Transfer student looking for a good engineering school

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Here are my stats: junior standing at time of transfer, GPA 4.00, ACT 31</p>

<p>I need a school that has:
A good civil engineering program
A good music department
In an urban area
Accepts transfer students
Large university (like 20,000-30,000 undergrads)
Isn't going to force me out in two years
Relatively inexpensive is a plus...</p>

<p>So here is what I have:
UC Berkeley, UCLA (although they don't let non majors participate in their music program) and the University of British Colombia. </p>

<p>UBC is the only one that really satisfies all of my criteria...but I want to live in the states so I think I should go to college in the states...plus, I have the grades to get in to the other two.</p>

2

<p>University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
*BIG (third largest total student population)
*Good Engineering and Music departments
*In a metro area of 3.5 Million People
*Out of state tuition is roughly is less than $16,000</p>

<p>Check it out and see what you think!</p>

3

<p>USC fits most of the above (civil engineering+music, urban, likes transfers, flexible class scheduling, largish with ~16k undergrads + ~16k grad), except that it’s not going to be inexpensive unless you qualify for a lot of need-based financial aid, in which case USC is fairly generous.</p>

4

<p>Are you Canadian? or, are you a US citizen/green card resident? If so, what is your resident state?</p>

<p>Relatively inexpensive is a plus…</p>

<p>How much can you afford to pay each year?</p>

<p>At some schools, transfer students don’t get great aid packages because, like merit $, sometimes FA is divvied out to attract the best incoming freshmen. It’s part of “enrollment management” strategy.</p>

<p>Once you answer the above questions, we can make the best suggestions for you. :)</p>

5

<p>University of Michigan:
A good civil engineering program - check - on North Campus
A good music department - check - also on North Campus
In an urban area - Ann Abor is a great college town, with Detroit 1 hour to the east.
Accepts transfer students - check
Large university (like 20,000-30,000 undergrads)- check
Isn’t going to force me out in two years - check
Relatively inexpensive is a plus… - PROBLEM</p>

6

<p>^^^</p>

<p>UMich’s COA for out-of-state kids is $50k.</p>

<p>Unless the OP is a Mich resident, there will be more cost-efficient choices.</p>

7

<p>If you are a woman Smith has good engineering program, I think it is one of the few LACs that has one.
If you are either woman or man, I can think of University of Toronto in Canada, Waterloo in Canada as well, and University of Michigan in the U.S.</p>

8

<p>I think we need to know if the OP is a US resident (and if he is, what state is he a resident), and what his budget it to make the best suggestions.</p>

9

<p>

</p>

<p>My son majored in civil engineering at UCLA, and he participated in several classes in the music department ranging from marching band to ethnomusicology. In fact, engineering is the most popular major among members of the marching band.</p>

10

<p>I am a California resident. I would like the opportunity to play in symphonic band, chamber music, and other classical groups at the university that I transfer to. I have spoken to the clarinet professor at UCLA and he said that while the university holds open auditions for its musical ensembles, it is very rare that a non major actually will get in to one of the groups because the music program is so competitive. Marching band is not my thing. </p>

<p>As far as my budget goes…I think 20k or a little bit more than that is what I would hope to pay for tuition. I looked at the University of Michigan website…they said their tuition for non residents is 19k…I assumed it was yearly but it may have been semesterly. I have recently been looking at Northwestern University, U of Illinois and Purdue. Purdue doesn’t have a music major program but it seems like they have alot of performance opportunities. Northwestern is pretty expensive, but U of I and Purdue have out of state tuition of approximately 26-27k per year. U of I and Purdue are definately not urban though, but I visited both areas and they don’t feel like the middle of nowhere.</p>

<p>My dad tells me I should just stay in state and focus on my major, and just make sure wherever I go has some opportunities for my to play…but I really would like the opportunity to grow a little bit as a musician while I am in college, and i would prefer not to have to go off campus to do that.</p>

11

<p>*As far as my budget goes…I think 20k or a little bit more than that is what I would hope to pay for tuition. *</p>

<p>I’m not sure that you’re looking at the right amounts…you can’t just look at tuition. :(</p>

<p>Tuition is only part of the cost. You need to consider the Cost of Attendance (tuition, fees, room, board, books, misc, transportation, etc)</p>

<p>**The schools that you mentioned have costs that range from about $37k - 54k per year.<a href=“see%20bold%20below”>/B</a> The OOS tuition (alone) for UMich is about $34k (that’s not counting room, board, etc)</p>

<p>When you say that your budget is $20k for tuition, how about the rest of the costs (room, board, etc)? Or, did you mean that your budget is $20k for COA (everything)?</p>

<p>To give you an idea of out of state COA’s for various schools…</p>

<p>COA per year for OOS students, State Universities</p>

<p>$25,787, U MINNESOTA
$31,500, U ALABAMA
$33,750, AUBURN
$31,872, VIRGINIA TECH
$34,812, U IOWA
$35,029, U WISCONSIN
$36,210, OHIO STATE
$35,311, U N CAROLINA
$40,086, U GEORGIA
$36,977, RUTGERS
$34,696, TEXAS A&M
$34,922, U DELAWARE
$36,094, U FLORIDA
$32,752, U PITTSBURGH
$37,416, U MARYLAND
$36,985, U WASHINGTON
$37,548, CLEMSON
$36,848, PURDUE
$39,146, U CONNECTICUT
$38,120, GEORGIA TECH
$40,130, U ILLINOIS
$39,510, PENN STATE
$37,644, INDIANA U
$38,566, MICHIGAN ST
$48,041, UC IRVINE
$49,193, UCLA
$50,306, UC BERKELEY
$38,974, WILLIAM & MARY
$43,742, U TEXAS
$49,926, UC S BARBARA
$46,699, UC SAN DIEGO
$48,049, UC DAVIS
$39,483, UC S CRUZ
$42,570, U VIRGINIA
**$47,188, U MICHIGAN **</p>

<p>Private National Universities Cost of Attendance per year
$16,120 LDS, BYU
$20,410 Non-LDS, BYU
$43,288, Rice
$47,934, Yeshiva
$49,968, Caltech
$50,100, Syracuse
$50,806, SMU
$50,620, Princeton
$55,312, U Miami
$50,436, Case Western
$55,160, Fordham
$50,550, Yale
$52,000, Harvard
$44,278, Worcester
$52,000, MIT
$48,750, Pepperdine
$52,623, Stanford
$52,394, Cornell
$52,132, Emory
$53,000, Boston University
$53,608, Northwestern
$51,300, Notre Dame
$55,368, Vanderbilt
$52,082, Wake Forest
$51,050, Lehigh
$52,973, Dartmouth
$51,140, U Rochester
$52,162, Brandeis
$53,793, NYU
$52,030, Brown
$55,866 Wash U
$53,095, U Penn
$53,390, Duke
$53,618, USC
$54,300, Boston College
$53,390, Johns Hopkins
$54,160, Rensselaer
$55,330, Georgetown
$54,047, U Chicago
$53,660, Carnegie Mellon
$55,125, George Washington
$53,200, Tufts
$52,996, Tulane
$53,644, Columbia</p>

12

<p>From UMich website…</p>

<p>Nonresidents tuition (Out-of-State) (Freshmen/Sophomores)… $34,937</p>

<p>(Juniors/Seniors) …$37,389</p>

<p>COA …ranges from $47k - 50k per year</p>

13

<p>No I meant 20k for tuition only.</p>

14

<p>Engineering
NON-Michigan Resident
Upper Division
Full time (12-18 credits)
$19,626</p>

<p>can you please post the link to the site where you found the umich tuition…because this is what I have found.</p>

<p>I am not looking at the tuition as a prediction of how much I am going to spend on my college education…its just that I don’t find the factors used in predicting the cost of attendance are accurate for me. For example, as a junior, I may be living off campus, and my transportation costs obviously differ for every school.</p>

15

<p>[University</a> of Michigan Office of Financial Aid: Cost of Attendance](<a href=“http://www.finaid.umich.edu/Financial_Aid_Basics/cost.asp]University”>http://www.finaid.umich.edu/Financial_Aid_Basics/cost.asp)</p>

<p>What link are you looking at?</p>

<p>*
I am not looking at the tuition as a prediction of how much I am going to spend on my college education…its just that I don’t find the factors used in predicting the cost of attendance are accurate for me. For example, as a junior, I may be living off campus, and my transportation costs obviously differ for every school. *</p>

<p>You may be living off-campus, but there will still be costs associated with that.</p>

<p>You really should figure out an approx annual budget. Just looking at tuition is risky.</p>

<p>Have your parents said how much THEY will spend each year on your education?</p>

16

<p>You’re looking at the “per semester” rate for engineering. Engineering does cost more at UMich. </p>

<p>The OOS tuition for upper division UMich Engineering is …$19,626 for ONE SEMESTER</p>

<p>Note that it says 12-18 credits…that is ONE semester. Not a year.</p>

17

<p>UC-Berkeley, Georgia Tech (nobody has mentioned this yet?), University Of Texas - Austin, University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor</p>

18

<p>Pierre, the OP wants a school that is $20K/year for tuition. Since he is in-state for UCB that might qualify. The others don’t.</p>

19

<p>UCB would fit the budget, since he’s in-state, but that would be a reach, so he’d need other choices.</p>

<p>I hope the OP comes back. :)</p>

<p>Clarineter… I know that your strategy is to only look at tuition costs because you may live off campus as an upperclassman, but that’s not really the right way to go about this. Yes, you may “save” some money moving off-campus as a junior, but likely the tuition will be higher then.</p>

<p>What is your total per/year budget? </p>

<p>How much will your parents spend each year?</p>

<p>Once we know that, we can make intelligent suggestions.</p>