<p>My son wants to study Mechanical Engineering and has made his initial cut down to 30 schools. They fall into three groups, exclusive private institutions where he'll have to pay full price (we have a high EFC) and might not get in, like Stanford, Harvey-Mudd and Princeton, privates and out of state publics where he could possibly get merit aid like Case Western, Rose-Hulman and Georgia Tech, and finally, Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) schools where his tuition will be very affordable.</p>
<p>I'm looking for information on the WUE schools that made the first cut. They are, in no particular order, Oregon State, Washington State, Idaho, Utah, Montana State, Colorado State and New Mexico Institute of Mining and technology.</p>
<p>I know where the schools rank on USNWR, but it's a BS ranking as it's based solely on institutional reputation. What I'm looking for is first hand input from folks who've attended or considered attending any of these schools, or second hand feedback from those of you who might work with or have hired grads of these institutions.</p>
<p>Looking forward to reading what you have to say.</p>
<p>You may not want to limit the search for lower cost schools to WUE schools.</p>
<p>For example, Washington State is probably about $33,000 per year at WUE rates. However, other schools at out of state list price without any discounts, financial aid, or scholarships may be competitive, like Minnesota, Virginia Tech, NCSU, Stony Brook, Iowa State, and the California State Universities including the Cal Polys (NM Mines is also in this category; the WUE discount would be a bonus). Some other schools at out of state list price, like South Dakota State and South Dakota Mines, are even lower priced.</p>
<p>If the student has high stats, there could also be automatic full tuition or larger merit scholarships available (e.g. Alabama campuses, LSU, LA Tech, etc.). NCSU also has a competitive full ride Park scholarship to apply to.</p>
<p>In reality Colorado State is likely the most expensive WUE he’d go to, because I think he favors that location to Pullman. The Colorado State WUE COA is $28k. He rulled out many on your list due to sheer size. He doesn’t want anything bigger than Oregon State (24,000). Utah is slightly bigger (30,000), but some of the location intangibles, mainly the easy access to world class skiing, made him fudge his size constraints. Of course we’ve yet to visit any of them yet, but he’s a junior. He’s got time.</p>
<p>I’m not sure he’d be able to endure either of the Dakotas. NM Tech is a wild card too. It’s in the boonies, but on paper has many great attributes, 99% of faculty have PhDs, it’s small, it’s cheap, it’s got outdoor activities. It stinks in the USNWR rankings, but I have a feeling that it’s because of its poor graduation rate and relative anonymity. The score is 100% based on reputation. Ultimately, he’ll have to visit.</p>
<p>Even though it participates in WUE, South Dakota School of the Mines OOS is about $20,000 - which is less than it would be using WUE pricing. Also, there are some state schools, such as University of Minnesota Morris ,that don’t charge out of state tuition- everyone pays the same, which is also less than $20,000.
Both of these prices include room and board.</p>
<p>All of them, even the most expensive WUE schools are relatively good deals in this day and age. Certainly, some better than others.</p>
<p>What I’m trying to assess is the quality of the “lesser” programs. The ranking treat them poorly, but as I’ve said and many know, the rankings are heavily flawed, maybe virtually meaningless when it comes to undergraduate engineering.</p>
<p>I’ll certainly learn more about Morris. I’ve read great things about them and didn’t know they offered engineering.</p>
<p>ABET accreditation sets a decent minimum standard for engineering degree programs. However, smaller and lesser known schools tend to be less attractive to non-local recruiters when it comes time to look for jobs and internships. Different schools may have different selections of within-major electives as well (e.g. one ME department may have more aerospace-related courses, while another may have more robotics-related courses).</p>
<p>See [ABET</a> -](<a href=“http://www.abet.org%5DABET”>http://www.abet.org) for accreditation listings. See the schools’ web sites for faculty interests and course offerings.</p>
<p>But it’s huge. That’s why UIUC, Purdue, Wisconcin, etc. aren’t on his radar. Georgia Tech is (OOS COA $40k) as are some other more expensive schools. We’re jut trying to figure out if there’s a good fit that’s also a good deal.</p>
<p>What are the in-state options, or does he not like any of them?</p>
<p>Here are some more lower cost candidates, based on searching for colleges with mechanical engineering, < $20,000 tuition (COA probably $35,000 or less), and < 20,000 undergraduates.</p>
<p>Morris has a pre-engineering program, partnering with Twin Cities. Depending on personality and interests, this can be a good option. Some of the advantages are - starting at a smaller residential campus, and the opportunity to do undergraduate research, which is not always available at larger schools.</p>
<p>I have former classmates at all of these except NMT. All are very decent engineering programs with a good reputation in the West. The ‘feel’ of these schools will vary a great deal: for example, Utah is a top research powerhouse but more of a commuter campus located right in SLC, while Idaho is much smaller and more undergrad-focused and located in the rural Palouse region.</p>
<p>I currently go to NMT. Visit. You’ll need to visit before you get a grasp of how life is really like here. Also consider the fact that if you receive the WUE, you will not have the opportunity to get any other scholarships from the school. It’s a good school if you don’t mind skipping out on some of the stereotypical “college life”. Honestly, it’s really what you put in. </p>
<p>In response to the low graduation rate: all the majors on campus are either engineering or science. Given the high drop out rate of engineering majors in general, that’s 50% gone right there. Another thing I would say contribute to the low rates are the NM secondary schools. AFAIK, NM has one of the worst (if not the worst) public educational system in the nation. That contributes to a lot of the students coming in to be lacking in the skills to succeed. But the school is really is fighting back on that and pushing freshmen programs. Many students start their freshman year taking trig or precalculus. I believe most start in Calc 1 though. Many kids drop or fail out of Calc 2 from what I’ve heard. </p>
<p>Now, with all the negatives aside, the school has great professors. There are those who are also very brilliant; it’s just that they seem to be overshadowed by the not so great students.</p>
<p>Well considering that most of the population is some form of engineering majors, a lot of them are not very social. That was what I was trying to get at. Of course, there are many very smart people that comes to this school; may be it’s the fact that I am a freshman that exposes me to a lot of the less stellar students. Most of them will drop out by my Sophomore year. You’ll have to find the smart people as they will be mostly upper class men (those who have survived and stuck through). Regarding academics, I know of some who go to Caltech for grad school from NMT.</p>
<p>What I do on my spare time does not apply to others. Here’s what I do: I play pool, go to programming competitions (We have a club that does it every other week), hacking competitions/practice, gym (sometimes can’t find the time or energy, but that’s just my work load), and shoot (There’s an air rifle club on campus. They compete and shoot real rifles like twice a week. Obviously off campus range). I am also part of the student government, which I would consider “activity”. There are plenty of clubs to join. Other people play video games, board games, Magic the Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, Nerf Gun and all sorts of games. There is nothing much in town, so most people up to Albuquerque on weekends, so it feels pretty barren on weekends.</p>