Looking for opinions, esp people in the AE field, understanding there is no correct answer.
Background:
My DS is applying for school, interested in Engineering, probably AE. Has good scores : probably NMF, act 36, sat 150 (790 math), gpa 3.9. I think we have decided it is not worth debt if he can get a full ride or close. But we don’t want to sacrifice a better future if we need to pay something.
He prefers a school with a good division 1 sports program (football, basketball), and would like a colder climate (but it seems we are giving this up).
Here are the places we are looking at:
Tier 1 (due to quality of school and potential of Full ride +)
Texas A&M
ASU - (have family in Phoenix area) We are leary due to the low rankings in AE but I wish I could get a handle on how Barretts student fair after school. I have visited the campus for my older son and am very impressed with the Barretts campus.
U of Oklahoma- seem to offer a fabulous package and we live in state currently
Tier 2 (possibly better school but unsure about finances)
U of Michigan- the climate would suite him and top notch AE program
Purdue- same as above
U of Colorado Boulder
Tear 3
UT Austin
U Minn twin cities ( likes the idea of being in a city, and the cold (he may not really understand what real cold is, but…)
Any thoughts, schools we should add or delete. Information we have wrong?
Should U Florida be considered? Other than heat they seem to tick the other boxes, though I’m unsure how much merit aid they give compared to the other schools.
I don’t expect much $ from them, but the reputation of the AE program is so strong we want to see what is offered.
as for Alabama, I suppose their football program would qualify :), but we don’t know much about the AE program. Not being in the industry, we are honestly leaning heavily on the US New rankings.
same for UF (although I also think is is afraid of the humidity)
I hope your instate to Michigan since any oos merit really doesn’t exist and instate is extemly hard to get. Also keep in mind that many in the AE field are actually mechanical engineers… But it’s a great school and once in engineering at Michigan, moving to another engineering sector is rather easier which is not true of most schools.
Hello. My son is studying Civil Engineering at ASU/Barrett. I think it’s a great choice for NMF.
However, as an out-of-state resident, you should not expect a full ride but rather a full tuition merit scholarship, possibly full tuition+ (i.e. tuition plus fees) if you stack small competitive scholarships on top of the base NMF scholarship (whereas a full ride is typically defined on this forum as tuition, room and board).
ASU’s Mechanical Engineering program is ranked #21 in the 2022 US News ranking, which is very good, and I view Aeronautical Engineering as somewhat of a specialization of Mechanical Engineering. With merit should cost about 20K/year.
Texas A&M is a good choice too (good balance between ranking and merit).
Oklahoma makes sense since you are in-state.
Purdue is a great choice, but will cost you more (possibly 40K/year).
Michigan will be crazy expensive if the university thinks you can pay full price (60K/year).
I think that you need to decide what you budget is. 20K/year? 40K/year? 60K/year? And is your EFC > 60K?
Mechanical engineering dept sponsors a research center in Aerospace Science and Engineering that has gained national attention. https://me.unm.edu/news/2021/08/index.html
Numerous internships available with Sandia National Laboratory(SNL), Los Alamos National Laboratory(LANL), the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) on Kirtland AFB, and White Sands Missile Range.
Albuquerque’s climate is mostly mild and dry year round (and good deal cooler in the summer than Phoenix).
UF offers a limited number of OOS scholarships, ranging from $8K to $20K, with OOS tuition being about $28K. For an OOS student, it can be expensive without one of these tuition reduction awards.
The state of Florida is also putting in place a new “Grandparents” program. If the student has grandparents living in Florida, they can pay the in-state tuition rate (about $6,300 a year). This should be in effect for Fall 2022 and it will be first come first serve (it’s limited to 350). This program will be offered at any of the Florida public universities.
First, you can use LinkedIn to look up each school and then select the Alumni tab. From here you can sort the data, a few different ways (like picking AE as the alumni field of study. This will give you an idea of where alumni live and work (and for what companies).
Next, some schools publish graduation survey results. Lets use UF’s as an example (since I like playing with that one, and have/had two kids at UF, one in the AE program).
You can select AE as the major. A lot of info is available, including salary (and bonus) info, destination (about 66% stay in-state), and the “outcomes and experience” tab. The last tab gives you a % of students (in AE) that had an internship, did research, average and median salary.
UF’s survey is done before graduation, some other schools are done up to a year after, so be careful in comparing programs. About a 1/3 of UF’s students, for example, are still waiting on offers or looking.
Finally, see if you can see a listing of companies that attend that colleges career fair. If so, you can get an idea of what companies are recruiting at that school (LinkedIn can also give you a strong hint, based on what companies current alumni are working at…).
Be aware that Texas A&M engineering frosh face a secondary admission process to enter specific majors. They need to meet the automatic admission college GPA (was 3.5, now 3.75) or apply into a competitive admission process naming at least three choices of major and write essays. AE and ME were among the more competitive majors recently, according to TAMU ETAM statistics - #172 by pbleigh and following posts.
Remember, a 3.75 college GPA is typically significantly harder to earn than a 3.75 high school GPA.
Purdue and Minnesota have similar secondary admission processes, but their automatic admission college GPA appears to be 3.2. At Minnesota, AE recently admitted applicants down to 2.0 college GPA, although even those majors like ME that did not admit all applicants did not reject that many: CSE Admission to the Major Statistics . Purdue does not seem to publish much information about how selective each major is for applicants below the 3.2 college GPA threshold.
The good news is that there are only 50ish ABET accredited programs in AE. Look them all up and search for automatic scholarships.
The bigger question is…why AE. Most do not understand that there are LOTS of routes into the industry, maybe more from ME than AE. Professor @boneh3ad has a ME degree, but a background in aerodynamics. He teaches in the field. He’d be the first to say there are lots of routes in.
Indeed, just evidence though that you didn’t get there through an AE program. Lots of ways to skin a cat. (sort of a gross metaphor, the origin of which I don’t know )
I appreciate all the information. I have not examined the data yet (but i will later today), but I am not afraid of a challenge. He is a very bright kid, and will need to compete against the best if he want to achieve in life. So if he cannot maintain a 3.75 in his freshman classes, he needs to reassess his goals in life. We discussed being a big fish in a small pond at a public school or competing against the best if he applies for a Mit or Stanford. He actually didn’t care about the other students, but wants the class to move faster and teach more.
He is holding all options open. He is a very slow deliberate thinker, not prone to wild changes. He thinks he is most interested in astrospace vs planes. This has come from taking advanced classes at an local Engineering Academy. His interest is more an organic class grown interest instead of end goal oriented.
It is very frequently misunderstood by non-engineers how difficult this is. Depending on the school, a 3.75 will raise one to not just competent, or really good, but superstar status. At schools like Harvey Mudd and Cal Poly, they graduate a 4.0 so infrequently, about once a decade, that it makes the news. Do not trivialize this no matter your student’s previous accomplishments. It’s not HS. It’s not pre-med. It’s HARD.
Most engineers who work in aerospace and/or on planes are NOT aerospace engineers. He needs to dig a little deeper into the role each type of engineer plays in the process.
)