Transfer student with near 4.0, but no college calc+physics, sub 20k a year. Where?

College Majors Engineering Majors
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After more than a few years stumbling around and a lot of personal change on what I think I need in a major/career, I’ve ultimately decided I should seriously consider pursue engineering. I would like to study topics that would put me in a position to work on virtual reality systems, or perhaps robotics. At the moment, I believe this would put me in either computer or mechanical engineering majors - however, I intend to spend sometime with coursework from both majors before declaring for one or the other, if possible. If you have extra time, recommend other things for me to look into related to those topics, please? Even books! Aheh.

I do not have parental aid in paying for school, but my mother still is on my FAFSA (I’m 21). I believe my EFC last year was 3300? When I did my first year of school in 2013, it was 0.

However, I am 3 years out of high school, and have worked a lot of hours putting money away. By the time I begin school next fall, I should have $40,000 I can put towards my education for my remaining years. (At this time, I am not assuming the money I earn in subsequent summers/during the school year will be put towards tuition.) I am willing to go up to $25,000 in debt to finish school over the next 3-4 years. However, at that maximum amount, I have a few ‘reach goals’ the school would have to offer. That leaves me willing to pay perhaps $15-25k a year.

After 1 year of 4-year state school college (not a flagship), I had a college GPA of 3.8 and all but two of my ‘generals’ completed [36 credits]. I was an honors student. I have some club leadership experience to put down for ‘leadership’ scholarships.

I also have AP scores of (3) [microeconomics, statistics], (4) [US govn’t politics, environmental science], and (5) [english lit and comp] from my senior year, in 2012. I would like to receive credit for these, though at this point, I have enough double stacked credits to not need any of it “really” but the lit and comp.

Additionally, I have one semester of CC that I took ‘for fun’ as an equine student - all courses taken were about horse care and riding. Since I did nick a B in riding, it will damage my pretty GPA stated above, but I don’t know how much.

My junior year of HS, I had an **ACT composite score of 31 and a writing score of 10. Math was 32. **Only took it once. Didn’t study. Oops? Due to the length of time it’s been since I’ve had pre-calc though (2011), I would need to start all the way back there.

I’m a girl. That matters for STEM, right? Ethnicity is plain vanilla white though. No help there.

Located in Minnesota. We have reciprocity with North Dakota, Wisconsin. And either South Dakota or Iowa. I forget which. Love to get out of here and go East - not big on heat or the South, but cost is a bigger concern.

“Reach” things that I’d love to see:

  1. I have a year of Japanese under my collegiate belt. I really want to continue this language and study abroad in Japan. (I also have a usable level of reading in French, and an ability to be understood writing it. My listening and speaking are nothing to write home about. But if Japan fails, I suppose I’d try France.)
  2. A nice, green campus with those lovely old stone buildings. They just get me in the mood to study. This is incredibly vain, but it’s true.
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I can’t give you names, but I’ll give you some tools to get you started. Lynn’s web site is a great resource. Here’s her article that will get you started. http://www.thecollegesolution.com/9-steps-to-finding-the-most-generous-colleges/.

You will face another hurdle. Despite the fact that you have some college experience, the lack of calculus and physics will put you at square one. You’ll have extra hours, but engineering is very sequential and there’s no easy way around that. Plan on 4 years.

Good luck.

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Can you complete the needed math and physics at CC first before transfer?

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Possibly, though it is difficult for me currently to commute to a CC and work to save money. I would rather spend 4 years taking more electives in subjects I’m interested in (foreign language, history, culture, etc) at a 4-year school living in dorms than waiting another year to do part-time at CC.

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“… I would rather spend 4 years taking more electives in subjects I’m interested in (foreign language, history, culture, etc)”

Do your research so you know what to expect. Most engineering programs have very little time for non-STEM courses… At my engineering college we usually did five 3-credit courses per semester, and usually about 4 were required STEM courses/electives. Although study abroad is possible, for engineering, it needs to be planned very carefully. Sometimes it means taking fewer humanities electives at home campus and saving them for abroad semester.

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It is likely that not all of the 36 credits you have taken at the previous institution will transfer to an engineering program. The number of general education courses that are not Calculus and physics are limited. Make sure you know what transfers toward your prospective degree and what does not. This will tell you whether you have the freedom to take only a few electives or a significant number.

Expect to start with Calculus if you want to graduate in 4 years so make sure you are prepared for it. You said that you think you will need to start back at pre-Calculus but that will make it harder to complete an engineering degree in 4 years. I am assuming your goal is to start in Fall 2016 so try to find a way to take a pre-Caculus course before starting, perhaps online or in the summer before you start. This will get you into Calculus in the very first semester and that is important.

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MN is in the Midwest Student Exchange Program, which is going to result in lower tuition in several neighboring states - Indiana & Michigan through Kansas and North Dakota, IIRC.

In your position, I’d also look for engineering schools that have some transfer scholarships, plus have DoD or other defense related connections on or near campus. You have some advantages presuming you can qualify for a security clearance. I’m thinking there might be some places in TN (near Tullahoma and/or Oak Ridge), AL (Huntsville), OH (Wright Patterson - although Wright State seemed pricey last I looked), New Mexico (Sandia & Kirtland at Albuquerque, close to UNM) and a couple others.

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I will definitely be attempting to test into Calc 1. I have a pre-calc textbook from a course I was going to take a couple years ago, before discovering my AP Stats meant I didn’t need a ‘generals’ math credit. At the time, obviously, I was not considering a math intensive path of study. My hope is that through several weeks of personal study, I will accomplish much.

@50N40W Do you know of any lists or tools to find transfer scholarship schools? I will look at the locations for schools you have listed. At the moment, my price range had me looking at UW Madison - but I like very little about what I’m reading and seeing both for the program focus and the campus itself.

Thank you, everyone. I really appreciate it. My resources for college and college research have always been limited.

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Only way I know is to find some schools of interest and see what comes up when you start digging into their website.

Another thing you might look at is what the male/female ratio is. It maybe doesn’t make a difference, but all other things being equal, I have a suspicion that a female will do better aid-wise at a place that’s 3:1 or even 3:2 male:female than at a school where the ratio is 1:1. Again, I don’t have any data for that, but it seems plausible.

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I am already looking through lists online of high-assistance scholarships for academic merit, but it’s going to take a great deal of time to sort through finding the ones for schools that offer these programs. More than that, trying to judge which ones are worth the investment - having to submit transcripts, application fees, and ACT scores will make each attempt $100 or so a crack.

Gotta spend some to earn some, indeed.

I will also look at the gender ratios when considering which places are more worth the application gamble than others.

Thank you again, @50N40W!

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In general, students chase either need-based Financial Aid OR merit scholarships. Most schools don’t “stack” FA/Merit $.

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Many schools do “stack” merit scholarships and grants, but only to the extent that the merit scholarships replace loans and work-study in the financial aid package.

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Oh - thanks @ucbalumnus. That’s a helpful clarification.

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@enchantressa, what don’t you like about UW-Madison?

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Computer engineering and ME are very different in focus, but do share the first 2 year classes for the most part.

The easiest path would seem to be to return to either your 4-year instate school or a different 4-year in-state school (I would only do this if your previous school doesn’t have engineering), since you would probably get most credits transferred and they know what it took to get a high GPA before. Otherwise, you really need to sit down at schools you are interested and try to walk through where you are.

I think you are a transfer student, not a freshman, but that may vary with different options. There is financial aid for transfers. And the EFC of 3300 is a good investment, very affordable and may pay for room and board.

And, I would really recommend starting math and physics track now, even if it means working less and saving less money or just working more hours a day. There are some good on-line options, either college or high school level for pre-calc. But starting Calc1 once you complete that, at a community college would be a good plan. I say physics track, but really Calc1 is often a prereq or a coreq for Phys 1 (for good reason too, it is all calc based). If you have taken no physics in high school, you should self-study or take a non-calc based physics now, so you know why computer/EE is different from ME, but also to get ready for college level physics, which is pretty difficult.

I think you have to start really focusing on long-term, your 4 year degree. As an engineer, you will be making good money and can repay a few loans.

Also, I think you honestly might have outgrown the college freshman experience, so would not spend years extra trying to go down that path. You can certainly have fun, live on campus, etc, but you should also be more mature and able to focus on getting the job done (ie graduating).

UW-Madison is a good school, a bargain at in-state but UMn is also very good.

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Yeah, I also would like to hear what’s so objectionable about UW-Madison, one of the best comprehensive universities in the U.S.

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UW Madison is, for some students, not that different from any of the other “really big Midwestern flagships.”
If you like sports, a student body of 30,000 to 40,000 people and all that comes with it, then it’s great.

If you don’t want that, don’t consider it. I wouldn’t want it, and to my relief, neither does DD.

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@eyemgh @LakeWashington I personally do not care for massive universities, and would have much preferred a smaller 2-10k affair on a much more condensed campus size. Vanity, perhaps, but in the same way one would shop for a home in a setting they liked. That is part of what I consider my college search to be - but should the education I need lay somewhere that isn’t possible, I won’t let it prevent me from getting the right school. My original school had this, but does not offer engineering.

I cannot transfer to UMn because I did not already do 2 levels of calc and 2 levels of physics. You must transfer directly into your major there, and those are the reqs for engineering majors. I sent emails of inquiry, and was told that I must have -completed- those courses before I can even apply. New transfers to engineering UMn are only accepted for fall. At this time, that would have me starting fall 2017. (When I started considering this route last year, I didn’t pursue that because it would’ve made me start fall 2016 rather than fall 2015. I should’ve just bitten the bullet and done it, since nothing worked out for this year anyway.)

@PickOne1 My idea of a college experience is just having the constant community of available clubs and friends. Mind you, my idea of a good time is 4-8 people getting together, walking to the store, grabbing some wings, and heading back for some video games or a movie in a private room. I find it’s been difficult to find the same sort of company as an employee of the working world, where most feel the need to bring drinks or romances into the picture. I take it I attract a different sort of immature student at college than the stereotypical one, but it is one that does not seem to survive into the workplace as far as I can tell. That’s why I’m keen to get one last hurrah on other childish friends who want to enjoy a few rounds of Pokemon before finals, etc.

@50N40W That’s basically it. I don’t want a massive school, on a sprawling impersonal urban campus, with a massive focus on sports that I genuinely do not like.

edit: not to mention, I’ve already lived a semester on a campus with a less than stellar safety rating. I don’t really want to do it again, much less in a large city. I like my night walks, and unfortunately, I’m female and those can get dangerous fast in the wrong area.

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@Enchantressa, first and foremost, get a safety. By that I mean a school you know you’ll get into, but also one you know you can afford. From there you can expand the search in hopes of getting a combined need based and merit package that will make it affordable.

Did you do the search I pointed you towards? Any schools that are very generous sound appealing?

There are two that we liked very much that fit your criteria (and there are certainly MANY more) that would be good fits if you get good aid. Look at WPI and Lehigh.

Good luck.

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@eyemgh Since I last posted here, I have worked every day for 10-12 hours. I’m a waitress at a struggling asian restaurant where I frequently work all day as the only server. So, unfortunately, I haven’t had the time. I have my one day off a week tomorrow though, and will be diving into the searches you recommended. I will report back tomorrow, likely.

I am terrified of not getting in and/or not getting enough aid to go somewhere, so I will definitely be leaning towards safer picks. It’s hard for me to gamble $100 to apply to places (previous transcripts, ACTs, etc) comfortably, even knowing that it might result in scholarships worth $100k. I don’t feel that I’ll stand out well on an application, and lady luck has not been milady the last few years. Hah.

rest assured, I will find safe bets, is what I’m saying. I will try to be daring with at least one or two, if there’s someplace really enticing, though.

Thank you as always.