This seems like an easy situation. Your son is extremely well qualified and your son will almost certainly get into UM’s Engineering school. Great school, great prestige, great price as in-state option. Your son can almost certainly find full tuition scholarships options, primarily based on his NM status, and probably “full ride” options too if you look hard enough. You should decide over the summer if that is preferable to UM Engineering for your son and your family.
Otherwise, you will be deciding between UM and whatever dream/elite schools your son decides to apply to.
Of course, the half of students not getting financial aid (at Northwestern and other high ranked private schools) must come from wealthy families to be able to afford the $65,000+ cost of attendance.
Northwestern is a great school for chemE and material science. It has the most top-3 finishes in ASM Undergrad Design Competition between 2008 and 2014.
@ucbalumnus I made the “affluent” statement based on opinions I have received from 5 Northwestern family members (2 in their 50’s, with one of them with 2 children currently attending NU and 1 an incoming freshman) and my children’s friends. We live in a fairly affluent Chicago suburb and the personal stories we have heard would make me pause as a parent. It is an excellent school, but the OP asked for impressions about it.
Yes, very “affluent” but just an awesome campus and city. People were extremely friendly and helpful. We were in Chicago last summer and went to Evansville to see NU. But the price…
nugraddad I’m happy for you! But the OP asked for impressions. (I was born and raised in Chicago and now live in the suburbs…for what that’s worth. ) At a cost of attendance now at $68k, little merit aid and about 1 out of 3 ED admitted, one can draw your own conclusions about the relative affluence of its student population.
It is true that Northwestern’s student body is heavily skewed toward those from wealthy families.
However, that is not something that distinguishes Northwestern from most other highly selective private schools, whose student bodies are also heavily skewed toward those from wealthy families.
Find a university that is famous or well-known in engineering area, and with reasonable tuition. Even if you graduate from an ivory league school, companies are not going to pay you too much for an engineering position. After one or two jobs, companies will look at your experience, not necessarily the famous university that you had studied over 10 years ago.
From return on your money, you should stop at (engineering) Bachelor degree level. Doing a Master degree or PhD degree will not get you more money in the long run.
Most engineering jobs are in production area. There are very few research jobs. As the engineering degree goes higher, there are less and less jobs available.
The salary differential between a bachelor, master, and PhD in engineering is very small.
based on opinions I have received from 5 Northwestern family members (2 in their 50’s, with one of them with 2 children currently attending NU and 1 an incoming freshman) and my children’s friends. We live in a fairly affluent Chicago suburb and the personal stories we have heard would make me pause as a parent. It is an excellent school, but the OP asked for impressions about it.