Hi,
I have planned to major in mechanical engineering and have been accepted by VTech, UMass-Amherst and Penn State. I have been put on the waiting list by UWisconsin-Madison which has been my dream university. As an International student however I cannot wait till the end of June and have to apply as early as possible so that I could start off with my visa process.
I have to chose a university which has a good reputation, academics, job and internship opportunities during and after undergraduation, on or off campus jobs and scholarship opportunities. I have been offered 12K scholarship from UMass and my mother wants me to go there but again I have to consider everything before choosing any university.
Kindly help and guide me please!!!
To some extent they are similar being large public uni’s that have a very good reputation for engineering. Is that 12k per year? If so, that is a pretty large chunk of money.You really can’t expect any scholarships after you enroll.
1° When put on the waitlist at a university, you are required to deposit somewhere that admitted you. If you get off hte waitlist at your first choice, you’re allowed to cancel the enrollement at the university you chose by may 1st. This is called “summer melt”.
2° How much will each cost you if you do (tuition, fees, room, board) - (grants, scholarships)? What’s your parents’ budget?
The total costs after scholarships matter more than the amount of the scholarship - ie., $20,000 off a 65,000 COA is worth less than $10,000 off a $35,000 COA.
UMass is an excellent engineering school and Amherst is one of the top college towns in the US. Your COA would be 30k. I wouldn’t expect to get scholarships after you enroll. Boston, of course, would have job opportunities. You could do the National Student Exchange and go to Wisconsin for a semester.
@MYOS1634 UMass Amherst will cost around 40K (minus the scholarship), VTech was around 44K while Penn State was quite expensive when compared with these two i.e it costed around 52K. My parents’ budget is around 35K but they’re trying their best to get around the 40K par. Also I am still confused regarding the summer melt. Could you please explain it in more detail? Thank you very much 
@gearmom How far is Boston away from Amherst? Will I be able to get jobs during my undergraduation?
I didn’t know about the National Student Exchange but the idea did certainly lightened my hopes Thank you very much! Also does this exchange apply on International students?
@student How would UMass cost 40k?!?! The total COA is 43.7 minus 12k scholarship gives you 31.7k. I know since we received the same package.
@BrownParent Yes it is per year. But is UMass Amherst better than rest of the universities??
@gearmom well for an international student the yearly cost estimate that they have mentioned on my enrollment is $49,100 and with the scholarship it becomes it becomes around 40K
@studint If you drive, Boston is two hours away and New York is three hours away. But there are plenty of UMass alumni in Boston so that would be a plus. You can also study at four other colleges including Amherst since UMass is part of a consortium. There are shuttles for that.
UMass is an excellent school that is within your budget at 31.7k. PLUS travel
National Student Exchange http://www.nse.org/
Mechatronics and Robotics Lab UMass http://www.ecs.umass.edu/mie/mrrl/
UMass Coop http://www.umass.edu/careers/internships/coopprocess
Edited to add travel
@studint So they are adding in 5k for travel? Doesn’t 49k minus 12k give you 37k which is very close to you budget?
@SahilC and @greenman57 are current UMass students, I believe, if you have more questions.
@gearmom yes it is around my budget which is the main reason my mother has been favoring it a lot. Also I have heard that undergrads are not easily hired for a job. Is that true?
Thank you so much once again for the information and guidance!
@studint I have not heard about difficulty getting jobs. http://engineering.umass.edu/current-students/career-development/jobs Certainly, Boston’s Tech corridor is a place of opportunity. You might have a bit more difficulty based on your major in comparison to a computer engineer but graduating from UMass Amherst certainly won’t hold you back in any way.
@gearmom I am think I should consider UMass Amherst keeping in mind the amount of opportunities I will be provided. Thanks a lot for the immense amount of help!
@studint UMass is probably the top state school for engineering in the northeast. Look into doing a semester exchange in Wisconsin to satisfy your curiosity. And fly the red eye, coach if you have to to keep travel costs down and stay in your family budget. I’m sure you’ll love UMass.
I think, taking everything into consideration, that UMass will be your best choice. If you are a strong student you should have many opportunities, especially in upper division to work with professors and they have a really good grad department and lots of research going on.
For jobs, students with federal work study get some jobs. You may be able to get a job on campus. Any type of job. As you gain skills you may get one that uses them. Internships for sophmores are very dependent on your being a top student and/or having some good skills to bring. A CS internship is much more common after Jr year. Those can often pay well and have housing at the employers city included.
UMass is likely your best choice then. 