Sorry. One more thing. Check with the Navy recruiter. There should be a stipulation to cover a 5 year masters program and/or post four year college. i.e. fulbright scholars.
Will the size of the ROTC program on campus impact her decision? Does she have time to revisit the schools to sit in on classes and also meet with some of the other ROTC students?
If she has NROTC, you arenāt paying those prices, though, right?
Military service is great for future astronauts, too.
Thatās actually a very difficult decision. I have personal experience (very recent) as a student at Michigan and GT. My son attends Michigan (engineering). Other family members have attended MIT. So if your daughter is someone who thrives on pressure, MIT. Cambridge is a wonderful town for students, and MIT is very international. Michigan is unusual for a state school in that 45% of the students are international or OOS, and it has lots of kids studying different subjects, so your daughter is likely to make a wider variety (non-STEM) of friends. (The engineering school is only about 15% of the students). Michigan is also the largest, with 40K students. GT & MIT have a slight gender imbalance (40-45% female) , Michigan is 50-50. Campus wise, GT & MIT are very compressed, Michigan has a lot more space, and the North Campus has woods and deer. At Michigan you have to bus (5-7 min) between the North, Central and South (athletic) campuses.
All of the schools are academically challenging. She should expect to be up very late at night with homework. Maybe a few more all nighters at MIT.
All are super convenient, less than 30 min from a major airport by bus or train.
So in order (cost not considered)
MIT
Michigan
GT
If Naval arch/Marine engineering is considered:
Michigan
AFAIK Cornell does not have an undergraduate aerospace engineering major, does it?
However it does have mechanical engineering which is recommended anyway per the links in my #16 above.
and courses in it, I imagine, It does have a graduate program. (Or did, anyway, when I paid attention).
To me, MIT is special. It would be hard to turn down MIT, if one feels they are up to the challenge.
As for the others:
If there are multiple choices are similar in cost, and she can evidently achieve her objectives from any of them,
Then my question is where does she feel more drawn to in terms of social and non-academic factors? ie where would she rather spend the next four years, classes for her major aside?
āCampus wise, GT & MIT are very compressedā
Main Campus Acreage, Enrollment
Michigan 3200 45k
Purdue 2600 42k
Virginia Tech 2600 31k
UIUC 1800 44k
Cornell 750 22k
Princeton 500 8k
Georgia Tech 450 21k
RPI 270 7.5k
MIT 170 11k
Congrats. I have a son at RPI and another at Cornell.
I can tell you I am as or more happy with RPI for an undergrad education.
As far as the Navy, note that after the USNA the 2nd largest set of alumni in top Navy positions are RPI grads.
Admirals, ship captains etc, likely due to the strong ROTC program, and nuclear engineering program.
They do have a very strong Aerospace engineering program, kids get jobs at Boeing.
Also note RPI is well known for itās involvement in the space program. One of the Apollo 13 crew was from RPI, and other astronauts, plus the head of the entire Apollo program was an RPI grad.
I dont think taking that scholarship is a compromise, but I can see how tempting it would be to pay for those other schools too.
MIT without a doubt.
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I didnāt see in previous comments whether or not youāve visited the campuses. My son visited Michigan, MIT, Georgia Tech (also aerospace but does not want to be an astronaut) & had strong reactions based on what heās looking for in a college experience. If you go purely on reputation/program, then MIT would be the winner. He was 100% for MIT until we visited the campus. His words: āthere is no way I am spending 4-5 years hereā. Other kids fall in love with the school.
Your daughter has great options and I donāt think thereās a wrong choice to be made. I do think she needs to spend a day at each campus to make the best decision. Congratulations to her!
I went to school in Boston and spent some time on campus at MIT, had many friends there and colleagues in the working world since. I agree with @5Dis MIT is a pretty depressing place, but the physical campus, and the obsessive compulsive work ethic. While people say āU of Chicago is where fun goes to dieā, I think MIT should be in the running for that title. That said RPI has a nice campus in a lousy city, also not a great place to spend 4 years.
If you want urban, maybe MIT is not so bad, but there are better urban campuses.
If you want rural, canāt beat Cornellās campus anywhere.
Academically they will work you to death at Cornell Engineering just like MIT, but at least
be in a very pretty place while doing so. Career wise you canāt beat the Boston metro area to make
contacts for internships and ultimately when you graduate, but since being an astronaut is the goal,
GT, MIT and RPI have both put people in space many times (many more at MIT but some of the biggest names
come from RPI). Cornell had one astronaut.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Low
We visited Princeton Engineering, tiny school without the engineering specific resources of others on your list.
My son didnāt apply after the visit.
MIT is work hard, play hard, but I wouldnāt pick it sight unseen. Visits are a must to assess fit.
Which university has an alumni association chapter on the moon?
Only one option gave a large scholarship AND alumni already in spaceā¦
UM is expensive for OOS students. If you live in Mich, then yes Mich.
And the boss for those 3 UM astronautsā¦ RPI alumni and later President of RPI.
āAnd the boss for those 3 UM astronautsā¦ RPI alumni and later President of RPI.ā
ā¦and his boss could have been Gerald Fordā¦
I know someone that is graduating from Rpi and getting a job at Tesla. Maybe there is a connection for SpaceX from thereā¦ Lol
I think DD has decided to cross off RPI. We visited Umich and were impressed by the facilities and Ann Arbor. But it did feel a bit impersonal; tour guides were clear you had to be aggressive in order for your professors to know your name. North Campus is definitely off the central area, not sure if this is to DDs liking. Still, definitely staying high up on DDs list.
As a current student at University of Michigan in the CoE Iād have to say that tour guides (probably in LSA) might not have the full picture of professor engagement with students in Engineering. Most of my professors have made an effort to learn studentsā names, even in the large lectures with two sections of ~150 students. If your daughter participates in class (answers questions) then the professor will certainly know her name, and itās still likely for the professors to try even if she does not.
I second those you mention, plus there are many other advantages at RPI if itās the right fit for your student. They have program strengths not so prominent, or non-existent at many of the other schools. If you want strong programs and options with excellent post-graduation outcomes ($$$ - check out the NYT Interactive article), are there to learn and donāt care to be swallowed up in a big city and a huge student body and giant D1 sports programs, perhaps care more about these things than prestige or name recognition or the weather or entertainment, check out RPI! Itās footprint in the real world before (co-ops, internships) and after graduation (strong recruitment and hiring) is significant.
My son also visited Princeton and was not interested after he saw it. Though he was not accepted at MIT or Stanford, he (and we) is (are) very excited to be going to RPI in the Fall. Itās a great school currently going through a revitalization, that shouldnāt be overlooked.