<p>I have a friend whose son is a rising high school senior, looking to major in mechanical engineering. Lives in the northern Chicago burbs, and would prefer absolutely nothing more than 2.5 hours from home. Prefers a school population of no more than 5,000. He has a weighted GPA is 4.19 and he is ranked 22 out 550. ACT - 25, but 30 in math, and 20 in English. Not much in the way of ECs, and only in freshman and sophomore years. </p>
<p>Any knowledge about merit awards would be appreciated also. He has looked at Carthage College and UW-Whitewater; just got information about Milwaukee School of Engineering and Bradley University, but have not visited. </p>
<p>I doubt Notre Dame is realistic with a 25 ACT. Purdue is an excellent suggestion, even though it is large. Missouri U. of Science & Technology also comes to mind, but it is further than 2.5 hours away, although it is much smaller than Purdue.</p>
<p>We got a lot of brochures from University of Evansville. It has mechanical engineering. I thought it looked like a nice campus, smaller school. I’m interested in this thread, as son loves Chicago and would like to do grad school in that area. We also got info from IUPUI. I think they had biomedical engineering, which is what his initial interest was, but not sure about mech eng. Son is currently a mech eng major at Bama. Lots of Chicago area kids there. He has a friend at DePaul who is majoring in physics and hopes to do grad work in engineering. He’s there on a sports scholarship, so he wasn’t too concerned that they didn’t have his major. Oh, almost forgot. What about University of Illinois at Chicago? Son did a summer program there. We liked the campus and the dorm, and they do have biomedical engineering, so there may be other engineering programs there as well.</p>
<p>+1 Purdue, but out of state tuition is nasty these days… For a small school feeling (why?) Rose-Hulman is pretty good but expensive as well.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that in engineering, the bigger the better in the sense that there’s all kinds of off-the-wall engineering classes, minors, research projects, and the like…</p>
<p>I live in Missouri and MUS&T is more than 4 hours from me. From the north Chicago suburbs to Rolla, MO, would be at least 7 hours and an extreme culture shock. Not much to do in Rolla except study engineering. </p>
<p>I think the enrollment that the OP suggested is very difficult to find with a good engineering program.</p>
<p>Thank you SO much for all of the suggestions. My friend is not an internet person and has just been amazed at how much information I’ve been able to give her in the last couple of hours by using CC and Princeton Review (mostly to eliminate schools based on size and/or stats). She has now added Marquette and IIT to the list.</p>
<p>Purdue is much bigger than he’d like; Evansville, as well as MUST&T is too far.</p>
<p>I also remembered Valparaiso and it seemed like a good fit. As of now, I think he has four solid fits with Milwaukee School of Engineering, Marquette, IIT, and Valparaiso. </p>
<p>Notre Dame is definitely a reach; he’s not likely to get in there. U of I/Chicago is too big.</p>
<p>Since I mentioned they are interested in merit aid, I don’t know why you’re thinking he’s a rich north shore kid. But when I read your post to his mom, she laughed and said, “He may not be scared, but his mom is!”</p>
<p>If he’s willing to consider 3.5 hours from home and a Christian environment, I would recommend Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. The size is exactly what you mentioned and it has a strong engineering program in a liberal arts environment. </p>
<p>olderwisermom - Yes, Calvin would be a great place. But it really is further than they want. You’re preaching to the choir here when you suggest places farther away from home (both my kids went 700+ miles away), but I really can’t see them budging on the distance issue. If I could convince them to visit, I think they’d love Calvin!</p>
<p>2.5 hours away seems like such an arbitrary distance. What is the difference between that and 4 hours away, you can’t commute to either. Do the parents plan on making a daily drive to checkin on the kid for some reason?</p>
<p>What about Purdue Calumet right over the state line in Indiana? It is easier for admittance, and the curriculum is identical to Purdue. He would even graduate with a Purdue degree, and would have internship opportunities in Chicago. If he actually lives in the campus apartments (they are building more), he would be able to build a little community in an otherwise commuter school. Most of the people in my area that don’t head to Lafayette or Bloomington due to family or financial concerns attend at that campus. This includes a lot of kids that did get into higher ranked colleges.</p>
Agreed. The engineering powerhouses in the region (UIUC, Northwestern, Purdue, UW Madison) are probably well out of reach with a 25 ACT, so it seems odd to pile additional, seemingly arbitrary filters on top of that. UIC and IIT are within the distance parameter but UIowa, Iowa State, Missouri, or IU Bloomington could be perfect academically.</p>