<p>No Haystack, they do not. But I do think the whole family got used to the oldest going to school about an hour away, so that when she wanted to come home on weekends, etc., it was easy to drive down, pick her up and drive back home. </p>
<p>The mom doesn’t have a lot of experience driving longer distances and doesn’t like it. She would honestly prefer something less than two hours, but I’m the one who pushed her to consider 2.5. And before anyone asks, yes, the kid wants to be closer to home, too. Some kids just do not want to be further away and he’s one of them for now. Now, once he gets to school, he may discover he doesn’t want to go home as often as he thinks he does now, but this is his restriction also. Neither of the parents went more than an hour and a half away to college when they went, so this is just their family’s preference. </p>
<p>MizzBee - thanks for the Calumet suggestion. Sounds like a great option! Will pass it along to her.</p>
<p>I can honestly say I am 98% certain this family will not change their mind about distance and I don’t want this thread to turn into a debate about family choices. So unless you have a school that will fit the parameters I shared in the first post, please don’t try to convince us what a terrible decision they are making.</p>
<p>I did forget to add in that he will have had around 4 AP and a couple of honors classes upon graduation, too.</p>
<p>Glad to see Valpo on the list as well. It really is a great school. People sometimes dismiss it on here because of the high acceptancerates, but I think that they only count applicants that meet their prereqs.</p>
<p>Bradley has an engineering school. I have no idea how far it is from Chicago but draws lots of kids from that area. They told us they run a shuttle back and forth to Chicago on the weekends so that kids can go home for the weekend.</p>
<p>I second the recommendation for Bradley. It has a very good engineering school and it is located about 2 hours (maybe a little more) from Chicago. Lots of students from Chicago area. Reasonably priced for a private school.</p>
<p>Just a note on the shuttle thing - DD1’s college is 3 hours away and has a shuttle to our city but the cost of the shuttle vs gas to drive is quite unreasonable… </p>
<p>Bradley is a good school also as well as Milwaukee School of Engineering - I have coworkers from both and have been impressed.</p>
<p>Grand Valley State University in west Michigan. Straight up the lakeshore from Chicago. Depends on where in Chicago but 2.5 - 3 hour drive most likely.</p>
<p>teri, Northern Illinois University has Mechanical Engineering, is more easily reached from the N. suburbs than Valpo, is cheaper, and might actually accept a 25 ACT kid. I hope they succeed in their search.</p>
<p>NIU would be a good choice. The ME departrment has articulation agreements with Illinois community colleges, so it might be a wise move to do two years at a CC, then transfer. For example:</p>
<p>I forgot about NIU. When we were vacationing in Chicago and were talking about visiting Marquette, we had lots of people recommend NIU to us. Son had had his heart set on Marquette for BME, but even with his good stats, they did not give us enough money. We did visit Marquette and liked it, and even if the finances had worked out right, son decided in the end that he did not want to go too far from home for undergrad. I can sympathize with the OP. He is at an advantage in that he’s looking at ME, which is offered at a lot more places than BME. Luckily, our son decided to do his undergrad in ME so he could find some place affordable and closer to home.</p>
<p>While NIU sounds like a great option, the size falls outside of the parameters this kid has set. They are very familiar with the school, though, as one of his parents went there for a couple of years.</p>
<p>SimpleRules - that’s the kind of program that Carthage offers. You finish up your last two years at UW-Madison or Minnesota. But North Central College would have never occurred to me. Will check it out. Thanks.</p>
<p>mantori.suzuki - have to agree with you. Have heard wonderful things about Valpo. Which is why I suggested it. But my friend had never even heard of it, and she grew up in the Chicago area.</p>
<p>Wanted to update everyone on the search. My friend came by today and we spent a few hours digging deeper into some of the above mentioned colleges.</p>
<p>After mentioning to her the shuttle system Bradley runs, as well as looking at the engineering department’s website, she has added it to the list. Believe it or not, I also got her to add Calvin College to the list! What it basically boils down to (and I can totally relate as I am the same) is that she has a hard time driving any distances without getting very sleepy. She is burning the candle at both ends, and I suspect doesn’t get much sleep, so driving distances is very challenging. She did admit that it is her preference not to be so far away, that she thinks her son would be OK with it. I think with her daughter going to school only 45 minutes away, she became accustomed to easy trips home, where she didn’t have to worry about driving long distances. </p>
<p>Anyway, schools still on the list are: Milwaukee School of Engineering, Carthage College, Marquette University, UW-Whitewater, Bradley, Valparaiso University and Calvin College. Once she looked at the stats at UW-Whitewater, she is questioning that choice, but the cost is very attractive. Purdue-Calumet is pretty abysmal when it comes to academic rigor and did not impress her (the average high school GPA was in the mid 2’s). She would have considered Purdue Lafayette had it not been so large. She also ruled out ITT when we saw some of the comments on Princeton Review (#9 least happy students, etc.). She feels her son would have a better experience at MSOE. I also had a chance to talk with my personal trainer, who’s son applied to MSOE last year, but did not get in. He said the tour completely wins you over, so my friend is now really looking forward to taking her son up there. Another criteria we looked at was 4-year graduation rate. Some differences there, and that might lead to preferences of one place over another. Actually MSOE’s was quite low.</p>
<p>Thanks again to all who offered suggestions and encouraged me to push her a bit more. We had a lot of fun, made a spread sheet, and now she has to sit down with her son and let him take it from here.</p>
<p>This might be coming late but UW-Platteville would probably be better for engineering than UW-Whitewater. It is about 3 1/2 hours from Chicago though. One bonus for Platteville is that it charges a lower tuition rate for Illinois students through its Tri-State Initiative.</p>
<p>I have to agree with your friend’s disregarding IIT. The campus is aged, cramped, ugly, and surrounded by the worst ghetto between New York and L.A. It’s above-average academic reputation isn’t worth the experience of being there.</p>