<p>Before you rush to answer LSU, consider that I am from Illinois so I'll have to pay OOS tuition for any school because we don't have PetE really in the Midwest. I'm a transfer student with an AS already, have a 3.7 GPA, and have already been accepted into both school's programs. My problem is paying for school- it seems like the total cost of attendance at LSU for OOS is about $37,000 per year, including room and board, vs. about $29,000 for NMT? Can anyone verify these costs? These seem like the two best value schools for PetE from my research, but still pretty hard to pay for all things considered.</p>
<p>I just don't understand how one can really pay for school without getting a co-signer for a massive private loan, and I refuse to put any family member or friend through that process. I figure my only two shots are A) take a year off from school and establish residency in Louisiana to try to get in-state tuition at LSU (but I'm 27 years old so I don't really want to take another year off), or B) go to NMT, which I hear has an excellent program as well that has great research opportunities, and try to get a job in the research labs while also trying to get decent paying summer internships combined with grants and scholarships. It seems easier to do these sort of things at NMT than LSU.</p>
<p>I don't really care about partying or the area, just obtaining a Petroleum Engineering degree at a school that has solid job placement, which I hear both do. I would even consider UAF but it doesn't seem realistic, unless anyone knows of great incentives they offer to get students to go there. Most importantly, I need to be able to afford this degree. Does anyone have any suggestions? Does NMT have a lot of scholarships and whatnot to entice OOS students still? I hear they used to, but their tuition has gone up recently.</p>
<p>Should mention that I currently live in Baton Rouge one block away from LSU, but I’m not a resident. I was intending on going there so I moved down here for this semester, but realized it cost too much and am taking my last available semester at community college while making this decision instead. So LSU was the original choice, but it just seems to difficult financially to be viable, although I do love the school (the campus is beautiful)</p>
<p>Is your net cost the same as list price, or do you have non-loan financial aid at one or both schools (probably not much if any if you are out of state)?</p>
<p>University of Louisiana - Lafayette also has petroleum engineering, and an out-of-state list price cost of attendance of about $24,000 per year.</p>
<p>I was searching all over the place for schools and seemed to overlook Lafeyette for some reason, but yeah they are very affordable… around $25K is the most I think I can afford for a year, and Lafeyette definitely is in that range so thanks for the heads-up; I’ll call them. NMT seems to be offering a lot of incentives too, which is nice.</p>
<p>Do you know if Lafeyette has a solid history for most of their PetE students getting internships? I think they have a lot of the majors recruit there, just not sure how it compares to the size of their student body. It’s all about job placement for me when choosing the school, after paying for it of course. I couldn’t care less about rankings or football teams or location. This gives me two schools to work with I think though, so thanks again</p>
<p>No idea on ULL’s attractiveness for recruiting, though you can try finding out from the career centers of various schools to see who recruits there. There are not that many US schools with petroleum engineering (you can use [Accredited</a> Program Search](<a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx]Accredited”>http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx) to get a list).</p>
<p>I mean, I’ll consider that pessimistic and somewhat elitist TAMU article, but show me a sure thing in this economy as far as jobs or majors are concerned and I’ll show you a leprechaun riding a unicorn into an eastern setting sunset. Notice TAMU doesn’t offer students productive suggestions, just points out negatives. Maybe I should switch to journalism or psychology? I’m not trying to be a jerk, just saying that usually anything that is worth doing isn’t going to be easy. I plan on graduating above the middle of my class and hopefully towards the top with >3.5 GPA. That should get me an internship at the right school, and internship usually equals job.</p>
<p>So I just discovered another way to go to school, which is the Air Force National Guard. Anyone know anything about this? From what I’ve read, you sign a 6-year commitment and work weekends, and Deployment is Optional as opposed to Army National Guard. There’s other details, but in return you get to stay in your state and they pay for the tuition of any public school. This would allow me to go to a lot more Petroleum Engineering schools, only meaning I’d have to stay in that state for a few yeas after graduating to work, which is pretty standard anyways for Petroleum usually. </p>
<p>This puts LSU back on the board potentially. Oh and by the way, the head of the Petroleum Engineering department at LSU says there’s a ton of kids applying into their program too, but he expects the vast majority to either switch from disinterest or get weeded out by the class-load. If I do my homework on school choice, I feel I can find the right school to land me a career in the industry. Right now, the choices are LSU (with Air National Guard), or New Mexico Tech or UL-Lafeyette whom I looked into both of them and verified I can afford them just off federal loans. Those schools are smaller and offer a lot of financial incentives. Anyone have any opinion on the Air National Guard route, or in picking a big school vs. a small school for studying PetE?</p>
<p>Dude, ULL is a major oil industry hub. If you ever travel to Lafayette you will see that nearly every oil company has an office there. I’ll tell you this much, my buddy graduated Mech E from ULL with a 3.7 gpa. He interned with GE Oil n’ Gas and Cameron. He had several job offers with various companies, he didn’t want to move out of Louisiana so he took a job with Cameron. In all honesty he could have went anywhere. Chevron and Halliburton recruit from ULL, so does Chesapeake. I would also say that they care more about there students. I may even head that way when I finish my degree. I would have to take a few more math electives though and finish off physics. The program is smaller but you will be able to learn more in class. I say go for it. You seem to be a good student and if you like math you will do well. What is your associates in anyway?</p>