So I will probably get accepted into all the schools listed above, and 3 out of the 4 for engineering. For UW, freshman admission to engineering is very competitive and I’ve seen even the brightest people get rejected.
I’m instate for UW (Washington). UW would be the cheapest but I would have to transfer into engineering later. What would be the best school to choose for engineering? They are all cheap, as Cal Poly and Minnesota both have cheap out of state tuition and Northeastern gave me a good scholarship. Prices are very similar aside from UW (27k a year vs low 30s for the other schools). What would be the best school to choose?
Since you don’t seem to be too concerned about the relatively minor difference in cost – though after four years the diff could be around $25k (Wash vs. the others), so really make sure you are OK with that before dismissing price as a variable – I think you should concentrate primarily on fit.
Things like:
- Campus culture/vibe
- Activities on and around campus
- Food/dorms
- Majors and classes (yes, peruse the course catalogs)
- Weather
- Travel to/from home
- Sports scene
If you attend Washington without direct admission to your major, you need to make backup plans for the likely possibility of not getting into your desired engineering major. Specifically, will you settle for a less competitive major was UW, or will you be sending out transfer applications to other schools where you can get into your desired major (perhaps WSU)? See https://www.engr.washington.edu/current/admissions/admitstats for how competitive it is to enter your desired engineering major (note that it is not just GPA, but also an essay with some subjective evaluation for admission, at least to some majors). Unless the difference in cost is critical, this is a major disadvantage of Washington.
At Minnesota, were you admitted to your major, or just to the College of Science and Engineering? If the latter, you need to get a 3.2 GPA to get assured admission to your major, but those with lower GPAs can be admitted to majors with space available. (Note that a 3.2 at Washington would likely be too low for admission to any engineering major besides industrial.)
Northeastern heavily integrates co-op employment into the plan, so choosing or not choosing it would depend on whether you want to do co-ops. Co-ops are optional at Minnesota and Cal Poly.
Most likely, I will be studying aerospace engineering. At northeastern it would be mechanical engineering since they don’t have aerospace. I got directly admitted to the college of science and engineering at Minnesota. At northeastern I got into the college of engineering. I would never want to go to any other school in Washington other than UW. So transferring would not be an option. A 3.2 GPA sounds super easy so I’m not worried about getting into my major at Minnesota. I would work very hard to get at least a 3.5. How hard would you say it would be to transfer within UW to my major @ucbalumnus ? Is it very difficult? I know for sure I want to do engineering and no other major appeals to me. I’m not 100% on aerospace. I also like large schools and Idk if coops are that important to me. I just want to go to a prestigious university that isn’t too expensive.
I do have a 3.97 unweighted GPA and a 32 on the ACT so if you have any other recommendations, please tell me. But yeah I just want a school to have a very good engineering program and for it to be a school people like going to.
Thanks in advance!
https://www.engr.washington.edu/current/admissions/admitstats says that, for aeronautics and astronautics, “Admission is competitive and admitted students generally have grade point averages well above a 3.0.”
For mechanical, it says that “The average GPA for students accepted to the program has been approximately 3.6. Although students with greater GPAs generally have a greater probability of being accepted, the admissions committee considers performance in specific key courses and the applicant’s statement of purpose as other strong indicators of a students probable success in the program.”
If you are not admitted to your desired major at UW, would you transfer to another school, or settle for a less competitive-to-be-admitted major at UW?
No I wouldn’t settle for a less competitive major. It is my dream to someday work at NASA or Boeing. I would never settle. And I hate all the colleges in Washington state besides UW, they’re all really bad/not prestigious at all unlike California’s UC’s and Cal Poly. People there are super lucky. I also don’t want to put work to transferring into a different school. So I guess I’m going to have to move to a different state next year. So how about Minnesota vs Northeastern vs Cal Poly?
Between the other three, how you view Northeastern depends on what you think of doing co-ops.
So I ran the NPC, Minnesota would be 35.7k total cost, I don’t know if they give out scholarships to out of state residents. Northeastern would be 40.1k total cost. I got a 10k scholarship so originally it was 50.1k. And cal poly is 36.6k to attend. So the prices of Minnesota and Cal Poly are very similar.
I mean I kind of want a traditional college experience and I heard coops harms that.
I also like the idea of living in Boston. It’s near New York, Philly, Toronto, Maine, DC. Really cool cities. But I also think Minneapolis would be pretty cool idk. At least Boston and Minneapolis gets snow. Something we rarely see in Seattle.
What about the prestige of each school? For engineering
@moep1vo15 , your stats indicate that admission to the engineering major of your choice at Washington will not be a problem as long as you take your studies seriously.
@UWfromCA what about admission to UW in general?
3.97 unweighted GPA and 32 ACT make a very strong case for admission. Your stats align with the Honors Program at Washington: http://depts.washington.edu/uwhonors/apply/freshman/faq/
Good luck!
I didn’t apply for honors but thank you so much!