<p>We are trying to help our son find the best colleges to apply to. He wants to major in Engineering (but not certain which field yet). We'd love opinions on the best schools in the Maryland/surrounding states for a good education that will not cost our life savings. He plans to apply to University of Maryland but wants to choose a couple others, as well.</p>
<p>The problem with going to schools in surrounding states is you pay an out of state premium for essentially the same product (an engineering degree). UVA has an advantage in that they promise to meet need, even for OOS students. Do you know your EFC? Have you considered how much you are actually able to spend (not usually the same #)?</p>
<p>We found it wasnt a matter of " the right school", but of " the right attitude".
There are a ton of comparable suitable schools.</p>
<p>Can you describe your S a little bit. There are really a range of options depending on what your S is like.</p>
<p>There are tons of schools to choose:
Va Tech
UVa
UMaryland, College Park
UMaryland, Baltimore County
Naval Academy
Penn State
Drexel
Swarthmore has an Engineering program not a school
Lehigh
Lafayette
Penn</p>
<p>That covers a range of engineering schools and those are just schools in MD, PA and VA off the top of my head. You may want to figure out your budget first as well as what your son wants in a college.</p>
<p>^^ </p>
<p>Off the top of my head, Carnegie Mellon, Bucknell and Villanova have engineering too. </p>
<p>UMd instate is pretty hard to beat unless he is going for a very prestigious program.</p>
<p>Unless he’s a candidate for extreme top-level schools, the University of Maryland at College Park is hard to beat. Good program. Good price. Nice campus. Nice off-campus housing (Google “University View”). Easy access to Washington, DC. Somewhat icky area surrounding the campus, but you can’t have everything.</p>
<p>Actually, even if he is a candidate for extreme top-level schools, UMCP is hard to beat because UMCP typically gives such kids large chunks of merit scholarship money. (Google “Banneker-Key.”) If your son is National Merit Semifinalist material, or even a bit lower than that, he’s not likely to pay full price at UMCP. </p>
<p>Full disclosure: My son went to UMCP as a computer science major and had a very good experience there. I really like the place.</p>
<p>Thank you for the replies and info. He plans to apply to UMCP but we’re looking for second choices just in case he’s not accepted. We hear it’s getting difficult to get in there. He’s a great student so we’re hopeful. In state tuitions are no problem for us but we’re trying to determine how much we can spend if he decides to go out of state. Does anyone have any input on the University of Delaware or University of Pennsylvania? Just curious.</p>
<p>University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League school. It is highly competitive for admissions. Did you mean Penn State…flagship public in PA?</p>
<p>What is your budget? If you are hoping to find a college for the same cost as instate UMD-CP, it won’t be easy. Most of the schools on the lists above, including the OOS publics and privates are almost double that cost. Prices are near to or above $50,000 a year for many private universities, and OOS costs at public universities.</p>
<p>Merit aid is based on your son’s ACT/SAT scores and GPA. What are those? </p>
<p>This is out of your geographic range, but what about Case Western? They do give merit awards there…although I doubt that even with a good merit award your costs will be as reasonable as UMD instate.</p>
<p>If your son wants to major in engineering, he needs to be sure that the school has ABET accreditation.</p>
<p>Re: how much you might be expected to pay…each college has a net price calculator on their website. Run that for EACH school (as the amounts will vary from school to school). This will give you an estimate of your costs for one year at each school. Note that if either parent is self employed, you own real estate other than your primary residence particularly rental properties, or I’d there are divorced and/or remarried parents these NPC are not as accurate as with w2 salaries as income.</p>
<p>Colleges across the spectrum…I believe Western New England or some such name also has engineering. Your list is really going to depend on his GPA (unweighted if it says so in the common data set) and his test scores. You’ll want a safety or two and then after that fill the rest of the list with the possibilities. If he’s got the stats for UPenn then you should be able to track down merit money especially if you geographically diversify.</p>
<p>What county are you in? Your son can check the transfer status of all the courses at the nearby community colleges with <a href=“http://artweb.usmd.edu/[/url]”>http://artweb.usmd.edu/</a> If he doesn’t get into UMCP or UMBC on the first try, it is likely that he can complete the pre-engineering coursework at a MD community college and get into one of those two with a guaranteed transfer program. Not what he wants right now, I’m sure, but a reasonable back-up plan if everything else goes bad.</p>
<p>N.C. State University</p>
<p>UMDCP is pretty hard to get into these days. For 2012 graduates I know the direct admit to engineering % was about 32, the average math SAT score was over 700, and I’m thinking the average GPA was 4.2 or so. If Ohio is an option I know in 2012 Case Western gave lots of merit money. Georgia Tech had a higher acceptance rate - 51% in 2012, but of course that’s far away. If my son didn’t have notice of acceptance at a couple of schools, I wanted him to apply to Pitt. From what I understand from a friend, not all Maryland CCs have a guaranteed transfer program, so do research if you plan for that.</p>
<p>This year Georgia Tech accepted about 41% of all applicants <a href=“Blow the Whistle! (404 error: page not found) | Undergraduate Admission”>Blow the Whistle! (404 error: page not found) | Undergraduate Admission;
<p>His GPA is 3.75 W, 4.0 UW, SAT 1840 (Math 640). He’s taking the SAT and ACT again in Sept/Oct. I really appreciate the information everyone has provided. Thank you so much!</p>
<p>Getting your application into UMD-CP early is crucial, since once the spots are full, that’s it. For back up, look through your other state schools for the ones with engineering majors. UMBC has one, Frostburg has programs, I know. Don’t know about Salisbury or Towson. Look them up. Also community college in MD have great programs for transfer as options. If you are looking for out of state possiblilites, look for some schools where his SAT puts him in the top tier, like the % that get merit awards. Half that, to up the chances. For instance, look up Clarkson College in Pottsday, find out the percentage that get merit money, and see where his test scores are in terms of top percentage, and the average amount given. If you need say $20K in scholarship money, a school might be a good possibility if that is the average merit award given and 10% of the kids get merit awards, and your son’s test scores clearly put him in the upper 5% of the kieds going there. If he’s barely making the top 25%, he’s not likely to get a dime. Also run NPCs at school to see which ones are likely to give you finanicial aid. </p>
<p>It’s hard to beat or meet instate public tuitions unless you have high stats.</p>
<p>I’m assuming you already know this, but the priority date for UMD is November 1st. My guess is your son will likely get in but may not get into the LEP engineering program. So you may need to decide whether UMD or direct admit to engineering is more important.</p>
<p>Some common back-up schools for UMd engineering are UMBC and VaTech. I believe Frostburg’s program is actually partly televised lectures from UMd-CP. [Undergraduate</a> Engineering Programs Home - Frostburg State University](<a href=“Welcome to the Dept of Physics & Engineering”>Welcome to the Dept of Physics & Engineering)</p>