Where would you go?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Even as a Sophomore, my son was attracted to Cal Poly. He liked the setting, but especially liked the teaching style. At our request, he did do a broad, nationwide search, focussing specifically on institutions that start applying knowledge early. </p>

<p>He applied, and was accepted to Oregon State (state flagship, but very traditional, no ME until Jr. Year), Colorado State, Utah, Cal Poly, Case, RPI and WPI.</p>

<p>From that list, he's narrowed his final choices down to Poly, WPI and Utah. On the surface they seem very different, but they all by design start hands on as Freshmen. </p>

<p>With merit, his COA at WPI and Poly will be $160k, assuming 5 years at CP SLO. Utah will only be $90k. We've agreed to split the savings of a Utah with him should he go there.</p>

<p>He's still conflicted because each has STRONG positives.</p>

<p>Poly is the pioneer of learn by doing. It has a great reputation on the west coast and it's getting highly competitive to get into. The projected acceptance rate to ME is 17% this year. Plus, it's in an idillic location of the Cali coast.</p>

<p>WPI is small and more flexible than Poly on major change. They have a very innovative study abroad program. They have a ski team and he likes to race. </p>

<p>Utah has a Confucius Institute, so he can minor or double in Chinese (he's done 5 years). The skiing is easily accessible and world class. Their sports fans are fanatical which makes the college experience fun. He'd pocket $35k in shared savings.</p>

<p>So, where would you go?</p>

2

<p>My son and I discussed this quandary yesterday before I posted and he made a good point. Paraphrasing, he said “I’m learning the problem about getting good information about schools is that nearly everyone’s personal experience is limited to just one of them or two at the most.”</p>

<p>Maybe these are so Apples, Oranges and Grapefruit, that they rarely all enter the same sphere of consideration.</p>

<p>Any thoughts or is he left to simply weigh the intangibles? Any opinions of strong positives or negatives of any of them?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

3

<p>I would go to Utah simply because paying 70K more to get a degree in Engineering elsewhere sounds ridiculous.</p>

<p>Salt Lake City is nice city, I love skiing also but if you are guys are not LDS, he may feel a bit isolated. SLC is a very clean and modern city but it absolutely revolves around the LDS Church</p>

<p>There are so many beautiful places in Utah though he could drive to, besides great skiing, there is Moab, Arches NP and Zion NP- all awesome places. Utah can be a very boring place though-perhaps a good place if he wants to focus more on studying.</p>

<p>Have you looked at any in-state schools? I attend Iowa State University here in Ames and I pay 10K/year as a resident of Iowa. The cost of attending the schools he chose seem a bit too high IMO. Good luck!</p>

4

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>That’s fully costed COA, so room/board, books, travel, etc.</p>

<p>Utah would be one year tuition free and then three years instate. The rest is mainly housing and food. It would be the same as our instate flagship, Oregon State with the merit aid they gave him.</p>

5

<p>Does he really have to take five years?</p>

6

<p>Only at Cal Poly. He’ll bring in enough hours that four is possible, but their four grad rate is pretty low.</p>

7

<p>Sorry, I did not read the bit about you guys being in Oregon. I still think Utah sounds like the best choice because the foreign language focus will also give him a much needed balance and the opportunity to meet some interesting “non-Engineering” students.</p>

<p>I am taking German here and it is good to have a “fun” class to go to when you are taking a bunch of challenging Engineering classes. It also helps your GPA.</p>

8

<p>Cal Poly SLO all the way.</p>

9

<p>@DrGoogle, why?</p>

10

<p>Cal Poly Alumni are well represented in Silicon Valley and that’s where the jobs are. I never heard of Utah.
I’ve heard of WPI and RPI. I’m not sure it will take 5 years at SLO. It didn’t for me, but in the scheme of things $70K is not a lot, especially for engineering.</p>

11

<p>As I have answered before, I think Cal Poly and WPI are very similar academically for engineering. I don’t think I would put Utah in the same class. Hard to say about Utah specifically for engineering, but comparing the SAT and ACT scores for the overall university, Utah ranks lower than the other two (as delineated in their respective common data sets). Overall and average rankings are just that and how good an education an individual student gets is very much dependent on the student. Have you visited Utah and sat in on a class and/or talked to the students?</p>

12

<p>Dr Google: Have you taken any basic Econ/Finance course? Let’s suppose: If they were to finance the full 90K vs 160 K at an average interest rate of 5% over 10 years, it would mean $750 dollars less per month to repay.</p>

<p>If your he invested those $750 in a conservative index fund that tracks the S&P 500 for example, over 10 years, at a below average return rate of 8% for example, he would have $140,000,00 at the end of the 10 years.</p>

<p>Utah is a fine and underrated institution that lacks name recognition because most people who are non-LDS would not choose to go there as a first choice anyways.</p>

<p>Maybe HPuck can explain better how this lack of name recognition may affect his career. I would imagine it wouldn’t but like he said, it would be important to visit, get a vibe from the place and talk to people who go there.</p>

13

<p>

</p>

<p>And that is part of why the OP needs to think hard about Utah if they are not LDS. Of course there are non-LDS students there, but the campus culture is strongly influenced by the large number of students and citizens of SLC who are LDS.</p>

14

<p>Puck has a unique insight that I’ve always appreciated </p>

15

<p>Having lived in UT for a few years, I think the whole Mormon thing is overblown. Is there an influence? Yes. I went to Weber State for a masters since it was 5 minutes from my house, but I never felt it was anything but a college. I never felt isolated. I also knew a number of people who went to the University of Utah (some engineers who were quite happy the education they received an excellent education at the U) and identified as Mormon but they were more like the Catholic who goes to church on Easter and Christmas except they spoke more softly and cursed less. They’d still have a beer with you. Now if you are talking about BYU, that is a different story.</p>

<p>The problem with WPI is that it is in Worcester. Not exactly Paris, France.</p>

16

<p>IPad drives me crazy sometimes. I’m trying to paste my last post here. Fingers crossed.</p>

<p>Having kids affiliated with two of the schools, Puck has a unique insight that I’ve always appreciated when it comes to thus decision. He also knows the pull of the west on a kid born and raised here. It’s hard to leave.</p>

<p>Utah hit the map for several reasons. It’s the best engineering program to offer WUE tuition rates (his merit actually beat WUE by quite a bit). It’s also so accessible to skiing that it is possible to ski in the amount of time you might take to play golf or go for a bike ride. He’s been skiing since he was 4. It’s become an important outlet for him. Lastly, I grew up there as a non-LDS while my father was in medical school and did his residency. It’s much “better” now than it was then for non-LDS. </p>

<p>The money savings bschool refers to are real, but we are fortunate enough to have planned to cover the full bill of Poly or WPI. The bigger issue is what would it mean for the newly minted graduate to have the paper, but also $35k in his pocket.</p>

<p>I think Poly and WPI are a notch above, but Utah has powerful things in its favor too. I’m just trying to tease out any further insight to help him through his mental log jam.</p>

17

<p>BTW, one of the biggest advertisements we saw in the airport was for Polygamy Porter. :smiley: </p>

18

<p>I also would not give the LDS aspect more consideration that it deserves. As Geo said, I am sure that there are many secular students and a horde of less than avid Mormons, Catholics, Lutherans fill in the blank at the U of Utah.</p>

<p>I know WPI and like it, but what I don’t know is whether or not passing up a Utah engineering degree and paying significantly more for a WPI degree (for a west coast kid) is reasonable.</p>

19

<p>Utah sounds like a good fit from what you have described. Maybe narrowing down to the two west coast schools could help.</p>

20

<p>Depending on where he lands, $35k could be a down payment on a condo or he could but a reasonable vehicle and pay rent for a year. And keep in mind that $35k is an after-tax amount.</p>