The following Texas public universities have ABET-accredited mechanical engineering:
Lamar University
Midwestern State University
Prairie View A&M University
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi
Texas A&M University - Kingsville (Formerly Texas A&M University - Kingsville)
Texas Tech University
The University of Texas - Pan American
The University of Texas at San Antonio
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
University of Houston
University of North Texas
University of Texas at Arlington
University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Dallas
University of Texas at El Paso
University of Texas at Tyler
University of Texas of the Permian Basin
West Texas A&M University
Nothing is wrong with UT, but I am just exploring my options. I do not want to be scared to apply places I want to go just because of the price tag. If there is even the slightest possibility of getting the total cost to about 130-140k, it would be in my range.
I feel like I have a pretty decent chance. Unweighted GPA 3.88, ACT 31(Retaking twice, and I did not take trig yet last year when I took it so the 30 I got in math is now a 34-35 on the practice tests I’m taking. I’m hoping to get a 33.) #1 class ranking. Counselor recommendation, principal letter or character and a character letter from the head of a financial aid scholarship program I volunteer for. 300 community service hours. Worked 20-25 hours a week since I turned 16 sophomore year and am now the store manager at the 2nd job I’ve worked at for about a year and a half after I apply. Student council, started up golf team at my private school last year, volunteer work for a special need program at my school, and other EC’s that I did briefly like a year of freshman football, Boy scouts up to star scout that i did K-9th grade, Youth Leader at my church which made me and my other youth leaders in charge of the 300 kid youth nights every Sunday. Also have a connection to one of the engineering professors of 25 years at UT who is going to put in a good word for me.
I feel like I have a decent chance of getting in. Another thing hard to justify OOS tuition is the fact that being valedictorian will give me my first year free at TX schools.
You have a good chance for UT. A priority for admission there is your math score on the ACT or SAT. Try to get that number as high as possible. I have known 2 val (one with a 2300 score) that did not get accepted as well as a HS student who is already doing research there. It is not a safety but I do think you have a good shot.
1 rank should help, since presumably admission to the engineering majors at UT Austin is based on rank plus other things in your application (e.g. test scores, essays, whatever).
However, since engineering majors are not assured at UT Austin, and Texas A&M does not directly admit to major and has a weed-out system (enrolled students apply to their majors later; 3.5 college GPA auto-admits to first choice major, but admission is competitive otherwise), you may want to add other schools as safeties for your major (e.g. other Texas public universities, or other schools with automatic scholarships making them inexpensive enough).
What do y’all think of Cal Poly? My dad said he was looking into that as would be willing to pay for that. That is a 150k school, so I guess my budget has moved up for him. He likes UT (even though he’s an Aggie), but the size scares him. He wants me to get the “best education possible while being in the best environment”
Georgia Tech is rolled out probably because Georgia, while being a great school, isn’t in the best city. I’d pick UT over that.
Beware when parents’ ego and ambitions get the better of their financial sense. On CC, I read about too many parents who encourage their kids to apply to financial-reach schools, only to renege when the kid gets admitted.
There’s no point to paying OOS for Cal Poly over UT, unless you have a dire medical condition that requires less humidity.
I couldn’t see my dad to do that unless it was to get me to apply and see if I could get scholarships to a school that is like 250k. What are your thoughts of Cal Poly for engineering? My preferred school would be 8-12k students in either California or north east with a good mechanical engineering program now with a budget I’d think is about 150k after any scholarships I could get. If anyone has any ideas it would be appreciated!
Cal Poly is an excellent school for engineering. They have a very defined admission formula that you could plug your stats in and see what your chances are for admittance. I second the suggestion of Case Western. Excellent school with good merit scholarships as long as you show some interest.
You are not likely to find a school with enough prestige for your dad in the northeast in engineering…for his price point. But there are plenty of good schools…RIT, RPI, WPI ( but you might not like the city…it’s not all that pretty).
For places where you might get merit…Stevens (but again…not a pretty city), University of Hartford (great engineering…but it’s WAY down in the rankings).
Your criteria now seem to be a prestige name that your dad recognizes and will pay for, better than UT-A, in a pleasing city, and either in the south or northeast. Do I have that correct?
Forget the budget, my dad said he’s able to pay for a school like Cornell, as long as he likes the school if I were to get accepted and visit! So scratch the budget! Still, merit places would be great but how about prestigious ones?
I’ve told him that and he understands. His take is that Cornell is an extremely prestigious and there will be better chance of internships, connections, and things like that. I guess if that is in his price range, I should apply to UC Berkeley because that is a better school right?
Oh for,heaven’s sake. You will be a full pay student at Berkeley…full pay at well over $50,000 a year. It’s a great school. But it’s not that much greater than UT in terms of engineering.
And Berkeley and Cal are highly competitive for admissions. Why don’t you toss MIT in the ring too?
Folks here have given you some excellent suggestions for engineering programs, but none are Ivies or the equivalent…and folks have also explained why this is not always relevant for engineering majors.
Right now, you have a 31 ACT score. And you are number one in your class…but don’t know your GPA?
With a 31 ACT score, you will not likely see merit aid at more competitive schools…I’m thinking places like Rice or Vanderbilt. That ACT score isn’t high enough to garner significant merit aid.
Actually, that 31 ACT score might mean that schools like Cal and Cornell are actually reaches in terms of admissions.
But some of the other schools mentioned…Case Western, RPI, RIT, WPI, would all be fine places to get an engineering degree,