I’ve been reading these posts with great interest because we are in somewhat of the same boat. We are NJ residents. My son will be a senior in the fall. His scores are as follows: 4.0 weighted gpa @ 3.7 unweighted SAT 740 math 720 reading (did not take ACT) National honor society, Band , Three season athlete, cross country, indoor track and lacrosse, ap and honors courses, He wants to major in computer or electrical engineering. We have developed the following list of schools public and private in and out of state, some of which we visited: Stevens institute, Lehigh ,Lafayette ,Rensselaer ,
Polytechnic ,Rutgers ,Stony Brook, UConn ,Binghamton ,NJIT ,College of NJ ,Rowan university ,U of Delaware, What are his chances of admission? We are unlikely to get any need based financial aid but already have one child attending college at an in state public at full price. Can any of these schools be considered safety schools for him?
We still haven’t visited UConn and Delaware. The only campus that was very undesirable was the NJIT campus which was in a terrible area in Newark
It sounds like he’s a bright, diligent student. A general rule of thumb (which often work… except at tippy top schools) is to look at stats for top 25% of accepted students… if he meets that range then his odds are good.
He would definitely be a candidate for Stevens, RPI, and Lehigh. I would consider Rowan and Rutgers to be safeties.
@brig1
Match -
Stevens institute
Lehigh
Lafayette
Rensselaer Polytechnic
Rutgers
UConn
College of NJ
Rowan university
U of Delaware
Safety -
Stony Brook
Binghamton
NJIT
If you consider NJIT, then the Albert Dorman’s honors college would be in the match category while the general njit school would be a safety. NJIT came out real expensive for me with a 760 math sat and similar grades. They gave me a full ride to the AD honor’s college but the dorm was about 14-15k. I had to consider the level of job-prospect power I’d have from that school and whether it was worth the 15k for the dismal 4 year college life I’d have there and medium rigor. It is a fine school but for me I didn’t see it balanced with the cost.
Rowan on the other hand gave me enough financial aid so that I’d be left with only about 15k out of pocket. There, in contrast, I would say it was definitely worth the cost for my job-prospect power. TCNJ is also a nice school but Rowan is slightly better. I didn’t apply TCNJ so I can’t tell you how the financial result compares.
UConn was very similar with the level of the other schools so with the distance and compared financial awards that I researched, I removed it from my list and didn’t apply. Lehigh is slightly better than Rowan, TCNJ, NJIT. They waitlisted me probably because I didn’t visit (show interest). Lehigh is slightly better than Lafayette.
I was on the fence with Steven’s because of their job placement record. Highest salary of all in my area of NJ, but the worst commentaries from my friends that actually attended. School has a problem with hiring professors that can’t speak the language. This from atleast 5-7 different people that attended. I was waitlisted and happy that I didn’t have to consider it.
Rutgers New Brunswick accepted me with a big fat ZERO in financial aid except for 5,500 in student loan per year. After ripping up their acceptance I burned it to ashes and buried it down by old man McHenry’s barn.
Stony Brook is a fine school but probably best if your son were looking for CompSci. It is inexpensive but for ElecEng is probably somewhere between Rowan and TCNJ. For a NJ resident it is more expensive because of OOS, but for NY residents it’s cheap.
The best one you have on your list is Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, RPI. They were very very generous with my financial aid in providing enough to leave me with just 19k. The job hunting power from RPI is tremendous because of their connections with job scouts that recruit exclusively from RPI. The campus is quaint and comfortable, rigor level is sufficient enough to provide challenge while thoroughly equipping the student. 200 clubs to keep you busy, plenty of technical minors to consider.
I am a CompEng major Math minor, starting fall 2017, and I’m very happy with my choice. I’d suggest removing UDel and UConn. I’d add CaseWestern and RIT just to see what they offer and if it appeals.
None of the companies or industries in which I had worked recruit exclusively from RPI or any one school. Who told you of such a practice? Stevens does have the best career outcomes of all the schools on your list, for very good reason. When I attended Stevens I found no problems with language communication of the faculty. You will find that many professors in engineering - at any school - are from outside the United States. This has to do with the fact that engineering is a difficult college major and many American students want an easy 4 years, let alone put in what it takes to earn a Ph.D. in the field.
Your son has a very good chance at getting into UIUC engineering which is one of the top engineering schools in the nation. Take a look at this school. Their computer and electrical engineering is in the top 5 (typically). It is a beautiful campus, great school, happy student body and the average salaries for his intended major last year was over $85,000.
You'll have to look at this list and research for yourself.
https://www.rpi.edu/dept/cdc/List%20of%20Past%20Full-Time%20Employers.pdf
Keep in mind, I'm not excluding the fact that someone in Australia (for example) will apply and send their resumé to one of these companies, sure that happens. But what I am saying is the opposite, some of these companies will not only not scout graduates from Australia, further they stay in their proximity; RPI being their goto source.
With regard to your disagreement with me on the Stevens Professors language barrier, you inadvertently proved my point. You toss a generalization broad-brush insult saying that American students are typically lazy; wanting an easy-A, let alone put in what it takes to earn a PhD. Interesting judgment, your honor. Before you judge American students as lazy, consider first whether there are other extenuating circumstances which require the student to leave his studies early to work with the degree he has.
For example, wouldn't you agree that typically, if a student is able to come from Dubai or Bombay, to study abroad, that perhaps they have plenty of financial means to cover the cost of a PhD? Of course this is only one explanation but one of many reasons why Americans may not get their PhD. It's wrong of you to assume I won't be getting my PhD because I'm lazy.
@Redhead - I didn’t say you or any individual person was lazy. Just as an observation however, if you visit an engineering class in many, if not most schools you will note how many foreign students there are, more so than most business or liberal arts classes for example. I attended three universities and in all of them 30-50% of the class were from outside the US. So, put another way, a significant number of foreign students see opportunity in engineering and some- perhaps a significant number- of American students do not. As I say, I never had any language or communications difficulties with the faculty at Stevens or any of the other universities I attended. At any engineering school one will encounter faculty whose native language is other than English. I am certain RPI isn’t much different in this regard. Before a student decides against Stevens (or any other school) on the basis of language communications with the faculty he/she ought to visit the school and sit in on a couple of classes and judge for him/herself rather than listening to second hand hearsay. Whatever the reason may be a significant number of students in US engineering schools are from outside the US. With respect to students with money coming in to the US for doctoral study, it is the norm in Ph.D. programs in most schools to cover the tuition and offer a stipend as a research or teaching assistant thus the cost of tuition is not a major factor in the demographics of the student cohorts in most cases. By the way, I am an American Ph.D. holder.
@Redhead- that list doesn’t claim the cited employers hire exclusively from RPI. Very few employers hire exclusively from any one school, and I know that the major corporations on that list hire from many schools besides RPI. I worked for several corporations on that list and I know that they also recruit heavily from Stevens as well as other schools here in New Jersey. When I was with Bell Labs and AT&T Stevens was one of our most heavily recruited schools (they recruited at RPI also). Stevens’ list of employers is just as extensive as RPI’s - in fact, several of the companies represented on RPI’s list (General Motors, Texas Instruments, Sealed Air, and a number of others to name a few) were founded by Stevens graduates. Two past Verizon CEOs and a GE CEO were Stevens alumni. My Executive VP back in my old AT&T days was from Stevens. Those RPI grads may very well find themselves working for a Stevens grad!
@GoRedhead
Thanks. So I guess you decided to go to Rowan? Honestly, of all the schools we visited, we were most impressed by the engineering presentation at Rowan and the new dorms and facilities. It seemed almost too good to be true compared to the other schools. My son understands the value of the combined electrical and computer BSE at Rowan , which TCNJ does not offer. But he is torn between that and the overall perception of TCNJ, Stevens and Lehigh etc as better schools. We’ll see where he gets in. If he gets scholarship money from Rowan that brought the price under 20k like you, that will be tough to beat. I just don’t think RPI and Lehigh will give a big enough discount. Tcnj only gives a maximum of $6000 in merit aid I believe. Thank you for your helpful input. Good luck at Rowan. I suspect Rowan may be shooting up the rankings in engineering. I think many commenters on here would share the same view if they actually visited
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ahh, was looking for this thread again.
Sorry for the confusion, I did not explain which school I decided to attend. I went with RPI because my out of pocket for Rowan was 15k while RPI was 19k. USNews is a good source for finding the rankings of schools, but the problem is that they separate the schools with doctorate programs from those that don’t. Therefore, Rowan is not on the same list with RPI so that we can compare the two. For that reason, if you look at another ranking system which places them on the SAME list, you can better assess if the extra $4,000 / year is worth it for RPI(among other factors).
For example, if we look at the website [Niche Engineering](https://www.niche.com/colleges/search/best-colleges-for-engineering/), and look at their Best schools for Engineering, you will see that RPI is rated 30 while Rowan is rated 224. How accurate this ranking system is, hmmm not sure, but even if you give 50 to one and take 50 from the other, Rowan still wouldn’t be close, that’s why I chose RPI.
**Edit, just wanted to add my net price calculation for Stevens came out to $58k while my Rowan npc came out to around 20k. Since I was waitlisted to Stevens I never found out what the actual cost would have been but I imagine it would have been close to that. It appears Stevens is very expensive.
RPI’s cost of attendance (tuition, fees, room, and board) this year is $66,172 per year. That is roughly the same as Stevens. So they are both “very expensive” as you put it. They are both expensive, as most private universities are. What is your net COA at RPI? I would bet it’s comparable to what you would have had at Stevens. Comparing to a public institution like Rowan is a little silly, of course it is less expensive. You will realize far more value with an RPI or Stevens degree as I am sure you are aware.
@Redhead- Correction, RPI’s COA for 2017-2018 academic year is $70,132 (reference, RPI financial aid website). That’s more than Stevens.
Can you afford to pay list price for each school for the second kid while continuing to pay for the first kid’s school?
If not, all schools where you cannot pay list price and which do not have sufficient automatic-for-stats merit scholarships that he can earn should be classified as reaches, since he needs to aim for large enough competitive merit scholarships, rather than just admission.
Net price must be in the 30-33 range to make it doable. Best we can hope for from TCNJ is apparently $6000 merit which bring TCNJ cost to below 30k. Rowan is more generous with merit aid. Rutgers is not generous with merit $. NJIT is the most generous. (However, we did not like the Rutgers and NJIT campuses, they were the least desirable of all schools we visited)Binghamton and stony brook give very little merit money to out of staters. U Delaware is more generous than the suny schools to out of state nj students
We will consider the private schools if the net price (with no loans) is about 33k or below
You should look at all the [url="<a href=“http://theaitu.org%22%5DAITU%5B/url”>http://theaitu.org"]AITU[/url] schools. Some offer good merit aid for strong student such as your son.
If the engineering is ABET accredited, it will be fine.
Forget UIUC, it is unaffordable even for instate students.