<p>Both schools are out of state and I am comfortable with that. Hoping to be a NMF and the scholarships are too good to pass up. I am interested in biomedical engineering (leaning toward instrumentation, not med school) but also enjoy electrical as a possibility. Problem is ASU seems stronger as an honors college, while Texas ranks higher for engineering. I always thought I would choose UW Madison (in-state), but merit scholarships are minimal and I didn't really fall in love with the campus on my last few visits. I'm going nuts trying to decide. Any input would be appreciated! Thanks</p>
<ol>
<li>Madison </li>
<li>College Station</li>
<li>Tempe</li>
</ol>
<p>I would choose Texas; I think their program has more renown, but I'm certainly not an expert on the matter. However, I do know that they have a TON of school spirit there and that really appealed to me. Lots of my family went there and liked it (from Wisconsin).</p>
<p>As a NMF you can do much better. If it is too late to apply to other schools, consider taking a gap year and apply to colleges and universities that will really challenge you intellectually. If you need financial aid, most schools will meet your full need as a NMF. What are your stats and where else did you apply?</p>
<p>If it's between ASU and Texas A&M, I'd choose ASU. </p>
<p>Tempe is a much more interesting college town than College Station (which is kind of in the middle of nowhere), and ASU does have an amazing honors college.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, if a choice is limited to those two schools, then Texas A&M is the slightly better choice among poor choices. I spent many years researching honors programs and honors colleges since the mid 90s. You can do much better. ASU is strong in two respects: Scholarships and promoting their honors college scholarships.</p>
<p>Neither are bad schools. The OP could get a great education from either. Just because they're not top schools doesn't mean that they're worthless. </p>
<p>A family friend graduated from A&M. He loved his time there and now makes high six-figures a year. Same goes for many friends from ASU. Both are solid universities.</p>
<p>I just love the College Confidential mentality.</p>
<p>No need to be rude. ASU has had very significant problems with the Honor's College and made many inaccurate claims. ASU is a marginal school and that has nothing to do with a "CC mentality". ASU also has a very large commuter population and is a major party school.</p>
<p>No rudeness intended. I just think it's ridiculous that so many people discount perfectly legitimate schools as "poor choices", when these schools graduate thousands of successful alumni each year.</p>
<p>To answer on stats: Top 5% of hs class, 33 act, 1400 SAT
Not into drinking but like to have fun, more into acedemics than sports but enjoy rec basketball,football and soccer.</p>
<p>Financial Aid: Not for any state schools, kicks in after $35K. But parents would have a hard time paying "their fair share" according to FASA, as my siblings are spaced every 3 years and they would be paying out for the next 13 years. They will pitch in either way, but let me spend it on Grad school if I end up choosing scholarships for undergrad.</p>
<p>I'm pretty surprised by some of the responses. After going through research I felt Texas had a good engineering reputation that would be solid enough to get me going in grad school even though it isn't a "top" school. ASU honors college gets alot of good posts on this board, so I would love to hear of some of the problems that might not be as well known</p>
<p>I'm no fan of Texas A&M's atmosphere (which has more to do with growing up in College Station than anything else), but they certainly have a good engineering program, and they throw money at National Merit finalists. You could probably go to school there for a profit. If you're smart (which you surely are) and decently self-motivated, you can do very well there.</p>
<p>Have you looked at University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). It has a very strong Electrical Engineering dept. and gives extremely good scholarships - I think a NMF gets all tuition, $2000 towards housing, and $5000 stipend for books, travel etc. The housing there is apartment-style - 4 students share an apartment and they all get single rooms. However there is no meal plan (though there should be in another year) so students have to cook for themselves. They don't have a football team, but they do have a world championship chess team! UTD is not in Dallas itself, but in the NW suburb of Richardson. My eldest D is a soph. there and loves it and feels very safe on campus.
My youngest D wants to be a vet and is a NMSF, but when we visited A&M she hated the atmosphere there, but most people don't. Football, Corps of Cadets, and school spirit are very important there, and it seemed like almost everyone was a white, Christian Republican.</p>