<p>I am a rising senior, searching for private colleges with aerospace engineering majors. I have already selected public colleges to apply to, but I want input on good private schools to apply to. </p>
<p>Private Colleges I'm thinking about
MIT
Princeton
Cornell
University of Southern California (USC)
Case Western
Syracuse(?)
Embry Riddle, Daytona Beach
CalPoly </p>
<p>Parents are generously financing all of my college education</p>
<p>Stats
3.97 GPA, unweighted
34 ACT Composite, 34 on all sections</p>
<p>Extracurriculars/Volunteering
Varsity Soccer and Frisbee- 3 years
Guitar for 7 years
Ranked Chess Player/'Varsity' Chess Team Member
Biker (longest ride 200 miles in 2 days)</p>
<p>Case Manager for Nonprofit ~ 100 hours
Peer Tutor at School and the Library ~ 100 hours
Math Instructor at Summer Camp for Middle Schoolers ~ 50 hours</p>
<p>Any and all comments on these private schools or other private schools I should be looking at would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!</p>
<p>You can use the accreditation search on [ABET</a> -](<a href=“http://www.abet.org%5DABET”>http://www.abet.org) to find all of the schools with aerospace engineering.</p>
<p>Your list is pretty diverse… All of those schools are great, but you will want to find one with the right fit.</p>
<p>Can you refine your needs a bit more? Do you prefer a smaller school or larger school? Rural, suburban, or City location? Heavy undergrad focus or heavy grad focus? Do you like outdoor activities on your free time or do you prefer staying indoors?</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. I want a school that is more than just engineering, so I’m hesitant about applying to places like RPI, WPI. Mit, I can make an exception for.</p>
<p>Small student body? Large student body? Undergrad focus or grad focus? Location preference? There are quite a few good private schools with AE programs to choose from.</p>
<p>Except for MIT, you probably want to exclude most of the [Association</a> of Independent Technological Universities: AITU](<a href=“http://theaitu.org%5DAssociation”>http://theaitu.org) schools then, including Embry Riddle and Case Western. These are all primarily engineering schools.</p>
<p>OP - You have some great qualifications and will likely have acceptances and/or merit scholarhips opportunities at many colleges. (At MIT, you probably have a 9% chance of acceptance … like all the other highly qualified students. Not trying to scare you off, just want to encourage you on your efforts to have a balance list.) </p>
<p>Tell us more about your areas of interest and reasons for aerospace choice. Often students find they can have more general majors (MechE, EE, CompE ) and then either work in aerospace industry or go to grad school for aerospace. But you may have good reasons for wanting aerospace undergrad degree.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help as always. As of right now I don’t have preferences on size, location, or focus, so I’m planning on applying to a diverse set of schools. </p>
<p>As for why I want to major in AE, I’m primarily interested in aviation and airplanes. My ideal job would be working on commercial planes, like at Boeing, which is why I want to major in AE. I realize that ME can lead to aerospace jobs too, but I want to study and focus on what I am most interested in–airplanes. I have also had some interest in civil engineering, specifically related to transportation. Basically, I am interested in engineering involving planes and transportation. Input on this would be welcome. </p>
<p>List:
UW
Purdue
Michigan
Illinois
Virginia
Georgia Tech
Alabama
Cal Poly</p>
<p>MIT
Princeton
USC
Case Western
Embry Riddle</p>
<p>Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop, and many other aerospace companies hire from virtually any ABET accredited school. Engineering is not a prestige-driven field, therefore, picking a big name prestigious school isn’t necessarily the best choice. This is why personal preferences come in to play with your decision - All of the schools you have mentioned will get you where you want to go, and all of them are well-regarded by industry and government. </p>
<p>The important thing here is finding which school has the environment that will keep you motivated, focused and happy. Do any of the schools on your list interest you more than others? If so, for what reasons?</p>
<p>edit: FWIW, I did my undergrad at Embry-Riddle (Prescott) and MS at USC… both are excellent schools.</p>
<p>Sorry about that I meant university of Washington. </p>
<p>Right now USC qnd Michigan interest me because of their strong school spirit, nice surrounding area, and strength in engineering and other fields. I’ve visited both and liked them. </p>
<p>@fractalmastr
Good information to know, thanks. I am wondering now whether I should look at other schools that could be a good fit, like Iowa state, which I might have previously overlooked.</p>
<p>Absolutely. Check out as many schools as you can. Each school will have it’s own strengths and weaknesses. You’re paying good money and planning to spend 4-5 years of your life in college… it’s best to pick a place that will make you happy.</p>
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<p>Have to agree with this. I was not terribly impressed with the actual location or campus of USC. The education is fine, but the surroundings leave much to be desired…</p>
<p>Presumably he asked for private schools because he wanted to add some private schools to his list, which is already pretty heavily populated by public schools, otherwise I would have to agree that Maryland is worth an add along with Penn State, Texas and Texas A&M.</p>
<p>It would be hard not to mention Caltech, but they don’t have undergraduate aerospace engineering and the OP seems to have his or her heart set on that. Same goes for Stanford.</p>
<p>Notre Dame may be one to consider. Though I don’t usually encourage others to go there due to personal, non-academic bias, they do have a pretty good aerospace department (technically part of mechanical but they offer a degree in aerospace engineering).</p>
<p>Maryland looks good, I might add it to my list. I have a lot of public schools on my list so I was asking about private. Are there any of the public schools on my list that I could cut. I know Maryland is stronger in engineering than University of Virginia, but I really like the environment at Virginia.</p>
<p>Cornell doesn’t have an aerospace major true but if you want aerospace industry after graduation, there’s no shortage of Lockheed, Ball Aerospace, Boeing, SpaceX, Sikorsky, GE aviation etc. recruitment (same companies that hire from the other schools on your list so far based on some quick searching) for the Mechanical Engineering degree you’d go for. </p>
<p>There’s a decent selection of junior/senior level courses related to the field that are of interest to these companies but it’s just that there isn’t administrative support for an entire separate major. Technically the school is named the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering but yeah…</p>
<p>However, looking into the curriculum of UMaryland (previous post link) their fourth year is heavily invested in "Aero"specific courses which I don’t think Cornell can replicate exactly. Cornell would offer courses that can be applied directly to the industry, but would not be taught with a focus towards the aerospace industry.</p>