Those are two very heavy duty disciplines to be trying to study. At Purdue(and many other schools), it would be only possible for the very best, and most determined, students.
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It is related to Chem E.
I was going to suggest that major for your son at U of MN. Getting into ChemE would be a reach there, but I think Materials is a possibility? Knowledge of Chemistry is important for Materials Science. They have a very cool Nanotech(a later offshoot of MatE) building.
The ENG dept teaching and facilities are very impressive at MN, as is the setting, which is surprisingly compact and overlooks the river and downtown. MN obviously would have the weather for snowboardingâŠthere are all sorts of hills around, though nothing to compare to CO, or even the New England states. Still, itâs in the city, and exceptionally convenient to the airport, the two downtowns, and there are a TON of jobs for ChemE/MatE(3M, General Mills, Boston Scientific, etc.) students once you get a couple of years under your belt. The airport is a hub, so it has direct flights to most(all?) major cities, and some minor ones. Sometimes itâs not how far away the school is, but how convenient it is to get to.
I am no expert in MatE, but have learned a bit by poking around ENG dept. with my son, who will be entering CompE in the fall, probably at MN.
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Iâm looking at the University of Utah merit $$ now. The OOS tuition all in is $45,500. The merit $$ requires you to maintain a 3.5 GPA. That is crazy. Even UMD was only 3.2.
Agree with you on the easy to get to point! Just for point of reference my son has really only been boarding in the Poconos LOL. Maybe Vermont a couple times soâŠ
I need to spend some time googling some tangible jobs for MatE because right now it seems a bit nebulous. Like importer/exporter. Ya know what I mean? 
Oh and good luck to your son!!!
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Yeah, Utah merit aid doesnât seem as good as Lousiville⊠Iâm not sure what you have to do to keep your scholarship at Louisville because it doesnât actually tell you. I should check on that and Iâll let you know if I find out.
As long as you get an ABET-accredited degree, the exact discipline of engineering matters less than your knowledge and experience. You can work in a variety of fields with a variety of degrees. If he gets a degree in ChemE vs MatE, many of the same employment prospects will be available to him. He can choose his internships/co-ops carefully, and make sure he chooses a major that is interesting to him. If itâs approximately in his field of career interest, great! Many people with engineering degrees do things that are surprisingly different from the field they studied in college. He should study a major that seems like a good fit for him.
MatE is very employable. 3M is a local employer that hires them, but there are many others.
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I check out U of Louisville. We would qualify for the PA scholarship programs living in Montgomery Co! That is a great option. I also thought U of Dayton look good with their Intro to Engineering option and collaborative vs competitive environment.
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The good news about Lville and Dayton - you can do them easily in one trip (and Cincy and UK).
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Another one to maybe look at is Loyola Maryland. Itâs urban (Baltimore) and a nice, easy-but-not-too-close distance from home. There are big merit awards that could make it affordable. They offer a general engineering degree, ABET accredited, with a choice of four concentrations, two of which are Materials Engineering and Computer Engineering. (About 40 engineering grads each year.) The concentration doesnât have to be chosen until the second year. The curriculum requires non-departmental electives, and many students get natural sciences minors, so he could add more chem content to the Materials concentration that way. The capstone design class could allow him to do something in the overlap area where materials science is applied to the design and manufacture of computers. Also, the substance-free housing option is prominently featured in the housing info.
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Dayton is indeed a good option. They have a strong program and are known for having super happy students. I think theyâre pretty good with aid too. We signed up for a virtual engineering visit with them, thinking that it would be a webinar or something like that, but we had a personal zoom with an engineering prof and a student. It was so nice! It is a huge party school, FYI.
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I think you should ask how many students at Utah do not keep their scholarships because of the 3.5 requirement. There may be only a few who lose them. My daughter had a 3.2 requirement for one of her scholarships and a 2.8 for the biggest school merit one. We worried, but it was never a problem for her.
We did know quite a few kids who lost their Florida Bright futures (including my nephew who was top of his class in hs) for a variety of reasons. A few because of gpa (although they get a âprobationaryâ semester to bring the gpa back up), some because they took the wrong classes (have to take 12 credits per semester, no remedial, no repeats), etc. However, most kids follow the rules and do just fine.
You know your kid. Iâd think the danger of spending too much time on video games is real for some kids. I know the allure of the ski hills is too much for other kids (hmm, my brother would smell snow and off heâd go - heâs 65 and no degree!). My kids knew that if they took off for skiing and blew their scholarships, theyâd be done with college (at least at their chosen colleges, and theyâd be paying for school themselves).
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I already know from my son that he does not want to be at a school that he had to maintain a GPA of 3.2 like his sister did in order to stay there. I donât want to add merit scholarship anxiety to his plate. So 3.5 would be an immediate no.
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I have heard that the reputation is overrated and that though there is a party crowd there, as there is at almost all universities, that there are plenty of options for those who choose not to partake. Perhaps @EconPop can shed some light on this?
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The other way to make Utah affordable is to take the path to residency that they offer after the first year. It requires staying there for most of that first summer, which might not be your preference, but it is an option, and once the residency has been changed, there are no further limits on time spent out of state. If he did this, the costs for years 2-4 would be within-budget even without keeping a merit scholarship. (Not necessarily trying to sell you on this plan, just noting that he wouldnât be completely without a net, cost-wise, in terms of relying on the merit scholarship.)
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Bucknell offered our son $30,000 per year, plus a stipend. We did not apply for financial aid, as we would not qualify. That still made Bucknell more expensive than Penn State, but it would have narrowed the gap.
The party school thing doesnât bother me personally, but I thought I saw someone mention sober housing upthread? I think a lot of kids who arenât into the party scene arenât particularly bothered by it either.
The party thing will probably be a neutral factor in our older sonâs current college search, which includes Dayton and another âpartyâ school. It would not be a good fit for my younger child, however. Not sure about OP.
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I just talked to an AO at Louisville (itâs on our sonâs list as well). The regional scholarships require a 3.0 to maintain. You can stack these awards with any other award, except for the ones mentioned at the bottom of the Regional Scholars Program info page (mostly fancy ones given out by the admissions office). The stackable awards include any departmental scholarships, as well as the awards from their âadditional scholarshipsâ list.
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It is okay if it is a party school. We are applying to PSU after all. You canât hide from substances-If you are going to use you will find that on any campus. I am more interested in a supportive environment for students in recovery thru substance free housing and the programming that usually accompanies that.
@ColdWombat Thanks for that info on the Louisville merit scholoarships. I think the 3.0 is reasonable. Did you happen to see anyplace where they list stats of their accepted applicants?
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So many gems in this thread. Thank you all!!
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