Suggestions for engineering schools for 30/31 ACT, no hooks

College Search & Selection
1

My S21 is a very good student – 4.0 UW with lots of rigor at a top 10 public HS in our state.
He’s doing test prep now but testing is not a natural strength. With luck, he’ll get a 32/33 and have pretty good chance to get into his top choices (NC State (in state), VT, WI, and maybe Case Western). He’ll have great recs. His ECs will be above average but nothing amazing. But b/c he has no hooks, I think he’ll need to be between 50th and 75th percentile for good admissions chances into these schools – hence the goal of at least a 32.

Meanwhile, I’m helping identify places where he should have very good (safety/low match) chance of admissions if his ACT ends up being 30/31 so that he’ll have some options in play should his testing not work out the way he hopes.

His particular interest is computer engineering. He might also switch to CS but prefers CS programs w/in engineering schools. Interested in working in tech.

Our budget is $50k per year so we can pay OOS for most publics (no UCs, for example). For private colleges, we are a financial aid ‘bubble’ family so he might get a small amount of need aid but most likely he’d need some merit. Full pay $70k is NOT doable so he won’t apply ED to a private school, despite the admissions boost.

What he’s looking for:

– He’d like a college that’s well known and with a solid national reputation. He’s fairly ‘brand’ conscious around colleges so he wants something with good buzz, lol.
– Solid business program would be great b/c that’s his other interest, if he were to drop engineering. Entrepreneurship / maker spaces a plus.
– East coast to midwest is his general target zone but would maybe consider farther west; doesn’t want deep South (anything below SC)
– Prefers schools that are not so huge (i.e., >30k), but will consider
– No WPI, Stevens or RPI type schools b/c he wants to be around students taking classes in all areas and to have the option for wide array of electives.
– No overcrowded programs where they weed you out and/or you can’t get the classes you need.
– Good track record for 4-year graduation for engineers
– He has an interest in global issues so international opportunities are a plus. He’s fluent in Spanish b/c of being in dual language for 9 years.

Appreciate any ideas!

2

Rowan. Might not fit his first bullet of “brand name”, but for engineering it’s outstanding.

3

Clarkson

4

Union, Lafayette, and Bucknell seem like good fits. Small LAC’s with strong engineering programs, and his test scores and grades make them solid targets.

5

I know you said no WPI, but have him take a look at it if you can. WPI has surprisingly a good variety of humanities classes, a good business school, and a unique project based model that values theory and practice equally. All students have 2 graduating projects (IQP junior year and MQP senior year) which the majority complete at least one of them abroad (since 2018 every student gets a global scholarship to cover costs associated with travel and other expenses incurred with this or other experience away from campus). It is definitely worth taking a look.

6

If he’s outdoorsy then take a look at Utah. Strong engineering and entrepreneurship/business programs (including a maker space dorm https://lassonde.utah.edu/), and an excellent honors college.

It’s also very economical because you can get Utah residency after the first year (total four year cost is then ~$130K before deducting any additional merit). The lifestyle (skiing, backpacking, etc.) is great and Salt Lake City is very pleasant (and less conservative than many assume) with a good airport.

1 Like
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Linda hard to hit all the perimeters and in this case I usually say NC State… Lol…

Look into Iowa State University. Bigger then what you want but should have everything else you want. One of the largest engineering fairs out there.

8

Pitt seems like an obvious one to add. Admissions are rolling so apply right away when the application opens and he’ll hopefully get a decision quickly. It isn’t really less competitive than the others you mentioned, but once you’re in it’s a safety! (Not sure if he’d have a shot at merit but odds are better the earlier you apply, and it sounds as if full pay there would be possible.) It strikes the “variety of majors” balance while offering strong STEM, a business school, and good internationally-focused programs and foreign language offerings. I haven’t seen the four-year graduation stats in engineering, but they do offer a co-op option which adds time without adding paid semesters, so stats should be viewed with that in mind - many students who aren’t finishing in four years may still be paying only four years of tuition.

SUNY Buffalo is another that seems to tick all the boxes.

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Thanks for all the input so far. I was actually thinking about Pitt today. It does seem like a good option. Iowa St. has also been on the radar but I’m not sure my S would like the location, even though I’ve heard Ames is really great.

We’re thinking about a mid-Atlantic tour for Spring Break and am thinking we’ll hit Pitt – maybe Lehigh (esp. IBE) and Bucknell too though I’m worried about the money working out at the latter two.

We looked online at WPI pretty extensively but he just wouldn’t bite…I’ll mention again.

Will check out the others too – esp. Utah.

Keep the ideas coming and thanks again!

10

my kid is looking at computer engineering - how about:
Colorado school of mines
University of Tulsa
Iowa State (already mentioned, but a good school)

11

The Raikes School at UNL might hit his sweet spot - competitive CS+business honors program with a strong design focus https://raikes.unl.edu/design-studio It would be a reach ACT-wise (typical accepted student has 33+) but perhaps worth a shot, especially if the test prep is more fruitful than you’re counting on.

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If a student is truly looking for CS or EE, please do not assume that WPI is too narrow in its humanities and SS studies. Look at the program design to see how in depth personal interests are highly integrated into a highly personalized program.

By way of example, It is a good place to take Dickens. Not all accredited engineering programs are the same. They reach for meaningful personal experiences in small groups outside of the majors.

A closer look at this aspect of their program may surprise you. Students are not just required to take a series of non-engineering courses.

See https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/humanities-arts
See https://www.wpi.edu/news/extraordinary-gift-private-collector-will-transform-wpi-s-dickens-collection-world-class

WPI takes pride in this aspect of their program. They search for the broadly focused students. Please look before you judge.

13

Another vote for Iowa State and as a bonus it will probably come in at about half your budget.

14

I am going to throw Iowa St in with the B1G schools. They may not sound glamorous, but the actual campus towns are some of the best places to go to college. How about TAMU? Texas isn’t Deep South. Really strong B school.

15

Purdue. #9 USNews engineering, well under $50k OOS, with costs frozen for 8 years, and those stats are competitive for admissions.

My D was in a very similar position - 30 single sitting, 31 superscore, 3.8UW - and applied to/was accepted to Purdue, Virginia Tech, Pitt, Penn State, Ohio State, Lehigh, waitlisted at Case. Maryland was the last one to fall off the list.

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@AlmostThere2018 - You ought not to dismiss Stevens as what you imply to be narrowly focused. Stevens in addition to its traditional very high quality engineering and science programs, has an extensive and renowned business program, quantitative finance, financial engineering, and economics which has had great success in placements on Wall St. investment banking and the financial industry. Stevens was the first technological university to have a dedicated curriculum in humanities, and continues to this day. Stevens has an excellent College of Arts and Letters and - like Retiredfarmer has stated with respect to WPI - prides itself on producing well-rounded graduates. Not all Stevens students are majoring in engineering and science. Stevens has humanities, economics, visual arts, music technology, philosophy, literature, and other liberal arts majors as well as many students who take them as minors in addition to their primary major.

https://www.stevens.edu/college-arts-and-letters

The Stevens library is the home of the largest collection of Leonardo daVinci incanabula in the Western hemisphere, for example:

https://library.stevens.edu/archives/special-collections/davinci

Stevens, as all ABET accredited engineering schools, requires a significant percentage of the total number of credit hours in the curriculum to consist of humanities and non-technical courses outside of one’s major.

Stevens has one of the largest co-op and internship programs in the United States, and that is a major factor in Stevens students being among those realizing the highest rate of return on their tuition of all American universities and colleges. Each semester requires hands-on project work, and students have extensive interaction with their classmates and faculty as a result.

The location of Stevens in Hoboken, NJ, is in the cultural heart of the US. New York City is just a 10 minute PATH train ride away. Hoboken and NYC and the NY metropolitan area is the most diverse, multicultural, and cosmopolitan locale you can imagine. There is art, music, museums, and much more within easy reach of the campus.

I have hired many graduates of Stevens, WPI, RPI, et al and have found them to be well rounded, eclectic, talented people with a diverse and wide variety of interests. I would encourage you to look at them before you make a decision. They are not “your grandpa’s engineering schools” anymore.

17

University of Dayton, University of Cincinnati, WVU? Our HS sends kids to Dayton every year. I hear it has a nice campus and happy kids. It’s an hour from Cinci or Columbus. Cincinnati has a good co-op program. WVU is also underrated. It’s changed a lot in the last 20 years. FBI IT is nearby. I believe all are ABET accredited.

I believe Dayton and WVU give nice scholarships. Not sure about Cinci.

18

By this criterion, he may want to re-evaluate some of this top choices:

NC State has a competitive secondary admission process to the major after enrolling in the engineering division.
https://www.engr.ncsu.edu/academics/undergrad/coda/#coda-requisites

So does VT (although 3.0 college GPA assures choice of major):
https://enge.vt.edu/content/dam/enge_vt_edu/undergraduate/coe_com.pdf

Wisconsin weeds out by GPA (for computer engineering, 3.2 technical and 2.5 overall needed):
https://www.engr.wisc.edu/academics/student-services/academic-advising/first-year-undergraduate-students/progression-requirements/

19

Check out Montana State too. Affordable and Bozeman is a really fun town.

Colorado School of Mines is another option, but it’ll be at the top of your budget.

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I laugh at these schools (such as those mentioned by Ucbalumnus) that play a carnival shell game of “secondary admissions process” for engineering. What those schools are actually doing is accepting more students (i.e., who indicate on their applications that they intend to major in engineering) than they know they have the facilities to accommodate in their engineering programs, then apply an arbitrary GPA and/or some other cutoff to decide who continues in engineering thereby reducing the size of the continuing class to that which they can accommodate. To me, that practice borders on fraud or at least is dishonest. Schools such as Stevens, RPI, WPI, etc., do not play this game. If they accept a student into their engineering programs, they allow he or she to major in any of the engineering disciplines offered without further “qualification”. The schools know who is qualified to study engineering and who isn’t by virtue of accepting them in the first place. Of course, one must maintain the required GPA and academic progress to remain in good standing while in school which is going to be the case anywhere.