Texas A&M, Penn State UP, Embry Riddle Daytona, Virginia Tech? Aerospace/Aeronautical

College Search & Selection
1

Hello all,

I am a senior highschool student who aspires to work for a major aerospace/aeronautical company like Boeing, NASA, SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, etc. I am a US citizen who lives overseas, so I am out of state for all universities I applied to. I have been accepted into the following universities for engineering and I cannot seem to make a clear decision as to which university I should attend. Although I received very little financial aid my parents can afford the tuitions, but it would nice if they could pay less.

Texas A&M for General Engineering but I have to attend Galveston for 1 year before going to College Station
Penn State University Park for General Engineering and an Intended Major of Aerospace
Virginia Tech, for General Engineering and an Intended major of aerospace
Embry Riddle Daytona Beach for Aerospace Engineering.

I know that TAMU is highest rank (#10 USNWR) university that I got accepted into, but going to Galveston is a major turn off. From what I looked up Penn State and Virginia Tech are both #15 for aerospace(USNWR) and Embry Riddle is #13 (USNWR), which do not deviate drastically from #10.

I like all the universities I have gotten into, which makes this decision hard. What should I do?

2

VT is excellent and cheaper than Penn State - smaller campus as well. I vote VT.

3

Between your three real choices pick the cheapest one.

4

Pay attention to what GPA or competitive admission processes you need to pass to get into your major at each school.

5

Are they direct entry?
Do you like big football?

6

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in Daytona Beach is my alma mater, and although I didn’t major in aeronautical engineering, I really enjoyed my time there as an undergraduate. Since you live overseas, you probably won’t have a chance to visit the campuses before you make your decision. I enjoyed my visit to ERAU in Daytona Beach as a high school senior and knew I wanted to attend college there.

As student living overseas, an important consideration for you should be how you can travel from your home to college and back. My D travels 4800 miles one way to college from where we live so it’s an issue we’re very familiar with. One of our important decision criteria for her college selection was a campus that is 20 miles or less from an airport served by major airlines since she doesn’t have a car there.

The ERAU Daytona Beach campus is literally on the airport (which has six gates for commercial airlines), and is served by American, Delta, and Jet Blue. It’s a relatively short flight from there on Delta to Atlanta, on American to Charlotte, and on Jet Blue to JFK International Airport in New York, all of which should offer a variety of connecting flight options to international destinations.

Travel between the Daytona Beach International Airport passenger terminal and ERAU campus is only about a 10 minute car ride. Texas A&M and Penn State are also near airports served by commercial airlines only a few miles away, but the nearest airport to Virginia Tech served by commercial airlines is in Roanoke, 40 miles away. Beware that small airports served by only a few airlines usually have much higher fares. When I was in college, I would usually fly into and out of Jacksonville which had much cheaper fares back then. Some students chose to fly into and out of Orlando International Airport.

Most students and faculty at Embry-Riddle have a passion for aviation. The campus is very walkable and I spent my first year there with just a bicycle to get around. They have built much more on-campus housing since I graduated.

Being about 43 miles from the Kennedy Space Center, I fondly remember professors temporarily stopping class to go allow everyone to go outside to watch launches of the space shuttle and other important spacecraft, which are clearly visible from there. Since you’re interested in NASA and SpaceX, you would probably really enjoy ERAU in Daytona Beach. One of my fondest college memories was taking visiting friends down to Titusville to watch a space shuttle launch from 10 miles away.

Another highlight was the arrival of the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels for an airshow or military aviators who are Embry-Riddle graduates flying demonstration flights in their military aircraft for students.

Most importantly, Embry-Riddle has a long history of placement of their aerospace engineering graduates into prestige firms. They also have a strong cooperative education program (see link below) which I recommend highly. I found a co-op job as a sophomore through the Embry-Riddle Career Center at a major airline and it was a great experience.

https://daytonabeach.erau.edu/college-engineering/aerospace/internships-co-ops/

7

Based on ease of airport access, you’re down to Penn State and Embry Riddle. Since they’re very different in size, environment, weather… It would be relatively easy to choose :wink:

8

Thank you all for your responses, I am thrilled that I received so much advice! I forgot to mention a couple of things which would have been useful. As most of you mentioned, some of the paramount factors for choosing between these universities are my chances of getting into Aerospace Engineering, employability, access to facilities, proximity to major cities(mostly for airports), and campus life.

After calling the universities, I got the minimum GPAs required in the first year to be guaranteed Aerospace
Texas A&M - 3.5 to get first choice major
Penn State - 3.2 to get first choice major
Virginia Tech - 3.0 to get first choice major
ERAU - I am already admitted to aerospace engineering.

I am concerned about the difficulty of securing these grades. When Penn State came to my school, I was recommended to not accept/transfer credits so that I could get a higher GPA, I am doing the IB syllabus so I am not sure how valuable those credits are.

@ARTCC , Thank you so much for your detailed response, could you elaborate a bit more on the campus life at ERAU, I know Daytona Beach is amazing but what about the campus itself? How is the campus life and in what ways is it different from a typical university?

9

Are you doing math HL and science HL? Those are solid for credit purpose but if you’re worried you could take a retired final for the class you’re trying to skip and see if you can get an 87-90%.
What are your HL’s?

10

When I attended, there were a lot fewer buildings on campus and most students had to live off campus. The male to female student ratio back then was 35:1, but now is only 4:1. Their trimester system is great as it allows you to take classes during the Summer if you wish with many classes being available year around. I did, and even with my co-op experience, I earned by bachelor’s degree in 3 years by taking a full course load each semester.

They didn’t have a Spring Break like other colleges did, but now they have one. During the Spring, Daytona Beach is a mecca for students from other colleges coming to enjoy Spring Break there, so many Embry-Riddle students take morning classes and enjoy going to the beach in the afternoon. One of my first roommates flunked out after his first semester because he didn’t have the discipline to balance study and fun time.

There are lots of clubs and extracurricular activities to choose from as well as a few fraternities with houses off campus. They now have NCAA athletics, too. Embry-Riddle traditionally attracts lots of military veterans and their ROTC programs are popular. When I was there, the very large Air Force ROTC detachment commissioned more pilots than the Air Force Academy. One of the student clubs made regular visits to the Kennedy Space Center and toured the facilities. Lots of top executives from airlines and aerospace companies come to campus or to restaurants off-campus as guest speakers for student clubs.

There were many international students then and there probably are many international students now. When I attended, it seemed most of the U.S. students were from the northeast but that has probably changed as their profile has increased and they attract more applicants. Many students have cars, so if you don’t have one, you’ll probably make friends with someone who does.

The weather is what makes Florida a nice place to go to college. It can get very hot and humid in Summer with frequent thunderstorms, but winters are relatively mild, although occasionally the low temperature may drop to the 30s. Fortunately, I didn’t experience any hurricanes or severe weather the entire time I was there.

The world famous Daytona International Speedway is on the other side of the airport from campus and I was able to attend three Daytona 500s and other races while I was there. A large shopping mall and restaurants are close by to campus.

If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask, although my experience is dated, so the opinions of a current student or recent graduate might be more helpful.

11

If they can afford the tuition, I would recommend Texas A&M. A lot of the aerospace companies are in Houston, so they would would recruit out of Texas. AE jobs are limited, so it would be wise to also get a masters degree to be competitive. Also, don’t be afraid to expand outwards. These companies hire a lot of mechanical and industrial engineers too.

12

NASA in Houston and FL hire a lot of engineers from both ERAU and Texas A&M. A year in Galveston isn’t the worst thing in the world and it is right down the road from the Johnson Space Center.

13

I was choosing between those exact same colleges and ended up committing to Texas A&M (Main campus) for aerospace engineering. You won’t go wrong with either college, it just comes down to overall fit. I am OOS.

14

Once again, thank you for your responses,

My HL subjects are Hl Physics Hl Chemistry and Hl History (I dropped Math Hl because I wasn’t scoring well) and I am scoring 6, 5 and 6 respectively.

I think Texas A&M, for me is the best university. I am more concerned about the difficulty of getting that 3.5 since I do not want to do general engineering for a whole year then end up not doing Aerospace. On average they say 86% get their first choice at A&M. What about Engineering specifically?

@ARTCC Thank you again for your response, I found out one of my seniors went to ERAU, so I’ll ask him further.

15

https://engineering.tamu.edu/academics/advisors-procedures/entry-to-a-major/resources/analysis-spring-2017-admission-cycle.html has some information on Texas A&M entry to major. However, since the process involves essays, you should be cautious about assuming admission based on having a GPA higher than the minimum GPA listed (and the standards could change as the popularity of majors varies).