@NJDad68 : Thank you.
The other qualities my DD is looking for is a strong co-op program and study abroad (she says she wants to minor in French to continue to build her fluency). Some schools show a strong documentation of both, some just mention both. If anyone has ideas feel free to share.
Note that Howard and Prairie View A&M offer automatic-for-stats large scholarships, while NC A&T offers competitive large scholarships. Other HB schools with engineering and automatic-for-stats large scholarships are Tuskegee and Florida A&M. Some of these schools use unweighted HS GPA to determine scholarship eligibility.
That pretty much disqualifies Emory, since she will not be able to complete the engineering degree at GT due to it being too expensive. Note that a 3+2 program is 5 total years of costs.
Study abroad may be difficult in an engineering major is long sequences of prerequisite courses. She should check how French courses of interest would fit into the humanities and social studies general education requirements at each school (definitions of an official minor vary, though it should not be necessary to have an official minor to take courses of interest). Since you mention Tulane, some parts of southern Louisiana have significant populations of French speakers.
Co-op programs for engineering majors are often listed on colleges’ career center web sites.
I would look to take advantage of her highly desirable URM and female engineer status, so look toward strong engineering programs at private schools with good FA or merit. I’d also look at programs that tend to favor athletes. Is she talented enough to be recruited (even as a bench player) ?
I’d add Notre Dame, Rice and Cornell to your reach list. OSU and MSU have decent OOS scholarships and would be matches.
What is her unweighted GPA?
@Proudmama2 I’m not sure of the financials on all the following for your exact situation but:
Northeastern would be a great fit for her and have biomedical/ bioengineering Coop opportunities in Boston, though it’s an expensive area.
UMaine flagship matches PA flagship tuition and has a good engineering program.
UMass Lowell has a good engineering program at a great value.
I might go ahead and try your closest Ivy, Princeton and maybe Brown for maximum aid. (My favorite admit @donaldb040 http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/16691199#Comment_16691199)
Also because you mentioned French, our state public, URI, has a well established international engineering program which includes special housing and a year in the country whose language you study. So for French, she would be housed at URI with the other French engineering majors and speak French, have French food etc.
http://web.uri.edu/iep/
I don’t know how the financials would work but in 2019, a 175 million dollar engineering building project will be complete. She’d have the new stuff. And I don’t know her unweighted GPA but an environment that is a step down in intensity may be a lower pressure environment. That is what we went with for my student.
^Forget to mention, during the year abroad (URI) in your language country you are working as an engineer.
I believe that her uw gpa is 3.4 and will likely go up after this semester. She takes all honors and AP (she only has one academic core course on her transcript). As far as athletics, she could definitely contribute at a D3 school, less likely at a D1. Her size (5’ 41/2") limits her.
@gearmom I will research URI.
U of Rochester would be a good fit to continue basketball at the D3 level while pursuing engineering at a great school.
@Proudmama2 Honestly, if she had a biotype engineering major and French minor she’d be lucky to have time to hit the gym 4 or 5 times a week. College is very, very different from high school in terms of ECs. Engineering students are lucky to get enough sleep and maintain healthy habits. Being on a team and choosing such a rigorous program will be very challenging.
She knows that competitive basketball is unlikely while trying to pursue an engineering degree. But she would like to possibly participate in club or intramural basketball if the opportunity presents itself.
It’s very realistic at the D3 level as most of the NESCAC conference schools end classes at 4:00 for participation in sports and other EC’s.
@Proudmama That is very sensible. Forgot to mention, the IEP program at URI is a five year program but the fifth year abroad isn’t a burden because the internship part is paid. Not only would she be fluent in French (and the culture) but she was be fluent in technical French so have global employment opportunities.
URI: located in Kingston, a small New England village, pretty campus, 15 min from beach, bus ride (for students without cars) to Providence and Newport and fast ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. People should be very nice (Super Star testimonial https://today.uri.edu/news/uri-engineering-student-wins-goldwater-scholarship/ makes me feel like an underachiever.
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I’d take Pitt off the list if finances are a concern. It is highly unlikely that she’d get any merit money to make it affordable. Also a 3.4 unweighted GPA will keep her out of the Ivies, even with the 32. People greatly overestimate the URM hook. Your list seems light on affordable options - Mizzou, Temple, and OSU won’t be affordable. Look into the HBCUs with engineering that offer significant merit, though her GPA may limit her there as well.
You may want to check out some of the “institute” type engineering programs in the northeast:
Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ … small school that is highly rated. 10 minutes by light rail from NYC.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, MA … Also highly rated, focus on project-based work.
Both schools offer decent merit scholarships. Best of luck in your search for DD.
Try for outside scholarships to open up possibilities. This is an Obama era list but
https://sites.ed.gov/whhbcu/2013/11/21/scholarship-opportunities-for-minority-students
I’d like to chime in that with a 3.4 UW GPA, even admissions at Pitt and other engineering programs might be challenging. I don’t have the time to sit and dig through posts, but there were a few with almost perfect 35-36 ACTs who had low GPAs and they were denied engineering admissions at Pitt and Purdue both. It could happen, I’m just saying that this season, some were denied.
Getting it up to 3.5 or higher would open up some additional scholarship opportunities that look for 3.5 unweighted HS GPA.
Add Agnes Scott, easier to get into than Emory, very diverse, and Spelman. Same program as Emory 's and unlike many 3+2 because the schools are so close that students can stay with their friends and commute, they actually go through with it.