@gingerlenny Good to hear what your son is thinking! I think mine has just decided against Purdue, but really only based on location. We live in Virginia (hence the application to VA Tech). A friend of his was recently hit by a car while crossing campus and pretty seriously injured and his parents couldn’t get there for two days because of flights. Originally he really only wanted something within driving distance and I encouraged him to add Purdue because (other than our in-state option) you really can’t beat the price + education option. But now I think he’s decided that the distance is just too much.
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Yes - same, due to COVID. However, my uncle does live in Indianapolis so we at least have that … Good luck.
I grew up in Cleveland and my dad was a professor at Case (not in engineering). This may no longer be the situation- but he always had the sense that most Case students thought that they should’ve gotten into “better” ranked schools and they didn’t. Meaning that Case was not their first choice school. That’s not to say they didn’t end up happy there. Despite its reputation, Cleveland is a fun town with lots to offer outside of class: museums, professional sports, concert venues, entertainment districts, skiing nearby and Lake Erie. Little Italy is close by with great restaurants. I think the area is MUCH safer now than when he was working there. My son wanted an engineering school at a big school that also had a school spirit/football culture- so Case was not the right school for him. I was kinda hoping to get to visit “home” a lot if he was interested in Case!
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There are hundreds of disciplines that are not engineering that take advantage of a kid’s skill/interest in math and science. Especially if he is good at English/History/Foreign Language.
Epidemiology, Cognitive Science, Agronomy, Oceanography and Climate Science, Geology, Political Science, Urban Planning, Transportation Systems, Genetic Counseling, Operations Research, stop me before I hurt someone. This is the exciting part of college- learning about an entire discipline that you knew nothing about, and learning that there are experts who do this stuff for a living! I recently met a woman who is an expert in sustainable design- how to build apartment buildings and airports and schools and hotels which do the least amount of damage to the environment, and on a going basis, are as energy efficient as possible. Wow- what an exciting career spanning architecture, chemistry, design, and urban planning. (which is what her degree is in). There are people just like her but who focus on water use- how to do what we all do every day but without destroying habitat – growing food, raising animals, cooling the huge datacenters that are required to power our use of the internet, etc. Important social implications as well.
There is so much your son might fall in love with that’s not engineering (not that there’s anything wrong with engineering).
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@blossom - I think this is exactly his issue. He is excited about other options and doesn’t know what all is out there. And he’s worried that if he goes to a school that is more narrowly tailored then he may not know about or see all those options.
My daughter picked an engineering school and I do think the other offerings were very limited. The school had a good business program and an excellent psychology program (especially for autism studies), but if you wanted to major in history or English, it wasn’t really the school for you. She knew if she didn’t stick with engineering she’d move to chemistry or math, so it worked for her.
There were classes in History or English, there were a couple of great art class and a theater troupe, but not enough, IMO, to make a good major.
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My kid just graduated from VA Tech with double degree CSEng and CMDA. They loved Tech and chose it for multiple reasons including strong engineering program overall, availability of a CMDA degree, good co-op program, and lots of specific engineering opportunities at the school. My kid did have other acceptances including UVA and others OOS, but they felt most comfortable at Tech. They had a great experience and, being from VA, we thought the tuition was a great value.
I wanted to say that if your son is wondering what is out there besides engineering that he find a school with good internship and co-op programs. My kid was able to intern and co-op with a variety of places and they learned directly what they were looking for in a permanent job. They did get an offer from their senior internship, but ended up with another type of job. I don’t know if they would have made the same choice had they not had such a varied internship/co-op experience.
Also, I’m not an engineer but I work in the STEM field and work with many. I have noticed that what drives career paths more is not the engineering major they were in college, but what types of jobs they have worked. I have also noticed that having an engineering degree (any engineering degree) is often an advantage over a non-eng degree even in a related field. I’m not saying this is an absolute rule, but I have seen many jobs that require an eng degree even when it’s not essential to the actual work. Obviously, there are some jobs that require licensed engineers, but there are many that do not and companies are still excluding non-engineers in their recruitment. Having that degree eliminates that hurdle.
Just some things to think about. Didn’t mean for this to get so long. I hope your son finds the right fit and has a great college experience!
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@dmvmomx2 - I want my kid to be in love with VA Tech (we live in VA) but he’s just… not. I have no idea why. I think it’s just bigger than what he really wants. I’m like - CHILD - do you SEE the price differential? Just decide you love it! Everyone we know who goes/went to VT loves it! Sigh. Oh well.
Anyway, I think you are right, the internships and coops will help. I think that most likely once he gets to school and gets going, he’ll be fine. Just right now this is the area that his nerves are focusing on - I don’t actually see a situation where he decides that something STEM oriented isn’t what he wants. Thank you for the positive thoughts - he’s a good kid, he works hard, he has good choices available to him. i’m sure he’ll find a place that is good for him. I think he (and I) just want to be past the decision time now though, and get on with getting on. 
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Has he been accepted to Virginia Tech in engineering or did he not even apply? Sorry if I missed that .Great for engineering and a very manageable campus , despite the size. If you’ve given him a budget upfront, you should be okay with what he decides on. Lots of great schools out there. Good luck!
Oh I totally understand if Tech is not for your son. Mostly just sharing how he landed on Tech when he was considering UVA, UMD, and Purdue as well.
Also wanted to mention that we did visit Purdue and it had a similar feel to more rural VA (maybe like JMU). I can’t remember how big Purdue is, but it definitely feels smaller than Tech. We just happened to be there on the day they had a spring football game and went to stadium for that. (My kid is not a sports kid, but his sibling is and enjoyed it) I remember liking the university as a whole and was glad that we had a chance to visit. I would have been happy to see them go to Purdue. The only major downside was the distance (not that close to a major airport) and the potential cost differential.
Purdue has 45K+ students (35K undergrads). Not sure how big VT is.
Virginia Tech has about 30,000 undergrads, about 37,000 overall. 2600 acres.
Purdue info says 2468 acres so they seem fairly similar in size. We drove through the Purdue campus last summer. Nice campus. Virginia Tech also has a very nice campus and it always seemed pretty manageable to me and not overwhelming when we visited.
You can’t really go by reported acreages to assess how big a campus feels, especially for campuses adjacent to open land. Cal Poly for example is much smaller than either, but their campus is over 9000 acres. It’s because the school owns the adjacent land, and a ranch in Santa Cruz.
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I was referring to reported main campus size and feel. Cal Poly SLO reports their main campus size as 1321 acres. Virginia Tech and Purdue are both land grant universities with very nice, manageable campuses. That was my main point.
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Yea, I think even really big schools still have a cloistered, enclave feel to them. I’m always a little surprised at how reactive some are to overall school size.
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So in what feels like an odd turn of events, my kid got waitlisted at VA Tech (where he applied EA for engineering). We are VA residents and based on his stats, I really thought he’d get in.
Just for comparison’s sake, here’s his info:
Accepted to: Purdue/Engineering, Pitt/Engineering, WPI, RPI, Case Western.
Waiting to hear from: Lehigh
- He’s got a 4.0 unweighted (out of 4.0 - he’s never had anything other than an A, even for a quarter grade) and his end of junior year weighted GPA was a 4.2.
- He’s taken three years of engineering in high school and is currently working on an engineering capstone project
- He has a 35 ACT and a 1540 SAT
- He got 5’s on his AP exams in Human Geography, English Language, and Latin; and 4s on US History and Computer Science Principles.
- Right now he’s in more STEM based APs - Calc BC and Physics C (two periods) and is getting A’s in both (he’s also in AP English Literature and AP Gov and getting A’s in those)
- All of his academics that aren’t AP have always been honors level
- He’s an Eagle Scout
- He’s a varsity rower on his school crew team and is one of the captains, he also rows club in the summer and fall
- His science fair project last year won at the school and regional levels, and got some awards (certificates, not money) from DoD and NIH
I don’t know what happened with VaTech, but I guess that will make his choice a little easier in that there’s one less option on the table for him. But still, it wasn’t the result I was expecting.
Denied with a 4.0/1540? So sorry.
So sorry about the VT waitlist. He probably has a very good chance of getting off VT’s waitlist if they end up having openings. He probably would have gotten in if he had applied ED, but he obviously wanted to explore other options and he does indeed have other great options. Good luck with the decision!
He has so many great options. Make sure he knows this WL at VT is not about him. It is about VT doing the math and figuring he would most likely pick another college.
If it is a high priority then he can let them know that, too.
This is so tough. Keep being a great parent of an amazing kid!
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Seems weird. OOS nephew is going there with much lower stats-