I’m trying to help my class of '18 son find some more options for college choices. He wants to study civil engineering at an ABET accredited school.
3.8UW/3.92W (UC) GPA
1340 on PSAT, haven’t received SAT score back yet
4 AP/UC approved honors classes to date, will take 3 APs next year – his school has no APs for freshmen and only 1 soph year, so it’s not as gaudy a list as many schools
Cal Poly SLO is his dream school. He is also planning on applying to UCD. He does not want to go to Southern California, nor to an urban-location school. He says a town like SLO is exactly what he’s looking for.
I have suggested Chico State to him. After that, I’m not sure where to go. Which of the WUE schools has the best civ.eng. school? What are some other suggestions?
TIA
Colorado State, Wyoming, Montana, Montana State.
My son is a ME at Cal Poly (from Oregon), but Colorado State, was one of his safeties. Although there’s no beach nearby, Ft. Collins is a very SLO like town. Based on reputation, I’d guess Bozeman (Montana State) to be also.
I’m also a fan of Utah, which my son almost chose over CP (avid skier, solid ME, big scholarship). SLC is very progressive, but is a large city. He’d have to visit to see if it’s a fit, since it’s much bigger than SLO, Ft. Collins, or Bozeman.
Important Tangent…Read This:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19077718/#Comment_19077718
PM me with questions.
Enjoy the ride. It’s a fun time!
Look to see if Utah state is worth considering if you think SLC is a"large city" lol.
@Sybylla, the SLC metropolitan area, which includes Provo has around 2M people. San Luis Obispo is an isolated town of about 45k. So, is SLC LA? NYC? Obviously not. Relative to SLO, it’s a large city. That said, having a son at SLO and having personally grown up in SLC, I know both pretty well. That’s why I recommended the U.
As for Utah State, they have a decent engineering program too, especially aerospace. If your son’s SAT is the same as his PSAT, he’d receive an automatic 70% reduction in his OOS tuition and then be eligible for instate for the following three years. The main issue, if it is an issue for him, is that Logan and Utah State are much more homogeneous LDS and more politically conservative than SLO. My son was eligible for 4 years tuition free, but didn’t even look.
Good luck!
SLC proper has a population of about 200K. SLC is not the urban sprawl along the I15 to include a chain of cities and a whole different county 45 miles away. The whole of Utah is about 3 Mil. Totally off topic, for sure. Provo is it’s own city. As a SLC native, it is odd for you to explain 45 miles on the 15 corridor as SLC metro area? But for sure, Logan is much more a small country town, if that is what SLO is.
So of Colorado State, Montana, Montana State – are they all about equivalent in quality?
@eyemgh – thanks for that. I guesstimated his score based on GPA and PSAT as 4232 before you add in work/ECs. How do you calculate those? He does 2 sports (no winter sport) that are 10-15 hours a week, and in the summer works 15-20 hours a week. Do you take the 80 and 90 points, respectively, even if he doesn’t do them year 'round? He does cross country in the fall, swimming in the spring, summer league swimming (does that count?) and works as a lifeguard.
Also, what about Washington State?
I’d put CSU above MSU and MSU above Montana. WSU is good too. You just need to pick a few and visit if you can.
I can’t speak for either of the Montana schools or WSU, because they didn’t make my son’s list. CSU did though. It’s a nice town with a great campus, nice dorms and good engineering facilities. There’s a lot to like.
As for the Cal Poly MCA, it’s just average hours per week during the senior year. It’s not an exact metric. You don’t count Fall and Spring separately, just the average. Add the bonus is he has any leadership role in any EC. For work, a summer job is a stretch, unless it continues through the school year.
Civil isn’t as competitive at Poly as ME, BME, CS, CE or Aero.
Has he looked at Oregon State?
He hasn’t looked at OSU yet because it’s not a WUE school. Trying to be smart about costs. I think he’d be better off going to Chico than spending a bunch of money going OOS. The wue tuition break makes those schools a little better.
I have a son heading for MSU this fall for engineering (not civil.) Their WUE rate is also the same rate as their initial scholarship offering for his stats (basically $15k/year for OOS WUE or best initial merit). Net cost $18k. MSU produces Rhodes and Marshall scholars etc. It’s ABET accredited.
They also have other scholarship opportunities which kids can apply for like the provost or presidential scholarship. Each provides a tuition waiver (in state or OOS) and a stipend. They are competitive but reasonably so.
As an engineer married to an engineer with two kids studying engineering - I am convinced that the minimum bar for me is that school must be ABET accredited. Beyond that, I’d say that it’s important to consider what sort of research or internship opportunities are available to students. So check out the research facilities and opportunities at each school.
Net cost was certainly a deciding factor for us. But beyond that, lifestyle was also a huge deciding factor. My kid is into mountain climbing and skiing.
He did tour Colorado State but didn’t apply. Something didn’t catch his eye there. Who knows- could’ve been the day of the week. He did have a super personal tour and dinner with a prof that talked up research opportunities, but it just wasn’t for him.
MSU at about $7k/year is a heck of a lot cheaper than OSU. My older kid applied there last year (in state for us) and got their highest level of scholarships and the net cost was still $18k/year. Our state universities just aren’t as generous.
Other west coast WUE schools with ABET accredited civil engineering:
Oregon Institute of Technology
Portland State University
University of Alaska - Anchorage
University of Alaska - Fairbanks
University of Hawaii - Manoa
UCD and CPSLO are probably reaches with a 3.92 UC/CSU GPA. CSUC appears to be significantly less selective overall, but is impacted to some level (i.e. the threshold CSU EI > 2900 for non-local applicants, but past thresholds are not specified at http://www.csuchico.edu/admissions/want-to-apply/freshmen/eligibility.shtml ). Civil engineering is not one of the impacted majors there.
Man, kind of nuts that a 3.92 doesn’t cut it. His Bs are a result of his honors Alg II/Trig class not on the list of UC approved honors courses, and he had a nutjob of a teacher who got fired after one year in the other class. Brutal.
@eyemgh – I was wondering about that. Why isn’t civil as popular? Everyone wants to work in Silicon Valley? It seems like to job opportunities are out there for a civil engineer (and it doesn’t seem to be as youth-biased as the Silicon Valley culture – might lead to a longer career).
Perhaps buildings, bridges, roads, etc do not seem as flashy to 17 year olds as computers, cars, aircraft, etc.
Also, there may be hangover from the last crash which hit civil engineering hard.
You’ve got a pretty good list started. Since a good portion of UC admissions is qualitative, he should definitely apply to those that interest him. Similarly, though CP SLO is probably out of range, it is certainly worth an ap. The other Cal Poly would be a possibility but, is in SoCal. Lots of the CSUs are in SoCal and/or big cities so, that shortens the list a LOT. Based on the environmental considerations, Chico sounds like a perfect candidate. Sonoma (if they have a program) Sac is probably a little large but, the proximity to the CA State gov makes Civil engineering internships readily available. Other WUE schools in smaller communities Southern Oregon (Ashland), Oregon Institute of Tech (Klammath Fallls), Northern Az (Flagstaff) Boise State, UNR are all worth a quick look. From that experience, you’ll know know a little better what he’s really looking for.
Your son is has worked hard and is a well qualified applicant for most schools. Whatever you do … have him apply broadly. Cal States and UC can both be unpredictable. Enjoy the ride.
@ucbalumnus You’re probably right. News stories about Biomed tend to focus on new advances and treatment. News stories related to CivE typical focus on bridges collapsing, dams failing, or environmental disasters. There’s just not a whole lot of media interest in the latest advances in concrete tensile-strength reinforcement or wastewater treatment.
CivE may also be less competitive than other engineering disciplines at the undergrad level because more universities offer it compared to Aero, ChemE, Biomed, etc. I refer to CivE, MechE, and EE as the “main three”, since just about every school that has an engineering department will offer these degrees. For many schools, that’s all they offer.