Well, you could find that in most midwest flagships; if he’d like warm weather, most of the southeast flagships w/honors would fit the bill: NCSU, UGA, UTK, VA Tech, GA Tech, Clemson, UF… D20 (MechE) had similar stats and focused on flagships with honors colleges/programs; she found the best of both worlds (students and professors who push her academically in small classes like an LAC with lots of research opportunities AND a typical big school experience with sports).
2 Likes
What does that mean? Surely he had to fulfill the graduation requirements for your state. These are usually pretty broad and would allow a student to major in just about anything in college.
Get his transcript tomorrow! Look at the courses he has take for the last three years, and his schedule for senior year.
I seriously doubt that the GC at his school has him in a situation where he can only major in engineering in college. That would be odd.
6 Likes
Others above have similar questions. So regarding his course work in HS, he has enough math, language arts and sciences. He only has three years of foreign language and maybe non-engineering majors need more(?). But I agree that his GC won’t put him in a position that limits his college options. Are flagships in the midwest similar in many aspects so that whatever state we are in isn’t an issue?
You need to check the required high school courses for admission to the colleges, but in our experience, the flagship universities didn’t vary much.
2 Likes
Most are very big schools so very similar in many ways. Most have every major you can think of, big sports, lots of clubs, Greek life, some have hospitals on campus or very near. Some of the states have tuition agreements with other states.
1 Like
What state you are in does impact what schools would be a reasonable drive for you. Also, some states have reciprocity on tuition such as Wisconsin/Minnesota, and the various WUE/WICHE states.
For a “generic engineering” major I do agree that many state flagships will be very good. For more obscure majors (eg forestry) it might vary a bit more.
1 Like
Note that engineering majors are often oversubscribed at state flagship level universities.
Check whether any of the following apply:
- Frosh apply to major. Changing into engineering major later can be difficult if not directly admitted. (UIUC, UCs, UTexas)
- Frosh apply to first year engineering undeclared. They then go through a secondary admission process based on first year college grades and possibly essays. (Minnesota, Purdue, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Ohio State, North Carolina State)
- Frosh may be admitted to major, but must maintain high GPA to stay in the major. (Wisconsin)
Colleges listed above are examples, but others may also have similar systems.
3 Likes
Just checked our high school’s Naviance, students with his grades/test scores all got in our flagship. The school is big and mid-ranked (50+/-) on the USNews (neither of us take rankings seriously).
Sounds like it’s more complicated than I thought. What makes it harder is I think he might like something else more than engineering given the opportunity. This is because he does well in sciences and math but maybe better in social sciences. Maybe need to check if colleges offer major/minor combo or get in as an engineering major and change to something else.
Did he take the PSAT junior year and will he qualify for National Merit Scholar program? Historically, University of Central Florida has given big merit to NMS. It has a reputation for being great for engineering and internship opportunities near campus. It is huge, but being accepted to the Burnett Honors college and being a NMS gives some perks.
1 Like
He did and he thinks he will. But he’s not after the money. I think he should if there are opportunities to apply for outside scholarships now. Is there any?
1 Like
https://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/interior.aspx?sid=1758&gid=2&pgid=424&no_cookie=1
Also CC thread Class of 2021 National Merit Thread
3 Likes
Schools are looking for scientists who are well rounded and can study across disciplines.
Are you familiar with the Grand Challenges program? If it sounds appealing, here is the list of schools that are involved. I’m sure similar programs exist at schools in Michigan, Wisconsin or whatever Midwest state next to Canada you live in.
A few examples:
-
USC: Look at Engineering Plus and this mapping page to see how other areas of study combine with engineering. USC’s Grand Challenges Program
-
UCLA: Grand Challenges initiative.
-
Princeton: Examples of interdisciplinary study
-
CU Boulder: Engineering plus program
4 Likes
Here’s another one. At the University of Washington, if you aren’t direct admitted to engineering as a freshman, you’re out of luck as far as being an engineering major. They cannot possibly even take all the qualified freshman applicants who request engineering.
1 Like
UCF would be good to look at to see if he likes UCF. I think NMS are treated well there from what I hear–lots of perks. The app fee last year was only $30 and maybe had to send transcript/test scores which might cost a bit more, but not outrageous and could be a good safety financially if a FL school is of interest. My kids are not NMS, so I don’t know much about it except what I’ve heard on this site and others.
1 Like
I see some Florida school recommendations With his Stats University of Florida, UF and Florida State, FSU
FSU has an Out of State tuition waiver he looks like a strong candidate for
https://admissions.fsu.edu/first-year/scholarships/
2 Likes
I’ve never heard of Grand Challenges program but it sounds so interesting. If he really is interested in engineering, this seems to be a good place to start exploring. Other posters provided good leads too, so apparently there are lots of opportunities.
Is computer science engineering? He mentioned it, but I cannot imagine him being a coder.
1 Like
This is from the UCLA website but describes Computer Science (CS), Computer Science and Engineering (CSE)/Computer Engineering (CE) and Software Engineering (SE).
Some schools offer the Computer science major in their School of Engineering and some schools will offer it in their School of Science or Letters and Sciences.
Updated: If Engineering is in the name of the major, it will usually be in the School of Engineering. Note in the post below there are exceptions.
5 Likes
There are some exceptions.
UCB chemical engineering is in its College of Chemistry.
UIUC chemical engineering is in its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
2 Likes
Lafayette and Lehigh are both liberal arts schools with strong engineering, in the Lehigh Valley area in Pennsylvania. They are both schools that will offer a smooth transition to other options if he doesn’t stick with engineering, but that also have very supportive and collaborative engineering programs that do a good job of retaining students who want to stick with engineering. Unlike most US colleges (especially for STEM), they treat Asian applicants as under-represented minorities, which would give him an admissions advantage on top of his strong record. They’re good options for aspiring engineers who don’t want a “nerd school” environment. In addition to traditional engineering majors, Lafayette has a new “Integrative Engineering” major that night be of interest; it is more interdisciplinary and offers a choice of focus areas. Lehigh has several combined programs in engineering+business and engineering+liberal arts.
If he likes computing and also social sciences, he may want to look at Data Analytics programs that focus on “big data” methods in the social sciences. Graduates with these skills are in demand, and these majors allow students to focus on areas of particular interest. Examples (not an exhaustive list) include the Data Analytics majors at Denison University and Ohio State, the Informatics major at UW Seattle (competitive for direct-admit but not as bad as computer science), the Quantitative Sciences major at Emory, and the Social Data Analytics major at Penn State.
6 Likes