My daughter is a Mechanical Engineering Major. She has gotten into Chico State, Oregon State, Oregon Tech, ASU Poly, Southern Utah, Long Beach State. She is waiting to hear from Cal Poly SLO, San Jose State and Cal Poly Pomona. This is all very overwhelming. Does anyone have any insight on which of these schools they would prefer? As a mom I’m looking at safety, quality of education and cost.
What’s your home state? Has she visited any of those schools? What types of things is she into hobby wise? I love the University of Utah, and routinely reassure posters that they won’t feel out of place on campus or in the community if they aren’t LDS. I don’t know that I could make the same claim of Cedar City. Will that bother her?
We live in California. She has visited Long Beach, Oregon State and Pomona. She is visiting Chico and San Jose this week. She hasn’t prioritized visiting Southern Utah (outsider due to not being LDS, weather, closest airport is Vegas), Oregon Tech (“in the middle of nowhere”) or ASU Poly (Cost). I guess what I’m asking is: Are any of the schools on her list an absolute NO for any of you and why. Are any of theses schools and absolute YES and why.
She loves engineering (building cars and robots) and musical theater.
The engineering classes are going to be very similar due to the ABET requirements so employers who hire engineers view the majority of engineering programs as essentially equivalent. In hiring interviews it’s easy to tell who knows the material and this is what they care about, not where it was learned.
Has she been admitted as a MechE major at all her schools? Being admitted into the major is much better than being admitted as an undeclared engineering major and then having to apply to your chosen major after a year or two.
If I was making the decision I’d prefer a campus with a residential feel instead of a commuter campus. Of the ones on your list that I know about that would be SLO and Chico. People I know who went to those schools loved their experience. SJSU, Pomona, and CSULB are primarily commuter schools. But your daughter’s preferences may be different.
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I think you’ve answered the first one. I’d write off S. Utah, OIT (I’ve been to K. Falls many times. It is a solid program, but there’s nothing there), and ASU Poly, for the reasons you stated.
As for absolute Yes, that depends on what she wants. Cal Poly seems like the obvious choice if she gets in (full disclosure, my son is a Poly ME alum, BS/MS from Oregon).
Chico is a cool town and has ABET accredited ME.
Oregon State offers something all the rest don’t, if she cares, big time athletics. It also comes with lots of gloomy weather. It’s a beautiful campus though. One of my son’s HS classmates went there for ME and is now at MIT doing a MS. It isn’t usually available at WUE rates either, so that’s a bonus. OSU is also completely opposite of Cal Poly when it comes to getting into major. It’s direct at CP and competitive at OSU.
She can’t go wrong with any of those three though.
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