I think ISU is a good quick safety for your son. You should have acceptance in hand really soon. I Know two software engineers who went there and are there currently (both high stats kids) and they loved it. A 2021 kid from my daughter’s small high school chose ISU (36 ACT/NMF) for engineering as well. here’s a prestigious program in our area - my kid didnt get into it (it’s OK!) - Lots of opportunities nationally along with it, but not a lot of name recognition. https://raikes.unl.edu/
2 Likes
Safety? No. Likely, yes.
And yes, direct admit to College of Science for CS is a tougher admit than engineering.
But, I’d strongly encourage your student to look at the 4 year course of study between CoS CS and CoE ECE. They are very different. That’s not the case at some schools, but it is at Purdue. Your child has strong enough stats to apply to the program that fits them best.
And seconding the advise to not miss the EA deadline. Nov. 1st is the hard cut off for honors college and merit awards as well. Purdue is very upfront that they fill the majority of their class EA and there are very few seats, if any, in RD for the popular majors.
5 Likes
One to consider is #13 in US News Engineering - Virginia Tech. Likely acceptance, very reasonable cost after he receives likely scholarships, fantastic campus & town, and students love VT. Small downside is a bit farther 8 - 10 hour drive depending upon where you live, but very short flight.
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate
2 Likes
Bradley University in Peoria should be a safety school academically for your son.
2 Likes
Bradley is close to you, a regional school but ties to Caterpillar, a name that used to be known nationally (thanks to Hersey Hawkins) and has a COA of under $50K. Oh, and you’d get a $24K scholarship - so half of school is paid for. They have an estimator online.
3 Likes
If you are looking for a quick application and admission, Iowa State is the safe bet (and your son will get a scholarship). My son applied and was admitted in 30 seconds (yes, you read that right). We are now applying through the lens of…well, would he attend this school over Iowa State (oh…and our S22 has a scholarship from ISU, too, and is interested in CS). We visited Ames. It is a great campus. The university has a great First Year Honors Program (you can continue in it after Freshman year if you want). What I have heard about ISU is that were it in Ann Arbor, everyone would want to go. So, by all means, have your son apply to Illinois, Purdue, and the other schools. But, have him apply to Iowa State tonight. He likely will be admitted shockingly fast.
6 Likes
The MIT experience is different. What’s important to know is that it’s for better or for worse, depending on what a student wants. Much like Caltech, MIT is not for everyone. It’s important to know what the experience will be like to determine whether or not it will be a good fit.
For my son, it was a definitive no. He knew he wanted a “typical college experience” with things like athletics, social life, concerts, hiking, skiing or surfing, etc. as part of a well rounded experience. There are many schools that offer this, Michigan, Purdue, and his alma mater, Cal Poly, to name but a few. Students get a great engineering education at all of them.
My Dad went to MIT (BS/MS). My uncle went to Wyoming (BS, PhD Stanford). My dad said their undergraduate educations were essentially the same, but the MIT networking was far better.
Your son’s lack of motivation to be part of the process is concerning. As a result, you’re stabbing in the dark trying to find schools, but without knowing what he wants (big/small, urban/suburban/rural, rounded/tech focused, etc.). You could be building a list of schools that just don’t fit.
I do think your approach however of finding safeties close to home is a good approach.
At some point he needs to either get in the game or consider a gap year.
4 Likes
Thanks to everyone that responded with suggestions. We are not considering smaller regional schools like Bradley. I put focus on national name recognition because son will most likely not seek employment in Illinois after graduation . In fact our whole family plans to relocate out of Illinois as soon as he graduates and he’s onboard with the plan.
I will check out both Iowa and Iowa State so we may get a solid acceptance early in the process. It was such a bummer when I saw Michigan State no longer has rolling admissions.
@eyemgh yeah it does concern me that my son is unmotivated, but I’m not stabbing in the dark though. I do know his strengths and weaknesses, his general preferences (he’s too lazy to tell me so I have to dig it out) and what kind of environment may fit him. Kind of did the same thing with my daughter’s application process 4 years ago and it turned out pretty well, although this time around things are much more difficult. I’m only focusing on solid safeties and will leave it up to him on the reaches if he decides to put in the work for those.
Now it looks like I have all OOS public schools. Are there any solid private schools not too far that may be a safety? I eliminated Rose Hulman because son doesn’t want colleges smaller than his high school lol.
2 Likes
I think location is what is hanging you up. If you weren’t limiting in terms of location, I’d suggest WPI, RPI and RIT. RIT would be a safety, the other two matches.
3 Likes
Rose also has a tough M:F ratio and is in Terre Haute! 
How small is too small? How far from home is he willing to stray?
2 Likes
Yup, very true
1 Like
We sent you some privates - Bradley (which given your request, isn’t bad) - but Dayton, Case Western is a match (and closer than Pitt). WUSTL a reach. St. Louis.
In message 19, I gave you a state by state list of schools closer than 7 hours drive that “might” work.
2 Likes
You are spot on! Both my kids said nowhere with lopsided gender ratios. Big schools hidden in vast corn fields are ok, small schools in urban setting ok, but small school in middle of nowhere is not ok 
As far as distance from home, he’s too lazy to be specific, so I set it around 5 hours drive. This is why I hesitate adding UPitt as it is a bit far.
1 Like
Yes thanks, I’ll read through that post again.
1 Like
If 9000 isn’t too small, I’d add Missouri S&T. They have a very good reputation among hiring engineers, fun school spirit, and great facilities. Like I said, my sister passed up MIT to go there.
I would also think Case Western would be at least a match, probably with good money. My son was offered $100K. He didn’t end up there, but Cleveland and the school exceeded our expectations.
1 Like
Thanks for the suggestions. We considered Case before, but I heard they are big on yield protection so EA is unpredictable and merit $ is not impressive. Was your son also aiming for CS there and with similar stats? I imagine admissions are much tougher and more unpredictable now compared to a couple years ago.
1 Like
Mechanical Engineering. His courses were similar. He took Physics C as a Junior and BC as a Senior because his school forced the AB/BC sequence. Now they allow BC/MVC which he would have done had it been offered. GPA same, SAT slightly lower, but that was before the test change. Upper 1500s were extremely rare prior. He missed a single question on math and got a 760.
As for merit and difficulty of admission, I can’t really say. He applied because it had a good reputation as a school and was known at the time to offer good merit. He applied RD and we only visited after he received that award. If they’ve met their ranking and reputation goals, they may be pulling in the purse strings.
Besides Case, we visited every other school he applied to, and a LOT that he didn’t.
1 Like
You are sort of contradicting yourself. You say you have no budget but you are seeking value. CWRU provides merit and your son is likely to receive.
It sounds like you’d rather pay $75K for a name school than $30K for one that doesn’t impress you as much.
CWRU is impressive and with merit you won’t pay $75K.
You will likely get in - make sure you demonstrate interest. Get on their email list. Join a webinar or two. Go to visit when you go visit different schools.
You are “above” the norm for Case so they will give money to get you. These are the types of schools that will pay for someone who can get into an even higher rated school - because your son can. They don’t need to know that you’re only looking within a short distance of your home.
But by guessing or saying I hear they this or that, you’ll never know. You have 20 Common App slots - you should use as many as you need (if the school is the right fit for you).
Unfortunately on the board from last year no one mentioned money…but it’s a similar school rank wise to Miami and they give $25K.
Anyway, don’t make “assumptions” because they are often wrong. You have to play to find out.
2 Likes
I think there’s a belief that a name school might make their son more employable across a wider swath of the US. There might be some truth to that, but in general, hiring engineers look at GPA, courses, then other intangibles like internships, jobs, projects, etc. That’s assuming applying cold.
Within engineering circles, they know the strata of schools. Even though neither Bradley or Missouri S&T are household names, you can be assured that those hiring have an opinion on where they’d rank their grads.
The secret sauce is to find a school that will be recognizable as quality that isn’t $75k.
6 Likes
I was more commenting on the CWRU - saying - they don’t give merit - and that’s a well known commodity in engineering. But in the earlier posts, she said it’s whether or not it’s worth the price tag.
I would say a school at $30K is better than one at $75K because my son is matched at the same level as Ga Tech. But the OP would clearly have the Ga Tech type - which is why I don’t understand the dismissing of CWRU.
I get Bradley and Missouri S&T - even though i see both as reasonable. Bradley is well connected - and it’s funny, but when we had the wide swath of colleges and I had my son put Mizzou on the list, the recruiter at Mizzou said - honestly, you’d be much better off going to Science & Tech.
It’s no doubt a great option…as are so many schools it seems the OP will dismiss…which is ok…but there just doesn’t seem to be a consistent thread if you will.
PS - glad you are back…we missed your insights for the few weeks you were gone.
1 Like