<p>@bengalmombengal, that seems like a good strategy. WSU has something like a 96% acceptance rate. I hope your D gets a great scholarship to a place she enjoys!</p>
<p>Here is why Wichita State is big into aerospace engineering:
<a href=“http://www.kansas.com/news/article986997.html”>http://www.kansas.com/news/article986997.html</a></p>
<p>But the industry is contracting there, though it is by no means leaving altogether:
<a href=“http://www.kansas.com/news/business/aviation/article1153168.html”>http://www.kansas.com/news/business/aviation/article1153168.html</a>
<a href=“http://ksn.com/2014/11/07/boeing-could-be-moving-operations-across-wichita/”>http://ksn.com/2014/11/07/boeing-could-be-moving-operations-across-wichita/</a></p>
<p>The people on CC are very far removed from the norm. The vast majority of students apply to the schools that are typically considered “safety schools” on CC. Not everyone can or even wants to go the HYPSM route. Most students are happy to go to lower levels schools…and there’s nothing wrong with that. </p>
<p>If you take the typical picture painted on CC as the norm for all students, you’re going to have a very inaccurate picture. Believe it or not, you do not need to have 4.0, 36/2400 ACT/SAT, 15 leadership roles, three homes built by hand in Africa, and two types of cancer cured in order to get into a top school. It’s easy to forget that the “mediocre” students as perceived by CC are in reality…really good students. </p>
<p>Thank you for those articles. It’s too bad Boeing left/is leaving Wichita. But there’s other companies, right? I heard Cessna has a base there, as well as Learjet, Beechcraft, and Spirit. I’d love to work for any of those.</p>
<p>Well, I actually want to work for SpaceX eventually, get aircraft, glider, and helicopter certifications, learn scuba diving, then apply to NASA and become an astronaut. However, I have to start somewhere, and the likelihood of me getting SpaceX as my first internship is slim to none. But I’ll sure try!</p>
<p>Yeah, I figured the CC kids are mostly hyper obsessive overachievers. I only got on here because I was searching for info on the NMSC competition, lurked for awhile, then started commenting. </p>
<p>My daughter’s safeties were state schools in the southeast that offer consider merit aid as well as in state institutions where she qualifies for in state scholarship money. She applied to a few privates but not ivy league. She didn’t get caught up in the rankings of college and applied to where she thought she would be happy based on numerous criteria she came up with that wouldn’t make sense to others but completely makes sense for her. Too many people get caught up in rankings and in today’s world there are no sure bets. Knowing the world in which we live in today I wouldn’t bet on an ivy providing a guaranteed life of economic stability so the best bet in my opinion is to go where you are both fundamentally happy and is financially feasible and comfortable.</p>
<p>^ I couldn’t afford to get too caught up in the rankings either. I’ll worry about getting in somewhere a little closer to the top if I decide to go to graduate school. Even then, I’ll have to find a way to make it work economically. I’m just grateful I made it into the NMSC competition so that I can hopefully get a full ride scholarship.</p>
<p>Hey, anybody reading this, please like @comfortablycurt’s post, I want to get into the “best of” category! Thanks!</p>
<p>Aerospace companies hire many mechanical engineers rather than aero engineers. If your school list is too narrow due to focusing on aero you may want to be open to Mech.</p>
<p>I know that mech majors can end up in the same areas as aero, so can electrical engineers, but I can’t imagine that there are no jobs for aero. I don’t feel that my school list is too narrow; anywhere else I would apply, it would still be dependent on making NMF. My second choice school has a good (full tuition+housing+$1,125 per semester) scholarship for NMSF plus it’s only a few hours from home, so that is my backup option if by some oddity I don’t make NMF. I’m admitted to both universities, so no worries there. For me, I’m well set. </p>
<p>I have considered going into mechanical, and I know the fields are related, but I’ve always wanted to know more about aerospace. That’s been my passion since I was a little kid, and I really want to pursue it. I also have thought about double majoring, though that would be become really difficult to graduate after the 4 years of scholarship money ran out, as there’s no way I could get out in 4 years with a double major. Thank you for the input, but I think I will stick with aero. </p>
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<p>How many OOS students go to WSU? I would be afraid that it’s a commuter/suitcase school. If it is, then you’re going to be lonely at night and on weekends.</p>
<p>RE: The foreign language issue… I don’t think Bama would exclude you for that. You’re a likely NMF. I can get you in touch with your area rep who surely could walk thru your app. As an Eng’g major, you’d have nearly a free-ride. Bama has over 50% OOS students, so it is NOT a commuter/suitcase school. </p>
<p>Edited: I just checked. Wichita State is a commuter campus because an overwhelming number are local instate students. NOT a good idea for an OOS student. </p>
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<p>I have heard that it is a commuter school - that’s actually one of the reasons I want it. It means the night life will be lower than at a party school. My parents went to a commuter school for college, so I’ve gotten an idea of what that is like. </p>
<p>Loneliness means less distraction. If there’s nothing to do with anyone, I can study. I am easily distracted and I don’t need tons of distractions. I’ll need to hold a 3.5 GPA too keep the scholarship - that is going to take a lot of hard work. Please understand; I am not going to college for the “college experience.” I am going to college to get an education. I will join clubs or something if I get lonely (I probably will anyway.)</p>
<p>UA sounds too big. They have like 29,000+ undergraduates - Wichita State has more like 11,000. I’m not trying to say I think it is a bad school, I’m sure it’s great. I’m glad it has worked for your kids, but I really don’t think that college is for me. I also would much prefer to live in the midwest than in the south - I like the region better. </p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>@albert69 </p>
<p>My other concern about Wichita State is that it only enrolls about 14 NMFs per year. That is a very low number for a school that gives a huge award. </p>
<p>At WSU, the upper quartile is only an ACT 27+ or SAT 1200+<br>
That doesn’t bode well for the strength of your classmates in eng’g classes.<br>
Only 5% have a CR SAT of 700+</p>
<p>Well, maybe it’s an undiscovered gem. Guess I’ll be a big fish in a small pond. If it’s good I’ll get on CC in a few years and tell everyone to go there so that the numbers go up. (By the way - my CR score is 700.) SAT scores alone would have predicted my dad to be an academic failure. However, he went to an easy-to-get-into, hard-to-graduate-from, commuter California state university, did well, went to graduate school at the University of Arizona for his Ph.D, and is now a well regarded scientist in industry. </p>
<p>All that those scores mean is that the school will give anyone a chance - as evidenced by their 96% acceptance rate. That doesn’t mean all the students with those test scores will survive engineering. The ones that can’t do the work will wash out in the weeder classes - calculus, physics, etc. (Maybe there’s a reason that their business school is ranked 11th in the nation. 
)</p>
<p>@albert69 </p>
<p>I actually attend WSU. </p>
<p>I’m not part of the engineering program but I’m assuming it’s pretty darn good to attract a large amount of students from Saudi Arabia and the UAE to come over to study. The school is going through a large reboot to attract more students to the engineering program and the Koch brothers recently gave a generous donation to the honors college and engineering sector. </p>
<p>The school tends to weed out a large amount of students with Calc I, Calc II, and chemistry. Survive that and you’re good. There’s also a special class that determines how well you work in groups and how creative you can actually get. Basically applying what you learned in books to how you can actually use it in real life. Many don’t do so good and I’ve heard that the professor almost wept when he saw many of his students were only “book smart”. </p>
<p>You’re also right about the commuter school part. Many people leave after 5pm and the remaining on-campus students leave on Friday. I live to far too leave so I usually study or go out to a cafe and relax. </p>
<p>There’s usually a engineering fair every semester that allows you to meet several of the large engineering corporations in the state. I only know this because I accidently attended one this semester because I was a lost freshman. I’ve heard the coop/internship program is pretty good for engineers and mostly targets them. </p>
<p>I’m not sure how worried you should be about students having higher scores than you. I’ve noticed some of the engineering students at WSU are very book smart but lack the skills to communicate and often fail their internship interviews. Meanwhile, some engineering students with slightly lower scores but excellent people skills tend to succeed. </p>
<p>@PippaKarenina </p>
<p>Thank you for responding to my post and for your insight. I wasn’t worried about the test scores - mine are decently above the scores @mom2collegekids said were in the upper quartile - I think she was trying to tell me I can do a lot better than WSU. (My SAT composite score (Critical Reading+Math) is 1350, 150 points greater than their upper incoming students.) But as you can see from my story about my dad, I don’t really put much stock in SAT scores as the sole determining factor of one’s academic success. </p>
<p>I’ve actually already taken Calc I and II and passed (with As in both) at my local community college as a dual credit student. I’ll be taking Calc III next semester, and IF the classes transfer - apparently no one has tried it, so I’ve waiting to see if they can be approved - I can come in with those classes already done. </p>
<p>"…engineering students with slightly lower scores but excellent people skills tend to succeed." That is music to my ears. I’ve been told I work well with people and I enjoy doing so. I’ve had a decent amount of hands on leadership and communications training, so I could probably put that to use. </p>
<p>Could I ask you some more specific questions about the campus? Like, have you seen a lot of tornados in your time there? Does the school have storm cellars? Does it snow a lot in winter? Etc…</p>
<p>Thank you again for replying. I look forward to communicating with you! </p>
<p>@albert69 </p>
<p>I haven’t seen any tornadoes and as far as I know there haven’t been any in the city or near campus for several years. A good thing since several Kansas schools don’t have storm cellars. I lived in Kansas my whole life and never once have I seen a school with a functioning storm cellar.</p>
<p>However, due to increasing levels of fracking there have been higher instances of tiny earthquakes. You either feel them or you don’t. They’re extremely small. There’s been three so far and most people didn’t feel it.</p>
<p>There’s usually 1-4 inches of snow in Wichita. This semester there was an inch of snow and two weeks later it looked liked spring. It also snowed recently this week but nothing too chaotic. It’s mostly bad if you leave off-campus.</p>
<p>@PippaKarenina, so there aren’t storm cellars on the WSU campus? That’s interesting; I always thought Kansas got a lot of tornadoes. Hopefully those earthquakes don’t grow. That amount of snow doesn’t sound too bad. I actually like snow, so a little is fine by me.</p>
<p>In spring, is there a lot of pollen and other such allergy-inducing plants in bloom? Thanks for any info! </p>
<p>All I can say is wow, what a breath of fresh air! Good for you, OP, to know not only what you want, but what is reasonable given your stats. Do well at your undergrad and you can go almost anywhere if you have good GMAT scores, too. If there was a CC award for poster of the year, I’d nominate YOU for being so down to earth. Best of luck and enjoy whatever college you choose!!!</p>
<p>Thank you for your kind words, @Osserpusser. </p>