Female Engineering Colleges

Applying to College
1

<p>I am not sure that this is the best forum for this but here goes. My stepdaughter is a JR in HS right now and has been a high, but not absolute top shelf student. She’s always hovered between the top 5-10% of her class of 220 or so while taking a rigorous (but not the most rigorous possible) course load. She has a lot of different interests, but right now it looks like sciences are going to win out as far as her future field of study. In particular, she really likes physics the most, chemistry a little less, and there’s a good chance she’d like to be an engineering major. </p>

<p>She hasn’t taken the ACT or SAT yet, just PSAT. I expect her to score in the 1700/2400 range. If she makes 600s, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. She will actually be taking the ACT this weekend, and the SAT in June. Of course, like all CCers, assume she’ll have recs that proclaim her as just short of the second coming and a “killer” essay. </p>

<p>She has an unweighted GPA of about 3.6 with several honors and some APs too. Her weighted GPA would be about 4.0. Hopefully her class rank will stay in the top 10%. She’s struggled this year with AP Chem and despite liking the class, she is going to most likely wind up with a C for the year. She’s had a few of Bs in other honors/AP classes over the years. </p>

<p>She is the second of 5 kids, and her older brother will be in his 4th year of undergrad when she’s a freshman. We are in the real middle class. We make in the $60s, owe 80K on a 110K house, and what little we were able to save has been wiped out by her brother’s EFCs and gaps. She hasn’t really made much more than pocket money and probably won’t. She spends a lot of time studying and when not we often need her to baby-sit her 3 younger siblings. She attends a suburban public, but we live about 3-4 miles outside of town and she can’t really walk to anywhere. </p>

<p>Her main EC is track, and it is her passion. She is actually a field athlete and wants to continue to pursue that in college. I don’t think she is good enough to allow her jumping to make much of a hook at a Division 1 school (read Ivies), although she’s getting close. Unfortunately, she had injuries last year and had her wisdom teeth out last weekend, so there have been some setbacks the last couple years there. Her coaching has almost been nil as well, if you don’t run 400m or less, our HS coach really doesn’t care about you. There is no jumping coach. She’d also like to be competitive at jumping in college. A big D1 school where she is the 9th best jumper on the team is not going to get her attention. </p>

<p>She’s also been in the musical, spent 2 years as a cheerleader (resulting in the injury that killed her sophomore track season). She’s belonged to some other clubs, but never as an officer. </p>

<p>The list of schools we’ve been talking about include Penn State - Behrend, where we have visited and she likes a lot. Not the most prestigious place, but she likes it and we’re in state, so the total COA is about 19K, but PSU isn’t well known for a lot of aid. It's supposed to be a pretty good eng/bus program there too. I know there is some grant program from PA for science majors that we haven’t looked at lately, but I think it’s about 3K a year. She’ll get some PELL grant and PHEAA too, but that’s it for grants/gift aid. Other schools on her radar are Ohio Northern, Case Western, Widener, Gettysburg, Alfred, Embry-Riddle, or possibly doing a 3+2 with one of the PA state schools like IUP or Slippery Rock then transferring to PSU (again, possibly Behrend). Gettysburg and Case would be reaches, I think Alfred, ONU, Widener and ER would all be matches for her as would Behrend, and the state U 3+2 would be a safety, both financial and academically, although it potentially adds a 5th year to the cost. She’d like to stay reasonably close, she thinks, but she likes the sun too so I don’t think anywhere is totally out of the question. Of course, good aid and $5000 a year in airline flights doesn’t really make much sense either. </p>

<p>My question is how much will being a female engineering major help her with admissions and ultimately financial aid? She’ll also be a first generation college student. Her real dad is totally useless. He works in unskilled labor, and has no contact with her at all for the past 3 years. I don’t know if a school required him to provide financial information if he’d do it or not, but if I had to guess it would be no. Other relevant things are we are white, and we are from western PA. The second half of that question is what would it take for her to get looked at by some of the schools that meet 100% or close to it of need like the Ivies or some of the other super reach schools? I would guess right now her major to be mechanical engineering, with materials science or civil engineering being next in line. Would some of the technical schools with 70% men be more likely to offer her a better aid package to attract her as a female candidiate? Suggestions?</p>

2

<p>One of the dirty not-so-secret-secrets about engineering is that the coursework is very tough. Many, many students have to repeat introductory level classes and end up taking five years to graduate. Getting through calculus, physics, and the first engineering courses at a community college or a smaller branch campus and then transferring to the main campus of the Penn State system could be a life (as well as money) saver.</p>

3

<p>Perhaps you could address the track possibility first to find out if that will be a factor in admissions or aid. I have not gone through the process myself but from what I have read on these forums and websites the process is to email the appropriate coach at the college and tell them your "stats" and see if they are interested. I think you need to do that quickly since the coaches fill their rosters way in advance. I'm sure some of the other parents and students on these forums could provide you with more detail as to what to say in these emails to coaches. Good luck!</p>

4

<p>If she ends up transferring to the Penn State main campus, that will be perfect I think; Penn State has excellent engineering. I don't know much about the branch campuses in terms of engineering prestige but I'd say lower level classes would be equal.</p>

<p>I think being a girl will help her admission chances. </p>

<p>If she transfers to State College, she should check out their nuclear engineering program. I visited it through the Westinghouse Science Honors Institute, and the have a really cool nuclear reactor/gamma ray irradation lab. It's a great field to get into...especially money-wise!</p>

5

<p>I would have to agree with everyone about PSU. It is very strong in engineering and you would get an excellent education for a very good price. I don't know how they are with aid, but Stevens Institute of Technology in NJ is supposed to be very good in engineering and also has D3 Sports. The school has approximately a 70/30 m/f ratio. Best of luck!</p>