Suggest West Coast/Midwest Colleges for my Son - Engineering

College Search & Selection
1

Rising Senior Son has a good list of engineering schools on East coast/Northeast. We are in Colorado. Would be nice to add several on West Coast/Midwest schools. Not interested in going South.

Stats:

UW GPA: 3.65
W GPA: 4.5
IB Diploma Candidate
ACT 33 (Reading/Science 35, Math 33, English 30)
SAT 2060 (Math 740, CR 680, Writing 640) - lower than ACT, probably won’t submit
SAT II Math: 780, Chem 730
AP US Government (4), US History (4).
Took AP Calc BC and AP Chem this year, as well as IB Chem SL and IB History SL (scores are not available yet).
Next year course load: IB Math HL (will take exam), AP/IB Physics (will take IB HL and AP exams), IB English (will take HL exam), IB Spanish (will take SL exam), AP Comp Sci (will take AP exam), TOK.

ECs: HS swimming all three years and will be swimming senior year (HS State Qualifier every year, Captain next year), Club swimming - 8 years.
Internship at a research institution summer after sophomore year.
Some odd jobs for neighbors, regular help to a neighbor landlord with property maintenance, remodel, some office help - not official, payed “under the table”. (I have no idea how this can be included in the application, but he is working this job since he was 13, and he puts 1-2 weekends a month during school year, and more during summer)
Some volunteering, not much.
Frankly, his ECs look scarce compared to some other posters on this site, but swimming takes a LOT of time.

He wants a mid-size school: more than 3000-4000, but preferably not a huge state school with 20K+ students. I want a school where out of pocket cost will be under 30K/year.
Here is the list for now:

Local schools - University of Colorado Boulder (the only big school) and Colorado School of Mines

East Coast/Northeast: Stevens Institute of Technology, RPI, University of Rochester, Case Western Reserve, Carnegie Mellon (highest reach right now). We understand these are >30K at a sticker price, but hoping to get merit aid at some.

Midwest: not much for now. Was contacted by coaches from Rose-Hulman and Illinois Tech, but these schools seem too small to him.

Nothing much on West coast. May be Cal Poly SLO?

What should we look at for some reasonable reaches/matches/safeties in these two regions?

2

COA for Cal Poly SLO is around $36K/year as an OOS student but if recruited for swimming, may get some money out of SLO. Suggest you look to some privates such as the Claremont Colleges and USC where FA/Merit may get the cost down.

3

University of Alabama

4

Rose Hulman is small but he should consider it. Very high percentage of students awarded significant merit aid. Very strong engineering curriculum

5

Gumbymom,

Swimming for Cal Poly not in the cards. He is looking at D3 for swimming, plus probably not fast enough for Cal Poly anyway.
Is 30-40K+ aid really possible at USC for his stats? Harvey Mudd also sounds great, but I’m not sure he can even get in, let alone get merit aid. Am I underestimating?

6

It is the smaller tech schools like Illinois Tech and Rose Hulman which will offer the best merit aid. You won’t get anything out of state at the big publics which have strong engineering programs.

7

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We understand that. I understand that you are an IIT representative, so thank you for your feedback and participation. Both IIT and RHIT are not off the list, but we are unsure we will be able to visit them before application deadlines, so it will be hard to have a full picture.

8

University of Minnesota

Purdue (>30K students)

University of Florida (>20k student)

University of Miami (~10K students, but expensive. Could get 1/2 tuition scholarship)

Would not recommend Rose Hulman, although it has a great engineering program. It is extremely small and located in really hick town, with not much to do. Very depressing weather during winter months.

9

“Is 30-40K+ aid really possible at USC for his stats?”
financial aid, maybe.

You’ll have to start by plugging in your Financial info into USC’s calculator. They are a Profile school so that has to be taken into acct.
As for merit $$ from USC, the answer is no, unfortunately. Same with Mudd.

Not with his current stats, and GPA. If he takes the SAT again, and raises his scores [ which I strongly suggest he does] AND gets all A’s his first Semester Sr year, then his chances greatly improve.

What was his PSAT score? Does he qualify for NM status in your state?

Think about San Jose State University, right in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Its not small but has a great Engineering program.

10

You could take a look at Missouri Science & Tech in Rolla, MO. Also South Dakota Schools of Mines is a bargain at about $19,000 OOS COA.

11

USC starts at $60K with all of the combined fees. You need to see if he would be eligible for any aid there. Santa Clara had decent aid for dd2.

12

COA = $67k for this year. Should be like $69k next year

“As for merit $$ from USC, the answer is no, unfortunately.”

Doesn’t hurt to apply. Selection is holistic, after all. Just have realistic expectations, OP.

I’d send the ACT score only. Try to retake it for a 34-35, but if it doesn’t happen, oh well.

13

Do you mean $30,000 per year total net price, or that this amount is your contribution that he can add a federal direct loan and/or a few thousand dollars of work earnings to afford a somewhat higher net price?

14

I wouldn’t apply to USC, I doubt that he get in with that GPA let alone merit aid.

15

Good chance at Purdue, but I doubt you get merit aid there either.

16

Money-wise, 30K would be total net price. At least that’s what we are shooting for right now, will have to see about specific schools, once he is admitted.
Our EFC is ~41K, so not holding my breath for the need-based aid to bring the cost down to what we can realistically afford.

As far as PSAT - not a NMSF for sure. He does worse on the SAT (and did on PSAT) than ACT. His first ACT, taken after sophomore year without any studying was 31. This year he put some time in, and got a 33. I think he can raise it to 34, but probably not higher. English/writing are his weaknesses, and I think this is why SAT is harder for him.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

17

@LostInSpace07 - I wasn’t specifically pushing either IIT or RHIT. Just making a comment. There are lots of great engineering programs out there and the goal is to find the one your son is most comfortable in and that the family can afford. Small Tech schools are not for everyone and there are a lot of good suggestions in this thread.

It seems like his academics are strong enough to have a good chance at the schools you listed. he should have a good selection to choose from.