Engineering and Japanese Suggestions wanted

Parent Cafe
1

<p>This morning I got an email from my Dad who has been asked by a friend to help with his daughter's college search. (I know, extremely convoluted). Here is a little background:</p>

<p>Divorced parents, girl (Caitlin) lives with her mom who is a college dropout and lives paycheck to paycheck. Dad is no longer in the picture - and refused to pay anything for Caitlin's older brother's college. So basically there will be no financial help coming from the parents.</p>

<p>On the good news front, she will be Val or Sal of her class with a 4.0 plus GPA and has decent SAT scores - 670, 670, and 670. She plans to take it again, and see if she can improve just a bit. She has taken nearly every AP or Honors class available to her at her small Nevada public high school.</p>

<p>She is considering engineering, as her interests include physics and math, along with Japanese (her passion). </p>

<p>So I am looking for suggestions for schools, preferably on the West Coast, that offer excellent Merit and Financial aid where both majors would be available to her.</p>

2

<p>Try Santa Clara University. They offer engineering and a minor in Japanese. It is possible to create your own major in Japanese.
scu.edu/</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the suggestion… As a Santa Clara Alum, I should have thought of that one :)</p>

<p>I also got a suggestion via PM of University of the Pacific.</p>

<p>Anyone have any others besides SCU and UOP?</p>

4

<p>Well, the University of Washington has great Japanese
[Degree</a> Program Requirements in Japanese - Asian Languages & Literature at the University of Washington](<a href=“http://depts.washington.edu/asianll/lang_degs/prog_japanese_reqs.html]Degree”>http://depts.washington.edu/asianll/lang_degs/prog_japanese_reqs.html)
and great engineering
[College</a> of Engineering at the University of Washington | <a href=“http://www.engr.washington.edu%5B/url%5D”>www.engr.washington.edu](<a href=“http://www.engr.washington.edu/]College”>http://www.engr.washington.edu/)</a>
and it is on the West Coast. I don’t know that they offer Merit Aid though.</p>

<p>Where would she be “in state”?</p>

5

<p>She is from Nevada. Not sure how much aid she can expect from a public U as an OOS.</p>

6

<p>scualum:</p>

<p>Okay, you knew it was coming, right?</p>

<p>USC. I can’t speak to the quality of the Japanese program, although they do have East Asian Languages & Cultures as a major and minor, in addition to East Asian Area Studies.</p>

<p>I can say the Viterbi School of Engineering is well regarded. It’s not in the league of Berkeley, CalTech or Harvey Mudd, but student matriculating appear to be pleased with it.</p>

<p>USC does have a strong effort to “make it happen” for students who plan to double major or major/minor. I know a freshman this year who’s pre-med but also intending to minor in English Lit. If my S ends up going to USC next year, it’s pretty certain with his wide ranging interests in the sciences that he’ll end up double majoring or in some kind of interdisciplinary program.</p>

<p>Also, despite the economy, USC is still pretty strong in FA, both merit and need based.</p>

<p>PS Also, that friend of my S’s who’s now at Yale was accepted at USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering. She’s of Japanese ancestry, studied the language and had a major, rather unique EC, competitive Japanese calligraphy.</p>

7

<p>Would Cleveland be a possibility? DS is a dual degree student at Case Western in Japanese studies and mechanical engineering. Has nothing but praise for both departments. The school gives terrific merit scholarships, so may be worth considering.</p>

8

<p>So I know that Pittsburgh is not West Coast. University of Pittsburgh has a great Japanese program (top ten according to faculty though I have no idea how they judge that)and it also has engineering. Additionally, students can take classes at Carnegie Mellon. Pitt gives some nice merit scholarships. One of the brightest kids I have known (in addition to my own–haha) chose Pitt this fall over Carnegie Mellon and Cornell.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that large state universities like to cherry pick those good kids from other states, so she may want to focus on OOS. Good luck to her.</p>

9

<p>Great suggestions - please keep them coming. </p>

<p>As for the USC suggestion, my Dad is a USC alum so I am sure he will be happy to pass that one on!!!</p>

10

<p>Another school not on the West Coast – but definitely worth considering if she’s interested in engineering is Rose-Hulman in Indiana (ranked #1 by USN&WR for undergraduate engineering schools whose top degree is a Bachelors or Masters). R-H is one of the few tech schools to actively encourage engineering majors to study abroad and it has strong Japanese connections. The school is seeking more women students and does offer both merit and need-based aid.</p>

<p>My friend’s son attended R-H and majored in mechanical engineering with a minor in Japanese. He did a summer study abroad in Japan (with a travel stipend given by the school). That lead to an internship in Japan, so he ended up spending a full 12 months in Japan.</p>

11

<p>UC Berkeley and UC San Diego each offer both majors. Maybe some other UCs too. </p>

<p>Doing both seems pretty rigorous though.</p>

12

<p>Not on the West Coast, so sorry, but must say Smith.</p>

13

<p>Not to be cliche, but… Stanford. Math, physics, engineering - pretty much unbeatable.</p>

<p>Overseas program in Kyoto, plus internships in Japan.
[Bing</a> Overseas Studies at Stanford University](<a href=“http://bosp.stanford.edu/kyoto/index.html]Bing”>http://bosp.stanford.edu/kyoto/index.html)</p>

<p>Financial aid - stellar.</p>

<p>Admit rate, 7%. But hey, someone’s gotta get in - maybe it’ll be her!</p>

14

<p>OK, not West Coast, but University of Cincinnati has a great Engineering program, and Japan is one of the specific countries that kids go to for co-op if they want to go abroad. (We just attended an eng. college tour and they mentioned Chile, Japan, Germany & one other, I think.) </p>

<p>Plus they give great (as in free ride) merit scholarships to NMFs.
A friend’s son did the co-op in Japan program and loved it. They do a one-quarter immersion for language & culture, then you go to the country to work.</p>

15

<p>Caltech offers Japanese (though not as a major) and students that take 2 years Japanese are encouraged to apply for the Caltech Japanese Internship program. My son just returned his ten week internship in Japan and loved it. And of course, Caltech has an very well known internship. Just noticed the SAT scores and she might need to bump them up to around 700 in each section in order to have a good chance at Caltech.</p>

16

<p>Harvey Mudd for the math/physics/engineering side and the other Claremont colleges for the co-registration in Japanese? Harvey Mudd is very friendly towards female applicants… though her scores are a bit lower than their usual applicant. Get that math one up a bit?
Is there a state school in the mix?</p>

17

<p>Is her dad low income too? Would she be eligible for a Questbridge scholarship?</p>

18

<p>Well my son is a computer engineer with a Japanese minor at Oregon State Univ.</p>

<p>Very solid engineering program with a great intership program. He really likes the japanese department, small and very personal. He is an OOS student and they were very generous with need based aid and a merit scholarship.</p>

19

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<p>The 25th percentile SAT math score at Caltech is 770. 800 is normal.</p>