Hi, I really need some help choosing some engineering schools.
36 ACT
1550 SAT
unweighted 3.77 GPA
Rigorous classes, multiple AP and honors
Mostly 4s and 5s on AP tests
Live in Minnesota
Aiming for less than $25K net cost per year
Interested in Biomedical Engineering or Computer Engineering
Looking to do pre-med as well
Urban or Suburban, no small town or rural
No preference for region
Looking for colleges with merit aid, but also applying for financial aid
Looking for DII or DIII soccer colleges, but NOT NECESSARY
Sorry for all the preferences. Let me know if you need any more info. Thanks!
Have you run the net price calculator on the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities?
Note that admission there would be to the College of Science and Engineering. From there, you need to apply to the major after taking some prerequisite college courses. A 3.2 college GPA in technical courses allows choosing any CS&E major; otherwise, there is the possibility of not getting into the major. http://www.advising.cse.umn.edu/cgi-bin/courses/noauth/apply-major-statistics indicates that biomedical engineering did not have capacity to take all students, but computer engineering did (but computer science did not).
How about UW? Minnesota has a reciprocity agreement with Wisconsin so you’d get in-state tuition and it’s an awesome school with a solid engineering department. They have a Biomedical engineering major and Madison is a great college town. I don’t think a lot of the best state schools for engineering offer aid to out of state students, but someone else might know more.
There are several private colleges you’d probably love - Dartmouth, U Penn and Stanford come to mind - and they have the money to provide full demonstrated need. Stanford, in particular, is very generous with families that make under 125K a year. The problem is they are crazy hard to get into! But a few reaches on your list are worth a shot - your scores are certainly fabulous and your grades are good.
Illinois Institute of Technology would probably offer you merit aid. My cousin with similar stats went there on a full ride. She liked that she could double-major and still do sports.
Other great private schools that seem to fit the bill… see if you can run their net price calculator and ask about merit aid… Lehigh University, Vanderbilt, U Rochester, Clemson, Rice.
Florida Tech and Embry-Riddle both have D2 soccer and would give you lots of merit money. Not huge cities but plenty of STEM businesses around the area, especial in aerospace. I think with your numbers the net cost might be close to $25k if not under.
If you will be NMF, the big Florida public schools would be free (but they are D1 for soccer; might have club teams).
Rose Hulman comes to mind if you want a smaller school for engineering.
I personally would apply to like Michigan, Wisconsin, etc and play on an intramural team. Your grades /test scores are great. Use that to your advantage
But… Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, RPI. Rit, MIT, Tufts, WashU, Steven’s Institute of technology.
Your very high test scores would likely get you merit money at U Pitt. Fits most of your list except D1 soccer. They probably have a great club soccer team (with much less stress). Top engineering program.
In comparison, Minnesota CS&E students earning a 3.2 technical GPA can choose any of the CS&E majors, and the previously linked engineering major admission stats suggest that some students with lower GPAs can get into biomedical engineering, while computer engineering admitted everyone.
Thanks @carolinamom2boys - I forgot that. So do you know if they offer merit aid for high achieving out of state students? Some state schools do but many do not.
Know that engineering of any kind is both a good fall back and will make you a better medical student should you get in. Unfortunately, it will almost certainly make getting into medical school harder. There are few undergraduate degrees more challenging than engineering, and getting into medical school is, in addition to quite a few other things, largely about GPA.
True… do your research on this. Engineering GPAs do tend to be lower, but from what I’ve read medical schools don’t care. They still will want really high GPA. I recall that in my senior year of college my roommate and one other ChemE student had 4.0 GPA. That was considered unusual since many other years there were none.