well. There’s TONS of organizations here and there’s lots of ways to get involved and find your niche. People are also constantly visiting the beach, and nearby attractions.
Anyways, I could go on for a while about the school, but to say the least, I’ve found this to be an excellent fit for me. Let me know if there’s anything else you want to know specifics about, I’d be glad to give you my perspective on things here.
My daughter was admitted and received $16,000 for the Presidential and $5,000 for Women in Excellence. We haven’t heard anything about the automatic $20,000 on top of merit. Is it specific to one of Embry Riddle’s campus?
Curious about how many girls sign up for the national security program and if they give extra merit for this program. It seems like a new program, so was hoping they would give more merit