Suggested additions to list for engineering?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Interested in Chemical Engineering & Materials Engineering</p>

<p>My son's stats
-GPA: UW 3.5 W 4.1
-SAT: 700R 740M 650W 6 on essay :(
-SAT II: taking MATHII & CHEM on 10/6 - he has spent a lot of time preparing for these and should do well
-ACT: taking on 10/27 hoping to do better than SAT, he is actually preparing for this one</p>

<p>-APs: CHEM - 5, PHYS & CALC - currently taking, the only other science AP his school offers is AP BIO and he really didn't want to take it.
-All other classes are honors except for english 11,12</p>

<p>Honors are OK and EC's are good
We live in MA, so NE is preferred, but direct flights are good too</p>

<p>His current list:
RPI
Bucknell
UMass Amherst
Clarkson
Michigan Tech
Case Western Reserve</p>

<p>He doesn't want to go to a college that is integrated into an urban area (like Northeastern) and has also eliminated for various reasons WPI & RIT. I can't imagine paying for an OOS public, when UMass Amherst is fairly well ranked, unless the aid was fantastic.</p>

<pre><code>RPI is his top choice, he would have applied ED, but finances are an issue, which is why he is taking the ACT, hoping to maximize merit aid at this point, his GPA is trending upward, but it is what it is.
</code></pre>

<p>Just wondering if 6 schools is enough based on his stats, and if we are overlooking any good options. Thanks for any input!</p>

2

<p>* I can’t imagine paying for an OOS public, when UMass Amherst is fairly well ranked, unless the aid was fantastic.*</p>

<p>Do you mean merit scholarships or financial aid? Most OOS publics won’t give much/any financial aid, but some would give your son a LOT of merit scholarships.</p>

<p>What is your budget? </p>

<p>Mich Tech seems like an odd addition. Do you have ties there?</p>

3

<p>It is certainly NOT in an urban environment…</p>

4

<p>Lafayette & Lehigh would be options.</p>

5

<p>I agree with mom2collegekids. What is your budget? Some publics are relatively affordable, even for OOS students. Minnesota-Twin Cities comes to mind. The CoA at Minnesota is ~$30k, including room and board and general expenses.</p>

<p>There are several other public universities with excellent Engineering programs and reasonable CoA (~$40 k) relative to RPI or Case Western, both of which cost ~60k. Purdue, VTech and Wisconsin-Madison are among them.</p>

6

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<p>I assume you’re OK with “in a city”, just want a campus, right? CWR is both.</p>

7

<p>Excellent selection of RPI as top choice. Outstanding engineering school. I hope the merit aid works out.</p>

8

<p>He just wants that campus feel. I am trying to interest him in Case Western, we are planning a visit, and have family in the area, and he can decide for sure whether a large urban area is totally out. Michigan Tech is kinda odd, but he loves the idea of falling out the door and going skiing, he is an Eagle Scout and loves his outdoor activities. We can handle ~ 25K out of pocket, and need to keep any parent loans fairly low as we have another son in HS. So he is looking to take advantage of merit aid. He ended up taking VTech off his list because of the oos cost and it is hard to get to (can’t get there from here! :slight_smile: ). I know, Mich Tech is out there too. But they have good merit aid. I think we passed over some schools early on because of location, and need to reresearch them. Forgot to mention his class rank is 19/188 if that matters. Thanks for the suggestions so far.</p>

9

<p>U Rochester?</p>

10

<p>In addition to Minnesota, Iowa State, NCSU, Virginia Tech, Stony Brook, and Cal Poly SLO are also have relatively low out-of-state list prices.</p>

<p>There are also some <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt; available at schools with engineering.</p>

11

<p>Another vote for RPI. Both RPI and Case will likely offer him lots of merit aid. I think the list he has looks pretty solid. From what I’ve read (and experienced first-hand), RPI is not likely to offer more than about 1/2 off the total cost, so at today’s prices you would still be paying 30K. I can’t recall reading anyone got more than 30K in merit, but it may be worth looking through old threads.</p>

12

<p>According to Kiplinger: [Best</a> Values in Private Colleges, 2011-12](<a href=“Kiplinger | Personal Finance News, Investing Advice, Business Forecasts”>Kiplinger | Personal Finance News, Investing Advice, Business Forecasts)=ALL&id=none</p>

<p>Case Western offers merit to 50% of students with an average award of $19,476
RPI " " " 85% " " " " " " " $12,958</p>

13

<p>RPI is a great school. Personally, my S liked the Bucknell campus and the m/f ratio a lot better. It is also very highly ranked (top 10 or better) in many of its engineering areas.</p>

<p>But I agree with #4. Look at Lehigh and Lafayette.</p>

14

<p>I’d love to recommend Minnesota, but it would not be a good fit at all if he doesn’t want an urban school.</p>

<p>As long as he is happy with UMass, there is no need to apply to more than six schools.</p>

15

<p>Thanks for all the responses. We already have a visit to Bucknell (his reach) set up for next week and will try to get to CWR in Nov. He actually does like UMass Amherst so he will not feel he is settling if he ends up going there. He doesn’t want to apply to any school that he can’t see himself attending, so hopefully there will be no disappointment in the end.</p>

16

<p>Michigan Tech is an excellent school and worth keeping on your list for now.</p>