How to pare down the list? Once you’ve got some safeties your D likes then you pare the list down by looking at other factors. Doesn’t even seem like your D has seen these schools. What kind of experience does she want? What about location? Those of us who didn’t consider cost as the number one thing had to narrow things down and used a number of ways to choose schools. Your D’s experience at Stanford will be completely different than at MIT or Princeton or Cornell. I wouldn’t just apply to a bunch of schools across the board. Which one of those schools FIT her? I honestly don’t know anyone who would be equally happy at MIT or Stanford. Rose Hulman is smallish, Rice is mid-sized, and many of the other schools are big. Does she want a small school experience or a big one? IIT is hardly a college experience. More like a trade school. Does she want that? Mines is gorgeous and near the mountains and gets lots of outdoorsy kids. Does she like that? Or does she prefer a city school like BU? Again, those two are NOTHING like each other. The list is pretty ridiculous at this point. The only thing you’ve looked at is cost.
@cypresspat. I get it. My son’s at Michigan since he wanted to be with like minded students. Even said so in his essay. But not in honors for engineering. I mentioned that to him when he was a freshman and he looked at me like I was insane. He reminded me how hard Michigan is especially engineering. He’s right. He went to the top high school in our state and it seems like most of his friends there are from their top school. He is being challenged and that is exactly what he wanted.
@BingeWatcher Sad indeed, but the Singletary scholarship, while competitive, might be within your reach? Regardless Patterson remains one of the best financial options for NHRP scholars as most colleges that offered full ride scholarships to NHRP have stopped doing so and now typically only offer full tuition scholarships.
@Knowsstuff Michigan is ranked #6 in Engineering by US News. I don’t think it matters there if one is accepted to the Honors College or not… but there is no merit scholarship available. On the other hand Arizona State is only ranked #38. Kentucky and Alabama are only ranked #87. At such school it might matter, especially for a top 1% student.
@homerdog I don’t think that looking at cost first is ridiculous when faced with a limited budget. In my opinion, as long as you pick a well ranked ABET accredited engineering school, I think any student can adapt, be happy and succeed.
Good catch! Thank you.
Given that cost is the most important “fit” factor for most students and parents, including the OP, it makes sense to build the initial list based on affordable cost (and suitable academic offerings, of course). Later, the list of affordable schools can be trimmed by the non-essential “fit” factors.
@NJEngineerDad right. But the list is 40+ long and he’s done due diligence on the cost part. Paring from here needs to revolve around fit. I mean - who applies to BU and to Mines? That doesn’t make sense.
@NJEngineerDad. I was reading it out of context. Thx. Didn’t think about the merit being tied to it. Just skimming this thread.
So there are 17 number 87 ranked college. With many others rankings in this ranking list tied like this. Sorta crazy if you ask me.
I know a kid just graduated at Texas Tech in logistics and had a good job day one. Same with kids at Michigan etc. Putting the work and interest and you will be rewarded.
And the D would not be the first kid who thought “I don’t care where I go or what the campus looks like” in August, only to return to a competitive HS in September and hear the buzz and the chatter about who is applying where and decide that she DOES want warm weather (after four years at a New England boarding school) or ONLY wants cold weather and seasons, and she DOES want urban and fun stuff to do in the city or ONLY wants rural and beautiful and bucolic and a place where everyone takes a head-clearing run in the late afternoon. So there’s that…
@blossom right. It’s four years of a person’s life and it’s not all about the classes. If all of these schools on the long list have the program that the student wants and they are either (a) definitely affordable or (b) possibly affordable, then one needs to start thinking about everything else that is part of the college experience. It’s just not true that kids go to school and will be “fine” anywhere. I know a few kids who thought that and they aren’t having the best freshman year so far. Cramped dorm or couldn’t get the classes they wanted or a lame orientation program that left them still lonely or in big classes when they thought they’d be ok with that and they are decidedly not…or too far from home even though they thought it would be cool to be far away and now are already re-thinking that. It’s about the cost of course but, after that, there’s a lot to consider.
Our experience is to counter to @NJEngineerDad in terms of engineering careers. My ds is a chemE who attended a lower ranked school. He was hired alongside grads from top ranked engineering schools like UM and UCB. (His best friend is Berkeley grad.) His career has taken off and who he is as an employee is all that has mattered in his career. No one cares where he went to school, just his job performance.
“Paring from here needs to revolve around fit. I mean - who applies to BU and to Mines? That doesn’t make sense.”
That’s not the only factor. There still needs to be more winnowing on the probability of success for “competitive” schools. The probability of getting full tuition plus is not the same at Caltech and Clarkson or Virginia and Utah. Eliminating/deprioritizing the ultra long shots cuts this list to about 20 plausible options, fewer than half of which have women’s hockey. So there’s not going to be that much scope to take location and/or weather into account if the availability of hockey remains a priority.
@homerdog My daughter had a normal college experience at IIT. The campus has architecturally significant buildings, there’s sports teams, frats and sororities, clubs, dorms, all the usual college stuff, as much as any school with a tech focus. It’s definitely not a trade school.
I love this thread, I hope it keeps going. We are learning right alongside Kevin.
So my S20 would LOVE the mountains – or LOVE a big urban city after growing up in the flat calm midwest. But we are on a quest for merit too; and will need to decide if its worth it going to college in Alabama, Kentucky or Arizona when we have full tuition at our state school UNL. He’s applying for a few high reach schools as well. Here’s a plug for UNL (look into the Raikes program btw). It does seem like all those public schools that offer full tuition or close to it are very close in rankings.
I highly recommend a visit to Lexington!
There is a lot to do in the city, and there is great hiking only 1-2 hours away by car.
UNL? What school is that?
@Parentof2014grad ok. Good to know. I apologize. IIT advertises in television spots here. Just seems different than most colleges. We are in the Chicago suburbs and I guess I’m comparing it to other schools that aren’t all about tech. It still has to be a way different experience than Alabama, etc.
The OP’s D needs to decide what she wants after the money falls into place. I still don’t get this list and why it’s so hard to pare it down.
UNL= University of Nebraska Lincoln. NE is a large state with a small population.
UNL…thank you!