My son who is an International student got accepted for the Mech Undergrad Engg in the PSU, VT, UIUC, TAMU, U of Minn, MSU. In MSU they are giving 25K USD per year for all 4 years. Leaning towards PSU. But MSU offer is too good to ignore. Need help to decide. MSU ranking looks much lower than PSU. Does it matter.
There are a lot of MSUs: Michigan State, Mississippi State, Missouri State, Montana State, Montclair State, and more. You will get better responses if you specify where your student was accepted with merit.
Assuming MSU is Michigan State?
All are excellent schools for engineering. There’s no wrong choice.
Which schools are direct admit to engineering? I would move those to the top of the list. PSU isn’t.
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Can you specify which MSU?
Please list cost for each using this (tuition, fees, room, board) - (grant, scholarship) =
What’s your budget - or are all affordable?
Did he get into the Honors College anywhere?
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UIUC is the highest rated here (assuming you used US News) - but each of those schools (assuming Michigan State) is awesome - and yes, they, in part, buy kids in - because they have Michigan and other Big 10 schools to compete with.
You will likely being going home after you go to school.
In the end, what can you afford - kids from all these schools will work side by side. One of them may be the boss -but I can’t tell you which school the boss will come from.
If Michigan State is the school you can best afford, it’s fine.
I do agree with ensuring you can get the major you want - engineering is hard everywhere and nationally 40-60% don’t complete the major (there’s various studies). Not sure the ranking you are looking at but if you went by US News, it’d go:
UIUC, then Texas A&M are in the top 12. The rest aren’t shown (unless you have a subscription) but are #13-35 - somewhere in that group - including Michigan State. All are listed in the other schoos list.
Rankings are all over the place - so i’d put less into them.
Find another ranking, for example - college factual - and you’ll find Va Tech at #25, A&M at #29, UIUC at #33, MSU at #46, and PSU not listed in the top #62.
You can find rankings to show anything - just about.
Lots of kids purposely choose lower ranked schools - mine did (Alabama over Purdue) and he did likely as well outcome wise as at Purdue. In the end, a lot depends on the kid.
And yours is likely going home after.
So choose the best fit - and finances = a part of fit.
But don’t forget, a scholarship alone matters less than the actual cost after scholarship. Different schools have different sticker prices to begin with.
Good luck.
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UIUC is direct admit – if the student got into the ME major, then that is good unless wanting to change major. But if admission is to DGS or something else, changing into ME is very difficult and competitive.
The others (besides MSU since it is not specified which MSU) have secondary admission to major based on college grades and sometimes essays. Texas A&M is likely the most difficult and competitive process for ME.
Michigan State University
Texas A&M isn’t direct admit, all freshman start out in General Engineering.
As much as I love TAMU, student won’t get any $ and MechE is a tough & popular program to get into. I’d follow direct admit and $ (if $ is an issue).
Of the schools that do first year general / pre engineering, the college GPA needed for admission to major is as follows:
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Yep, 3.75 is needed to get 1st choice. That isn’t easy at A&M. Doable for some, yes, but not easy.
I meant Michigan state for MSU. He has direct to Penn State. Tuition is the following
PSU = 36K ; Va Tech = 35K ; UIUC = 35K ; Texas A&M = 40K ; Michigan state = (40 -25) = 15K
Thanks for the info
MSU is Michigan State. No he didn’t get honors.
The fees are these
PSU = 36K ; Va Tech = 35K ; UIUC = 35K ; Texas A&M = 40K ; Michigan state = (40 -25) = 15K
Yes, MSU is Michigan state.
PSU means Penn State.
The scholarship is too good to drop. In MSU they mentioned that only top 5% are given this scholarship
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What can you afford ? Those are b4 room & board.
How about travel. None are easy to get to although some do have smaller airports.
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I can afford all of these. Not easily but can. As he is our only child and we don’t mind investing in education.
But 25K is too good a offer. But somehow MSU reviews are not shown as good as other schools
I showed you ranking b4. Where are these reviews? They don’t trail in ranking - in the ballpark.
Michigan State puts out a ton of quality engineers.
It’s not the rep of Illinois but it stands with the others.
Perhaps you see bad student reviews? Reputationally it’s fine.
Michigan State is a great school at a great price for you. Good luck with the decision!
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Basically, you have MSU substantially lower cost than the others, so if cost is a big deal, it is the obvious choice.
Of the others, UIUC is most desirable if the student is directly admitted to the major and will not change, but least desirable if not, due to difficulty getting into the major. Texas A&M is also undesirable due to difficulty getting into the major.
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Ok.
Another question, which i had in mind. Since this is a slightly lower ranked school, there is a chance to do better in College.
Does doing better in MSU compared to doing average in PSU or other schools makes a difference?