Yep, that’s why I noted this. Agreed - secondary admission would scare me but at the same time, I always wonder - if you’re really going to do something, you have to get over hurdles anyway…
But sounds like dad values his $$ - so while the trip is definitely worthwhile and hopefully will be a wonderful experience, for dad’s sake, hopefully his son doesn’t like the school - because dad is torn on the extra $$ - which many of us understand.
I gotta say though - I’d love to try the A&M experience - I could be wrong but those I know who went there (all grads a long time ago) - each and every one has a connection that is beyond strong…and not everyone has that with their college.
We will give A&M a real chance. It was us as parents that actually pushed doing the visit. Our son is super pragmatic though. Even knowing it’s our money he can’t stomach the thought of us spending a bunchkre unless there’s a really obvious ROI to those extra $$.
And yes the lack of a guaranteed path to mech engineering is a strike against A&M.
Unless your son really wants to get away from Arizona, I’d stay in-state. Going out-of-state rarely is worth it for a public university. But if your son really does want to get out of Arizona, I’d also consider Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Many consider it the best school in the Cal State system, it’s highly regarded for engineering, and co-ops is considered one of its strengths.
Yes we’ve been there. I think too late to throw another school in the mix though. We are good with the options we’ve got. Cal Poly would be a good place to go though.
Interesting read. Go to ASU Barret. There done. It’s great. My son at another school never did co-op but summer internship and when his got shut down from covid he did an international one the next year.
He also did live interviews, Indeed, Handshake, connections and anything else that would lead to a job interview but ended up getting one from the live interview process.
Engineering as said is very tough. At my son’s schools people left after the first quiz to midterms. The rooms thinned out. But those that stay will be champions… As they say… Lol or at least graduate with jobs in hand and an engineering degree. It’s very tough.
So if ASU is much less expensive… Done! If you need a bribe then the money saved can go to study abroad, etc. There is not a reason that I can think of to graduate with debt when you don’t need to. My kids friends were not so lucky or privileged as mine where. Their friends are not looking forward to years paying back debt. My kids will be income positive from day one. It’s something that is hard for a 18 year old to grasp now but will thank you much later. The best thing you can give to a child is an education and one with no or less debt is really something to behold.
Thanks! I don’t think any bribe will be necessary here, especially if he gets full-tuition scholarships like we think possible. That alone is enough of a bribe. We will visit A&M this week and give it a fair shot, but I’m not expecting to see an advantage great enough to justify an extra $100k in spend over four years.
So to me it comes down to if you can cleanly afford it without many loans or second mortgage or going into retirement. We didn’t send out kids oos but we were able to afford it. But I want the money back now… Lol.
I do feel certain colleges for engineering could be beneficial if affordable but for most of them and the ones you mentioned I just don’t see where spending an extra $100,000 has any benefit. Students have to do mostly what they did to get into college to get good co-ops, internships and jobs. Be an active member on their campus and if they can separate themselves then great. It’s not all about just getting good grades.
Are you factoring in residency with A&M? It’s a specific set of steps and the school has an office to help/guide if necessary. https://aggie.tamu.edu/billing-and-payments/residency-for-in-state-tuition/establishing-residency
You would explore how to Establish and Maintain a domicile. Essentially, you need to appear as if you are moving to Texas. Driver’s license, voting registration. Then show proof of living in Texas for 1 year, then show domicile. The three ways are buying a residential property, owning and operating a business, or working. The first two are most common. For UT Austin, there are real estate agents that specialize in walking you through the steps. There are also many examples of businesses that were operated in Texas, as simple as tutoring or computer repair, as long as sufficient effort and a paper trail is shown. From what I gathered, the only students that were denied were ones that did not bother to obtain the necessary proof.
My S21 was successful at UT Austin even while living in on Campus Dorms during his freshman year.
No I’m not factoring that in. We have other younger kids coming up through high school in a few years that haven’t expressed interest in Texas colleges so it’d be too risky to try to change residency just for this one kid.
That’s what is different about Texas (and Utah), only the student needs to change residency, not the parents/family. If he likes Texas A&M, definitely look into it. It can be done 100% by the student.
100% agreed. The kid finishing high school now to potentially attend A&M next year is our second of four kids, and we are in the process to adopt one more time. Given the number of kids and two of them so far expressing interest in graduate degrees, spending an extra $100k doesn’t feel wise to me (even if we could do it without debt or jeopardizing retirement). Across that many kids that $100k will certainly have other uses for college/grad school.
Ohhh I didn’t understand that. I was aware of that regarding Utah but not Texas. So you believe it may be possible by sophomore year, and would be helped by property ownership?
It is ‘likely, border lining on certain’, that he would be considered a resident for tuition by his second year. If you have the resources to allow (help) him to purchase a property, that would be the least work for him.
This realty office hasn’t posted for a couple of years, but is aligned with A&M.
Here is a discussion, but a bit aligned with UT:
I have talked to many parents whose children have successfully accomplished this. I have only heard second hand of students who failed, and in those cases they did not follow the steps.
To be sure we agree on terms, an internship is either a part-time position during the school year or a full time summer job. A co-op is a semester-long absence from college while working full time.
A few U’s have a curriculum designed around co-ops and actively help place students in them. For the rest the problem generally isn’t finding a position, it’s fitting it in with school. Many engineering courses are year-long sequences and each semester (eg 101A or 101B) is only offered once per academic year. If you take a semester off for a co-op then you may not be able to take 101A in the spring. And almost anywhere you go to college if you do co-ops then it takes 5 years to get your BS degree.
Co-ops can open doors. I knew a savvy guy who went to a lower-ranked CSU school but had amazing internships, at the Google’s and Facebook’s of the day. I asked him how he got them since companies like that didn’t typically recruit at his school. He said he started with a co-op; kids don’t want to take a semester off so they were relatively easy to get, and then with a co-op on his resume and a supportive rec available from his former manager he was able to land great internships.
As for if it is a big deal, IMO not that important. It is important to at least do internships but most students only do internships and do just fine looking for jobs. I wouldn’t discourage someone from a co-op, it’s fine if they want to do one and it has benefits, but I wouldn’t say a school not facilitating them is a dealbreaker.
Yes, this can be an issue if critical courses / prerequisites are not offered every semester. This is more likely to be an issue at a smaller school / department.
However, this may only involve 8 tuition-paying semesters, not 10 (or the equivalent in quarters), since the co-op work semesters are not paying tuition (though living expenses could still cost money).
Of course, a student who enters advanced enough to need only 7 semesters of school could graduate with their cohort after 8 semesters by doing one co-op semester along with 7 semesters of school.
I don’t really see the benefit of co-ops over internships. They both have pros and cons. You can co-op from any school, and this allows you sequential employment and high chance of a job offer at one employer. If you intern, you get to try out multiple employers, multiple aspects of your degree, and get a broad base of experience. My engineer opted for internships vs co ops (his school has the largest voluntary co op program in the country so many do it) which have led him down very interesting paths that he would not have been on had he co-opped with the same company for three semesters
Great feedback! Have you seen any lists that easily identify the ones with co-ops as a built-in part of curriculum? I know of Kettering as our son got in there but ultimately chose not to. I assume A&M is not one where it’s built into curriculum or it’d be advertised that way. I’m guessing Drexel, Northeastern as they show up on lists of co-op heavy schools so I assume that means it’s built into the curriculum.