What engineering schools should DC add to their considerlist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which is your instate? I think it’s crazy to pay OOS cost for engineering majors. If MD, go to UMD. If VA, try VTech. If he is interested in research, bigger schools offer more research opportunities. Research exp is also necessary if he wants to get PHD at some point. I am an engineer and my son got his bs from UMD then PHD from MIT. Just as a reference.

your answer isn't helpful because:

a) Some schools weed people out so getting in is just half the battle. Why do that?
b) Kids can get merit aid at OOS flagships and make the cost comparable. They don't even have to be tippy top students.
c) Not everyone can get into their own state's flagship.

Glad your son is so special that he can get a PhD from MIT. Truly happy for you that he is so talented. Who needs advice if their kid is the top of the class? It is the rest of us that are looking for more varied opportunities.

a. getting in not half the battle. if you have hard time getting in, eng is not for you
b. instate cost about 25k, OOS cost about 45k/privates cost 65K or so. tell me which school given that much merit for middle of the pack students
c. see a.

"tell me which school given that much merit for middle of the pack students?"

- Never said "middle of the pack", but simply not tippy top.


My kid had nearly straight As the last three years, SATs like the OP's kid, and good but not world class ECs - not top 10% at her school but plenty darn good. She is happily attending an OOS flagship that came in at around $30k in a part of the country with much more appeal than Blacksburg (which would not have accepted her). She won't get weeded out because the school does less of that.

- Not getting in to VT doesn't mean you can't make it as an engineer. Don't be silly. Stop with the generalizing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which is your instate? I think it’s crazy to pay OOS cost for engineering majors. If MD, go to UMD. If VA, try VTech. If he is interested in research, bigger schools offer more research opportunities. Research exp is also necessary if he wants to get PHD at some point. I am an engineer and my son got his bs from UMD then PHD from MIT. Just as a reference.

+1

Baffles me why people don't consider in-state schools (UMD, VT) more for engineering. UMD CS is great. For VT, it seems like parents/kids look at the admin rate and don't think it's prestigious. VT COE has gotten very difficult to get into.

+1

Of course our kids consider in-state schools for engineering. My DC applied to 10 schools, 2 in VA (VT and UVA). But my kid is looking for biomedical engineering - VT, doesn't have an undergraduate major in BME. UVA has a great program but at $38k/year in-state, we were going to shop around. Merit aid at several privates and even publics got close to UVA's tuition and fees.

Also, UVA and VT are huge schools. There are wonderful smaller schools that appealed to my DC.

Good luck to your kid - sounds like some good options. My kid is also leaving VA (because there are wonderful... schools [elsewhere] that appealed). The cost for us came in substantially under in-state UVA, thankfully!

[Anonymous]

CMU. Bucknell. Lehigh. Cornell.

[Anonymous]

"tell me which school given that much merit for middle of the pack students?"

- Never said "middle of the pack", but simply not tippy top.


My kid had nearly straight As the last three years, SATs like the OP's kid, and good but not world class ECs - not top 10% at her school but plenty darn good. She is happily attending an OOS flagship that came in at around $30k in a part of the country with much more appeal than Blacksburg (which would not have accepted her). She won't get weeded out because the school does less of that.

- Not getting in to VT doesn't mean you can't make it as an engineer. Don't be silly. Stop with the generalizing.

Pitt w/ ~15k "discount merit"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want to look at smaller schools, Swarthmore or Smith.

+1. Swarthmore has excellent engineering program, and it's one of the only liberal arts schools with an engineering major.

[Anonymous]

Olin College in Mass. Not a big college but has a unique emphasis on cross disciplinary work and project based learning.

[Anonymous]

Good luck to your kid - sounds like some good options. My kid is also leaving VA (because there are wonderful... schools [elsewhere] that appealed). The cost for us came in substantially under in-state UVA, thankfully!

That's great. Can you share the schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

"tell me which school given that much merit for middle of the pack students?"

- Never said "middle of the pack", but simply not tippy top.


My kid had nearly straight As the last three years, SATs like the OP's kid, and good but not world class ECs - not top 10% at her school but plenty darn good. She is happily attending an OOS flagship that came in at around $30k in a part of the country with much more appeal than Blacksburg (which would not have accepted her). She won't get weeded out because the school does less of that.

- Not getting in to VT doesn't mean you can't make it as an engineer. Don't be silly. Stop with the generalizing.

Pitt w/ ~15k "discount merit"?

Nope.

But we were very impressed with Swanson when we toured Pitt, and would have been happy to have our son landed there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Good luck to your kid - sounds like some good options. My kid is also leaving VA (because there are wonderful... schools [elsewhere] that appealed). The cost for us came in substantially under in-state UVA, thankfully!

That's great. Can you share the schools?

I'm sorry but that is too much personal information.

I can tell you that if you look at the flagship engineering schools that aren't hot with 1%ers, there are many places that do a great job.

I recommend you look at the engineering rankings at USNWR for those between 20 and 50.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of good ideas so far.

My suggestion is to check out WPI.

WPI is not for everyone but it's project based nature really adds value to their enginneering program.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Good luck to your kid - sounds like some good options. My kid is also leaving VA (because there are wonderful... schools [elsewhere] that appealed). The cost for us came in substantially under in-state UVA, thankfully!

That's great. Can you share the schools?

I'm sorry but that is too much personal information.

I can tell you that if you look at the flagship engineering schools that aren't hot with 1%ers, there are many places that do a great job.

I recommend you look at the engineering rankings at USNWR for those between 20 and 50.

Bama

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry but that is too much personal information.

LOL as an Anonymous user

[Anonymous]

For a small school with good support - Olin College of Engineering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Good luck to your kid - sounds like some good options. My kid is also leaving VA (because there are wonderful... schools [elsewhere] that appealed). The cost for us came in substantially under in-state UVA, thankfully!

That's great. Can you share the schools?

I'm sorry but that is too much personal information.

I can tell you that if you look at the flagship engineering schools that aren't hot with 1%ers, there are many places that do a great job.

I recommend you look at the engineering rankings at USNWR for those between 20 and 50.

Bama

bama is not in top 50. Not even top 100.

[Anonymous]

Engineer here. There are really no bad engineering programs because they tend to weed less qualified or motivated students out. The difference between elite schools (eg MIT, Stanford) and everyone else is that the weeding out happens during admissions. And of course those elite schools have great networks,facilities, etc. But your child will get a solid education from any program. I say this having attended both a normal school for undergrad and an "elite" school for grad school.

Have you considered co-op schools, like Drexel or Northeastern? These programs will allow your child to actually try out engineering for six months at a time, in a form of extended paid internship. Really good experience and provides your child with info on whether engineering will be a good career fit (vs just class study) and whether they should consider a different type of engineering (eg comp vs electrical) based on the type of work. We engineers call this a feed back loop