She needs more realistic safeties /matches. All of your schools are competitive. Lots of kids with great stats. I had my son apply to where he wanted to which included mostly top 1O schools for engineering but also many lower schools in the 20s, 30s and 40s. He was impressed at the schools programs once he educated himself on them. Almost all schools below the top 10 gave decent merit. Also nothing you posted says engineering to me.
It might not be the type of engineering she is looking into but will give her an idea of working and collaboration with others in engineering fields. It is a very fun after-school program and multiple engineering ideas are covered. Plus it now gives her something for her application that is engineering based. FYI.
@taverngirl U of Rochester is definitely in her area of interest, but haven’t really looked into their engineering program. One of the things my daughter liked about Pitt Engineering was the abundance of co-op and internship opportunities with local hospitals and corporations. How would Rochester compare in that regard?
@lookingforward She specifically is interested in biomedical engineering, but that could change.
Her biggest STEM experience is participating in the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science(PJAS) competitions for the last five years.
Quite a few schools that claim to meet full need will be in the general range of $20,000 a year for someone making $115,000. Depending on assets and other things.
OP, no other ongoing collaborative math or science ECs? Math team, robotics, etc?
Many posters will point out that some engineering programs don’t require extensive experience. But the higher you go in tier, the more they do expect the activities. And the competition will have them. Plus the rigorous math and science classes. Does she have these and are there 5 scores in those?
People are throwing out names of colleges and I just want you to realize the challenges in getting admitted to some of them. Please be cautious.
As you can see from my name, not totally unbiased, but Purdue is a great engineering school. I went there 30 years ago and it is only become so much better. There is a lot to love about Purdue. Mitch Daniels is an amazing President. Since he started something like 8 years ago, they have not raised tuition 1 cent. My niece currently attends and also received a ton of merit money.
I think talking to engineers is important though. Not so much about the education, but about what engineering in real life is all about. Most engineers do things in incremental steps. Nothing really ground breaking. Most of the time you don’t really engineer, but project manage. As you progress your Powerpoint skills are often more important then your math/physics skills. I’ve been in the field for more then 25 years and many who thought they’d spend their whole life doing one thing have ended up doing other, still interesting stuff.
I love my job, but it isn’t anywhere close to what I thought it would be when I first stepped foot on campus 30 years ago.
@eyemgh It’s both funny and sad that having a $100,000 budget for your child severely limits their options at elite institutions unless they are hooked or brilliant.
We could certainly take on more debt, but are choosing not to because their are many other very good and affordable options. My D understands and thankfully she hasn’t fallen in love with one particular school.
It’s interesting looking at the Swat engineering program. They weed out a high percent. (Swat claims they find “other interests”.) Much different than Pitt where the focus is to provide resources to insure that a very high percentage of freshmen engineers succeed and get an engineering degree.
Swat also does not specialize and makes the argument that corporations can train a Swat engineer in whatever specialization they need. Very different philosophies.
OP: While it is a little out of your stated geographic range, if your daughter is interested in biomedical engineering, she may want to look into Washington University in St. Louis. Good engineering and good non-engineering academics; plus, Wash U offers the Danforth Scholarship, a competitive merit scholarship. (The Danforth Scholarship is a nominated scholarship, so you/your daughter might want to have a conversation with your school’s guidance counselor about the procedure for getting a nomination for the Danforth – at our high school, that takes place early in the Fall Semester of senior year.)
@ucbalumnus We were very impressed by the Pitt Engineering program when we visited. It will likely be the first program she applies to since they have rolling admissions.
@BrianBoiler Thanks for that comment. I find most kids don’t know what engineers actually do. They think of the glory of new inventions and miss just how much an engineer is only a part of the process, doing his or her role. (It’s one of the reasons a top program expects collaborative experiences.)
Ime, every other engineering wannabe wants BME, in order to make products that advance the world, make life better. They don’t realize the timelines, how it can take years and the role of busines decisions, as well.
It’s a fascinating profession. So many engineers are inherently curious about so much, love to tinker, are interesting individuals. But it’s not just about glory.
@Knowsstuff Am I wrong to think that a likely NMF with a 1570 SAT will be rejected by Temple, Pitt and Penn St? Last year Temple gave a NMF from her school a full ride, so I’m very confident she would at least get accepted there. She also has a recommendation letter from the PA Academy of Science who interviewed after her last PJAS state meet where she was awarded scholarships to both the engineering and science colleges at Penn St.
If she doesn’t get into the main campuses at Pitt and Penn St, I’m pretty sure they would accept her at the satellite campuses. After all, if they are rejecting the top 1% of PA kids, who are they accepting instead?
If she’s interested in Boston, she might want to consider Northeastern. Not an easy admit but they love high stats kids so it would probably be a match.
ETA: Northeastern offers many merit scholarships. Their scholarship for NMF is up to $30,000.
@knowstuff The Ace Mentor program looks very interesting, though none of the five locations are near us. Plus, after school is not an option with her playing three sports. I agree that she does not have the ECs that show a specific interest in Engineering, but there is almost no extra time. That being said, she has taken the most challenging science and math curriculum available and has been very successful. She has a good base to build on.
@BrianBoiler thanks for the post. At Pitt and JHU we talked to engineering students that were minoring in Entreprenurialship or Business, which seemed smart to me.
One of the best things about the PJAS program is that when the students complete their research project, they create a Power Point and present their findings to a panel of judges that score them on both the research and the presentation.
Really helped both my kids develop very good presentation skills which will be an asset in most any field they enter. I’m sure you can attest that your technical background has helped you immensely in being a better manager since you can understand and decipher the technical people on your team.
@gandalf78 we considered swinging through St Louis this summer for a visit, but D was wishy washy. I will add to the research list and see if it’s one she wants to apply to pre-visit.
One thing I found very helpful was making a spreadsheet with our list of schools.
For each school, I included tuition & fees, room & board, estimated other costs (books), estimated insurance, estimated travel. For each year, I added in 3-5% inflation, and the spread sheet gave me an estimated four year cost.
Then, I ran the NPC at the schools likely to make the short list. I deducted automatic scholarships where applicable, and made notes about COA if a competitive scholarship were to go through.
Our D was weary from doing her applications. She did only one competitive scholarship, and did not get it. Luckily, she a few automatics to choose from.
Some private schools have room and board costs of $13-16K per year. Our D got a full tuition offer at Fordham in NYC. Nevertheless, my spreadsheet told me Fordham was still going to cost us about $99K for four years. NYC prices for room and board, air fare, insurance, fees not included in the award, etc.
You’ll have to be strategic to stay within your budget of $20-25K per year. Lots of bright kids can get accepted to top schools, but simply cannot afford them.
For Pitt, submit the rolling application on the early side to get the best merit. They use it up as they go along. /September would be great if doable for her, but applying in October got my son with similar stats a big merit offer.