My daughter is a senior. She has a 4.0 GPA and 4.98 HPA. SAT is 2120 (Math 690, Writing 720, Critical Reading 710). She wants to pursue engineering although she’s not sure which type at this point. We live in Florida and she plans to apply to UF, UCF and FSU. She is also planning to apply to Princeton, Columbia, Georgia Tech, Duke, and University of Texas in Austin. UCF and FSU are safe schools for her and the rest are reach. Can anyone suggest some in between schools for engineering? Thank you.
At Bama she would get a full tuition Presidential Scholarship for her stats.
Go to the ABET website and filter the schools by engineering specialty (i.e. EE, mechE, chemE, etc)
Vandy? UMichigan? URochester? UIUC? Johns Hopkins? Purdue?
And some smaller schools perhaps Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell?
Try using the supermatch function to the left (under find a college).
Northeastern, Boston University, Case Western
My D was in that same academic range and is at Illinois Tech on a fantastic academic scholarship. She’s having a great experience.
Are there any cost limitations? At GT and UTexas you’d be full pay.
I went through this last year with my D for engineering.
I don’t mean to be discouraging, but unless she retakes the SAT with considerably higher stats, or has some unusual hook, she won’t get into Princeton, Columbia or Duke. UT-A is also very hard to get into because they reserve so many spots for Texas students. Of course it’s always fine to apply as a hail mary.
Not factoring in cost, and sticking to the East, I’d recommend you consider the following which are good at engineering and which your daughter has a shot at: GTech, RPI, Lehigh, Purdue, Northeastern, NYU (if she wants to be in NYC, instead of Columbia). And while tougher to get into than these, I’d also recommend CMU and Rice.
I highly recommend she retake (if she hasn’t already done so) the SAT or take the ACT. Raising her scores will open u some of the more selective schools.
For example, at Vanderbilt, the enrolled profile for students entering in Fall of 2015:
SAT Critical Reading Middle 50% 710-790
SAT Math Middle 50% 720-800
SAT Writing Middle 50% 690-770
Next, looking at schools in the southeast…
UA’s a good option based on price. Her 2120 on the old SAT maps to a 1480 on the new SAT. That would qualify her for the Presidential Scholar (full tuition, or $107,800 over four years; $26,950 per year). She would also qualify for the Engineering Leadership scholarships, witch is $2,500/year for 4 years
http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.php
Two other, very good engineering schools in the southeast would be Auburn and Clemson. At Auburn she could qualify for the Presidential scholarship (she may need to improve her test scores by a few points) which pays about 2/3 of OOS tuition. At Clemson she could qualify for a $7,500 to $15,000 a year merit scholarship, but OOS tuition is close to $32K a year.
Another popular southeast school for OOS engineering students is Mississippi State University. It has a decent sized program and offers generous scholarships. She likely would qualify for a merit scholarship in the $16,500 - $18,000 range (OOS tuition is about $20K a year).
http://www.admissions.msstate.edu/freshmen/money-matters/scholarships/academic-scholarships/
If you’re interested in UCF, you may also want to take a look at USF in Tampa. Very similar schools (in rankings and programs offered). They would offer about the same merit, honor colleges, etc. Apply to both and determine who’s going to give the best offer and then decide between Orlando or Tampa. 
Good Luck!
OP, what school on the list sets the bar that additional schools need to beat?
If you choose to apply/visit UA, she may be interested in some of the honors programs. Emerging scholars (doing research in first year) and STEM MBA programs are both fairly sizable programs in addition to the general honors program. There are some very competitive to get in honors programs too. My DD is in engineering (both Presidential and Engineering Scholarships) and STEM MBA, and is currently a junior.
Here is some additional info on UA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrV8g7kxJps
UA has updated its Quick Facts http://viewbook.ua.edu/quick-facts/
(2014 enrollment breakdown by state - new undergraduates - which would be freshmen for the most part): http://oira.ua.edu/d/webreports/enrollment2/Fall_2014/f18.html
http://oira.ua.edu/d/webreports/enrollment2/Fall_2015/e10.html
This URL gives FALL 2015 data for all of the university (not just freshmen).
Rensselaer would be both excellent for engineering and a realistic admissions prospect for your daughter.
I agree that her current stats are not high enough for a number of schools on her list, particularly for an eng’g major. Some of those schools really want to see a 700+ math for eng’g majors.
Schools look at the M+CR…they pretty much ignore the Writing section. Your DD has a 1400 M+CR which is equivalent to an ACT 32.
Can she retest?
Hi
US News has just made their Undergrad Engineering rankings available:
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-doctorate
and you can cross-check that list against these automatic merit and competitive scholarships she could aim for:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
she can apply to Alabama (# 98 UG Engr) for the full tuition Presidential scholarship plus the $2500 yearly Engineering scholarship.
also full tuition scholarship at Alabama Huntsville (# 108)
take a stab at NC State (#31) and their Goodnight Scholarship for STEM students.
if she can get into Florida that would be a great option.
Utah has come on my radar recently for great scholarship possibilities (# 56)
Cost constraints?
Since she is considering Florida State for engineering, she should not that Florida State and Florida A&M share the engineering division (which is on a separate campus from both main campuses, so students may have to take a bus there). But Florida A&M costs less and has more scholarships (probably an automatic full ride for your student if the scholarships are like last year’s), so this can be an arbitrage opportunity.
https://www.eng.fsu.edu/ (joint engineering division)
http://www.famu.edu/Scholarships/DSA%20Scholar%202015-2016.pdf (last year’s scholarships)
@Wien2NC I believe those are last year’s rankings - the new ones come out Sep 13
@968Mom if you D retakes the SAT with a higher math she’d be a likely candidate for merit aid at Rennselaer (RPI) – being a girl helps too in that case
@968mom “She has a 4.0 GPA and 4.98 HPA. SAT is 2120”
The SAT score is probably too low for the Ivies. If she can improve it, I would consider Penn and Cornell. Penn puts more weight on gpa and less on test scores. Cornell is slightly easier to get into generally. Both have excellent engineering programs.
Many U’s will not allow you to choose and change engineering majors easily. That is true at most public U’s. Two private schools with good flexibility are Lehigh and Case Western. At those two schools, you can change your major much more easily. Both have strong engineering programs.
I encourage all students and parents to look at the engineering school profiles at profiles.asee.org. This is prepared by the American Society of Engineering Education. They put together what is effectively a common data set, but just for the engineering school of each participating institution. The admissions info isn’t complete; e.g., no gender data and no GPA info. But it does shed light on acceptance rates and 25/75 percentile test scores for engineering only.
For example, Columbia’s overall 25th percentile for SAT Math is 690, but for engineering it’s 50 points higher. At least acceptance rate doesn’t drop for engineers; it’s abysmal for both cohorts…
“Cornell is slightly easier to get into generally.”
Nope. Cornell engineering admissions is a process separate from admission to other undergraduate divisions of Cornell and it is by no measure easier. Lots of folks consider Cornell to be the strongest engineering school in the Ivy League and one of the best in the northeast.
In any event, depending on the target major, it really is not advantageous to attend an out-of-state engineering university over your home state program. And certainly an Ivy League engineering degree has no advantage over that of several high powered public engineering universities. Many companies recruit nationally, but opportunities for engineering (depending on the field) careers can be very regionally based.
What about Clemson? If she wants to get away from home, she would probably get into Temple, with a decent shot at merit aid. It probably isn’t superior to UF for Engineering, but Philly might be a more exciting place to attend college. Drexel has good Engineering. It’s fiendishly expensive, but they can be pretty generous with merit scholarships. I fear that her Math SAT score might limit her merit packages at some other places, but women are sought after at RPI, Worcester Poly (WPI), et al. I agree that Princeton, Columbia, and Duke might be out of reach. She could apply to one or two, but I hope that she doesn’t get her hopes up or have unrealistic expectations. There are just too many qualified applicants, from all over the world.
Lehigh might be a good suggestion. Northeastern is another. Rice could be a little more realistic than Princeton; consider substituting it.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Virginia Tech. They always rank very high in engineering and based your D’s stats, she would fit comfortably in the top quartile of her class - a good place to be.
I’m not sure about merit-aid at VT. I don’t think they are very generous, but its worth a look.
Good luck!