“Your son is unlikely to have a “strong social life.” Since it is difficult to get accepted as an engineer it is seldom because they couldn’t do the work if they wanted IMHO.”
mikemac - thanks for your input. I really value CC members’ experience and advise. It’s possible that my original statement my S17 wanting a strong social life may misled you to think that he’s wants to have easy schedule and not work that hard. That was not intent. We visited many engineering info sessions at schools in the past year and were told that though classes do not meet every day, however studying outside of the classroom is comparable to 40+ hour job. Anything less than that may jeopardize learning, grades, etc.
I realize S17 will face a learning curve on adapting to the pace of college classes, especially demanding engineering classes. I think he’ll figure it out. What S17 is looking forward to is not attending every class every day like in HS where students’ times are dictated by the traditional school structure. You all know how packed HS days, especially if students are involved in extracurricular activities. For the past 4 years, S17 left the house at 7:30 am and return home around 6 pm from robotics, lacrosse, or orchestra. After eating dinner and doing some homework, he went to hockey practice or games until about 10 pm or later, then finishing remaining homework past midnight or so. The challenges for robotics and hockey are long/simultaneous seasons (September - February) and he had leadership roles in both. Since both activities were important to him, he learned to manage his time, but some days he was really stretched. This past semester was especially grueling bc of college apps in the mix, but kept up his grades all 4 years.
As S17 contemplates college options, he is seeking fit where he can study hard, get involved in some extracurricular activities, and find some time to socialize.
literallymarx and csdad2 - Given the state of IL’s budget problems, how much does it impact UIUC? I heard it may to a degree, but not too much for CoE.
ucbalumnus - The cost of UICU will stay the same even if S17 loses the James Scholar status bc there is no merit attached to it. It’s only allows him to register for classes before non-JS students. I am sure keeping a GPA above 3.5 is not an easy feat in a large and competitive school like UIUC’s CoE.
SweetTea - I am glad to hear about your son’s experience at Case. My S17 registered for an admitted student visit in April. Is working at ThinkBox a work study job? S17 did not quality for work study unfortunately.
UIUC has a very large endowment and should be fine, especially considering how much funding the CoE gets from outside sources. The schools that are in most trouble are the smaller public universities like Chicago State and the directionals. Either way I think the state will have a budget by 2019 at the latest, but maybe I’m overly optimistic.
literallymarx - which year is your student in at UIUC? Has he/she been able to participate in research and/or internship? If so, how difficult was the process?
My impression is that the impact of the IL budget issues on education at UIUC has been pretty minimal, and, like @literallymarx, am optimistic that UIUC will get through it fine. Hopefully the worst is over and we’ll get rid of Rauner ASAP.
csdad2 - I hope your impression is correct and agree that our political leaders need to seriously work together.
By chance, did your son involved in Sigma Phi Delta? I understand that a social/professional fraternity made up of all engineers. My S17 was invited to attend the upcoming Engineers in Training program, sponsored by Sigma Phi Delta, in conjunction with Engineering Open house on 3/10 and 3/11. I am inclined to send S17 so that he learns more about UIUC’s program and fellow students. The only drawback are the dates. He will be returning from USC’s scholarship event on 3/9, which means that week of school will shot.
My son is not the fraternity type, not even a social/professional one. I’m not really familiar with that organization. We do encourage him to get involved with a variety of interesting and worthwhile activities, but it is hard to do too much. If that is something your son might be interested in, he should investigate it further.
And my younger son is a senior this year, so I know how it can be difficult to do visits while impacting their school year as little as possible. We’re still trying to visit some of the schools he’s applied to but hasn’t yet seen.
I feel your pain, csdad2. I’m obsessed with current politics yet so repulsed by it too. The daily frenzy of it all is mind- boggling. Where is your senior looking? Which does he want to visit?
@cag60093 my S is not work study and works around 10 hours a week. He is doing it for spending money and to get work experience. I’m not sure what the maximum hours one could work but he also has another job on campus so divides his time.
One applies directly for a position from their webpage and then they will interview you for any open positions usually at the start of semesters. There are different areas and I’m not sure what area he worked at last semester but this semester is in the fabrication department. Also you give tours and generally train people on the machines for their projects. He was telling me recently that he took apart a non working machine and fixed it then rewrote the code. So as far as I can tell it is something very helpful for his resume building as he is looking for co-ops currently.
I love reading about all the things going on at thinkbox and am thrilled at all the opportunities he is getting studying at cwru. I’m sure there are wonderful programs at the other universities your son is interested in and will do well wherever he lands.
I don’t want to sidetrack your thread. My younger son has a couple of the same schools as your son (UIUC, Case), but he’s more interested in small LACs, so otherwise his list is very different. Soon we’re going to visit some schools on the west coast (Pomona, Occidental), and then over spring break we’ll be visiting some schools on the east coast (Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, Vassar).
He’s interested in physics. At UIUC the physics dept. is in the CoE, although they have majors in both CoE and LAS. This past weekend we went to an info session the physics dept. had. The presenter was very good, in particular he presented things in a very informed and unbiased manner. Besides being a physics faculty member, he’s an associate dean in the CoE, so he was able to present things from that perspective. (For instance, one topic he talked about was the budget issues/impacts.)
You asked about work/jobs on campus, and work study. My impression (perhaps mostly from UIUC) is that there are a good number of jobs available, and while some have work study restrictions, many do not. For instance, my son (the one at UIUC – also not eligible for work study) has not had a problem finding work, during the semesters and summers.
BTW, when you respond, if you put an ‘@’ before someone’s username (e.g., @cag60093, not just cag60093), they’ll be notified that you’ve contacted them. A little more reliable way of making sure they see the reply.
@csdad2 - thank you for teaching me about adding @! boy, do I feel foolish.
You’re not sidetracking my thread. I asked because I’m curious and love hearing about other students/families experience. The LACs on your son’s are all very excellent schools. Mine applied RD to Harvey Mudd; he really likes the curriculum, the strong emphasis on collaboration and the 5 consortium, but he’s really unsure about the size.
@cag60093, congrats on having some wonderful options! Your S sounds very accomplished.
Just a note about USC, even with the presidential your cost at USC for tuition plus room and board will probably be closer to $36k. It’s a great school, though. My D15 is a happy sophomore presidential/chem e major. She had better aid elsewhere, but USC was her first choice and we have no regrets. If USC is even remotely on your radar, I recommend that you find out when they start taking housing deposits and submit the payment to get first choice in honors housing. I think it’s around $50 and you don’t have to commit. Next year honors housing will be in McCarthy, part of the new Village, and it will probably fill up very quickly. It is a wonderful community!
@jmek15, thanks for your input and advice about the housing deposit. I’m happy to hear that your daughter likes USC. My S17 couldn’t stop smiling when we visited last spring. He’s USC Explore visit is next week and he’s really psyched about it. If he is awarded Presidential, he’ll have some tough decisions to make. Yes, it will be about $36k with the Presidential, but he recently received a private scholarship outside of USC of $7.5k per year so it drops the costs a bit.
Can you tell me a bit more about your D15’s experience to date? I understand that two students have access to two advisors in their first year, a freshman advisor and CoE advisor? Is D15 involved in research or other extra curricular activities? Did she interview for Presidentail too? If so, any tips?
@cag60093 I can’t believe NEU is giving you the run around on the final answer on the NMS. NMS folks answered as I expected, but as you mentioned, contrary to what NEU is telling you. The NMS is calculated by the school, not NMS- NMS just runs the contest. NEU needs to give you a final answer on how much you will get from them so that you can make the right decision. Please keep us posted.
@suzyQ7 >>>would definitely call NMS corporation right away and get a final answer then. You are a finalist - there is nothing left NMS would need to wait for to determine how much you’d get.>>>
Calling NMCorp won’t tell them anything. The official NMF part of NEU’s scholarship is probably a few thousand. The rest of the NEU NMF award is purely from NEU…and decided by NEU.
That said, NEU may know by now who is getting what.
I’m guessing that NEU reserves the right to decide the amount because some NMFs may be from low scoring states and those students may not have high test scores, so perhaps NEU doesn’t want to give them the full $30k
I knew that NMS doesn’t decide the scholarship amount, that’s why the OP needs to press NEU on that response because it doesn’t make sense. At this point, its time NEU tells the finalists if they are eligible for the full 30K so they can make an informaded decision. Finding out what you are getting AFTER accepting the NMS to NEU would be ridiculous.
That doesn’t make sense - NEU knows the test scores of this applicant because the applicant has already been accepted.
@cag60093@jmek15 How are you figuring USC is $36K with a half-tuition scholarship? Their housing estimate for freshman is about $15.8K to 17K+. They separate the housing costs and required meal plan cost, so maybe you didn’t include the meal plan?
@youcee If S is awarded half tuition, I estimated $36k bc he was awarded an outside private scholarship of $7500 per year. He’ll also have to take the $5500 stafford loan, that will bring it down to $31.5k. Since we did not qualify for any need based money, we assumed that the private scholarship can be stacked with USC merit, if awarded.