<p>DS rising senior at top boarding school. Interested in Computer Science or Engineering as major. Looking for good options for safety schools in the new england area or within a four hour drive or so from Boston area. Any input welcome...via PM or thread. Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Without knowing details re: grades, test scores, it’s difficult to know what might be a “safety” for your daughter, however take a look at WPI, Providence College and UVM for those majors. Also, I remember when browsing through Naviance, the women’s colleges seemed to really like girls from my kid’s BS. Consider Smith and Mount Holyoke. There may be more “competitive” schools that could be safeties for her depending on her stats. </p>
<p>Does your daughter’s school use Naviance? I found it a helpful tool as you could definitely see patterns to which schools liked graduates of the BS in question. </p>
<p>Watching a few classes of kids I am familiar with go through the process now, I will say it is more challenging for girls than boys these days. :(</p>
<p>I actually have a boy, DS=dear son, I am probably dating myself by using that abbrev.
WPI is definitely on our radar already but we will certainly check out UVM and PC.<br>
We do have access to naviance but I wasn’t sure how trustworthy those graphs really are that show the green dots? Hesitant to post stats here due to privacy for my son but schools like WPI are exactly what I’m looking for…the nationally known schools are already on our radar!
thanks!</p>
<p>Sorry I spaced the S in DS. Smith and Mt. Holyoke definitely won’t work. :)</p>
<p>Well, boys do have it a tad easier so hopefully that will help. I did find Naviance reliable as long as you ignore the outliers - often legacies, atheletes, URMs or some kind of hook but the clustering I found to be helpful/accurate. Feel free to PM if you are comfortable. </p>
<p>Not sure if your son prefers city/rural. Look also at RPI and RIT. Both give merit aid as well. I’ve known kids who’ve gone to both and been happy.</p>
<p>Also, consider schools that used to be girls schools - Vassar and Skidmore come to mind. They remain lopsided on the female/male ratio and will show an admissions preference for boys.</p>
<p>Another thought - look at Trinity College in CT. They seem to really like BS kids. I remember them taking A LOT of students from my kid’s BS across the grade/test score spectrum.</p>
<p>We are in similar situation this year, looking at similar location/engineering. One lesson learned… not all schools that have engineering have the same diciplines. Ie: electrical, civil, bio etc. So, if she/he is interested in a specific area(s) best bet is to check out ABET accreditation for that area and get a list of schools that way. On the ABET website you can search by dicipline and state to get a list. This was really helpful to us.
We also have access to Naviance and I have found it very helpful…but do not have any experience to know how reliabe it might be, especially because there are not huge numbers of BS kids applying to engineering (ie compareed to LAC’s) to have enough green or red data points to even see a cluster on the graph.
Also, if the student is not dead-set on a particular area or even engineering, I think it is wise to look for a school that has other areas - for example UVM. What if the student hates engineering after the first year… transfering would certainly be easier within the college/university. I understand that the “drop rate” is significant in engineering-for various reasons- so it is not unreasonable to consider that when looking at schools.
Another question: how helpful has anyone found BS college guidance counselors at steering/helping the kids to get into an engineering school? Do engineering schools favor the BS kids?</p>