I think his son likes the state schools in the Midwest because those are the schools his soccer friends might be considering. And because he thinks he’ll meet all types of people there. In the Chicago suburbs, lots and lots of kids apply to multiple Big Ten schools. It’s what they know. Many parents and kids don’t look much farther than that.
I bet he’s never heard of RPI or WPI. Hardly anyone here applies to small engineering schools. Not many kids apply to liberal arts schools either. It’s not like the east coast.
I would definitely visit some of the schools and take their engineering tours. UIUC, Purdue and U of M are all sort of similar on paper but feel different. Michigan is the most selective (although not by much for engineering). Their engineering campus is a couple of miles away from the main campus if that means anything to you. It was a deal breaker for my D so she didn’t apply. Purdue and UIUC seem like they’d feel similar. My D did not like UIUC and loved Purdue. I’m sure others have switched opinions. I can’t speak to the others but Purdue offers two different Coop tracks, a 3 term and a 5 term. The 5 term definitely adds another year to the degree process (same 8 semester just 22 months of work experience thrown in). My D did a 5 term coop and made enough to pay for the OOS differential for 4 years.
Since my D chose Purdue (she graduated last year) I’ll tell you what I know. Purdue gives out around 800 - 900 merit scholarships a year. They are decided on an holistic basis. Since there are so many high stat engineering majors it can be difficult for engineering majors to get one of those scholarships. Their OOS COA is going to be the lowest of the rest and they have not changed their tuition room and board since 2012. Their current President is pretty set on keeping that going. Their Engineering college is essentially the main campus. It feels very STEM centric. West Lafayette is a nice college town but not of the same caliber of Ann Arbor. Most people I know who attended Purdue loved the university and were proud to an alumnus.
You may want to look at the University of Cincinnati. Not positive but they may give him merit. They have a very good co-op program for engineering students. A friend of my D graduated from there, has a good job with a car manufacturer, and is headed for an MBA paid for by the company. (He has been out three years I believe.)
The 3 term co-op at Purdue can also add another year depending on major and course sequencing, also still 8 semesters. Co-ops definitely pay very well (we’re still recovering from the shock of D’s offer). @ivvcsf makes a great point that it could easily offset the cost difference.
Our D loved the facilities at Michigan (best engineering tour in our opinion) but also struggled with the split campus feel. It was her #2 choice after Purdue (although she was waitlisted at the end so it didn’t matter).
Also agree that Purdue feels very STEM focused. D loved that about Purdue. It’s not often the main quad/mall is the engineering one ; )
First let me say UIUC is a good school. It has a solid ranking for a state flagship.
The COA for an in-state kid in eng is $34K(not including personal exp or travel exp). OP’s student should get about $5k in merit from UIUC. Maybe a bit more but not a ton. To me that isn’t a great option for families that were hoping their high stats kid could keep the COA under $20K a year. In many states that student would have COA under $20K. Some will argue that in those states the flagship isn’t as good as UIUC. That is somewhat valid.
But as I said before it is possible for OP’s son to find a OOS school where the COA will be cheaper than UIUC. The good thing for the OP is he can afford UIUC’s COA. Many of us couldn’t and that is why many high-stat kids leave IL for college. Tons of my D19’s friends are going OOS.
My head hurts a bit from all these ideas but the food for thought on these posts have been incredible. Thank you. I don’t know how we’re going to compare all these schools when there are so many variables beyond ranking & COA. Saving his 529 for grad school is an intriguing idea on Alabama. Not sure whether he would like going to school in the deep south. I guess we’ll add it to the summer tour and see! We’ll take a look at Pitt too.
@121IllinoisDad This happened to us when I joined CC too…but S19 was just a sophomore so we had time to adjust. So much info here. I think we maybe made S19’s college search more complicated than it needed to be and I spent a LOT of time on it for two whole years. (I know, beat me up. He should have done the work. Blah blah. But he did his part for sure.)
S19 is undecided on major. His big priorities were small classes and very easy access to professors, academic peers, rural campus with under 3000 kids. After that, it was just location and vibe (and I guess cost but in the end the low price schools didn’t win.) If he wanted big state school and engineering, I would have stuck with UIUC (we prepaid tuition when he was a baby so going there would have been a big win financially for us), Michigan, Purdue, and then maybe some of the other schools that have been suggested including Alabama. I think we would have considered Iowa State. We know a lot of very happy engineering students there. Campus is great and those kids got great internships and jobs and it’s less expensive than UIUC.
Again, don’t make this harder than it has to be. Some kids are very easy to please and maybe your S will like a lot of these schools. He’s bright and will have options.
You don’t have to look at every school out there. Yes, there is always going to be a higher ranked school (since the ranking change all the time) but who cares? If you are happy with the school you pick, why drive yourself crazy that there might be a ‘better’ school out there that you missed?
The kids I know who were the happiest were those who wanted to go to a flagship, got in, and attended. Other kids were happy after applying to LACs and top ranked schools too, but the happiest were those who wanted to go to their flagship (or a similar school), applied, got few or no rejections in March. The weren’t worried about ‘the one that got away.’ They bought the hoodie and were happy.
To me the best thing to consider is that your son will likely have numerous good choices. Many times here there is a focus on what is the “best” choice as if (1) that can be objectively determined and (2) the other choices are somehow bad. Reality is there are a lot of great options out there (well beyond what is top 20 or 25 or HYPZYR$#YE or whatever acronyms people like to use here for the be all and end all of college options). Takes a lot of the pressure off when you look at that reality.
Another suggestion I have for anyone that frequents this site: leave it alone for a while and talk with other people you actually know. Sense of reality comes back.
And to those of you here who are dreading the site being inaccessible tomorrow morning for maintenance/upgrade, forget I said anything. LOL
@homerdog that is exactly why I just mentioned the alternative of a smaller school.
For grad school, are there PhD programs in engineering with masters along the way? Are MBA’s ever funded? I would talk to some financial aid depts. about grad school funding. We were surprised to find that we did not have to pay for any grad school, and before we committed to an undergrad school that was a bit more expensive than planned, we checked that out.
@twoinanddone I agree with that! And senior year is waaaaaaaay better for those kids. I’ve mentioned a few times now to not make a mountain out of a mole hill if you don’t need to. UIUC is highly ranked and affordable for the OP. Maybe throw an app to Michigan and GT for reaches but only if his son wants to. Want to investigate options that might save money for grad school? Talk about or visit Alabama or Iowa State. Done.
I would probably save these visits for when kids are on campus though. We found it much easier to evaluate schools with kids on campus.
We have a Chicago area kid who took a full ride at U of Kentucky in Lexington.
I highly (!!!) recommend visiting the campus.
Although not in engineering herself, our kid fell in with a group of smart kids in the engineering department and has told us about some of her friends’ internships etc.
Scholarship info, based on NMF, should post at the end of August or beginning September. It will be interesting to see if UK continues to offer generous merit scholarships for the next incoming class.
You think? I’ve been to Ann Arbor a bunch of times and I really don’t a Midwestern feel. The town feels very CA-ish to me, but for a Polar Vortex give or take.
@compmom The smaller-is-better approach flies in the Northeast; in many othet parts of the country the best schools that attract the best students are big & public. I know this goes against the grain of what you have seen, but that’s the truth.
@moooop yep. Can’t tell you how many times already we’ve had to say “Bowdoin. In Maine. Same conference as Amherst? Middlebury? Eh forget it.”
Many people here in the Midwest don’t get it. The neighbors on our block know. One went to Bowdoin, one to Davidson, one to Carleton. Two went to Dartmouth. Those families know. But, out of 750 graduates and 98 percent going to four year colleges, there are fewer than ten going to small schools.
