Need Help to Find an Engineering College

College Search & Selection
21

USC is possible with a higher SAT, think 1450+ and Harvey Mudd think 1500+ but costs should be a concern. Cost of Attendance is around $70K/year for USC and $74K/year for Harvey Mudd
I would run the Net Price Calculators for both USC and Harvey Mudd just to give a ball park if either would be affordable.
For USC, apply early if you plan to apply for the better scholarships and FA.

http://financialaid.usc.edu/undergraduates/prospective/net-price-calculator.html

https://npc.collegeboard.org/student/app/hmc

I think the best bang for your buck in California would be Cal Poly SLO or some of the other Cal states: San Jose, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Long Beach, San Diego State.

For SLO, you really need to visit to make sure it is a fit.

22

Given your interests, mechanical makes more sense for JHU. You could minor in something biology-related easily. BME at JHU is very biology-intensive, and not always engineering-based, so that may not be the best fit for you. Just by being around the BME program, and not necessarily in it, you could definitely get the parts of the program that you want.

I don’t really know anything at all about Vanderbilt, but don’t focus on doctorates right now. That shouldn’t be the criteria for choosing colleges. First of all, its recommended that you switch colleges from undergraduate to graduate. And secondly, your opinions can change after 4 years.

Still, those colleges have great ME programs (no idea about Vanderbilt tho). The biggest thing about Cornell is actually the campus/location. The academics are great, but a lot of people don’t apply there simply because of the environment. It’s cold up there, and there isn’t that much to do. Others enjoy it, so it’s definitely worth doing a campus visit. Your stats make it worth it reaching for.

MIT is always a super-reach for an asian male who hasn’t cured cancer or something. And the application is super long. If you like it enough, definitely apply. But if it’s only a marginal difference between your safeties and MIT, then it may not be worth it.

23

If your parents are paying tuition to up to 40K, are they also happy with $10K+(+) for room and board? So they are happy to go to more like 55K including R&B and travel? You should make sure you are solid on this stuff so you can refine your search.

24

You have a whole lot of hurdles to jump before you can be looking at most of the schools on your list. If looking at paying for a big public like CPO, you would be way better off at UIUC, a great engineering education at a great price. College isn’t a destination vacation, you have to be practical about getting the best education given your constraints. When your parents are thinking privates giving more money, in CA that schools like LMU, where your stats may be at the upper end (that is if your tests come out well. USC is highly selective, they turned away 3,000 applicants with scores in the 99 percentile. 800 math and science subject test scores are pretty common for engineering students there which has a much lower acceptance rate than the already low 16% overall for the school. Harvey Mudd, currently seems way over the top as well.

With that income, aid is going to be hard to come by, you need to look for merit money at smaller privates where your stats are in the top 25%. They won’t be at the schools you listed originally or places like Stanford and MIT. It is good you are learning now so you don’t waste lots of money and time on schools that are over the horizon for you. If your budget is 40K to attend a private you need to know you can get 30K in merit. Tall order at top schools.

Not clear - did you take AP Physics test and get a 1? Keep asking questions, this group can steer you to a constructive list, but it would be helpful if you had more actual scores to report.

25

The COA instate at UIUC is only $6k less per year than CP SLO out of state ($31k vs. $37k).

26

^^^That’s good info, didn’t realize the difference was that small, but then you add travel on top and uncertainty of graduating in 4 years at CPO. The difference in pricing starts creeping up. He also has a chance to go to a state flagship like UIUC with change left over. The concern I see happens with other Midwest kids - I wonder if his mind is more on “dreamy California” than picking the best school and program for the money, when money is in fact an issue. I suppose with 40k he can afford either one, but he has to look at all the costs. But even before that, has to take a lot of tests to even be in the running. 4.0’s are abundant. Certainly CPO is a viable option.

27

@blueskies2day, take this with a grain of salt, because my son, from OOS, with slightly higher stats and very strong ECs, chose ME at Cal Poly after vetting and visiting LOTS of schools. The location had very little to do with it. As a former ski racer and current coach, it’s the only school he applied to without skiing nearby. Choosing “dreamy California” was a compromise for him. He chose it because of the small class sizes, 100% professor instruction, expansive facilities (80+ labs in the CENG alone) meant almost exclusively for undergrads and great job placement at top west coast companies. The 4 year graduation rate has classically been low at Poly, for multiple reasons. He’s however on pace to have the bulk of his MS done by the end of 4 years and will walk with a BS/MS in less than 5. He chose it because he felt it was the best engineering option to meet what he was looking for, bar none.

28

What are the reasons, and are any of them reasons that are not student-caused (e.g. being too picky about time slots, changing major late, voluntarily taking lighter course loads, taking quarters off for co-op jobs, etc.)?

29

@ucbalumnus, what the 4 year engineering graduation rate was a paltry 17%, the problem was two fold. There weren’t enough sections for all the students who needed classes to get them due to a massive cut in state funding. The registration priority rotation system was also a bizarre attempt at egalitarianism, but ended up really hurting some upperclassmen who had poor rotations. Both of those have been rectified.

There’s still the fundamental issue of the engineering curricula being 20 quarter hours longer than the typical 4 year degree at CP (200 v. 180). Cal Poly has strongly resisted cutting it back or switching to semesters. Any student who goes one quarter over counts as 5 years.

That leaves the usual suspects for going too long, repeating courses for poor grades, dodging time slots, which can start early, with labs that can go well into the evening, and dodging professors, a few of which, like at any school, are subpar.

Major change is not super straight forward at Poly, but in order to change, one of the requirements is a quarter by quarter plan that shows the student can graduate in 5 years or less. That probably impacts it a bit, but engineering is a net exporter of major changers, so probably not much within the CENG.

30

What is the current registration system, and does it make it easier for all students (of all class levels) to get into the courses that they need to stay on track?

There was another recent thread about CPSLO having trouble retaining engineering instructors due to competition from industry, which can make it harder to provide class space.

Many engineering majors at many schools have higher credits than the usual amount. If CPSLO switched to semesters, that would mean 133 credits versus 120, so switching to semesters does not change the overload.

31

Wow. Never would thought so many people would help me in my situation.
@theOGreject2017 Thank you for your insight. You’ve mentioned a lot of schools for me to consider, but if you were in my shoes what schools would you apply?
@Sybylla I’ve asked my parents again since the last time I asked was maybe a couple a months ago. They said, their budget is 45K including room and board.
@blueskies2day I wrote done that my AP Physics 1 Score is TBA. The actual class is called AP Physics 1: Algebra Based. Sorry for the confusion. About my scores, all my AP test scores that say TBA will most likely be a 4-5. I don’t know about AP Physics 1 because 2 years ago my high school forced teachers, who taught honors physics, to either teach regular or AP Physics so there were some problems with the curriculum. Anyways, I would agree with you on not wasting time and money on schools that won’t give me aid or are very selective, but should I even bother in applying to selective schools at all? It seems like almost every single top tier School cost a fortune if you’re middle to high class. Also, Ive just read your other post and I would admit that I have the problem of focusing on “dreamy California”. It would be very nice to stay, but then again it’s just College we’re talking about.

32

their budget is 45K including room and board.<<<<<<<
So tuition is more like 30K?

33

@Matroix

As far as ME in the top UC schools, it will be very challenging and expensive. UCLA, Cal, UCSB and UCSD admit directly to the major. It is a different level of competition than the school overall. More difficult than “regular” UC admissions.

For engineering in CA these are some schools that tend to show up (outside of the UCs)
USC/Viterbi (our kid loves it fwiw.) (super expensive but they have a decent amount of aid for some students. Makes. big difference if you get one of the merit scholarships.)
Cal Poly SLO (oos Cal state tution. Rural-ish, but nice 5 cities location, not too far from coast etc.)
Cal Poly Pomona (slightly less challenging to get into than SLO. Rural, close-ish to LA. Good school. Kind of the "middle of nowhere - not super-far from Mudd.)
Mudd - really hard to get into. Middle of nowhere. v. good school.
Santa Clara - very good engineering. Catholic Uni. Said to have decent aid. Near-ish SF/Silicon Valley
LMU - also Catholic, Good engineering. LA by the ocean.

Don’t know if any of those can be brought in around your budget. You’d need aid of 20k +/- at the privates. But they are all good schools (there’s more, too, of course.)

UWash might be interesting. Not CA, but it’s sticker is a bit lower than some, great ME school, beautiful campus. On the water…

34

@CaliDad2020 Thank you for your suggestions. I’ll look into those colleges and a chose which schools I would like apply to. If anybody would like to give me their finals thoughts or tips before I compile a well thought through list with my parents, that would be great .

35

@ucbalumnus, they register by degree progress seniority now, like at most schools. Those who need classes the most to graduate, get access to register the earliest. My son only had trouble once, his last quarter of senior year. He was registering for all senior level classes, but they were filled with seniors. He waitlisted into one and was invited into a graduate level class that will dual count as a BS tech elective and towards his MS coursework.



The switch to semesters would not lessen the overload. It would reduce the number of classes they could teach. They compress most semester courses into quarters. For example, Calc I, II, III, dif eq and linear are taught in 5 quarters. I believe at most schools that would be a 5 semester series. Hence, the reluctance.

36

@Matroix

It sounds like you could pull off a Cal State with your budget. While there are challenges in the Cal State system, CS Poly SLO is highly regarded, and Cal State Pomona also has a very good rep (and has a decent residential population.) I’d also look at San Diego State. About 20k+15k rm/board=35k OOS, San Diego as a city has a very good tech/engineering and Med Engineering culture (although more centered at UCSD, but there is plenty of cross-pollination.) SD State doesn’t have bio-med engineering, far as I know, but have ME and other “regular” engineering. And San Diego is as “California” as you can get in a lot of ways. San Jose State is also well-regarded for engineering, has a bio-med engineering major and minor and is in the “bay area” and has access to the tech community. SJSU’s rep has been rising lately. Cal State Chico also gets mentioned for engineering but I don’t know anything about it.

Additionally, if the total costs were close but a bit over what your parents can afford, you can get student loans to gap a few thousand per year. If you are confident you’ll complete an engineering degree, taking on a bit of debit is probably not the end of the world, but I’d only suggest a few thousand. year. You can also work summers or even a bit while at school. Won’t kick in a lot of money, but with 45k from your folks, you’re close to the sticker price on schools like UWash and a combo of loans and work might put you over.

And lastly, it’s not something you can count on, but if you were to need/want to gap a full-pay situation with loans and work, you should also apply aggressively for all outside scholarships. If you’re not getting non-merit Fin Aid they won’t work against your aid package, and anything you might get could offset loans.

So if you were really set on CA I would suggest:
A few Cal States (look on-line and see if any appeal to you. One thing to keep in mind, as noted above, getting out in 4 years could be a bit challenging, but you will have some financial wiggle room as they are 5-10k less than your budget.)
Give USC a shot (as long as you know that if you don’t get good merit aid, you won’t be able to attend and can live with that.) You have to apply early (Dec. 1st I think) to be considered for aid. It’s very competitive, but you could give it a shot.
I would also look at Santa Clara and LMU. I’d guess you have a slightly better chance for merit aid there than USC, and while it’s still a long-shot (just merit aid in general, not you specifically) as long as you are prepared to say “no” to the school if you don’t get it, no harm in applying. If you happen to attend a jesuit school, there are more merit aid opportunities at LMU.

Those schools would be my suggests to look at. You would have a very decent shot at San Diego State, San Jose State and LMU, decent shot at Santa Clara and Pomona. USC (esp if you need 1/4 tuition merit aid) and Poly SLO are more challenging.

Good luck

37

For need-based aid, the best way to estimate how much you might get is to run the online net price calculator for any school that interests you. Schools won’t base the amount they offer on the $45K your parents are willing to pay. They base it on income, assets, and other factors (such as the number of siblings). So if the Estimated Family Contribution is much less than $45K, you’ll have to figure out a way to close the gap or (more likely) choose another school.

Many strong engineering programs that aren’t out of reach for admissions are at state universities, which typically give little/no need-based aid for OOS students. A few do give automatic large merit scholarships for qualifying stats (typically 3.5/1400). The University of Alabama may be the best of those. However, even at the OOS full sticker price, many state flagships would fall under your $45K limit. Check the Kiplinger ranking of public universities; click-sort on the “Total cost per yr. (out-of-state)” column:
http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-public-colleges/index.php

If you really don’t want to stay in-state, I would think one of your best options is Wisconsin - Madison.
It offers solid engineering, an OOS sticker price within budget (esp. after kicking in some “self help”), a great college town, and a realistic shot at admission. Other possibilities: UMd-CP, VaTech, Minnesota-TC, Pittsburgh, Cal Poly, New Mexico Tech (f.k.a. NM Institute of Mining & Technology). Although, for quality and cost, I’m not sure any of these beat UIUC for engineering at in-state rates.

38

http://www.catalog.calpoly.edu/coursesaz/math/

In most quarter system schools, calculus 1-3 covers similar material as calculus 1-2 in most semester system schools. CPSLO’s math 141, 142, 143, 206, 241, 242 cover similar material in two academic years (six 10-week quarters) as semester system schools cover in two academic years (four 15-week semesters). (It looks like CPSLO engineering majors take 244 instead of 206 and 242 for a quicker overview, followed by 344 with some additional topics.)

UCB has long had more fine grain registration priority than just class standing or class level. Space in classes may be reserved for students in the major, for example. Or lower level prerequisites may have space reserved for students with lower class standing or class level. Also, a multiphase system is used, where all students get to choose about half of their courses before anyone chooses the rest.

39

However, some engineering majors at Wisconsin have high college GPA requirements to enter or stay in the major:
https://www.engr.wisc.edu/academics/student-services/academic-advising/first-year-undergraduate-students/progression-requirements/

40

@matroix. be aware, if you do apply to a state engineering program, of what @ucbalumnus mentions above;

Many state schools have different systems and requirements for majors: At most top UCs you apply to the specific major, get in or don’t, and it’s not always easy to change. UW-seattle can admit to the major or to “engineering” and then require you to apply to major after a year of two. If you don’t get directly admitted to the major you will have to have better fresh and soph states for the more competitive majors. Others, like UMich just admit you to engineering and you can choose whatever engineering major you want (for the most part) So be sure to do your research.