New poster - hope I’m doing this right!
NYS resident. Son is leaning toward electrical engineering. Loves math, physics and world history. Loves school and takes most rigorous classes.
PSAT 1460 SAT 1450
SAT MAT II 760 SAT PHYS 730
ACT 32
Thinking Clarkson, Binghamton…
Thanks!!
RPI? WPI? Union?
Hamilton maybe.
How much can you afford? Albany? Stony Brook?
RPI
adding Steven’s Tech, Northeastern, RIT
In addition to suggestions above, you might look into Lafayette, Lehigh, Bucknell, and URochester.
SUNY Buffalo could be another good safety.
Clarkson grad here. It’s a great school, but I’ve heard that (depending on income) there may be good deals coming for in-state students at SUNY schools. It’s worth researching.
REACH
Cornell
Columbia
MATCH
RIT
RPI
CaseWestern (far)
Steven’s (expensive)
NYU
Safety
StonyBrook
RPI is probably your best choice. It would be within 2 hours, not to expensive considering the high academic stats, highly ranked in engineering, Excellent for Math and Physics. The campus is medium sized and very beautiful.
What is the financial picture?
Run the net price calculator on each school’s web site.
If affordable at list price or on need-based financial aid, then the college can be a reach/match/safety based on its admission selectivity (be careful about whether his intended major is more competitive than the school overall – some applicants to popular majors get unpleasantly surprised).
If affordable only with a merit scholarship, then reach/match/safety must be based on the difficulty of getting the scholarship, not admission. For most competitive scholarships (that are not assured by stats), this should be assumed to be reach.
I’m not sure I’d say a college that has a $65-70,000 price tag and meets the full need of only 20% of its students with need is “not too expensive” without the assurance of guaranteed merit aid (and a lot of it). In comparison, 60% of undergraduates at Case Western had their need fully met. RPI admittedly fares well in comparison with the notoriously stingy NYU, which meets the full need of a mere 5% of undergrads.
The SUNY schools would be hard to beat if you qualify for the new [tuition-free program](Tuition-Free Degree Program: The Excelsior Scholarship).
Does your son want to stay in state? There are a lot of excellent programs in engineering in other places. Consider Alabama Huntsville. Your son would get merit money for his SAT/GPA, but moreover, the city is great for engineering students. Lots of co-ops and internships. NASA, Boeing and Northrop Grumman are there, among the engineering-related firms.
Hamilton is a great school, but does not have Engineering “in house.” It has a 3-2 program.
Wow - thanks everyone! Been reading up on 3-2 programs but I understand the drawbacks. Otherwise it seems like the best of both worlds. Will run the calculators. Have some money set aside and he has a large scholarship from Clarkson. Not sure if he should try and improve test scores with some prepping to increase merit…?
Yes, there are definite drawbacks t0 3-2, Lots more detail at Engineering threads if others are interested to learn more.
RPI does hand out some merit awards to less needy people they want. I’m not sure what is good enough - my son’s scores were higher and his grades put him in the top 2% of his class. WPI also gave him merit money.
Most of the threads I’ve read about 3-2 programs is that most of the students really don’t want to leave school number one if they are happy there.