Safety school advice: engineering

“Nuclear is not that easy to find, as only about 20 colleges in the US have bachelor’s degree programs in it. Unfortunately, the search for programs in ABET’s web site is broken for nuclear.”

This does limit options. WPI closed its on-campus nuclear reactor some years ago as interest had faded in the field nationally. A few years ago the government decided to re-seed interest in the field. WPI was one of 16 universities with this funding which is used for graduate and undergraduate related research. WPI’s program is managed out of the Physics Department. See https://www.wpi.edu/people/faculty/dcmedich They also have the Aerospace and Chem Engine departments. WPI is small compared to the other Universities listed.

Nuclear point of interest see https://www.wpi.edu/news/nuclear-engagement-powerful-attraction-keeps-diana-hart-92-energy-industry

The entire University program focuses on team research in the major and a required interdisciplinary team project which is usually done off campus. For The WPI Plan see https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/wpi-plan

Last Fall, the average entering freshman had an average, unweighted GPA of 3.89/4. I do not know the weighted average. Many students are surprised in the current applicant pools because the targets keep moving and applicants are typically looking at two year old data. In the fall of '18, WPI admitted about 35% of the male applicants. With an “interesting EC profile” he might be an attractive applicant. Many “safeties” are not really safe anymore.

Clarkson is an excellent university. They have very highly regarded programs in Aeronautical Engineering and Chemical engineering. Find out from them regarding nuclear options. See https://www.clarkson.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs

Looks like ABET fixed the search for nuclear engineering on its web site.

Here are the 22 colleges with ABET-accredited bachelor’s degree programs in nuclear engineering:

Georgia Institute of Technology
Idaho State University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Missouri University of Science and Technology (Formerly University of Missouri-Rolla)
North Carolina State University at Raleigh
Oregon State University
Pennsylvania State University
Purdue University at West Lafayette
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
South Carolina State University
Texas A&M University
United States Military Academy
United States Naval Academy
University of California, Berkeley
University of Florida
University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
University of Massachusetts Lowell (Formerly University of Lowell)
University of Michigan
University of New Mexico
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Virginia Commonwealth University

If you want Nuclear engineering, go off the ABET list above. U Mass Lowell might be a “safety.” Nuclear Engineering is an option out of the Chemical Engineering Department. They do not have aeronautical or aerospace but do have ME.

I’d say you can be pretty comfortable with NCState as a safety school. 29 ACT average vs. a 35 and a 46% acceptance rate.

If you’re looking for Nuclear and “don’t want to pay out of state tuition”, you have maybe 1 option from the list above. Purdue’s OOS is cheaper than almost all other states and most private schools, has nuclear, and is top 10-15 ranked in Engineering with most individual programs in the top 10-20.

I’d consider it a safety school with the stats provided, but I’d also put it as a bit more difficult to get into than NCState.

If you don’t consider them safety schools, then maybe Penn State.

There are so many good engineering schools out there that we really need more information before recommending.

Do you want him to be debt-fee at graduation? What kind of distance from home would he be comfortable with? Is he a little fish in big pond, or big fish in little pond? Is he national merit semi finalist? What kind of social activities does he enjoy?

ditto post #8 “An engineering specialty does not need to be available to get a good undergraduate engineering education. Some in the field actually recommend a more general UG with electives to get exposure to a specialty.”

Ohio State does have a good sized “National Buckeye” merit scholarship that can be stacked with a “Maximus” and combined it would take about $16,500 off the CoA sticker for oos of $43,176 for a net price of $26,676 Those are no longer automatic scholarships, but there are a lot of them. Essays matter. There are also some full tuition/full ride scholarships his stats would be competitive for if he chose to apply to them.
http://undergrad.osu.edu/cost-and-aid/merit-based-scholarships

Also offers Navy ROTC https://nrotc.osu.edu/

FYE (first year engineering) program where students take general engineering, then apply to their major after learning more about engineering interests and their own strengths. They have a minor in nuclear engineering for undergrads https://mae.osu.edu/nuclear

@ChapelHillMom I had 2 get into NCSU undeclared COE at state. Just a hair below on ACT but also female which is woefully underrepresented outside of the ISE major. NCSU COE should be a safety for you, however, do make sure to try to get into honors college. It makes NCSU a small private - get every section of every class before every other undergrad. I know you would not want to pay OOS at VA Tech, but this year a lot of NC residents are getting into VA Tech engineering but not NCSU. (I think they want more OOS tuition $ than the UNC/NCSU system wants.) so I think w/ safety of VA Tech, and NCSU should be fine. (Unless there’s something unusual like your kid is not taking AP Calculus and AP physics. I’ve never heard of your Ks stats who’s taken Calc B/C and AP physics not getting into NCSU in state.

@PengsPhils Why do you believe that those schools are not safeties for someone with a 35ACT and 4.5 UWGPA?

@anon145 - great advice on the honors college. And thanks again to people for the advice. He may have previously narrowed in too quickly, and in trying to have the best ROTC strategy, limited some great programs. I also know that NC State looks like a safety based on numbers, but I’ve seen students on these boards with really good numbers get waitlisted from NCSU engineering. We don’t want to make any assumptions!

In terms of what our objectives are financially- we’ve been able to put money aside to pay for a state education completely, and we have always told D20 that he could go to a state school with no debt at the end of four years, or he could choose a more expensive option and then look at alternate means to pay (merit, ROTC etc.) He won’t qualify for needs based aid, but doesn’t have a blank check, if that makes sense.

Great advice for your son. I don’t know much about NCSU other than it has a respectable reputation outside of NC. But if ACT of 31 is the 75th percentile at NCSU, I can’t imagine he would be rejected with a 35 and high GPA, especially in-state. Merit aid may be a different story, however.

Purdue’s $42k out-of-state cost is higher than that of Idaho State at $37k, UNM at $38k, or SC State at around $30-34k. But those are all higher than NCSU’s in-state cost of $24k.

https://www.purdue.edu/dfa/cost/
https://www.isu.edu/financialaid/how-financial-aid-works/cost-of-attendance-coa/
https://admissions.unm.edu/costs-financial-aid/index.html
http://www.scsu.edu/files/2018_2019%20Fee%20Sheet%20Updated%20053118.pdf
https://studentservices.ncsu.edu/your-money/financial-aid/estimated-cost-of-attendance/undergraduate-student/

But check for scholarships. UNM has some large ones, but they are competitive:

https://scholarship.unm.edu/scholarships/non-resident.html

To the OP, if your son is considering participating in NROTC, there is no maximum number of public schools that he can use his scholarship at. I just recently went through the process of winning an NROTC scholarship, and once one has the scholarship, it can be transferred to virtually any school (public or private) as long as the student is admitted and the school has a NROTC program. I will also include a little note that at top programs (think GT, MIT, U MIch) these NROTC programs often have difficulty filling their slots due to the competitive application process to the schools, and due to this, the NROTC programs have a bit of sway in the admission process. This makes some of those reach schools like GT, a little more attainable. Not that they become safety schools at all, but you now the NROTC unit pulling for you plus a highly competitive academic profile. Just something to consider.

@jmk518 I think Rutgers is probably safer, but Ohio State has a very good engineering program and will have lower acceptance rates for the major (though I don’t know the exact difference). For RPI it is a pretty high stat school when you look at the middle 50% and it’s just simply not a guarantee there. All three are likely, but I don’t think any are 100% as admissions at the higher levels get more competitive and students apply to an increasing number of schools.

There really are no guarantees anywhere. But looking at the 75th percentile ACT scores RPI is 32 and Ohio Engineering is 33. So I think most applying with a 35 would consider those safeties. The UCs, Michigan, UNC, UVA…probably matches for OOS but most others I think are safeties.

He might want to look at RIT if he is considering aerospace: https://www.rit.edu/news/rit-ranked-third-aerospace-and-defense-workforce-study?id=49359 1) it gives great merit aid with the right stats (https://www.rit.edu/admissions/aid/merit-based-scholarships#freshman-merit-based); and 2) it is a co-op school, so when he graduates, he will already have great experience. It feels like a safety for your son’s stats, and RIT’s rankings have been improving more and more. I’m involved on the RIT parents’ Facebook site, and recently read about two co-ops at NASA. Our daughter’s experience; it is costing us less to send her there than to our in-state flagship university; she is receiving an excellent education, and has benefited from connections - she is in their graphic design program, not engineering, but has engineering friends who have had GREAT co-ops; we’ve been told that RIT is know for graduating great “hires” because they have already had work experience, as it is a co-op school.

@chaphillmom Is he in line for National Merit, possibly? NMF would get him an automatic full ride at U of NM. Admissions is rolling there and he’d get a response within a month about admission. If not NMF, he could apply for the Regents Scholarship, which is also a full ride, but quite competitive. @DiotimaDM 's son is doing a STEM degree there with a generous scholarship.

@mamaedefamilia interestingly enough, he didn’t do excessively well on the PSAT. Well, I would have been happy with it, but he won’t hit NMF. In the 98th percentile range. Not sure if it was a bad day, or he was just more comfortable with the ACT approach. Because he had already taken ACT and was happy with his scores, we didn’t fluff too much over it. He hasn’t looked at U of NM, so we will happily add to the spreadsheet. Thanks for the advice.

RIT is an interesting one @MazeArtCrew . We had looked at it early on, but I think we narrowed down too quickly. Thanks for the nudge

@Glass56 - I wonder if we have misunderstood the process for NROTC then? I thought he could apply to up to 5 schools for NROTC, and that one of the top 3 has to be your state school. I didn’t realize that it was unlimited for public schools. I’m assuming you mean any public school, even if there is OOS tuition? He is meeting with the ROTC officer at GT on Friday, so it will be a good opportunity for him to get a clearer picture of his options. BTW- congrats on winning the scholarship! I hope that this is an exciting time for you in getting ready for your next path.

You are absolutely correct that he can only list 5 on his scholarship application. However, should he receive a scholarship, barring any set of unusual circumstances, it is usually awarded to the first choice school listed on his application. Then, he can transfer that scholarship to any school, (that he has been admitted to) that has an NROTC program, even if he did not originally list that school on his application. The only reason he could not transfer a scholarship is if a unit is “full,” but my understanding is that this is very rarely, if ever a problem. My suggestion is to put reach/target schools on the application. This way the cadre at those units know your son has interest in their program, and often times, the cadre can have a little pull with the admission office to get him admitted. By the way, GT has a fantastic NROTC program— I actually met with them when I was applying, and they were extremely helpful in the process.