Hello, I am a white male from a suburb south of Atlanta. I am interested in Civil Engineering (Construction Engineering and Management to be specific) and open to suggestions for schools where I am a competitive applicant.
I will graduate next year and have a 3.75 UW GPA and a 3.9 GPA. My High school is competitive, so I am only 156 out of 353. I have a 1320 SAT with a 710 in math and 610 in reading/writing with a 1340 superscore. I will graduate with 9 APs and 3 dual enrollment courses. I have a fair amount of EC’s (Eagle Scout, Science Olympiad, Beta Club, Boys State, about 100 hours of volunteer work, a 2-year varsity athlete and likely to be captain next year, played cello for 6 years…).
As of right now, I am looking at Auburn and Virginia Tech (I would join the Corps of Cadets), but please let me know about other universities I am not considering.
Would the various Georgia publics with civil engineering be suitable? Besides the more competitive GT and UGA, GSU and KSU also have civil engineering. They may be easier on your budget than most out-of-state publics – is cost a factor?
Thank you so much ucbalumnus for your comment. I wouldn’t mind going to some of the Georgia publics, and I plan on checking GSU out. However, I know the majority of my high school goes to KSU, and I would like to spend college in a different social environment. Also, I used to live in Cincinnati for 7 years and would appreciate four seasons again.
Cost is a factor however, I would like to go out-of-state. My dad is a veteran (I don’t know if it matters but he is 30% disabled) and left me one year of the GI Bill. Therefore, depending on the VA policies for each public school, I might be able to obtain 4 years of in-state tuition (Auburn is giving me instate all 4 years). Also, I plan on joining Air force ROTC wherever I go, so that should offset the cost (assuming I get an ROTC scholarship). My parents said they want me to focus on getting into a good school, and they will focus on paying for it. Although they don’t want to spend a great deal of money if they don’t have to.
Also, I don’t know if this helps but I earned a 3 on AP Human Geography, AP World History, AP Physics 1, and AP Statistics and a 4 on APUSH. I also earned an A on my first Dual Enrollment English and a B on my second DE English (I was right on the border…).
U of Cincinnati if you want to go back to OH.
Look at the University of Nebraska. There is a scholarship calculator that will give you an idea if Nebraska would be affordable for you. There is AFROTC as well.
What are they willing and able to pay? “A great deal of money” means different amounts . Are you eligible for financial aid, you should run a FAFSA EFC estimator and NPCs for each of your schools.
IIT, Worcester Polytech (Private), West Virginia University, Purdue, University at Buffalo are some suggested schools. Ohio has a number of state schools, if you are interested in going there. .
Engineering classes fill up fast, and state schools tend to fill on a rolling basis, so it’s important to get your applications out early.
You should know all the awards your state has. There is HOPE, ZellMiller and some tech awards that Georgia offers their college students, I recall
I think that VaTech may be a reach for Engineering for you- and you will be OOS for all 4 years. Also, what happened with the Physics AP?
If you get in, and get a Type 7 scholarship, you can convert it to the 3 year in-state and combine it with your 1 year of GI bill. That would cover tuition, and leave just Room & Board ($10k/pa, give or take). A Type 2 would about $24K/pa to cover. Type 1, with a 5% success rate is rare, obvs.
Once you know if you have a scholarship be sure to shop other universities- there are quite a few that will ‘top-up’ a Type 1 or 7 and either discount or even include R&B.
The problem with this statement, is that they are not independent. A lot of parents don’t want to have the cost discussion with their kids. It is very important that you force the conversation. Otherwise it can cause a lot of issues next April 30th.
For example, Milwaukee School of Engineering may be a good place for you to explore more. It has a Construction Management degree, Air Force ROTC, and four seasons. However, with your stats it would have a net cost about $40k/year. However, I don’t know if that is even in the ballpark.
FYI, for Air Force ROTC, you may want to explore the desirability of Civil Engineering. When I was searching through the MOSE website, they listed the majors they were looking for as part of the scholarship program. Civil Engineering (or Constriction Management) was not on the list. https://www.msoe.edu/admissions-aid/financial-aid-scholarships/scholarships-and-grants/rotc-scholarships/air-force-rotc/ I don’t know if this is school specific or not.
Thank you guys for the feedback. @cptofthehouse My dad said he is able to pay $25,000 a year, and we are going to go over FASFA and financial aid stuff tonight. @collegemom3717 You are probably right, VT is a reach and I guess that is why I started this thread. With my stats and joining the corps do you think I have a 50/50 chance? When I toured VT gave me these stats https://■■■■■■■.com/y68p5qa9. Also, I ended getting an A both semesters with my schools 5 point curve for AP’s. I got a 3 on the exam and I plan on using my knowledge from this year to do better in Ap Physics C next year. @Eeyore123 I think majors for ROTC scholarships are school-specific because initially, I wanted to major in Construction Engineering and Management (CEM) at VT, but they said I would need to major in civil engineering if I wanted to do AFROTC. With that being said I am still open to joining Army ROTC for CEM.
Check out U New Mexico, which has both a dedicated Civil Engineering degree as well as one specifically in Construction Management. Both are within the School of Engineering.
http://degrees.unm.edu/interest_search?interest=422&selected=true
You would be competitive for their Amigo’s scholarship, as well as their Honors program, meaning that their net price for tuition room and board would fall well under your Dad’s yearly number.
I suggest that you run their Net Price Calculator, which factors in your GPA and scores.
http://admissions.unm.edu/costs-financial-aid/index.html
They also have an Air Force ROTC.
http://afrotc.unm.edu/
You wouldn’t get four seasons, but you’d get a Western experience and the students there seem to be pretty happy.
Check out JMU. When we visited they were talking about increasing their engineering enrollment. I think some of the strategy is to offer an alternative to VA Tech. The facilities are new and amazing. They also have ROTC.
Better check prices for those schools. $25k may not be enough. I don’t know what veteran benefits OP will get, what schools will give OOS rates. I know VA schools not big on FA for OOS students ( typical of a number of state schools) or merit money.
University of South Carolina has money, check thresholds of University of Alabama, particularly Huntsville.
Check out Kansas State University.
Thank you for all of these great suggestions and advice!
If I do happen to get waitlisted or deferred from Virginia Tech, my plan was to change my intended major to university studies. Do you think I should just apply as university studies as my first choice major instead of engineering.
Also here is an extra list of my EC’s in case they matter: I was apart of a mentor program for younger lacrosse players; I was the first person in school history to earn this character/team player award two years in a row for lacrosse; I am active in my Church (my Eagle Project was for my church, youth group, and volunteering); I held multiple leadership positions in Boy Scouts (I was the chaplains aid position for a two week trek in New Mexico where we hiked over a 100 miles, and a patrol leader for a group of 10 at Jamboree); I overcame depression (I had a bad episode, and just a terrible couple of months last year); this summer I am building an Arduino controlled Wall-e robot
Maybe Alabama, Auburn, or Clemson? WVU might be good. It’s engineering program might be underestimated. All the engineers I know are solid and seem to stick together.
For a good engineering program with four seasons, how about Iowa State? Your grades and SAT score qualify for an automatic scholarship, which would bring tuiton + room & board + books down to about $27K/year, but I’m not sure how using the GI Bill or joining ROTC may affect the cost further.
Thank you all for your help! I was accepted to Virginia Tech yesterday for ED! I was also accepted to Auburn, Penn State, Iowa State, and Mississippi State.
Does the FA/scholarships and net price at VT work out for you?
I am applying scholarships in general as well as AFROTC and AROTC scholarships which should help my net price at VT. If that doesn’t work out, then I plan on joining the national guard. If worse comes to worst my parents are also considering buying a lake house on Smith Mountain lake to be close to my grandparents, so hopefully, I could gain in-state eligibility.
Have you taken the ACT? Often people find it’s a lot easier - I got an SAT score similar to yours on the SAT, and scored considerably higher on the ACT. That might slightly increase your chances at some schools.