Have we missed any engineering schools that should be on my kid's list?

College Search & Selection
1

Wondering what other engineering schools should be on my daughter’s list.

She’s a high school junior, class of 2020.
3.9uw/4.6w GPA in a highly competitive public magnet school.
She will end up with 9 AP classes, pretty much everything else is honors or advanced level.
SAT is 1490 (770r/720m) after 3 tries
Project Lead The Way engineering program (5 engineering classes)
Girl Scout Gold Award, Several varsity sports, Girl’s State, debate
Really interesting environmentally focused extra curricular/leadership

Wants to major in engineering. Most likely mechanical with double major or minor in aerospace, robotics or comp sci. Eventual goal to work in space industry for NASA, Space X, Orbital Science, Etc.

Top priorities: Strong engineering program. Strong support of co-op and internships. Hands on classes in a collaborative environment with with workshops and maker spaces open for student use. Strong engineering specific employer recruiting on campus (NASA/space industry is a plus).

Wants: Engineering specific study abroad program. Mid to large size school. Warm weather. Urban campus with walkable, vibrant, college town area. Waterfront campus/close to beach. Warm weather. Drivable from DC area. Historic or unified feel. Outdoor activities nearby.

Does not want: “Party school.” Split campus or “business park” feel. Big greek life.

Need Cost of Attendance $25k or less per year (equal to our instate flagship) after merit. EFC is $40-50k so need based aid won’t get us where we need to be.

Top choices right now:

University of Maryland College Park (in state, great program, NASA)

Pitt (need good merit but loved program and liked campus)

Virginia Tech (my school, loves campus,financial reach since she likely won’t get much merit and we are OOS)

Delaware (need good merit aid, have not toured yet)

Also on the list:

West Virginia (good $ and NASA but “party school” and split campus)

South Carolina (good $ but not very hands on or collaborative and no maker spaces)

Univ of Alabama Huntsville (good $ and NASA but far and lacks vibrant campus feel)

Stevens Institute of Technology (great setting and program but unlikely to get $ she needs)

A couple of others I think she should look at but she has not researched yet:

Case Western

Lehigh

Thanks!

2

Drexel has engineering, merit $$ and coops. D of a good friend who went to Penn Engineering is very happy with the engineering education his daughter has received at Drexel.

A little further afield – U Alabama (Tuscaloosa main campus) has aero, mech and merit (and lots of connections to NASA) https://eng.ua.edu/academics/undergraduate/

If she’s thinking about South Carolina, look at Clemson.

UMD: https://eng.umd.edu/facts-and-figures – scroll down to incoming freshman profile

My understanding is that UDel’s merit money is for in-state only. I would check with the school directly, but the way they word it makes it sound like in-state kids have institutional scholarship priority. https://www.udel.edu/apply/undergraduate-admissions/financing-your-degree/

Has she looked at Olin? They are VERY collaborative and hands-on. It’s reachy because it’s small, but the folks who get in sound much like your D.

Lehigh wants to know you love them. Definitely recommend a visit.

I’m in MD also and students we know who didn’t get into UMD Engineering got in at Penn State Univ Park and VT.

Pitt and VA Tech were the first schools that popped into my head when I saw your first paragraph.

3

Lehigh is very stingy with merit money and the COA is high.

I second Drexel but UMD instate is going to be hard to beat.

4

Worcester Polytechnic Institute in MA checks off a number of boxes. The new president Laurie Leshin, worked for NASA on Mars Rover project and she is super committed to women in STEM (female admits are significantly up). https://www.wpi.edu/offices/president/about

Unique study abroad experience - the IQP. https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/global-project-program

Our D was admitted with 27 merit scholarship. It’s worth a look.

5

VT is not really near a beach…

Florida Tech has all the NASA connections (and its very own astronauts), is a campus in a small city, close to the beach (just across the bridge), has a downtown areas near the campus and another artsy business area, close to other cities like Orlando, Daytona Beach, West Palm Beach. It has a Greek Village (which is not on campus) but I wouldn’t say it is BIG Greek life. It has a study abroad for “Maymester” at Oxford but also has study/internship programs for a semester in other countries. A lot of students do co-ops and internships all over the world.

I don’t know of any schools with BIG Greek life that aren’t considered party schools. Some of those you’ve listed, Pitt, UMD, Delaware and VT. are pretty big party schools, especially when you are also part of the Greek life. I don’t think West Virginia is more of a party school than the others, but may seem that way because it is smaller in a smaller town.

She’d get a large merit award (about 1/2 tuition) and another award for the GS Gold award from Florida Tech. If she wants to play her sports, that might be possible too and she could get athletic money. You can drive from DC (many students from the NY/NJ area) but there are a bunch of airports with $100 flights to the DC area. My D had a few teammates from Maryland and one set of parents made it to EVERY game using Southwest and Jetblue.

If she wants BIG everything, look at U Central Florida. It is close to the Space Coast too and has a lot of NASA connections.

6

You’re going to have a tough time getting the COA at or below $100k if she leaves the state. Even a lot of merit from a private school, say $100,000, will still leave the COA at $150k or more. State schools don’t typically have a lot of money to give to OOS students. they rely on them to meet budgets.

If you’re willing to consider spending more, Cal Poly would be worth a look. Her wants list looks like it was written about Cal Poly. They have more than 80 labs in the college of engineering alone, several of which are there for student personal use only (https://engineering.calpoly.edu/labs-facilities). They have study abroad programs with colleges of engineering in several different countries. They pioneered the learn by doing approach that many have sought to replicate. The location is idyllic for outdoor enthusiasts. It’s not urban like LA urban, but it is in town. Full disclosure, my son chose CP from OOS and is about to finish his MS. He’s done an aerospace internship and an aerospace related thesis as an ME. They offer both ME and AE (both aeronautics and astronautics). Per my son, the AEs take more of a systems level approach.

That said, you’d be buying a different experience, but probably not better career earning potential. As a pure investment, it’s going to be hard to beat UMD.

Making the pure money play, she might want to look at Alabama (the main campus).

Good luck and have fun!

P.S. although SpaceX and NASA might seem like the pinnacle (they were for my son when he started), the bloom sort of falls off of the rose once you get perspective from insiders of what they are like.

7

UMD is a hard admit for engineering, even for in-state applicants. 75% percentile is 1500, weighted GPA 4.454. Bonus: 31% women in the engineering school. OP’s D should be very competitive, but I would not consider it an absolute safety.

For STEM, UMD in-state, esp with merit, is very hard to beat.

OP – your D needs to apply Priority Decision (which I believe is 11/1) in order to be eligible for Honors, scholarships, etc. It also signals to them that she is seriously interested. For high-stats kids, UMD Admissions likes to see some respect for the program.

8

I’d add Northeastern . It’s no colder than Pitt or Stevens. Olin is not in the size range, but I, like the poster above, immediately thought it’d be of interest. And if you’re looking, Tufts could be worth a stop although it sounds less like what she wants.

9

A double major doesn’t seem likely, maybe not even a minor (depending on school). There are so many required classes in an ABET acredited program engineering that the number of free electives over 4 years might be 5 or less. Certainly not enough for the required classes of a 2nd major, assuming she wants to graduate in 4 years. What people do is pick electives within their major to focus an a branch of the field they are interested in.

But don’t just take my word for this, these are questions she should be asking on campus visits or at college fairs.

10

She asks those questions on every visit. Some schools it’s possible, others not so much. It seemed like all of the kids she talked to at UMD and Pitt were doing minors and still expected to get out in 4 years.

11

Sounds like you just want warm weather engineering department suggestions. So for a 1490 OOS student.

… add UCF… Florida.

Lehigh, Case, and Stevens are the only “engineering schools” on your list.

UMD, Pitt, VPI, Delaware, U of SC, WV, UAB aren’t engineering schools.

12

I know Olin doesn’t fit all of her criteria, but it sounds like it might be up her alley.

Very collaborative. The school itself has been called a maker space. In addition to book lists, tool lists are given to first years. The library lends out power tools in addition to media. Space X and Blue Origin are big campus recruiters. She can’t double major, but she can design her own engineering major or major in mech e and take extra classes to fill her other interests. Most students do internships every summer if they want them. Students learn by doing. Its truly project based learning.

Cost will be prohibitive, they give half tuition to everyone and no more merit after that.

If you have questions, let us know. Quite a few of us have first hand experience.

13

Regular merit tops out at CWRU at $30k. That would put your net price in the $35k range. I believe that they have a few bigger awards but they would be a big reach.

14

Whether it nets a minor or not, and it’s debatable whether or not the paper per se is worth anything, it’s the classes that are important. My son has taken every fluids class Cal Poly offers including all of the graduate courses, but doesn’t have a minor in AE. Minoring is very dependent on the institution, and probably overrated.

I second the “Olin is not in the size range” comment. It’s a cool program, but it is VERY small. The total student body hovers around 350. That said, it sits inside the Babson Campus, so there’s probably a bit of a bigger school feel. When we visited though I didn’t get the impression that the students crossed over much. That was 5 years ago though and my memory could be wrong.

WPI is also a cool option, but i doubt it will net out as affordable, is much smaller than the OP is looking for, and isn’t really close to the beach.

15

Except for not being in a city, Florida Institute of Technology would be great…close ties to NASA, close to beach. U of South Florida would be good.

16

^^ Melbourne isn’t a bad city. It’s actually bigger than you’d think and the beaches are really nice because they aren’t Cocoa Beach or Daytona, just beach, ocean and the ice cream man. The one thing I think is really lacking is restaurants. There are plenty of chain restaurants but only a few good local ones.

17

Auburn University

18

Not sure she’d like the location, but Colorado of the Mines might offer her $ and has a great reputation and has made some merit offers to women in engineering from our HS. Not sure it’d get you to $25k per year.

19

@hokie95
WPI rings bells:
1.Serious NASA connections;
2 all listed majors well developed;
3 probably the very best overseas STEM research programs available at over 50 locations;
4 automatic $5000 scholarships to cover additional cost associated with off campus research (over 60% of students);
5 student profile virtually mirror VPI’s;
6 Interdisciplinary research required (often overseas) as well as major;
7 Research teams average about 3 to 4 students with faculty advisor on real world solutions;
8 “IQP” degree requirement permits any major to do serious, worldwide interdisciplinary environmental research;

They have given some serious merit awards, particularly to women, in the recent past to outstanding students. Over 80% of the class had secondary GPA’s above 3.75, VPI’s is 77%. Even an outstanding student as your daughter cannot be assured a large merit award at either University but there is more to an admissions decision than the standard data IF the student truly identifies with the program.

Drawbacks: the weather is not CA or VA, but we are relatively safe from hurricanes, droughts and forest fires. All buildings are fully heated and the campus is compact. They surfed off the coast of Maine just a few weeks ago.

Worcester is the second largest city in New England and Boston is close enough for occasional trips, but most students stay on campus or in the surrounding neighborhoods which have a very high student population. Clark University and Holy Cross are two more of the seven colleges in the city.

For very complete post-graduation reports by major go to the following website and select the latest year. They show average salaries, matriculating employers and graduates schools at all degree levels. See https://www.wpi.edu/student-experience/career-development/outcomes.

For an overview of this unique program see https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/wpi-plan

WPI '67

20

Adding my vote to suggest you look at the Florida schools (South, Central, Tech). They have great connections to the space industry.