Schools like Colo School of Mines in California or WUE?

Parents Forum
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<p>Sorry for one more thread, but I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything.</p>

<p>What school(s) might be comparable? SLO? Cal Poly Pomona? Any others?</p>

<p>Mines looks like such a great school, but it's unaffordable. Son is adamant about no debt, but we may try to soften him to have some reasonable debt; not sure, though. So, we've tried to look at schools that meet full need, schools with possible good scholarships, and schools in California since we qualify for both the Blue Gold program and Cal Grant (and a little Pell)</p>

<p>Trying to make one last sweep for any possible schools for my son to apply to this fall.</p>

<p>As a very brief recap:</p>

<p>Non-URM; homeschooled/dual-enrolled
2230 SAT (750 M, 750 W, 730 CR)
40+ community college units by end of senior year (He's full time both semesters this year)
No APs until senior year (will take three)
3.95/4.47 GPA
Will take Math II and Lit SAT IIs in November; maybe take Physics SAT II in Dec.</p>

<p>Lots of cello involvement in traditional and non-traditional ways (including professional work and lots of service)
Robotics team last year was tops in our city, but he's not doing it this year
Bowling awards
Some national honors including NM commended</p>

<p>Compelling issues: T1 diabetes, had eye and ear surgery to correct vision disability and hearing loss (still has it, but it's improved)</p>

<p>Will submit a music supplement and possibly an animation/design supplement for a few schools</p>

<p>Came late to the game to STEM academically due to math disability, but is doing great in his college pre-calc class, so is looking at the following majors: (and he has done no competitions other than Robotics and National STEM Video Game Challenge, which he did not win, but does have a really good idea for a medical game)</p>

<p>ME or other engineering
Game Design
Industrial Design
Product Design
Music
Possible other majors: English, Film, Animation</p>

<p>The list so far</p>

<p>Reachy-reach:</p>

<p>Stanford
Princeton</p>

<p>Reach:</p>

<p>UCLA</p>

<p>Match:</p>

<p>U Rochester
UCI
UCSD
SDSU</p>

<p>Good bet:</p>

<p>UT Dallas (looking for scholarships)
Purdue (looking for scholarships)
U of Cincinnati (looking for scholarships)</p>

<p>Possible schools: CSULB, SJSU, and CSU Fullerton. Maybe some Christian schools like Cal Baptist with engineering scholarships. Not sure, though.</p>

<p>He's already been admitted to Missouri S&T, but looks to be unaffordable. Also applied to UC Colo Springs' B of Innovation program (waiting to hear).</p>

<p>Any other last minute suggestions are welcome. :-)</p>

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<p>Small engineering-focused schools that are significantly less expensive than CO Mines are New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. NM Tech is in WUE. For SD Mines, WUE is irrelevant, since the out-of-state tuition is already lower than 1.5 times in-state tuition. Neither is very selective for admission; don’t know how big the merit scholarships, if any, may be.</p>

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<p>Mines is bigger than NM, which is actually really nice. I think NM might be too isolated and small. Price does look good, though.</p>

<p>SD is small, too. Not sure about location. I am thinking he should be near good hospitals just in case. I’ll look into these.</p>

<p>You know, I’ll ask my son about South Dakota. The school looks interesting, and it seems there are some decent scholarships.</p>

<p>Thanks, ucb.</p>

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<p>If you are in California, I would begin with applying to more of the UC schools, not less. I am specifically thinking of UC Davis. Our friends are sending their son there out of state even and are really happy about the school. </p>

<p>I pulled a few of your threads. I noticed you mentioned Loyola Marymount, but are they the most generous of the Catholic schools out West? From what I’ve studied, I would think no. I’d look at Seattle U, Gonzaga or University of Portland for the bigger merit aid packages and the engineering you are seeking. Seattle and UP probably have better internship opps. I know people at Gonzaga and UP who got both generous merit and FA on top of that. I don’t know if they would still be within your family’s ballpark financially, but those are the ones I’d start with.</p>

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<p>Ah-some of my threads are for students that I work with. My son isn’t looking at Catholic colleges.</p>

<p>I’ve gone back and forth with UCD. I’ll have my son look at majors. He chose the other schools for 1)specific majors (CS game design at UCI and Media Arts Design at UCLA; Engineering at UCSD, the local UC). </p>

<p>Actually, I’ll run the NPC on UCD. UCSD would be tuition free-a can’t pass up deal. UCLA is around 8K, a very good deal, and UCI was around $9200, affordable for two years, after which I hope my son will have summer savings to pay for much of school.</p>

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<p>I meant to say he chose the other schools for major, location and affordability.</p>

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<p>Consider SLO, CSULB, Case Western</p>

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<p>Case Western is known for good merit and check out their think[box]
Institute for Collaboration and Innovation ( <a href=“Sears think[box] | Case Western Reserve University”>Sears think[box] | Case Western Reserve University)</p>

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<p>Case has gone on and off the list. I know they have scholarships, but I don’t think my son would get the top one(s), and really, that’s what he would need to attend. And he hasn’t shown “demonstrated interest”, which is what they like to see. It seems like a great place, as do WPI and RPI, but all seem beyond our reach financially without significant debt. </p>

<p>If he was a tippy top candidate, URM, research kid, etc., I’d think he’d have a shot. But the biggest investment of his time with external verification has been his cello playing. His design stuff is mostly done at home except for his robotics team, animation at the community college, and the few competitions he entered but didn’t win (STEM video design and Hack-a-thon). He’s exceptionally creative, but hasn’t pursued it in competition. It will come out during his college years, but for admissions purposes, his achievements are elsewhere.</p>

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<p>If NM Tech is too small and too remote, what about UNM in ABQ? </p>

<p>UNM is WUE eligible plus there is the Amigo Scholarship program (competitive) for OOS students which pays 100% of the OOS portion of tuition.</p>

<p>ABET accredited engineering programs, strong interdisciplinary digital arts program with a variety of subspecializations (NM has good sized film industry and UNM just built $6M digital production facility on campus), pretty good music dept. Fine arts program is nationally recognized.</p>

<p>And the UNM’s main campus is directly across the street from the medical school/hospital, plus there is another major hospital about 1.5 miles directly west of UNM’s campus and 2 more within 5 miles.</p>

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<p>I have seen University of Pittsburgh be pretty generous with scholarships with SATs in that range. They have a nice engineering program. </p>

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<p>My S15 and yours have similar stats and interests–we’ve “met” on the Parents of 2015 thread too. A couple that come to mind to consider is Santa Clara University in San Jose (its location makes it interesting and your S’s stats might make him a good candidate for scholarship) and University of Utah–its art and engineering program is intriguing. Good luck.</p>

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<p>SD Mines is a very well respected STEM university that provides a rigorous engineering education. Like UCBalumnus said, it’s also a great bargain. Small with much personal attention and opportunities for undergraduate research. A great majority of the students are selected for summer internships and co-ops nationwide. The student body is surprisingly regionally diverse. Many students hail from California. Rapid City is not a college town per se, but student activities include all kinds of events around town. Rapid City has its charms, including many festivals. Just a few days ago during “M Week” there was the annual free ice cream day for students. The downtown shopkeepers like to show their appreciation for all the volunteer work that Mines’ students do in the surrounding community. SD Mines is good place to work your rear off in an engineering major. </p>

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<p>Well, my dh is really excited about this school! LOL And the application was super easy, so yeah, my son thought it was a good addition. It had the metallurgical engineering major that seems to interest him at schools that actually have it. I was told it isn’t as good to get into as other engineering fields, but he seems fascinated by it for some reason. </p>

<p>Thanks for the great feedback on it, LakeWashington.</p>

<p>Oh, one question. Why the low graduation rate?</p>

<p>I’ll check out SCU, but I wasn’t sure, to be honest, about a Catholic university since we are not Catholic. We’ve spent considerable time on the campus of Univ. of San Diego, and, while the people we know there are nice, it’s not a fit at all, so I was assuming SCU would be similar. I could be wrong, though. I figured SJSU was the school to apply to in the same general area since it has both ID and animation (and I assume engineering), besides Stanford.</p>

<p>Re. Pitt-I think the problem is that everyone uses it as their “safety” and therefore, top scholarships are now harder to come by. My 2012 tippy top applicant son applied there and, while he did get the full tuition scholarship, was not invited as a finalist for their full ride, so it would be very doubtful if this son could get great scholarships there. They were also very picky about homeschool transcripts, whereas other schools are much more homeschool friendly.</p>

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<p>SD Mines is not highly selective. See <a href=“Admissions Requirements”>http://www.sdsmt.edu/Admissions/Apply/Admissions-Requirements/&lt;/a&gt; . I would imagine that those who came in with a 2.whatever HS GPA and 25 ACT may not have the best chance of graduating in an engineering major.</p>

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<p>Are you looking at a 4 year grad rate? Many engineering tech schools or departments at larger schools don’t have high 4 year grad rates because students take off a semester to work, take a lighter load when there are some seriously hard courses, or if they want to take other classes the school offers that aren’t in their required major. I went to school with a civil engineer who planned 5 years from the start as she wanted to take piano and mythology and Spanish. My own daughter may not make it in 4 years because she plays a spring sport and wants to take a lighter load, at least this first year. She might make it up in the summer, but it depends on work opportunities.</p>

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<p>Is he applying as a freshman? If so, are this many accrued college units an issue at all? Meaning, do they make him a transfer student instead?</p>

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<p>why not apply to Mines anyway? I know they do have a limited number of full-rides. A number of admitted students are invited to apply with an additional essay. My son was invited to apply, but didn’t get the full-ride. Ultimately, Mines came up short financially - but it was a real contender otherwise. Apply. Your son should get in with some merit $$. See if he’s invited to apply for the full-ride. If he is, apply. You never know. Good luck.</p>

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<p>Definitely apply to Case. </p>

<p>DS, a geeky musician, had one of his best scholarship offers there. The cost rivaled our state flagship. His had near-perfect stats, but he had no research (other than IB extended essay). We visited the campus in Feb of senior year, and they told us they like bright kids with interesting ECs. </p>

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<p>Note also that a school focused on a particular academic area (as all of the “Mines” schools are on engineering) may have a lower graduation rate, since students changing majors out of the focused academic area are more likely to have to transfer to other schools.</p>