Demographics
White male from the PNW, Class of 2022, upper middle class, two college educated parents, dual-income
Intended Major(s) undecided but most likely engineering (civil)
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.17 using the UC scale for out of state students
Class Rank: Top 5%
ACT/SAT Scores: PSAT 1380
Coursework
AP World History, AP US History, AP English Language, pre-calculus
Will take AP Calculus, AP Biology, and AP Literature senior year.
Only 2 years of a foreign language because third not offered at high school
Awards
WA State photography competition honorable mention
Extracurriculars
Climbing and bouldering team, photography, volunteer in South Africa with childrenâs feeding program, hiking and backpacking, WA state trail clean-up volunteer, math tutor, Young Life
Cost Constraints / Budget
Will not qualify for any aid. Looking for merit based scholarships. Can pay 50-60K+ per year.
Schools Want a school with a decent climbing team/program
UC Colorado Boulder
Iâm not sure about the outdoor enthusiast part of the question but I suspect most of the CA schools will be well outside of the 50k budget unless you qualify for federal financial aid. UC/CSU does not provide much if any in house scholarships to out of state applicants.
There are state flagships in other states that might offer merit aid that could meet that budget and seem appropriately located for outdoor activities. Look at schools in Arizona, possibly Oregon, Montana, New Mexico. Smaller privates may also be an option. Off the top of my head Whitman, University of San Diego, St Maryâs.
UW seems a great choice and as an instate applicant heâd be a seemingly likely admit.
If so, or if you are from anywhere other than California, then I would expect you to be full pay at any of the public universities in California. I am not sure what full pay is at Cal Poly. It is well over $50,000 per year for the UCâs.
Any school in the WUE program seems like an option. I am not sure which of them offer the WUE discount for engineering.
If you are from Washington, then the University of Washington is an obvious choice. It is a really good university. There are not very many schools anywhere that are better than the University of Washington for engineering (or for much else). Washington State is another option.
I would run the NPC for Stanford and Harvey Mudd. If you do not qualify for need based aid then both will be way over budget.
UBC seems like another option.
However, it is very hard to beat UW in-state for engineering.
The Cal states will be in budget at around $42K+/year. The UCâs will be much higher at $65K/year. Both CSUâs and UCâs offer little to no financial aid (need-based or merit) to OOS students as noted by @nucities. The UCâs and CSUâs are also test blind so emphasis will be on your GPA, HS course rigor (CSUâs) along with your essays and ECâs (UCâs).
The OOS acceptance rate is higher than in-state for UC Davis, UC San Diego and UCLA but Engineering acceptance rates will be much lower than the overall school acceptance rate.
If you want merit, then target private schools in CA or through the WUE as mentioned in the above posts. I agree that UW in-state is a great option and well within budget. No need to go OOS to get an excellent education.
Azusa Pacific looks like an outlier based on your list. A Christian school not known for Engineering and does not fit the âoutdoor enthusiastâ location you are looking for since it is in LA suburbia.
Yes, the San Gabriel Mountains are nice in the background and I was until recently a resident of the area for 60 years, but it is not known for being a Mecca for âoutdoor enthusiastsâ. Definitely not a school or location that would come up on a list of schools involving outdoor activities.
Utah is just as good as Boulder and much cheaper. D loves the climbing there:
Utah has WUE (unlike Boulder) and with a 4.0 UW plus rigorous courses you should get higher level merit which makes it cheaper than WUE if you stay for residency.
My daughter is a civil engineer and she just commented to me how many new engineers her company hired from Colorado School of Mines this year. In the past, most of their civil engineers came from Colorado State so this is a shift. CSU is more known for the industrial, ag, and civil engineers, CU for aerospace, and Mines for the hard rock/petroleum. Civil is hot right now because of all the projects that will be undertaken for roads and bridges repair (all that federal money). All are good, but those are the specialties. Other schools like Mesa and Western have WUE but not for junior/senior years because those degrees are from CU so that major doesnât qualify for WUE. Still, lots of rocks.
Other âwest coastâ schools (really depends how you think of 'west coast, but you mentioned CU so figure âwestâ is relative) like Wyoming, Montana, Montana State, Utah all have great civil engineering programs. All have rocks to climb. Lots of rocks.
Of these, CU will cost you the most. Youâre likely to get $6500/yr from CU in merit, but more from the other schools and those cost less to begin with (except Mines, but Mines has more money available for merit and FA). Wyoming will give you WUE (called Brown and Gold now, and you can figure out the amount from the gpa/scores chart), $2500 for engineering, other scholarship money, and it is much cheaper to being with. Much. Lots of rocks.
Gonzaga is top 20 in Engineering for schools that offer less than a doctorate with a full range of engineering majors, including civil. They have a big outdoors club and the best fly fishing anywhere.
Iâll second Montana State - Missoula is the epitome of outdoorsy. My son is a mountain biker and absolutely LOVES Ft Lewis in Durango CO - you can do just about any outdoor sport a stoneâs throw from campus. They donât have Civil engineering though.
UCM participates in WUE and isnât too far from Yosemite. Humboldt is forest adjacent. Chico has Bidwell park and is close to Lassen NP.
Montana State is Bozeman, University of Montana is in Missoula, but both are outdoorsy. I think Montana State has a better reputation for engineering, but this may be an outdated view.
(Speaking of Durango and mountain biking . . . a few days ago Sepp Kuss, a Durango mountain biker who attended CU Boulder, won a stage in the Tour de France, becoming the first American to do so in a decade.)
