<p>Hey guys, we're starting the whole choosing your college process at my school now and I still have no clue where I really wanna go. I'm certain that I either want to be an electrical or mechanical engineer when I grow up but I still don't know where I want to go. Right now my gpa is a 3.6/4.0, I've taken 6 honors classes and I'll be taking 3 APs next year (calc BC, Physics B, and Spanish lang.) I haven't taken the sat yet but I got a 220 on the PSAT (640 in math) and I live in SC. Help me please</p>
<p>Where do you want to live after graduation? Large school or small school? Is cost a factor?</p>
<p>Haha I guess I kinda left all the important stuff out. Uhh, after graduation I wanna live in Florida cuz I hate cold weather but I really don’t care where it is I go to college. I don’t really care about size too much as long as it’s less than 50,000 I guess. And cost is kind of a big factor, nothing super-expensive I guess</p>
<p>what is “super expensive”? Is $100,000 in loans too much? $50,000?</p>
<p>Oh my God I did not realize so much went into the whole college process…uhh the max price should be $40,000 I guess?</p>
<p>It’s not like you’re buying a pair of shoes - this is a decision that will impact the rest of your life, so it deserves more than 20 minutes of thought.</p>
<p>If you want your total cost of education to be less than $40,000, your only real option is an in-state school such as Clemson. If you’re going to go out of state, you really need there to be a substantial difference in academic performance to justify the cost difference (unless you have another reason to go elsewhere, but I’ll ignore that for a second). </p>
<p>In the Southeast, the schools that are substantially better than Clemson (enough to justify their cost) are Duke and Georgia Tech. You could try both as reaches, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like your stats make a good match to either school. Try the SAT and hope for a great score, and that’s really all you can do.</p>
<p>If you’re willing to look outside the Southeast, other schools will start to come into the picture. Virginia Tech, for example, seems like it might be a match for you.</p>
<p>Ok yea I’ve been looking at a lot of college stuff for the past 2 hours and I kinda wanna go to a school with 15,000 students max and I kinda need a school with a pretty big amount of financial aid like enough to make it somewhere around $20,000/year. The location of the school isn’t really important as long as it’s not in the middle of nowhere</p>
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<p>If you can, take a Physics C course (with calculus) instead of a Physics B course (non-calculus), as it will be better preparation for university level physics courses that engineering students have to take. As far as credit and placement go, Physics B will generally not place you into more advanced physics courses for engineering students; Physics C may place you ahead a quarter or semester (but that depends on the university and major).</p>
<p>There’s a substantial debate about whether or not the cost of out-of-state and private engineering schools are worth the expense. I would think that much depends on the specific field and the school’s reputation for advantageous career placement.</p>
<p>As someone else suggested, if money is a significant concern for you, then your most affordable option will likely be your state’s own public universities. But there are private and out-of-state options that may provide enough financial incentive for you; provided that you have STRONG GRADES AND SCORES in your high school background. To wit, privates like Case Western Reserve University and Washington (St. Louis) University have been known for good financial aid awards. Of course both of those schools are in locations known for cold winters. In warmer climates there are the Catholic colleges: U of Portland, U of San Diego and Santa Clara University. Be warned, some folks opine that SCU’s financial assistance is skimpy. I don’t have much familiarity with state-supported Engineering Schools, but again generally their reputation is that they don’t offer non-resident applicants much $$$. However, two that have relatively low tuition costs for non-residents are SUNY Buffalo, definitely a cold place, and U of New Mexico-Albuquerque, definitely a warm place. Ultimately, if your plans are to reside in Florida after you earn the engineer’s degree (from a non-Florida university or a less well-known university) you’re going to need to hustle. Meaning, concentrate on getting an REU and or summer employment/internship to make yourself attractive to potential employers in Florida.</p>
<p>Clemson does sound like a good fit.</p>
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<p>So your options are pretty much in-state (Clemson) and private schools. Few public schools meet that requirement (GT is close with 12,000 undergrads, but almost 20,000 total).</p>
<p>Clemson is somewhere in the late second tier/third tier, so to justify the cost increase, you probably want a first tier school or at least an early second tier. The private schools in the 1st and early 2nd tier are MIT, Stanford, Caltech, CMU, Cornell, Princeton, Columbia, USC, Northwestern, Hopkins, Duke, Rice, RPI, Rochester, Vandy, BU, CWRU, Notre Dame, WUSTL.</p>
<p>220/240 PSAT-
64/80 math?
78/80 writing and 78/80 reading?
Sounds like engineering isnt for you…</p>
<p>^i didn’t study anything for math, the only practice I got was from SAT stuff we did in my English class like 10 weeks before we took it so everybody did significantly well on that part I’ve had at least a 93 in all my math classes since I started high school, all of which being honors classes. I’m not saying I’m a genius like most ppl here but a lotta ppl have told me I should be some kind of engineer including my neighbor’s dad who happens to be one…</p>
<p>Go to a public school with good standings in the state you live in. See if you like the people, atmosphere, and engineering department. See if the engineers get jobs afterwards. Simple enough, but yet it’s still a hard decision I know.</p>
<p>Put on that orange shirt and orange cap and head to Clemson.</p>
<p>An EE degree from Clemson?..with in-state rates?..please.</p>
<p>Get good grades at Clemson and do the Duke, Ga-Tech, Va-Tech for grad school.</p>
<p>Ok thanks guys. Just a quick question though, do electrical engineers do a lot of stuff with programming stuff for computers and all that advanced stuff? Because I hate doing that kind of stuff with computers</p>
<p>Oh and @ucbalumnus, I’m kinda on the fence about physics c right now. My physics teacher recommended me to take it along with 3 of the genius kids in his physics b class because I have one of the highest grades ever in his honors class. From what I hear, physics c is one of the hardest ap’s out there and I’m already taking bc calc and Spanish language which are both really hard from what I’ve heard. In fact, on Spanish, the teacher herself took it and only got a 3…
But yea idk I might try and take physics b and c because I’ll have so much free time next year (I’m dropping history and music leaving me with 3 free periods)</p>
<p>For EE majors, check the schools you are considering for what CS courses are required. There is considerable variation into how much EE blends into CS.</p>
<p>Given the recommendation of your physics teacher to take Physics C, it would be a good idea to do so. Engineering makes use of physics (and math), so the better prepared you are in physics in high school, the better off you will be in university physics courses (even if you have to “start over” because the school does not accept Physics AP credit, the stronger high school course will help you in the introductory university physics courses).</p>