I was looking for a little bit of advice in terms of choosing colleges for undergraduate mechanical engineering in the NJ/PA/NY/DE area. I have a 3.9 underweighted GPA and scored 1350 on the SAT. I’m retaking the SAT because I took that one just to test the waters and didn’t get any tutoring. I’m looking for colleges that offer generous merit-based aid and I appreciate any suggestions. I’m already looking at Rensselaer Polytechnique, Lehigh and Princeton as a reach but I’m open to anything.
Well if you go to a place like Rensselaer for engineering, it will most likely have to be need and not merit aid.
You would have to improve by at least 150 points (1500+) to even stand a chance at your reach schools (and even then without merit aid).
It is hard to find great merit aid in the Northeast. At University of New Mexico though, as an example, you already qualify for a $15,000 amigo scholarship! Your best bottom line cost may be your instate flagship U. Also look at WPI in Massachusetts, you might qualify for merit aid there.
Thank you for your response!
Be aware that while you might get significant merit aid in the Northeast, there are guaranteed (automatic) or very likely scholarships for someone with your stats if you are willing to go to other parts of the country. At places like Florida State, Alabama, & TexasTech you would pay little or nothing for tuition.
Manhattan College gives merit aid and has a nice, small engineering program. And definitely look at in-state public options as well.
Princeton does not give merit aid. And a 1350 SAT would preclude any merit aid at other colleges in the northeast.
In NJ Stevens gives merit. If you’re in-state Rowan runs about $25k a year and you could get significant merit. Good luck!
Why have I never heard of Steven’s?
Rowan is becoming competitive for engineering, mechanical engineering in particular. But, if you can get in, the scholarships are good.
I think you should try to work on the SAT.
If you are instate in NJ, Rowan is developing new pathways into their engineering program through Rowan College at Gloucester County (super inexpensive route) and Stockton University (2+2 or 3). At Stockton, you might have an annual net direct cost around $15,000 for tge first two years with your current SAT if you are in-state.
I will strongly disagree that you will get free tuition at Alabama, Florida State, with your current SAT, and I’m not sure if you could even with a big jump. However, would get 2/3 tuition off at UA Huntsville and room and board are inexpensive. If you can get up to a 1390, which is very reasonable, you can get free tuition there.
@NateCoul23 where do you live? Stevens is probably the best known engineering school in the state. It’s in Hoboken, right across the river from NYC. It is pricey, but they do give merit.
I just dropped off my son at a Stevens pre-college engineering program today. it has a really nice campus in a great location. I have feeling that it will be high on his list when applying next year. I encourage the OP to check it out. I think that MechE is their largest major.
I live in South Jersey and Stevens looks very interesting, thank you for suggesting it. I’ll be sure to check it out. The location seems great too since it’s so close to NYC
My post is relevant to engineering majors only: We visited Stevens . The location is ok if you like Hoboken. If you want a traditional contained campus and don’t like city life, you won’t like the campus. You are only guaranteed on campus housing freshman year. The larger merit scholarships they give require higher minimum gpa to retain year to year. This has been a common topic on this message board with lots of debate of Stevens vs other private or public schools. In order to get Stevens cost of attending near that of the state schools (Rutgers, TCNJ and Rowan or Njit) you would have to get more than a 50% discount as Stevens costs over $70000. We found, in our opinion, Rowan, U Delaware and TCNJ to be the best values in terms of ranking, quality of campus facilities, dorms, ease of getting to classes and COST. We were turned off by the lousy campuses of Rutgers and njit. We liked Lehigh and Lafayette but they are very pricey. We are in agreement with others on this website that Rowan surprisingly had the most impressive engineering facilities and brand new dorms of all the schools we visited. No doubt you can get a good education at Stevens but we didn’t think the overall value would put it at the top of our kids list. If I was willing to pay Stevens price, I’d rather send my kid to Lehigh or Lafayette.
Bottom line, the cost of Stevens no matter what discount (merit aid only) will NOT be on par with the State schools.
There is a ra ra for Stevens poster on here who will trumpet Stevens ROI. However, his argument is misleading as you need to compare student outcomes (job and graduate school placement, salaries) for Stevens engineering grads with that of other schools engineering grads. We asked each engineering department at each school for this info and found outcomes for engineering grads at Rutgers, Rowan, tcnj, u Delaware, Stevens etc, to be generally very similar. So i believe If you major in engineering, you can’t go wrong at any of these schools and it comes down to cost and personal preference
Does anyone know anything about NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering? And does anyone have any personal experience with Rutgers or Rowan’s Engineering programs?
NYU engineering used to be a separate engineering-focused school named Polytechnic Institute or Polytechnic University. As a separate school before the merger, it apparently gave much better financial aid than NYU did, but presumably now gives NYU-level financial aid (i.e. not very good). Tandon is the name of a large donor (post-merger).
@SpacemanEd I believe has 2 recent rowan engineering grads. Maybe @NJRoadie also?
I do not have any Engineering grads, but I do have two students at Rowan, in other programs.
Reading lots of posts here over several years, I will mirror what I’ve seen others say “If a program in engineering is certified, it is the same as any other program.” Supposedly you get better “contacts”, and yet I’m certain I’ve seen SpaceManEd say his kids (Rowan Eng grads) have been given awesome opportunities in line with what “more expensive” schools have been given.
If you search thru my name and replies to threads you will find an older charts of SAT score/GPA and merit aid offered that used to be on Rowan’s site. It is just a ballpark now, but will give you some ideas. Cost of attendance (the whole enchilada) was for my daughter, about $30,000 last year. They list it as 28,000. They are also very good at accepting AP credits if you get 4s and 5s as scores on the tests. My daughter brought in 29 credits that way, which frees you from needing to spend time on Comp 1 or US History and allows you to focus on Engineering stuff.
Been to Stevens yearly for conference for a decade. They have made little improvement that I’ve seen to their academic buildings, which makes me wonder where all that money is going? Just my opinion.
I will toss out to look also at NC State - friend’s boy is going there and price seems reasonable.
If the choice is Rowan vs. Stevens I would most definitely choose Stevens. The only advantage Rowan has over Stevens (or any private universities you may be considering) is cost. In every academic and professional category - qualifications of students, alumni network, impact of alumni, reputation of faculty, student outcomes (Stevens has the highest ROI of tuition of any school in New Jersey, the highest of engineering schools in the northeast, and the tenth highest in the United States on Payscale’s survey - Rowan comes in at somewhere around 500 on that list for example), depth and breadth of curriculum, and in particular research output and impact (Rowan has virtually no engineering research output, and has no doctoral program, at least they didn’t up until very recently, Stevens (and its peers) overshadow Rowan. Having attended three universities including Stevens, and having recruited for several of my employers, I can tell you that a Stevens (and RPI, Lehigh, Case, et al) graduate is going to be considered first.
Rutgers for example has a far more established engineering school than Rowan, and is recognized for the quality of its research - why wouldn’t you attend there? Incidentally, if you are interested in chemical engineering in Rowan’s geographical area, U of Delaware has few peers (having been a beneficiary of DuPont largesse for many years). Just because someone makes a big donation to a school doesn’t immediately make up for having no track record in the field. Rowan is a decent up and coming school, but it has a long, long, way to go the match the track record over the past some 150 years of Stevens, RPI, Cooper Union, Drexel, Lehigh, et al.
And yes, you do get better contacts at Stevens. While all ABET accredited engineering schools uphold a minimum standard of quality, Stevens far exceeds them in that Stevens engineering students take courses in all current engineering disciplines, and graduate with knowledge of all of them, not merely in their specific discipline major (e.g., electrical, mechanical, civil, etc). This is reflected in the undergraduate engineering degree title of Bachelor of Engineering (instead of “Bachelor of Science in EE/ME/CE”, etc.). Practically all engineering schools today are specialized and produce graduates are competent in their major, but are not proficient in problems that are interdisciplinary in nature. Stevens for 147 years has retained its broad based program, requiring students to take civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical, materials, and systems engineering courses in addition to their major specialty courses regardless of which particular specialty in which they choose to major. This makes them superior problem solvers when the problems (which are characteristic of most engineering problems in industry today) span more than just a specific area. I can attest to this in my career, and having again recruited for several major corporations in addition to doing interdisciplinary engineering work, I can tell you that Stevens graduates are highly prized for this quality. Of course, the interdisciplinary breadth and depth requires more coursework than Rowan and practically all other schools in America - 140-147 credits is typical for the undergraduate program.
A typical Stevens graduate gets multiple offers from Fortune 500 corporations, good government appointments, military, or prestigious graduate school acceptances. While any engineering school will get you a job, the quality of the jobs Stevens graduates command set the pace for their careers. The quality and name recognition of your first employer will frequently determine the quality of the remainder of your career. While the school you graduate from becomes less important as time goes by in your career, the first few years of your career will usually determine the types of placements you will get later.
I graduated from Stevens with a somewhat less than stellar GPA (reflecting the rigor and depth of the program). I was offered a position immediately out of Stevens by the leading R&D laboratory in the communications and electronics industry (the one that invented the transistor, cell phone, laser, microprocessor, communications satellite, and many more). I was told later on that had I graduated from any of the other New Jersey schools with the same GPA, I never would have been made the offer. That company recruited nationwide at the best schools including Stevens and typically hired only folks with the highest GPAs. That reflects upon the quality and depth of Stevens graduates.
Not all ABET accredited programs are created equal. Additionally, the appearance of a campus and a building is of little importance. Cooper Union for example has two buildings in Manahattan, one built in 1880 and a newer one (1970s) housing its architecture school. Would you seriously claim that a Rowan graduate is going be more in demand than a Cooper graduate just because the campus has newer buildings? Surely you jest. Stevens has invested nearly $100 million in its facilities and infrastructure, upgrading almost every undergraduate and research lab. You only see the buildings from the outside, perhaps you should tour some of the labs. The three National Centers of Excellence, funded by the Navy, Department of Homeland Security, and NSA alone account for $65 million over the last three years - no, they aren’t new buildings, they are new labs and equipment, and faculty, within existing buildings. You cannot judge a book by its cover.
Did you actually apply to Stevens and get a financial aid determination? Like I said in prior posts don’t assume just because the “sticker” tuition price is what it is that will be your actual cost of attendance. No school renders a financial aid decision before one applies and is accepted of course. Don’t rule out any school a-priori just because you think it may not be affordable prior to getting an actual financial aid decision. Additionally, most schools place GPA bogies on keeping a merit scholarship. Stevens (and all others) want students who are going to benefit the most from the quality they offer, and keeping a good GPA is an indicator of the same.
This is truly one of those cases in which one gets what he/she pays for. Having been in the business world for 45 years since I graduated from Stevens, there’s an old adage that rings true, “people know the cost of everything and the value of nothing”.
Good luck with your decisions. Cheers, Michael, Ph.D., P.E., Consulting Aerospace Engineer
@Engineer80 I was awarded the Rennsalear Medal (which gives me $25k each year off my tuition) and Canditate’s Choice when applying by RPI, but the location of Stevens seems much more appealing. In your opinion, how does Stevens compare to RPI? And funny question but did you feel that the disproportionate number of guys at Steven vs girls was an issue for you?