My D was accepted to the chemical or engineering program at the following schools with some merit/financial aide:
UConn - in state - approx - $20k
Umass Honors - $30K
UDeleware Honors $30K
Union College- $42K
Lafayette- $52K
Syracuse- $52K
Drexel- $50K
Also accepted into UNH and Western New England… but those were her safe school choices. She choose engineering at the suggestion of my husband and me and we have assured her on numerous occasions that she can switch out if she wishes but that she should choose a major where there is some job opportunity. She loves studio art as well. She tells us she would like to try chemical engineering or some type of engineering so work on green energy. She loves chemistry - and again hopes to take some art classes - although we have cautioned her that the engineering curriculum is very difficult.
Union does not have a chemical engineering program but they have offered good merit aid. We went to visit both Deleware and UConn and we are planning to return. She did like both schools. She doesn’t like Drexel as she doesn’t feel she would get that college campus feel. From what she has read about Syracuse and Lafayette those school interest her but she has never visited because we were waiting to see what package they have to offer. She is will most likely rule out UMass-
Is job placement at any of these schools better than the next? If she switches out to Chemistry - is job placement better at a particular school- Is there any good argument to spend the extra on Lafayette or Syracuse?
Thanks.
UDel looks like the best value in my book. Although UMass and UConn have solid programs, with UMass being generally better in engineering, UConn seems to be 10k cheaper so I would scratch UMass… This being said, Udel is better than both of them in chemical engineering, just chemical, and the same price as UMass. So ya, I would say it’s between UConn and Udel. Lastly, UMass may still be an option as long as she doesn’t want to study in Delaware and she wants to be in a slightly better engineering program than UConn. (+UMass has a new honors dorm complex)
Are the dollar figures you’re displaying your annual out-of-pocket expenses or the amount of aid each school is offering?
Agree with @Greenman57 that UDel is topnotch for chem engineering. Not sure I’d pay another $12,000 a year for Union. Was she invited into either of their honors programs?
Udel is topnotch for chemical engineering, however it’ll be very difficult to fit in any art. It may however help her a lot if she can fit one art class each semester, since it’d likely take some of the pressure off for her and help her GPA.
Umass Honors, with its new Commonwealth College, is also a great choice if she wishes to be a bit farther away, and the town of Amherst (with the 5-college consortium) is a great college town.
Strictly speaking all majors have good job prospects as long as the student 1°takes either or both of a statistics and/or cs class or two and/or the student is at the top of her/his class and/or shows rigor in one way or another 2° works hard to get into research or other on-campus opportunities and 3° start with internships as soon as they can (and get acquainted with the career center early during freshman year). Many jobs outside of technical fields want to see your skillset, your major is more of a marker. It’s up to the student to learn how to explain what they can do. (A good example of this is how Art History at Williams is good for Investment Banking at Wall Street.) Essentially, engineering weeds out, so that all who graduate with engineering have “passed the test”. Other majors don’t weed out, so the job market then picks the best. But the general trend is the same (ie., whether it’s done by the college or employers, there’s a sharp difference between the top 20% and the next 40%, and again for the bottom 40%.)
It’s very important your daughter understand that ChemE is the hardest engineering major, itself the hardest major to pursue (generally completed in 5 years for the students who manage to stick with it). She’ll have to go to office hours and tutoring (even if she’s never had to until then), realizing it’s not shameful but necessary in that field. And she needs to reassess within the year if she’s struggling too much - again, without feeling horrible about it. A quick turnaround in a closely-related field, rather than dragging lowish grades* that will ultimately prevent her from switching to a desirable major, is not a bad outcome, just a more realistic one. Also, it’s important to realize that, no matter how high her current grades are, grades in engineering are on another value scale. What matters is ranking.
(* she may get a 55 in her class and be in the top 20%…)
The figures are my costs - U Del honors/ U Mass honors and Union scholars
@francesca97, if you can afford the $10,000 a year difference between UConn and UMass or UDel, I’d have her visit all three and let her make a decision. (I would eliminate the rest due to cost unless you’re very well off.)
UDel is topnotch for Chem Eng and has a lot of of out-of-state students, so it might be a really nice option for her. I’m not familiar with UMass or UConn, but if UConn doesn’t have what she wants, I would think UDel would be a great alternative. It’s a pretty, relatively small campus for a flagship too.