High-tier schools with good Chem E and Aerospace E

Nothing, sorry.

@talexr Just playing around with the WPI website and found this listing of “aspiring” institutions and “peer” institutions as defined by the Carnegie Classification. This website is https://www.wpi.edu/offices/institutional-research/benchmarking and links you directly to the websites of these similar institutions.

@eyemgh has cited “demonstrated interest” as important in their admission decision. When students aspire to attend an institution it enhances their success at the institution. The higher objective should be the successful completion of your studies. Financial needs must be met. This reality should not preclude a look beyond just majors when picking from the affordable group. Each school feels they have something different. Find out what it is and see if it meets your educational goals.

:bz

When we looked 7 years ago… CMU had decent need-based FA, but they had eliminated almost all merit scholarships… except for in some cases a little bit based on merit offers from “peer schools” such as RPI (but not Case) .

Chem Eng is a broad based field. Decide whether you are more likely to be interested in energy, nanotechnology or the CBE pharma side of the field. Only the largest schools focus on all of these fields. May schools have small chem eng. programs. Obviously the ones close to pharma or gas/oil have made investments in research funded by those industry partners. Visit a couple of schools, make appointments to meet with the department’s professors, because the experience will help narrow your search. https://www.asee.org/papers-and-publications/publications/college-profiles/15EngineeringbytheNumbersPart1.pdf

Aerospace is an even broader field. I worked in the industry for multiple companies and never worked with an ‘aerospace engineeer’. We were all ME, EE, EECS, CS degrees. Customers (air-frame and gas turbine manufacturers) hired the core disciplines. Cornell for example has aerospace under their ME department. Their ME building was just renovated. We walked through it under construction last spring, but my son chose Penn with their robotics program. At Cornell you could be a chem eng or an ME with a minor in aerospace.

Our recent experience is that some IVY schools with dedicated engineering programs have been pumping $$, hiring faculty and adding research into their programs at a very high rate. An engineering curriculum is a collaborative process so consider the talent of your classmates. One nephew is thriving at Purdue and another at NC state. Without financial aid, NC State & Purdue cut down the cost, Michigan & UVA - not very much. Lehigh is a meets full needs school. http://www.thecollegesolution.com/list-of-colleges-that-meet-100-of-financial-need/

You’ll be giving up a lot of money if you leave Florida. You’ll give up Bright Futures which will either be $3300 or the full tuition of $6500 +$600 for books (if the legislature extends the funds), the florida residents grant ($3300) for a private school (like FIT or Embry-Riddle), usually if you get Pell and SEOG you could get a FL-SEOG too ($1000).

At FIT, you’ll likely get the top merit award of about $25k per year. You can stack the BF, the FRAG, Pell, SEOG and FL-SEOG. I really don’t know if they’d give additional need based aid, but I think so (my daughter gets athletic aid so isn’t eligible for need based aid, but they are very generous). I’m not an engineer so don’t know how it compares to the other schools on your list, but I see the FB postings and get magazines about the jet car teams and undersea/lunar car competition, see the senior project displays, and the happy faces at graduation because they all have jobs. Looks good to me.

A friend’s son just went through the search for aero eng. last year. He looked at many of the schools on your list and ended up at Buffalo because he thought the aid was the best. Buffalo is very cold and snowy, not at all like Florida.
I think the Florida money is too good to pass up and leave the state. I know it seems like “Oh, it’s only $3300” it really adds up fast, and now they may increase BF again. There are also a lot of internship and co-op opportunities on the Space Coast, and Buzz Aldrin is a professor. How can you beat that!

@KLSD I am interested in energy, i shoulda said that earlier. Alternative energy, like biofuels, solar energy to liquid fuels, high energy density batteries, etc.

I got a full-ride to UA Huntsville (tuition and housing) so my price now is ~$7k for food and miscellaneous expenses. As of now it would be cheaper for me to attend UA Huntsville than UF or FSU. UAH is not ranked in the top 300 for chemical engineering, but still its a good school. Also if I go there I am considering transferring to aerospace engineering due to its proximity to NASA and other space facilities.

@twoinanddone ^^ check out my previous coast. I agree with you about being on the space coast, but Huntsville is also close to a space area.

@twoinanddone *post

Check out this option if energy is your passion. https://www.viper.upenn.edu/about Most Chem Eng students pair their degree with physics from CAS but there are many possible dual degree combinations. Student research assistants are provided with free summer housing.