Thank you for the clarification as to the GPA requirements! I didn’t realize the weed out courses would be that hard so once again thank you for pointing me in the right direction in terms of getting a tutor, office hours, and getting credits done over the summer. It’s also great to hear that the brand name reaches as far as Michigan!
Thanks again!
@Amateurengineer to answer your questions concerning riding the bus at NC State. Most of the freshmen classes will be on main campus (the weed out classes as has been mentioned). They are building a pedestrian tunnel to connect the two campuses. They also stagger the classes between the two, so it is not a problem if you do have classes on both, which my sons did a couple of times. And like PSU above, NC State engineering, your are accepted into the college but not the specific major. Once you complete your first set of math and sciences, you apply to the major of your choice and it is based on grades in these core classes. Typically aerospace and chemical will be among the harder to get into.
Good Luck.
My vote goes to VT, but H and I being alumni might make us a wee bit biased. H actually turned down NC State for VT when he got accepted off the wait list, but that was a few moons ago. H owns his own company now, so I think he turned out ok.
VT is similar that one gets into their specialty after the core courses unless they’ve changed recently.
The setting in Blacksburg is incredible. We loved our time there. It’s only improved since our day.
All that said, you could pick based upon finances or where you think you want to live once done and do just fine with degrees from any of your choices. We live in Penn State territory and know a fair number of successful grads from there too. Head down to NC where H is from and there are plenty of NC State grads doing well too.
Best wishes to you with your selection.
@Amateurengineer have you made your decision yet. I am in a similar boat as well. Pls do keep us updated on your choice
VT also has a first year general engineering status. Students who earn a 3.0 in those first year courses can choose any engineering major. Below 3.0 is competitive by GPA, depending on remaining capacity in the department.
UPDATE:
I was accepted to VT on Friday 2/22/19!
I have not yet made a decision, and am touring these schools in the upcoming month. I will post how those tours go and what I thought of each of the schools.
As of right now, I am leaning more towards Penn State. This is more based off of cost rather than how much I like either of the schools. VT is far more expensive than PSU and therefore would make sense for me to go to the college that is significantly cheaper (31,000yr vs. 44,000yr).
NC State, on the other hand, has fallen out of favor on my list a little. It is very expensive for out of state applicants (44,850yr) and has a lesser known engineering program relative to the other schools. However, I will still be touring the campus to give an opinion!
I will keep the thread posted! Glad to hear you are considering all of these schools too!
@Amateurengineer - waiting eagerly for your update after the tours. NC state merit aid will be a deciding factor for me and i hear it could be informed by end of March. Pls update your info after the tours. If anyone has already toured to these campuses before kindly update
Congrats on the VT acceptance. And, yes, thanks for the update and keep it coming!!
Congratulations on the VT acceptance and good luck with your decision. I love Virginia Tech but if PSU is significantly cheaper, then that may very well be the way to go. You will be fine coming out of any of these three schools.
@ppxyz123
@AlmostThere2018
@sevmom
Thank you all!
I too am waiting to hear about NC State’s aid and that will, of course, be a factor in my decision too. I am touring PSU March 14th, Virginia Tech soon after, and NC State at the end of March. I will post a detailed independent review of all of the tours as soon as I get back from each of them!
I will also say that though this thread is for VT, PSU, and NCSU, I had also applied and got accepted to the University of Maryland, College Park. I wasn’t really thinking about going there before because of the price, however, they have offered me a one time $50,000 merit-based scholarship. This significantly brought down the cost and the school is also very excellent for engineering. I know no one in this thread is probably considering them, however, I thought I should throw this information in here because I may very well end up deciding to go there. I am touring the UMD campus in March and also having a friend in their engineering program give me a more “student perspective” tour of the school.
I will post a review of UMD’s tour on here also, though I know it really isn’t related to the thread!
Again thank you all!
Is it a 50k over 4 years?
No matter - that’s impressive!
Does that make it your least expensive option then?
UMD College Park engineering is excellent! Congrats – you’re killin’ it! 
Not quite the cheapest, but close to it!
UMD never sent a financial aid information form yet to inform me how much tuition and room/board will be. Therefore, I have no clue what to expect for the yearly cost, so I am just going off what it says on their website and using 51,500 per year (out-of-state). With the 50,000 spread out over the 4 years, this lowers my cost to 38,900yr. Bringing it in at the second cheapest option so far. PSU still the cheapest at 31,000yr!
Thank you so much! I love this website, so much positivity!
Hello!
Just wanted to let you know,
along with my posts on this thread, I will also be capturing some footage and giving a video review of the campus tours on YouTube. I just made a channel for all this college stuff so I’ll link it below if you are looking to check it out!
I will do a tailored video for each of the colleges after their tours!
As an OOS student at NC State and VA Tech, total cost (not counting transportation and personal expenses) would be about:
NC State: ~$40k per year
https://studentservices.ncsu.edu/your-money/financial-aid/estimated-cost-of-attendance/undergraduate-student/
VA Tech: ~$43k per year
https://finaid.vt.edu/content/dam/finaid_vt_edu/Cost_of_Attendance/1920/COA%20OutofState%201920_UG.pdf
As an in-state student at PSU: ~$30k
That’s give or take a grand or so. So PSU would be about $10k-$13k less expensive per year, or about $40-50k less expensive over the course of four years.
I think PSU has a slightly stronger Engineering rep than VA Tech and NC State, though all are adequate.
So to me, I would choose PSU unless you fell in love with NC State or VA Tech to the point that the $40-$50k difference became a non-factor. Still, that’s a lot of money which you could use for a house down payment, grad school, traveling, investing, etc.
Thank you so much! You’re absolutely right, That is a huge difference in cost over 4 years. I like the way you proposed it, is the likability of VT or NCSU a 50,000 difference vs. PSU?
Again I appreciate the comment, massively helpful!
No problem. Wherever you go, work your tail off and shake hands (and have some fun - avoid early Friday classes, lol), and you’ll be fine.