Hi parents. I am seeking out recommendations of schools to research/visit to see if it would be a good fit for my sister.
Her stats/description:
Currently a junior in high school
ACT: 25 (first attempt this month)
GPA: 3.8
Female, Asian
middle class
Residency: Texas
Intended major: electrical or mechanical engineering…maybe civil
Varsity Tennis
AP classes but no AP test outs
No leadership positions or summer programs
No plans of graduate school.
My mom and I can maybe contribute 10k each per year max(lower the better but if we find a good enough fit…). She will take out federal student loans, no parent plus loans or private loans.
Prestige doesn’t matter. As long as the school is ABET accredited.
Looking for suggestions on schools that make sense with her stats. Prefer schools that have nice kids, non-cut throat environment, teachers that care about teaching more than their research, and a reasonable workload. I want her to enjoy her college experience and have a good group of friends to turn to.
My sister is not nerdy so I am unsure if she will find friends to connect with at a tech school. She likes makeup, shopping, board games, bowling, rock climbing etc…
Basically, at what schools do the shy, average students succeed?
Look into Montana State, where she may even get merit aid, especially if she bumps up that ACT score a bit. Respected engineering/science programs, a very friendly college community. Bozeman is a fun college town and she can certainly do some fabulous rock climbing there.
Is she smart enough for Engineering? I say this only because Engineering is KNOWN to be among the hardest and most demanding majors in college, regardless of what college she goes to. And with all due respect , if she is not nerdy she may have a very difficult time actually graduating with an Engineering degree.
Is she GREAT at Math and Physics and has an REAL interest in Science?
College classes re HARDER than HS classes , and Engineering is HARDER than most other majors in College.
"She likes makeup, shopping, board games, bowling, rock climbing etc…
She does not sound like the hard driving, science loving type of student who will do well in an engineering program to me.
menloparkmom – Thanks for the input. She likes her science and math classes more than english/history. She had trouble with pre-cal but studied hard and passed. The material doesn’t come easy to her like other students, but she works hard so I (biased) believe she can handle engineering in the right environment. I tried to push her into business or something easier but she wants to do engineering. She said she doesn’t know what else she would do. I will support her decision and I will support her changing majors if that is what she wants but right now she wants to start off with engineering so I would appreciate school suggestions…
“She said she doesn’t know what else she would do”
She is ONLY A HS JUNIOR!!
She does NOT need to "know what she wants to do at this point!
MOST college freshman dont know for certain and 1/2 end up changing majors once they get to college and find new interests, or hit brick walls.
YOU need to let her know there is NO RUSH TO DECIDE, at age 16 for gods sakes, what she will be doing for the rest of her life!!
sheesh… 
To be honest, this young lady sounds like a student who should matriculate as an undeclared student at a school with core course requirements. These might help her determine her future course of study and college major.
My daughter loved shopping, make up, board games, and rock climbing…not bowling. She is not the least bit nerdy. She got her bachelors in engineering. But her HS grades and SAT scores were higher than your sister’s. And she found math and science courses were her strength.
I would look at the ABET-accredited schools in Texas like the UT Arlington and UT San Antonio. Looks like the 25 ACT may be around the average for their students. Both these schools have all the engineering majors you mention and the engineering schools themselves are around 2500 students so not terribly large.
Run the Net Price Calculators to see an estimate of her total cost with financial aid. You can also check out the school website for merit scholarship possibilities. A couple more points in the ACT score and a good class rank could give her merit at these schools but that may or may not help depending on how much financial aid they would give you. That is, a merit scholarship may only reduce her need and be of no benefit to your bottom line.
BTW, my daughter is a computer science and math double major with a very high GPA as a college junior. She had a very high ACT score, but she also likes shopping, board games, working out, and swing dancing and is also very much the hard-driving, science-loving kid. She just knows her priorities and manages her time very well.
To be honest, it doesn’t sound like she has either the serious interest or the stats I would expect of kids going into engineering. I definitely would not send her to an engineering school–leave options open should she decide engineering is not for her or if she can’t keep up with the work. “she doesn’t know what else she would do”. I don’t think this is a very good reason. How many realistic options has she considered? How much does she know about engineering–has she talked to people in the field, participated in robotics or other engineering-related EC’s? Or is this just one of the few career options that is acceptable in the family?
Incidentally, my daughter is semi-nerdy and enjoys both nerdy and non-nerdy friends, but even she did not want to go to a tech school–the nerd factor was too high for her.
Just want to add that I do agree that engineering is going to be challenging anywhere, especially for students with lower math scores. You didn’t post the ACT breakdown but the math score is definitely the most important for engineering. At our state university, an incoming student will be placed in trigonometry or pre-calculus with an ACT math score of 25 regardless of high school classes taken. This means extra classes to graduate because the first math class that will count toward an engineering degree is Calculus I. It will also most likely cause further delay because even early engineering prerequisites like physics require having passed at least the first semester of calculus.
My daughter is exactly like your sister, but did get her ACT up a little through retesting. She goes to an engineering school with a bunch of nerds, but she isn’t a nerd (at all). She likes cowboy music, surfer clothes, VW buses. And she’s Chinese too. I had no issue with her picking engineering by default as, even if she changes majors, she’d switch to something like math or chemistry. Her school has very little fine arts or social sciences; 55% are in some engineering major, and the rest are business, biology, psychology, and a very few in communications. No problem, she would never stray from those areas. Don’t rule out engineering centered schools like NM Tech, SD Mining and Technology, Colorado School of Mines (expensive).
You are not required to be a nerd to be in engineering. It doesn’t make you less serious or less committed. My daughter is doing just fine, and still has time to play her sport, go to the beach, be in a sorority. Regular college kid.
All the western flagships have good engineering schools and they are usually very inexpensive. At Wyoming, she’d pay 150% tuition (if she gets ACT up 2-3 points), probably an extra engineering department scholarship, there is a scholarship for Asian students, R&B is very reasonable, and all- in your parents would pay under $10k per year. Check out Montana, Utah, Idaho too.
Is she going to play tennis in college? She might get more money for that. My daughter has half her tuition as merit, half as athletic. D1 tennis is probably out (that is a headcount sport - meaning full ride- so she has to be very, very good) but D2 may give her some money. Check out D2 schools in the south, like Florida.
“Or is this just one of the few career options that is acceptable in the family?”
mathyone – Yes, engineering or medical school are the only options acceptable (kidding). She can pick whatever she wants. My parents do not have degrees.
I’m hearing all concerns but if anyone has school suggestions that would be great.
Prairie View A&M should be cheap with the automatic merit scholarship. An even better one comes with 26 ACT or the SAT equivalent.
Also, class rank is important for Texas public university admission.
That shows no respect at all. And isn’t true.
What about TXTech?
Your sister should write her ApplyTx this summer so she is ready to apply in early August.
She has good grades. Have her do some very specific prep for the ACT. Look at her score report and figure out where she is weak. I think it is fine for a female engineer to like shopping, makeup and board games. Why shouldn’t she?
If she goes to a school with a full slate of majors, she can change her major in case engineering is not her thing. Many college students change their minds.
I am more concerned about the “what else would I do?” and the relatively low scores than the shopping.
OP, you’d be surprised how many students posting on this site feel that they are limited by family mandate to a choice of a few STEM careers, and in some, but not all cases, perhaps business.
OP, start with looking at your in-state public universities. Many have engineering programs, and are affordable. For example, at Texas Tech (as mentioned by txstella), her stats put her in the middle 50% of admitted students, it has a wide range of engineering programs to choose from, but is also a large comprehensive universities, with many other options, incase she decides to switch majors.
http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?s=TX&ct=1&ic=1
Good Luck!
"I tried to push her into business or something easier but she wants to do engineering. She said she doesn’t know what else she would do. "
Why push her into any field at all? Let college be for exploration. The world won’t end if she’s undecided. There are thousands of great careers that high schoolers don’t know about.
As a Texas student, her class rank matters. With her stats, she won’t get into UT or A&M engineering. But she probably will get into UT-Arlington, UT-SA, UNT and Texas Tech. All f these will be within your budget. These are also good enough and big enough schools that if she changes majors, she will still have plenty of options.
With respect to being undecided, pay attention to whether any of her potential majors is a restricted or competitive admission major at any of here colleges, where a student entering undeclared may find it very difficult to enter the major later.