Engineering colleges for D

College Search & Selection
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<p>OK, I have to admit I do not understand the funding plan.</p>

<p>If you only had $140k to spend on college I would understand that limit. It seems the limit is more of an artificial limit to ensure your daughter has some skin in the game. However, at this limit I believe she could go to a California state school for that $140k and not have to work summers or during school … and, if accepted, not be able to attend MIT even if she worked summers, during school, and took our federally financed loans. That doesn’t seem to meet your stated goals. </p>

<p>How about something like we’ll pay for school minus summer earnings and minus school year earning (and possibly minus federal loans) … and any merit awards reduce the money she is expected to earn from jobs. If your goal is for her to be “responsible” while in college and allow the most good options alternative approaches might work better … skin in game at any school and more options.</p>

<p>(PS - Mom3ToGo and I have created an “artificial” limit on what we will pay which does force our kids to have some skin in the game).</p>

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<p>To put $140,000 in perspective, the four year list price costs of these schools (not including increases over the years) would be (out of state for the publics):</p>

<p>Alabama with [scholarship</a> for 3.5 GPA and 30 ACT or 1330 SAT CR+M](<a href=“http://eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholarships/]scholarship”>Scholarships – College of Engineering | The University of Alabama): $40,000
Oregon State (in state): $92,000
Cal Poly SLO: $142,000
Alabama without scholarship: $156,000
Olin: $164,000
University of Washington: $186,000
UC Davis: $224,000
WPI: $232,000
USC: $248,000</p>

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<p>Not sure if this creates the best incentive or “skin in the game” – under this condition, she will have no incentive to consider lower cost schools that may provide a better value, nor aggressively seek merit scholarships beyond that which would cover the job contribution amount you designate.</p>

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<p>*@mom2collegekids, @ucbalumnus : I meant 40K/yr the first two years and 30K/yr the next two years. We are not including transportation in the above numbers and will pay for that. She needs to find her own money for books. </p>

<p>We will be fine giving her more later as needed, but we are trying to set the expectations low right now and we want her to be accountable. We are expecting her to find an internship or summer job and do something to reduce the room&boarding cost (share an apartment and cook meals etc). *</p>

<p>Don’t get me wrong, you have the right to set whatever budget you want. It’s your money. However, I don’t think you understand college costs, unless you’ve taken privates out of the equation since you won’t qualify for aid.</p>

<p>The tuition alone at privates (not room, board, books, fees, personal expenses) run about $40k per year, so not only would you not be covering anything for Room, board, books, fees, and personal expenses, you wouldn’t be covering all of tuition for those last two years.</p>

<p>I think most parents expect their kids to share an apt, but even so, her “share” of rent, utilities, etc would be at least $7k per year (likely more in many areas), plus another few thousand for food, plus another couple thousand for personal expenses, plus another couple thousand for fees and books. </p>

<p>Are you saying that as a frosh and soph, your D is expected to come up with at least $14k per year, and then for junior and senior years, your D is expected to come up with at least $24k per year if she (or you) wants to attend a private? I don’t think that’s possible unless she chooses a lower ranking school where her stats got a good merit scholarship. </p>

<p>Of course, your D can get a good education at public schools priced like the Cal Polys, so going the pricey privates route isn’t necessary. </p>

<p>That said, your D’s stats could get her some merit scholarships at some good schools (obviously not Mudd or similar) and your budget would work very well at those schools. Both of my kids went to a flagship where they received near free ride merit scholarships. They did very well there and are now in grad and med schools.</p>

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<p>@intparent : Is it really easy for girls to get admitted to Engineering? Several threads allude to that, I am not sure how to find out evidence of that. I noticed several diversity based scholarships which also include women, but not lowering admission criteria. Girls tend to have higher GPA and I am noticing they are also getting higher SAT scores. </p>

<p>@3togo : She thinks her scores and grades are too low for MIT and doesn’t want to apply there. We will pay more than what we committed if she gets admitted to MIT. She is not prestige or ranking which is a great thing. We told her “upto” because we want her to be responsible for a percentage of the cost anywhere she goes unless she gets scholarships. </p>

<p>We will revisit her funding plan depending on cost of attendance. We are still in search of colleges that fit her except the 5 schools that are already on her list. If her scores improve, she will add Olin to the list. I heard it so many times, but it is even more confusing than what I imagined going through college selection/application process first time. </p>

<p>@ucbalumnus : How easy/difficult is it to transfer from a community college to a rigorous college? We didn’t look at CC option at all, she probably only need a year at CC with the credits she gained through dual enrollment. </p>

<p>Thank you for all your feedback. </p>

<p>(I noticed the spelling mistake in the title is corrected, thank you!!! )</p>

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<p>MIT was just an example of an excellent private school. M2CK’s post made the point better … your plan basically eliminates all private schools unless your daughter receives substantial merit (which means she will be one of the top students at the school). It’s your money and you can decide anything you want to … but do you really want to start the process by chopping off virtually all the top schools where you daughter would be in a pool of similarly good students? (Because that is what the $140k plan does)</p>

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<p>If your daughter is very goal-oriented and is such a successful student, don’t you think she already has “skin in the game”? Hasn’t she already proven that?
I can understand wanting students to understand the cost of higher education, wanting them to NOT take it for granted etc. And I can see that some students get to college and get distracted by all the freedom and then don’t work as hard as they should. I can see applying your strategy to a student that you didn’t trust completely, But is that your student?</p>

<p>Of course, if you truly cannot afford a private school unless she earns significant merit aid, then you need to have those discussions.
Of course, I don’t know your child, so you probably have deeper reasons that what you have shared here and that is OK of course.</p>

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<p>Another point about merit money - some schools have specific merit scholarships that are for females or URMs or valedictorians or FIRST robotics teams or whatever, but they often have a larger pool of money that is used to attract *any *student the college really wants. So don’t assume there isn’t merit money for your daughter because you don’t see a specific scholarship *listed *that applies to her. A high-achieving female engineer will be valued at many STEM schools. The amount offered can vary wildly, so you should cast a wide net.</p>

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<p>It depends on the school. For example, all state universities in California accept a lot of CC transfers by design. State universities in other states typically also take a significant number, though perhaps not as many proportionally as California (no idea on Oregon’s policy here). Private schools vary. For example, Princeton takes no transfers at all, while USC takes a significant number. Stanford takes few transfers, although most years more than half of those few come from CCs.</p>

<p>In most cases, CC to same state public university has the most complete articulation agreement so that students know which CC courses they need to take for each major at the university (e.g. see [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) for California CCs to California public universities). There are some other articulation listings (e.g. <a href=“http://www.transfer.org%5B/url%5D”>http://www.transfer.org</a> for many schools (mainly Midwest), as well as those on school web sites like USC’s here: <a href=“https://camel2.usc.edu/articagrmt/artic.aspx[/url]”>Error; )</p>

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<p>Just a note about Harvey Mudd STEM for women…NPR did an AMAZING interview about it on 5/2/13 that you and she might want to check out…it made me want to go visit!</p>

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<p>Cornell and Michigan are excellent options for engineers.</p>

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<p>happyORmom: Yes, it’s “easier” for girls to be accepted into engineering, but not because the standards are lower for girls than boys. At top schools, there are always more highly qualified applicants than spaces, so perfect gpa/perfect SAT applicants get rejected each year for no other reason than “there isn’t space.” Most often, these are men being rejected because the number of highly talented women applying is so few that there is space for all those that want to get in. But a female with low stats and ec’s is not likely to edge out a more qualified male. She is, however, likely to edge out an equally qualified male.</p>

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<p>This is our first time going through this process. I think I said before, she can borrow from family without interest. We will definitely talk more about the plans though. Thank you for bringing up different aspects of our plan for the cost. </p>

<p>mothergoldenbear : That makes better sense. </p>

<p>BeanTownGirl : Thank you for pointing out about generic scholarships, we haven’t talked to any of the schools that are on her list right now. </p>

<p>TempeMom : Will check it out, thanks for point that.</p>

<p>Alexandre : Her scores might be low for these schools. It looks like Cornell gives more weight to ECs, so we will look into it. I haven’t spent much time on Michigan.</p>

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<p>I agree with WPI as an option - a family friend goes there and loves the quarter system - it is very fast paced. </p>

<p>I want to add RIT to the mix. We visited for a sporting championship and found very friendly students and atmosphere there. They host Robotics competitions and have a serious robotics department. I think it would be a great match/safety.</p>

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<p>Based off of what you’ve said here I’d definitely look into the University of Washington. They’ve been accepting more OOS students due to budget reasons, but it could be worth it. The intro classes for engineering are competitive due to the way the grades are curved, but the ability to get into research as early as freshman year is amazing. Many departments have project things available as soon as the very first quarter, like [The</a> Pre-Major in Astronomy Program (Pre-MAP)](<a href=“http://www.astro.washington.edu/users/premap/]The”>http://www.astro.washington.edu/users/premap/). Plus, they’ve got WiSE (Women in Science and Engineering) to help mentor young women going into STEM fields.</p>