I would love to hear where your daughter ultimately landed!
My D22 sounds a lot like your daughter, and I could definitely see her ending up designing medical devices. She is also looking for many of the same things in her college experience as your DD did. I admit that finding the right fit has been a bit of a struggle.
As for tours, we have not taken any, but we have three scheduled for next week. I keep hoping that UGA will resume campus tours, but they are only offering them for admitted students at this point. If we have to wait until the next academic year, it’s not the worst thing!
She ended up at Rice. It sounds a lot like what your daughter is looking for and the people are genuinely nice and caring. However, the cost might not work for you. They have the “Rice Investment” (The Rice Investment | Office of Financial Aid | Rice University) and give good aid, but if someone has more than “typical assets” if might not be as generous as they would hope.
But, more than an ad for Rice, I mostly want to say that just checking out your options and plugging along will hopefully turn something up. My D was really hoping she’d just walk on a campus and feel the fit and know that’s where she wanted to go and got frustrated and disappointed when that didn’t happen. She actually had taken Rice off her list because it was in Texas and she didn’t want to go that far and she was tired of writing essays. But about a week before applications were due she decided she regretted it and and got her application together. We had to quick visit after she was accepted and really liked it but the distance was still an issue and she had to decide whether or not she was willing to give up figure skating, which she could have continued at her second choice school. She literally decided about 2 days before decision day.
I really believe that most kids end up happy where ever they end up. They find their niche and their people and can’t imagine themselves anywhere else. I think there is a lot of pressure to find the perfect fit but for most they have to settle for the best fit for their current circumstances.
Good luck with your visits. Hopefully as things start to get a bit back to normal schools will starting holding real tours again and campuses will start to feel a bit more normal. We actually stayed right near the Georgia Tech campus this summer and drove around a bit since it’s a school that has a program my D is considering for grad school.
Santa Clara University is another Jesuit school with a very fine engineering program. The school is very expensive but they do give merit awards to high achievers.
I’m glad to see my D22 isn’t the only one actively visiting what feels like every college between Wisconsin and Miami! This thread is marvelously helpful, though, as I think most high-achieving juniors are in the same mindset right now.
Would she have any interest in ROTC programs? Schools like Notre Dame and Villanova have excellent undergraduate engineering programs and really strong Naval ROTC programs.
Thank you for the suggestion. We have talked to my daughter about ROTC, and I don’t think it’s an option she is interested in pursuing. I appreciate insight about alternate ways to fund college!
We are back from our first round of college tours. First, we had a fabulous week exploring all three campuses, and I cannot overemphasize the importance of actually visiting a campus. I will give a quick recap.
Our first stop was the University of Alabama. The campus was beautiful, and they had scheduled a full day of meetings/tours for us. Everyone we encountered was personable and professional. My favorite part of our day was meeting with a student ambassador from the Honors College. We spent about two hours with him, and we left feeling that there were plenty of opportunities available for high achieving students. However, the campus is BIG (and I know that you can see that on paper), and I think my DD felt a bit overwhelmed by the size. She wants to apply, but the size will likely be factor.
Next we went to Mississippi State University. Campus was beautiful, and the weather was even more amazing. My daughter liked the smaller size, and she said that the campus felt more laid back and friendly. Overall, this was her favorite school on our tour. I will say that I have concerns about available opportunities for high achieving students. It was very clear from our meetings that my DD is not their target student, and as a result, I wonder how many academic peers she would really have. Having said that, I was very impressed with the Honors College representative with whom we met! Because of that interaction, MSU will remain on the list, and we will investigate further. If any of you have insight on MSU, I would love to hear it!
Our last stop was Ole Miss, and this school is no longer in consideration. We enjoyed our time there, but at the end of the day, the Honors College did not offer any value to my DD. If she ends up at a large state school, a strong Honors College and small cohort opportunities are a must.
All three schools were very open with respect to COVID, and it was amazing to see students out and about. MSU was especially open, and it was fabulous!
I would like to add a side note that is not related to our recent campus visits. We are strongly considering taking Notre Dame off the list. It’s a strong sentimental favorite, but we have serious concerns about several recent administration decisions. I am just not sure how student focused they are. We definitely need some smaller schools for DD.
We specifically asked about cohort opportunities and were told there weren’t any (actually they had some for international studies and something else that didn’t appeal to my DD’s interests). We aren’t merely seeking merit money… we want a good fit, and DD just did not feel it at Ole Miss. Plus, we really want a full Honors College experience, and the set up at Ole Miss is not what my daughter needs. We had a great time there, but we are moving on. We are trying to shrink our list of 30-35 schools down to a manageable number.
ETA- I just read about the student you referenced. I can understand Ole Miss in his/her case, but my daughter wants to pursue engineering. According to the school reps, they do not have any engineering cohorts.
I don’t know anything about Ole Miss, it just brought back memories of that thread. I think the cohort scholarships like Stamps are amazing opportunities and would highly recommend them (D has one but not Stamps).
Thank you for the suggestion. For comparison, Alabama has the Randall Research program (40 students) and Blount Scholars (just over 100 students). Both of those programs last all 4 years. It’s an academically focused group that puts similarly focused students together. Ole Miss had nothing like that for engineering students.
Also, I can’t remember if you thought about having her try for one of the big merit scholarships at Vanderbilt? It seems like the size and opportunities would be great for her, but I know without merit it would be out of reach financially.
It is interesting that you are looking for a cohort in a specific subject. Many of these scholarships (including my D’s) try explicitly to bring together a mix of subjects and backgrounds to promote cross-fertilization and discussion (D has a specific cohort discussion class most semesters). Then within their specific major those students get more individual attention. @itsgettingreal21 may be able to comment on how Stamps does it.
Yes, @elena13’s right, my D19 is at Mississippi State, doing well in engineering, in their honors college, et cetera. I haven’t been following this thread, so I don’t know everything you’re after, but it’s been a good place for my daughter. (Her one complaint is the advising system for Industrial Engineering students. She’s gotten better advising from talking to faculty individually.)
They don’t do a cohort model for individual majors in engineering—in part, I think, because they have students coming in with a wide range of backgrounds and thus starting out with very different courses—but they do have other cohort-based programs. Some are university-wide and time-limited (e.g., Freshman Edge, which my daughter absolutely loved) while others are longer-term (e.g., the MBA Venture Program, which lasts all four years). Most if not all of those are competitive-entry, but my daughter got into those with good but not top 1% stats, so…
(And the honors college has a lot of activities and supports for students, as well.)
We aren’t merely seeking merit money… we want a good fit, and DD just did not feel it at Ole Miss. Plus, we really want a full Honors College experience, and the set up at Ole Miss is not what my daughter needs. We had a great time there, but we are moving on. We are trying to shrink our list of 30-35 schools down to a manageable number.