Hi friends. We (along with our son) are trying to come up with a list of school to apply to. He’ll be studying engineering (possibly chemical). He has automatic admission to UT-Austin but would like to attend a school OOS. Which schools are similar to UT in terms of excellent academics and career development (internships and research) and which are a step up? We’ve started our research but hoping that he’ll stay in state unless there’s some outstanding feature about an OOS school. We are open to it but there has to be a good reason. Thank you so much!
U of Washington
Rice
U of Minnesota
Duke
CASE
U of Wisconsin
Carnegie Mellon
U of Rochester
Georgia Tech
U of Michigan
Purdue
U of Illinois
Stevens
Northeastern
Northwestern
Washington U
Vanderbilt
Notre Dame
Johns Hopkins
Rennsselaer
Has he visited Rice? It is a much smaller school than UT, and has a very different vibe. Rice costs more than UT unless he qualifies for substantial financial aid or gets a scholarship. It has all the other characteristics you seek and is in TX. According to the rankings, Rice is a step up from UT. Since he has an auto admit to UT in the bag he can really hone in on fit and affordability.
If your son has grad school aspirations, also note that Berkeley generally does not accept its own undergrads to its ChemE grad program, so consider undergrad and grad school in the UCB College of Chemistry as an either-or proposition.
Of course, rankings within one specialty that he’s not ever sure about should not be the only priority. Just FWIW.
The budget is still up in the air and grandparents are wanting to help so for now it isn’t of the utmost priority. Just trying to see which of these schools are similar to UT in which case there’s no reason to apply. Which ones have something above and beyond UT which would then be worth considering.
I think you have a good list but some of the schools are very different than others. Notre Dame for example doesn’t have students declare a major until sophomore year and has a good number of theology and philosophy requirements. There is also a strong emphasis on service/volunteerism. Much more liberal arts focused than some of the STEM focused schools on the list. Purdue students jump right into a first year engineering curriculum but don’t transition to major until the end of freshman year which requires a minimum GPA with some majors more competitive than others.
Other schools to potentially consider for engineering - Lehigh and Cornell.
I agree with you that turning down in state, UT Austin, especially for a chem e major, would require something extraordinary elsewhere. You are fortunate your son is auto admit to such an amazing school.
You may also want to provide some stats and such about your son so that people can give meaningful advice. MIT is a step up, for example, but unless he has a 3.9+ UW GPA and a 1500/35 test score with an 800 on several SAT subject tests (and you can afford as much as $70k/year), it is a waste to discuss it.
I understand what you’re saying, however, he wants to retake the SAT’s and we are awaiting subject test scores. When we have final stats, I’ll ask for specific recommendations. Honestly, many of these schools are starting to sound similar to us so I’m asking for people’s take on which might be worth going OOS for. Thanks for commenting however, it is not a waste of time. It will help us in continuing with the process.
Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Hopkins, Wash U, Vandy, Michigan and Notre Dame, CMU might be a bit stronger.
Wisconsin, Georgia Tech, Washington, Minnesota, Case, Rochester, Illinois, Purdue, Northeastern are fairly close peers of UT, IMO.
RPI and Stevens might be peers in what they do (STEM), but they are not peers of UT overall.
These schools, with perhaps the exception of Notre Dame, Northeastern and U of Rochester, are known for Engineering strength. Double-check me on Case.
I don’t think paying a lot more to go to any of the other schools makes sense – especially the state schools, RPI and Stevens – unless the kid finds the grass a lot greener elsewhere and you can afford the price difference easily. For some people, the strong fin aid of those highly selective private schools makes them competitive, even cheaper sometimes, than the in-state flagship. If that’s the case for you, I think your choices are between UT and those selective private schools.
RPI and Rice stand out as highly selective private schools with tech orientations. When compared to UTA, they might be two that would be sufficiently different to merit consideration as worthwhile alternatives.
Some of the private schools on your list may offer smaller classes, better need-based aid, and more national drawing power than UT Austin. Whether that means they are a “step up” is debatable.
For a good student from a Texas family who wants to study chemE, IMO UT-Austin is the school to beat. Some of the others (Rice, Duke, NW, WashU, Vanderbilt, JHU) may be worth a modest price premium, if you can afford it. For that money in my opinion you’d be getting a different kind of Meet Market, but maybe not a better engineering school or better job prospects.
Now, if you can get any of the others for the same or a lower net price than what UT offers, that’s different. Run the online net price calculators for each school that interests you, if cost is a factor.
UT is really a top notch college and people I know who went have liked the school a great deal. It also would have a great network if he wants to settle/work in TX. The only colleges on your list that I would consider either a bit of a step up or at least the equal (would only consider if the environment is strongly preferred and money is no issue) might be: Rice, Duke, Carnegie Melon, GA Tech, UMichigan, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Vandy, and Johns Hopkins. It wouldn’t hurt to apply to a couple of less selective schools as I don’t think the auto-admit guarantees acceptance into each students’ program of choice.
Not that I have anything against Georgia Tech, but it does not seem to be as well rounded (humanities, social sciences) as UT or many of the other schools mentioned. We have to remember that sometimes USNews misses the mark, and if we are looking at overall academic strength, hum and SS count too. That’s why I’m saying GIT is a peer of, and not better than, UT. (Purdue is similar to GT in strengths and focus, but nobody is saying Purdue is better than UT – or I’d mention Purdue too, as another STEM-focused flagship).
This is important, IMO, because about half of the classes a kid takes – at most schools – will be outside their major, and a fair number of those will be in the humanities and social sciences (for a STEM major).
One more thing to consider…what kind of industry does your son intend to work in? If he wants to do chem e for a petroleum company, he couldn’t be at a better place than UT.
What are his test scores? You may have said but I don’t see it. Apologies if they are posted somewhere but I missed it.
I’m sure you know this, but auto admit to UT doesn’t mean auto admit to engineering specifically. We know lots of top 6% who were denied their engineering major. If he is ACT 32+ then it’s probably a done deal. We know specifically a 29 and a 30 who were denied engineering and offer biology and chemistry majors I believe.
Mine turned down her engineering admission to UT. The size of UT was a huge turnoff and we perceived a lack of flexibility to change majors within engineering even within that first year. True or not, it was how we saw it and it was the experience of a few people we know here. But our deal for going OOS was she had to bring costs down to what we would pay at UT and she did. She had options at Purdue, Clemson, Alabama and University of Pittsburgh. Northeastern (even with $20K in merit per year) was still too much $$ and didn’t justify turning down UT.
The point of my rambling is I think you should also have him apply to at least two safeties in addition to your search.