As an international student, I’ve been admitted to these Rutgers, ASU, and Texas A&M for computer engineering.
As per me, these are the pros and cons for each uni: ( feel free to correct)
ASU
pros:
a.scholarship of 10,000 USD per anum ( this is gonna make ASU really affordable compared to other colleges)
b.Really Nice weather.
c.TONS of entrepreneurship opportunities. ( I STRONGLY want to start up on my own in the future)
d. Proximity to silicon valley
cons:
a. Not prestigious (Basically everyone above a certain threshold gets in)
b. Alumni network and JOb opportunities don't appear to be very strong.
Rutgers
pros:
a. NEW YORK!
b. CS department is strong ( I'll mostly transfer from Engineering to CS as engineering is meh)
c. Business school is great. ( possibility of a minor).
cons:
a. Cold, harsh weather( I hate any place with a lot of snow and rain lol)
b. Entrepreneurship programs are pretty nonexistent on campus; especially if compared to the other two uni's. ( correct me if I'm wrong on this).
c. Expensive. (50k for international students, but they haven't released any scholarship decisions for international students so IDK)
Texas A&M
pros:
a. The Aggie network.
b. Reputation. ( ranked top 15 for engineering programs)
c. Career fair( I've heard its great)
d. Entrepreneurship programs exist; but not to an extent of ASU.
e. Being a top engineering school, the acads would be challenging.
f. Weather ( I guess ?!)
g. The party culture at A&M is definitely minor as compared to ASU and Rutgers. Professional and recreational clubs dominate here. I like this atmosphere.
cons:
a. not an urban location. ( ASU has the valley and rutgers has NY)
b.IDK if its a con, but I don't wanna spend 85% of my time studying in college. I want to explore other extra-curricular activities. Engineering at A&M seems to be pretty hard.
c. Pretty expensive (55k + for international students and barely any scholarships are given)
Your stats put you in the upper quartile, you’ll have no problem with grades at A&M.
A&M isn’t known to have difficult engineering college. They accept around 85% of applicants. And many aren’t qualified to be in engineering so they don’t do well.
For example, I have a friend whose 2 sons got into A&M college station engineering, both were solid “C” students at a rural Texas public HS, after 2 semesters at A&M they were in different non engineering majors. They shouldn’t have been in engineering in the first place.
I live in New Jersey. It’s pretty cold during the winter, but we actually don’t get much snow and rain. Maybe 1-2 big storms per season.
Rutgers NB is definitely a “party school”, but it’s big enough that you can find people who aren’t into it. Look into the bussing system, it may or may not be of concern to you.
They probably had good class rank in a low performing high school (Texas public universities use class rank instead of GPA for admission).
Texas A&M does admit to first year general engineering, followed by competitive admission to specific engineering majors later. The ones not completing engineering degrees may not have failed out of the school, but may have not met the GPA (higher than 2.0, determined competitively) requirements for any engineering majors they were interested in.
I don’t know about you, but most foreign universities are in big cities, & many foreign students seem to associate going to college with being in or near a big city. There are a lot of foreign students at Texas A&M., but I kind of doubt if a high percentage of them are thrilled by the location. Texas A&M is a fascinating place, & has a unique culture that might not be fully appreciated by someone who’s not accustomed to the stuff that’s big there (football, reverence for military traditions, country music, pickup trucks). (I was there a few months ago.)
Rutgers & NJ are a tough sell even for Americans…if u come all the way here u are probably hoping for somewhere a little more hospitable than NJ suburbia.
@Greymeer@ucbalumnus
Keep in mind for engineering, that full admission to College station is but one admission decision. They also admit to the Galveston branch campus as well as two engineering academies at Blinn/Bryan and McAllen.
Engineering at Galveston offers were once the only other offer considered as full admissions.
They have tweaked the program so that all the various admissions are considered full admissions and with completion of the general engineering curricula, everyone can ETAM (Apply To A Major) in Spring of their freshman year.
The Blinn Bryan Engineering Academy is a co enrollment at the new RELLIS campus in Bryan as well as being enrolled for the engineering class at TAMU.
At Galveston and McAllen, the classes are taught by A&M Professors.
Texas law dictates that the top 10% of a graduating class after the 6th semester qualifies for automatic admissions to any public university. This was implemented in 1997. Texas has grown exponentially and the top two flagships are busting at the seams with over 42000 complete applications each admissions cycle. University of Texas received permission through the legislature to limit admissions to 75% of their freshmen yield and the percentage varies from the top 6-7% of graduating class, instead of top 10&.
Because there are many high performing high schools in the state, A&M implemented the Academic Admit of minimum SAT or ACT with qualifying subscores and being in the top quarter of graduating class. Many top 10% admits also qualify as academic admits but there are many high achieving students who fall out of the top 10% at competitive high schools.
For incoming class of 2021, A&M began a holistic review for all engineering applicants into the major.
Realistically, full admissions for review applicants to any major was 13% last year and this year, it is reportedly to be smaller, in order to keep the incoming freshman class to 10,000-10,500 students.
So while links as posted above by greymeer can be useful tools in some instances, they certainly do not always present a clear and complete picture.
13% of 10k is 1300. The freshmen enrollment number was 3500. The yield at AM is about 30%. Even if 1300 is the correct number of enrolled you would have you offer 4000 out if the 10k to get 1300 to enroll. A rate of 40%.
As an ASU alumnus, I would also recommend ASU for an international student. The engineering program is rigorous and there’s plenty of stuff to do in Tempe . Many get into ASU. Few get out with the engineering degree. Regarding job opportunities, you would need sponsorship by companies, which is not likely in the current political environment. So that really shouldn’t be part of the consideration.
I live near Rutgers and would put Rutgers as a second choice. It’s about a 1.5 hour train ride to NY. Not as dynamic as ASU, and then there’s the bus you have to take around campus to get to classes.
But it’s in a busy area and also lots to do.
Texas A&M is in a different type of place, as others have mentioned. Unless you have some affinity for the quintessential Texas lifestyle, the other two may be better bets.
@Greymeer The 13% is for all holistic review applicant admissions to A&M, not just engineering.
60% of admissions to the university are top 10% applicants. Another 10% comes from Academic admits. 30% of holistic review applicants receive some form of admissions, 13% of which receive full admissions to the university while the other 27% are offered the pathway decisions.
In addition to the pathways for engineering, (Galveston and the Academies at Blinn Bryan and McAllen), all other majors can receive a pathway admissions decision of Blinn Team co enrollment or Gateway to Success, a summer provisional program.
For fall 2018, 4006 engineering first time in college students enrolled.College Station and Galveston https://dars.tamu.edu/Student/files/Apply-Admit-Enroll-Sum-All-Fa18-incl-Galveston.aspx