Engineering Schools/Program for my B student

Kansas State he would be accepted into the Engineering program. If he keeps a 3.2 he would get $6000 a year but needs to keep a 3.0 GPA. It may be a bit more expensive but living food and housing is cheap and there is a lot of help available. My son has a lot of his fraternity brothers in engineering that are doing really well! Manhattan KS is a great town, plenty to do, happy students and faculty, Could be a nice Safety if you can afford it. Prettier place than you might think.

Take a look at Union and RIT. Two very different schools but both ones where it’d be hard to get lost in the shuffle. Union’s academic calendar (3 courses at a time) works well for many students who have some organizational issues as well.

Michigan State, with a 70% acceptance rate would be a good fit. The kicker is that a minimum college GPA is required to enter engineering after the first year.

Take a look at Quinnipiac. The Engineering School there is young – only 4 graduating classes so far – so it doesn’t show up on most people’s radars. I think US News only ranks schools with 5+ graduating classes.

It’s fully ABET accredited, and their largest classroom only seats 24, so that’s their cap on class size. 100% focus on undergraduate teaching and very strong faculty/student interaction. Something over 95% placement, too.

Good luck with the search!

Gannon has engineering, as does Messiah. Pitt Johnstown has engineering.

There are many ABET engineering schools and your son can likely find one where he can succeed, if he is willing and able to do the work. I would suggest that he focus on schools where his stats put him above the 50th percentile, since he has some attention and learning issues. Many kids don’t do great in HS and do fine in college. Others, of course, don’t stick to engineering but still get good degrees. Do not write off a kid that will have over a B average by the end of year (if he tanks the year and gets all Cs, that may be a different conversation).

RE: #61, when we visited Union what concerned me was the pace of the classes. Yes, there are only 3 classes at a time but the semester are shorter and the material is taught at a faster pace. Also, classes are longer and more work is required in each class which can be more difficult for a kid with attention issues. Just my observation.

Worcester polytech is another school he might consider. RIT has over 12,000 undergrds, which is pretty big.

Illinois Institute of technology is something to consider…

Some schools with slightly easier admissions and possible WUE tuition: UNM, UUT (which are both pretty good), but there are several decent public WUE Engineering schools worth looking into that are less competitive than UCs and even CSUs. I am not sure I share the opinion that CC->flagship is the way to go. CC could be great for getting non-Engineering courses out of the way, but you really need to see if your local CC has solid enough physics, math, engineering to prepare your son for upperclass-level Engineering courses. Many just don’t. Might be better to hunker down as a Freshman at a 4 year uni. Poor preparation in CC could be a disaster–but completely depends on the quality of that specific curriculum at your CC.

Profiles.asee.org.

This website will give you the 25th/75th sat and act scores for the engineering colleges in each school. Will also show the number of applicants and enrolled students from previous years, to give you a sense of acceptance rates. Also show the number of enrolled students in each subdiscipline. Will give you a sense of the relative size of the programs.

There have been debates here about the precision of these numbers, but I think you mainly need the gist of the score ranges.

There are a fair number of schools which would be happy to educate your soon. This website was extremely helpful to my S20 in searching for engineering schools.

Go to the school websites and read the information for continuing students. That’s what you need to make sure that your kid can survive once he arrives. Some schools weed out and others don’t. Some offer more advising than others.

George Mason is a very good engineering school. It isn’t the most highly ranked college, but they do a great job with the kids who attend.

West Virginia University.

Community College - get those first two years of math done and save yourself some money.

“Rolla” Missouri University of Science and Technology.

University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), not the flagship at College Park.
The College of Engineering and Information Technology at UMBC’s info on the 2019 cohorts’ SAT percentile: 25th percentile – 1210(25 ACT concordance); 75th – 1370(29); Avg – 1280 (26)
https://coeit.umbc.edu/coeit-databook/

Connecticut College, an LAC in NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference), does offer five-year programs in affiliation with Worcester Polytechnic Institute and with Washington University in St. Louis to grant degrees in engineering.
https://www.conncoll.edu/academics/majors-departments-programs/departments/physics-astronomy-and-geophysics/opportunities-for-engineering-study/

Bates also in NESCAC, offers similar 5-year programs. I think your son’s stats might fit in with Connecticut College and Bates.

I love the NESCACs but I’m not a big fan of 3-2 programs for kids who know they want to do engineering. Most students entering college planning to do them don’t end up following through.

How about Auburn? Might be a stretch with a lower than average GPA, but the ACT average is 29.4 and the overall acceptance rate to the college is high and the engineering program is solid.
http://eng.auburn.edu/college-factsheet

First, please understand that enrolling at an out-of-state school (where you will be classified as a non-resident) often is a financial mistake because the fundamental academics at all ABET schools are pretty much the same. In other words, why spend extra dollars when that’s unnecessary? That being said, if your son or daughter is intent on leaving California, or if his preferred major is closed out, then look for other options. I like these schools for their affordability and rigor:

US Coast Guard Academy (you will need very strong recommendations)
Clarkson University (but the winters are brutal)
S. Dakota School of Mines & Technology (excellent placement with employers across the nation)

Worcester Polytechnic Institute
U of Tennessee-Knoxville
SUNY Maritime (enrollment in the Cadet Corps is not required. Limited choice of majors)

Mississippi State University
Ohio University (Athens)
Cleveland State University

I re-read the original post. I agree that, given your description of your son’s profile, community college may be the best place to start his academic career. My nephew did this a couple of years ago and now is doing well at his engineering university as a Chemical Engineering major. He did Chem 1, Chem 2, Organic Chem 1 & 2, and Calculus at Community college with good grades and even better recommendations from professors when it came time to apply to a university.

Widener is another possibility. They have several different programs in place to help ensure no students fall through the cracks; it seems like a very supportive environment. Also, even though ABET accredited schools have similar programs, schools do differ on how/when subjects are presented. I created a spreadsheet for all the schools my son is looking at that shows the curriculum for each of the four years (or five for coop schools). Especially in freshman year, there are some programs that are definitely “gentler” than others. Some have fewer classes/credits, some have very hands-on exploratory programs, etc. Things like that could make a difference in the level of success.

@taverngirl Any chance you would consider sharing that spreadsheet (with personal/private info removed)?

It may have changed, but when my niece applied, Widener’s application was very easy - no essays and no fee. She received her decision two weeks after applying and was invited to apply for their Presidential scholarship. In addition, she received a merit grant that brought their cost down to within $5k of our instate rates. She ended up going to a state school but it was a tough decision.

@HMom16 happy to share my spreadsheet, though it only has the +/- 15 colleges that my son is considering. If you PM me your email address I can send it.