I know this is a very broad question and each college has one or more disciplines that they specialize in, but are there colleges that generally have good science (engineering, biochemistry, etc.) programs? I know I want to major in science, but I currently do not know what specifically I am interested in the most so I want a good starting place to explore.
- If you are undecided, you probably want a college where any of your possible majors is an open major that does not require a high GPA or competitive admission to change into.
- You need to be aware that science and engineering majors do not all have the same first year courses. If you are undecided, you need to take the superset of courses needed for all of your possible majors. Where different versions of courses are offered (e.g. physics for physics majors versus physics for biology majors), you need to choose the "harder" one (in this example, physics for physics majors) if you are considering a major that requires the "harder" one (in this example, physics or engineering).
There are a lot of them. Most very good universities are very good at sciences, and there are hundreds of very good universities and colleges. Some schools that are strong at many sciences are not as strong at engineering.
Perhaps one way to start the discussion is to tell us your GPA (unweighted is usually more useful because weighted GPA is computed so differently in different schools), SAT or ACT scores if you have them, home state, financial situation (what you can afford), and what you want in a university (big, small, rural, city, northeast, southwest, football, hockey, …).
Assuming you’re an above-average student, first start with your own state flagship. Chances are, that is the school to beat for the best bang-for-buck in many fields.
If your qualifications are exceptional and your family is somewhere in the low to middle income range, a very selective private school may offer a lower net price than your state flagship. Use the online net price calculators to compare. These schools would include most private research universities, plus many of the “national liberal arts colleges”, in the US News top N, where N=30 or so in each category. A few of those research universities (like UChicago and Georgetown), and most of the LACs, will have only limited (or no) engineering programs, but otherwise decent-to-excellent science and math programs. Especially if you want engineering programs and your qualifications are truly exceptional, check out Stanford, MIT, Caltech, and Harvey Mudd. Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and Washington U in St. Louis also have strong STEM programs. So do many others, but you might start with those just to get some idea about net prices.
Schools a notch down in selectivity, but more likely to offer significant competitive merit scholarships, include Case Western, Rensselaer, and the University of Rochester.
If your family income is too high for need-based aid but you need a lower sticker price than most top private schools charge, then check out some of the “public Ivies” such as UC Berkeley or UCLA. Some of them (UVa, UNC-CH, Michigan) may offer enough n-b aid to OOS students to make them competitive on cost for low to middle income families as well. State schools a notch down in selectivity (and OOS sticker price) include Wisconsin-Madison and Colorado-Boulder (which both feature very attractive college towns as well as some good STEM programs).
Most state flagship universities have good overall science / engineering programs. If you are undecided as to what specialty, it makes a lot of sense to start looking there. Many top engineers have undergrad degrees from state U. That said, if you ca narrow it down to say physics specializing in robotics, there are schools that have more resources and specialize in those areas.
Thank you all for the advice. I will be looking for more state universities and my state flagship.
@DadTwoGirls I am currently a junior in Maryland and I currently do not have my SAT scores. I go to a good, competitive high school with GPA scale based solely on letter grades rather than differentiating between A+ and A-. My current GPA is a 3.79 and I have all As with the exception of two classes, however, I have three teachers who can give me excellent recommendations and my best will come from one of the classes which I have not obtained an A in. While my family is in the upper middle class, my home situation is not very good, so I will have no financial support for college. I have heard that universities with a greater student population generally offer a wider variety of majors, so I am mainly looking for bigger universities preferably in the North. I do not care for sports and would not like to go to a religious institution.
This basically means your college list needs to be one where you are looking for full ride merit scholarships.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
The University of Maryland (College Park) does offer some large merit scholarships, but if I’m not mistaken, the biggest awards (the Banneker/Key scholarships) go to only 3 or 4 students. Johns Hopkins has a Westgate scholarship, up to full ride, for engineering. Presumably it too is extremely hard to get. Competition might be a little less intense for big awards from the University of Pittsburgh.
The Northeast usually isn’t the best region to look for big merit awards. You may need to consider less selective schools, possibly in distant states that you wouldn’t otherwise prefer. If a small liberal arts college has any appeal, consider Rhodes, Hendrix, or Center College. New Mexico Tech is a small technology institute that offers some merit scholarships (though I don’t know if they go up to full ride for OOS students). The University of Alabama seems to be one of the most generous state flagships for merit awards to OOS students.
Don’t count on loans to cover more than a small fraction of your costs.
Look at Union College–it offers good merit and has a wide selection of engineering options in an LAC setting
Olin–just look at it. Truly unique but all engineering
Swarthmore has engineering and good FA
Haverford has a 4+1 engineering program with UPenn, that includes a masters degree. It’s part of the same consortium as Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore and UPenn–all excellent schools. If you identify as female, Bryn Mawr has the same 4+1 program.
If you have the scores, look at the Claremont Consortium-- includes Pamona, Harvey Mudd, Scripps, and Pitzer and Claremont-M.
As others have noted, NM Tech is cheap and excellent. Also Alabama has merit for OOS. And consider also South Dakota Mines and Tech–cheap OOS tuition relatively speaking
University of Maine Orono is matching flagship tuition in all other states, and it has an engineering program. Also Maine is gorgeous. So there’s that.
If you identify as female, look at Smith’s engineering program. Smith is part of a consortium with UMass Amherst, And Wellesley has cross registration with MIT.
If you have high scores, also consider Clarkson U. They may give you merit.
These may be too specialized, but SUNY Nanotechnology is a teensie program that may want to attract you if you have great scores. I believe it’s the only undergrad nanotech program in the country.
Similarly, there’s a really cool engineering program at Alfred – glass engineering. The program was started with funding (I believe) from Corning–groundbreaking company in terms of glass technologies over the years. It’s worth just going to the website to look at what they offer. Again: super cool IMHO. And if you have the scores, you might get merit there. I believe that it’s the only undergraduate program of glass engineering in the country,maybe this hemisphere, Not entirely sure but I think it’s fairly unique. https://engineering.alfred.edu/undergrad/ges/
An updated version of the first one is at:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20798968/#Comment_20798968
However, there may have been some changes since then. Check all scholarships on school web sites.
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While my family is in the upper middle class, my home situation is not very good, so I will have no financial support for college. I have heard that universities with a greater student population generally offer a wider variety of majors, so I am mainly looking for bigger universities preferably in the North. I do not care for sports and would not like to go to a religious institution.
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You’re going to need huge merit and the north is BAD with large merit scholarships!!!
You might look at UMBC, which is in state and might provide you with decent merit. Most of the schools discussed above will be unaffordable if your parents won’t pay your EFC (from college net price calculators, on their websites). You are going to have to drive your search mostly off affordability. Study for your standardized tests, as better scores open up more merit options.
https://financialaid.umbc.edu/scholarships/freshmen/
The maximum scholarship, $22K, would get you close enough to UMBC’s full in-state COA that you should be able to cover the gap with “self-help” (student loans and employment). I wonder how many students get awards that large. If you got a smaller award, perhaps you could commute from home to save on room & board?
^^^^
We need to find out which state school is near enough to home to commute to.
I’m puzzled by the title. Why ask that question when the FAR MORE serious issue is that this is he’s upper-middle class, and his parents won’t pay anything??? That’s like asking, which luxury car is best…and oh, btw…i have no means to cover the costs. :-/
He should be asking, [-O< where can I get a near-free-ride for strong stats (assuming he’ll score well on the ACT/SAT?). I realize that he may not know that the northeast is lousy with huge merit, so hopefully he’ll be open to their regions of the country. He’s going to have to go where the huge money is.
And the reality is…he’ll need to score highly if he stands any chance to find affordable schools other than something he can commute to for a very low cost.
Sounds like he doesn’t know what his career goal will be. Engineering? Medicine? Scientist? Researcher? Computer Science?
Did you take the PSAT last year? If so, how’d you do? Did you take it again in october?