What would make a good engineering safety?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Not sure exactly where to put this, let me know if theres a better spot!
I’m a Junior, struggling with finding what types of schools would be good safeties yet quality schools for my stats. I want to apply to all the hard places ofc, but beyond that its challenging to figure out what is a good match or safety. Specifically looking for quality engineering Institutions in Mechanical or Aeronautical Engineering.

Stats:

35 Act, 8 Essay
4.2 GPA end of sophomore, 4.38 expected over all 4 years
ECs are mediocre: JV sport all 4 years, debate with no major tournament placings, band on a rarer instrument, President of 1 club, 75 volunteer hours. Working on improving this part.
School is highly competitive, probably top 10-15% class placement if I am lucky.
7 APs, 4 community college classes

Right now:
Considering PSU- university park campus (Legacy)
and U of Colorado - Boulder

I’d love y’all’s opinions of those or other recommendations! Thank you!

2

I’m not qualified to give you definite safeties or matches, but I just want to verify that Purdue’s on your list? As one of the best aeronautical college, even as a reach, I think you should strongly consider it.

What was the club and where did you volunteer? A trend in your ECs toward your major usually helps.

3

Yeah, I’m President of my school’s GSA (gender and sexuality alliance) so my volunteering is partially outreach and activism type stuff relating to that, but mostly band-related volunteering. I’ve been applying to some internships this summer (SEAP type stuff) in the hopes that that will actually get some major-related things in my ECs. Side note, anyone know of good engineering-related internship opportunities? And yes, Purdue is on my list.

4

Unweighted GPA?

State of residency?

Cost constraints?

5

@ucbalumnus UW GPA 4.0, in Cali, cost is not an issue right not, although yes I have had the conversation about it with parents.

6

Certainly UC Boulder is a highly reguarded AE program, but I wonder why you wouldn’t have Cal or UCLA as in state schools, or do you have them on your list?

7

Much easier to know your list and what your family can afford then to just mention a bunch of colleges.

I mention this program a lot even though it will not have your field of interest. It’s a great/fun program to learn about engineering. https://www.acementor.org/ colleges know about this program also

8

@CU123 - I have a crap ton of schools on my list, they just aren’t places I would consider to be safe. My list consists mostly of schools with less than 20% acceptance rates, and right now I am really looking for help on what kinds of schools would be good safeties.

@Knowsstuff I agree, but my goal in doing this is just to make a very large, preliminary list of places that I am at least mildly interested in with a variety of competitivenesses. Right now my list is entirely full of reach or dream schools. And thank you for the link, I’ll look into that it looks interesting!

9

@Preparednt About one year ago now my S20 was sort of in your shoes. He used this site: http://profiles.asee.org/
to compile all of the schools with his intended engineering major. I can’t attest to the accuracy of all info, but it does show the ACT or SAT ranges for a recent engineering class, and it shows number of students, by year, for each eng major.

He started with a list, eliminated some immediately based on things like location or size, got it down to about 50 where he was in range and then researched those in depth (curriculum, research emphasis, faculty publications, etc) to get to 20ish and then we started visiting them last summer.

You will see that many of the engineering programs are more competitive than other majors. The engineering presentations and tours were extremely helpful as he was highly focused on facilities (labs, resources for engineering teams, etc.) and details on curriculum. He loved UCLA, by the way (tough admit for anyone!).

Not easy finding a strong engineering school which is both an academic and financial safety. The list is heavily loaded towards state schools, so your in-state schools are your best bet unless you are able to be full-pay or close to it. OOS state schools will likely be generous to you given your stats, but probably not that close to your in-state options. Many OOS schools do not provide fin aid to non residents. Merit is possible, though (e.g. Alabama).

Forgive if I am sharing advice you don’t want, but S20 learned a lot by understanding the research programs of the faculty. This helped him understand the leanings of the department. (He is chem eng and some lean towards more industrial interests and some biological). He discovered the universities which participate in multi-institution HUGE research programs that he felt were important. He dug into details of the career services depts (which and how many employers recruit there?). To him, scale mattered, which eliminated a LOT of schools. It is only through his research did he learn what mattered to him. We didn’t see a single dorm or dining hall in any of our visits. ?

That website will show you just how few engineering programs have a 70%+ acceptance rates which are schools that meet your oTher criteria. But with your stats, I am not sure you need that level of assurance for more than one. If you are a full-pay student (expect $72k+ annually), then your options will be wider. But in engineering, especially with your in-state options, it may be difficult to justify that price tag as you will be extremely marketable coming from almost any engineering program. Good luck!

10

Clarkson.

11

@Preparednt Some programs that are often overlooked: Embry Riddle and Missouri S&T, which feeds into Boeing in St. Louis.

12

Maybe visit some schools then shrink your list? Go to a large school and compare it to a small school, city vs rural, etc. Go when school is in session to get a good feel for how the school would be during normal conditions.

That said you have great stats and should find 2 or 3 safeties. I would try to shrink your list to 10 schools or close to it. Any more gets tough to manage plus you can only go to one school in the end.

PSU is great but it’s in the middle of nowhere plus I don’t think it’s guaranteed admission into the major of your choice in engineering. I think you have to apply after your freshman or sophomore year. Something to think about.

13

CSU Long Beach or San Diego State would make great in-state safety schools with ties to local aerospace companies.

14

Assuming that UCs and CSUs are affordable, then every CSU (except CPSLO), UCR, and UCM should be a safety or highly likely. Several other UCs and CPSLO may be matches.

The Arizona publics should be safeties, with scholarship money for your stats.

What other criteria do you have?

15

So my son’s initial list was 38 schools. Just trying to stop you doing that… Lol. Take the link above and look at it for engineering. We also had my son look at the top 20 schools (his choosing) then actually read and pick a few schools from 21-30,31-40 till he got to 50. His choice to look further in the top 100.

This was a great exercise and made us realize that there are really great schools past the top 20!!! Plus the lower you go more merit happened!!!

So a safety is usually a school that you cleanly can score in the top 75 % in. But this is misleading since an OOS school like University of Michigan wouldn’t be anyone’s safety.

Also lots of engineers in aerospace are actually mechanical engineers. There is lots of overlap.

So a school that has a great engineering department and a diamond in the rough is Iowa State University. Apply today with your stats and you will be accepted this or next week with merit.

So your cheapest option might just be at home, where you live. The key to engineering is picking a good school that is actually affordable to your family. Probably not worth an extra $100,000 to go to “X” school. Not worth going into debt over.

Once you hone down a bit and have more facts like what is the actual budget then we can all tell you our favorites. With your scores all the schools are options to you. Whether they accept you is totally another story. You are smart to start looking at safeties now. Bravo to you!

Just remember no lifting your foot off the gas in senior year. No senoritis. Many schools want to see your midterm grades and still rigor in your classes. They want to make sure your ready for college.

16

Hi we were in a similar situation till last year. We went on USnews to look at the rankings of these schools and based on your scores/GPA try to pick 3 from each Top 30, Top 20 and Top 10 schools.

17

Engineering admit rates above 70%




<h1>school    admit rate    sat avg    dif admit rank    #eng ugrad    #eng applicants</h1>

Arizona State University    72    1295    61    8231    8925
The University of Texas at Dallas    74.6    1350    58    2757    5128
University of South Carolina    76    1062.5    69    2550    3792
Michigan State University    77.8    1270    64    4571    6054
Louisiana State University    78.1    1240    66    4398    4034
Drexel University    79.7    1325    60    2544    8357
University of Arizona    80.2    1320    62    2159    2400
University of Arkansas    81    1232.5    70    2821    2649
Auburn University    82.6    1285    67    4347    4134
Texas A&M University    85    1335    62    11143    10519
University of Oklahoma    85.4    1305    67    2864    2917
The University of Alabama in Huntsville    87.1    1232.5    71    1692    1755
Iowa State University    95.9    1168.75    72    6725    5329
University of Tennessee, Knoxville    97.5    1508.75    40    2882    2572
University of Houston     97.8    1335    65    1429    1858
18

There’s no such thing as “cost is not an issue right now.” Either you can afford it or you can’t. If you have all “reach” and “dream” schools, then there’s something wrong with the thought process.

“Reach” and “dream” schools are OK as long as you can afford to go there. If not, it’s just a fantasy. It doesn’t matter how prestigious it is, if you can’t afford it, you’re not going there. If you can somehow afford it, those schools should be limited to 2 or 3. Private and out of state schools are always reach schools.

The main focus is target and safety schools. I noticed that you didn’t mention the word “target school” anywhere. You sort of just called them safeties. That tells me that you have big reach-heavy list, and your parents are telling you to put more practical schools on the list. Target schools are schools you have a very good shot at getting into (50%), and should be your main focus. Again, cost is your precondition. You have a big list of UC schools you can put on your list.

Then you have your safeties. This should give you 70% to 100% chance of getting in. Most Cal-States could do that, as long as they’re ABET accredited schools. This school should be (1)affordable, (2)give a reasonable expectation of your major, and (3) a school you’re serious about attending.

19

This is not always the case. A 4.0 / 35 can find automatic admission schools, some of which may be out of state. If money is a constraint, some have automatic scholarships as well. A few of these have automatic full rides, so they can be safety even with very limited money.

20

Also, a safety should have 100% chance of admission and 100% chance of affordability. 70% is more like match territory.