I live in New Jersey, so I would prefer if the college was in state, or in nearby states such as New York or Pennsylvania. I have a GPA of 4.2 and an SAT of 1430.
Unweighted GPA?
Cost constraints? Try the net price calculator on the web site of each college of interest.
Any particular type of engineering major?
Any other preferences?
Your New Jersey choices are NJIT, Rowan, Rutgers NB, and TCNJ among publics, and Princeton and Stevens among privates.
For a suggestion outside of New Jersey, look.into RPI.
In physics or engineering physics in New Jersey I would recommend Stevens, Princeton, or Rutgers. The secondary state colleges and the other privates aren’t really strong in those areas. The former three are the only true research universities in physics in the state. NJIT shares its physics department with Rutgers Newark and isn’t really a standalone physics department. For engineering (non-physics), your best bets are Stevens, Princeton, Rutgers, or NJIT over all of the other institutions in the state.
Beg to differ, you’re best “bets” for engineering in NJ right now are Rowan or TCNJ, based on PRICE, small great campuses, small class sizes, high FOUR year graduation rates, high ranking on subjective lists like US news. Cue the Stevens, Rutgers and NJIT folks… there are a number of reasons why, for engineering, Rowan and TCNJ are the best values. If you want to limit your debt, graduate in FOUR years (tcnj and Rowan engineering 4 year graduation rates are higher than Stevens, Rutgers and NJIT) AND make the same or better average starting salaries in Computer, Electrical, Civil, Mechanical Engineering than go Rowan or TCNJ all the way. If you want to live on an unsafe campus(njit), ride buses (Rutgers), pay more (Stevens, Rutgers, Njit) and increase your odds of having to graduate in 4 years, then by all means go to Stevens, Rutgers or NJIT
With your SAT and gpa you are almost a lock for Tcnj and Rowan in any of the engineering majors
*increase your odds of graduating in more than 4 years
Mr. Dad - Yes, all of the CC readers by now know of your love for Rowan and TCNJ. As I mentioned in another thread, Stevens (and Rutgers) applicants are still applying in numbers many times the number of seats in their first year classes and attending them, both of which have higher standards of admission and are more selective than Rowan and TCNJ. ROI aside, in the case of Stevens there is a distinct advantage to working with a faculty with far greater research output, with classmates some 100-200 points higher in SAT and an equally higher percentage in high school GPA, and having the research and internship/co-op opportunities that only a 150 year old research university such as Stevens can offer. Again, as I have previously said, those students feel that a Stevens education is worth more than its cost.
No matter how much money Rowan donates to the renamed Glassboro State College, it cannot buy the track record of Stevens or Rutgers, both of which have stood the test of time. TCNJ is a fine undergraduate college but that’s about it.
My son could have attended Rutgers - which is a fine university by the way, and the leading public New Jersey institution (though I think big time/big money football taints the institution) - at considerably lower cost. He felt that Stevens was a better value despite that. The stature of the jobs he was offered when he graduated bore that out.
By the way, Stevens 5 year graduation rate should be compared with the 4 year rate of other schools, since 60% of Stevens undergraduates participate in the Co-Op, which by design, and with full knowledge of the students, is a five year program. Co-op students while technically are students for ten semesters, two of which are in paid professional jobs in industry or government off campus, attend classes for 8 semesters. Co-op students pay tuition only for 8 semesters as do 4 year non-coop students.
The OP has a reasonable shot at Stevens but not assured. His/her SAT is slightly below the average for Stevens students, but certainly competitive. His/her GPA is competitive.
Having run my own engineering consulting firm and being a businessperson myself I am reminded of a favorite saying in business. One knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
I wish your student the best at Rowan or TCNJ. Happy Thanksgiving and all the best!
That would not be comparable either, due to varying percentages of co-op or other semester off students at various colleges.
Really, colleges should also report 8 semester (12 quarter) graduation rates (reflecting tuition paying terms only) as well as calendar times to graduation, if the goal is to find more comparable numbers.
But then graduation rates are mostly a reflection of admission selectivity and student / family capability to afford.
@ucbalumnus - In the absence of 8 semester graduation rates, it would be more correct than comparing the four year rate at schools with no co-ops (co-ops by definition are five years everywhere, or at least, I’ve never seen one that was shorter and still called a co-op) to the four year rate at Stevens where almost two thirds of the students are in co-op programs.
How would you compare graduation rates between schools with 90%, 60%, 30%, and 10% co-op rate? Or where some students are in BArch programs?
In any case, since graduation rates otherwise mostly track admission selectivity and cost factors (i.e. student characteristics, as opposed to school characteristics), they may not be as useful for comparing schools as commonly assumed here.
I’m sorry guys I worded my question incorrectly. I do not have interest in general engineering subjects, I meant that I want colleges with good Engineering Physics/Applied Physics programs.
And my GPA is weighted out of 4.0
With your interests clarified, make sure you take a close look at Rensselaer’s applied physics program:
https://science.rpi.edu/physics/programs/undergrad/bs-applied-physics
Snobbery??
We can debate this all day. Lol
CWRU has an engineering physics major that might interest you. https://bulletin.case.edu/schoolofengineering/engineeringphysics/
You may not have considered Ohio, but Cleveland isn’t too far past the Pennsylvania border. Your stats are very close to their median.
If you’re extending the search area, I believe Ohio State and Rose Hullman have programs. Cornell as a stretch school.
The OP’s SAT score may place him somewhat above the average for current students at Stevens.
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Stevens&s=all&id=186867#admsns
Some schools located in one of the refenced three states that actually seem to have majors in applied physics or engineering physics, or engineering science :
Princeton
Rutgers New Brunswick
Stevens? (not a listed major so not so sure…)
Cornell
Columbia
RPI
Suny Geneseo
SUNY Buffalo
Fordham ?
Carnegie Mellon
Lehigh ?
Penn State (sort of?)
Some small programs with both physics majors and engineering programs, that might be flexible enough to allow you to cobble something satisfactory together:
U Rochester
Lafayette College?
Looking in the other direction:
Johns Hopkins
Towson U
The undergraduate Physics (BS) program at Stevens can be tailored via electives. If one is interested in applied physics and engineering, electives in those areas can be chosen from the physics and engineering course lists. Of course, one must still take the foundation theoretical and applied physics core courses as I am certain would be a requirement in all schools. It is not essential that the title of the program be specifically “engineering/applied physics”. The physics department and the school of engineering have an interdisciplinary engineering (BE) program concentrating in photonics and optics, which is strongly engineering physics oriented, but is also an ABET accredited engineering program if one is more interested in the engineering side.
Stevens does have a discipline-specific graduate engineering physics program, by way of note.