Anonymous wrote:What about BU? It's in a city.

+1

They’re pretty good at engineering as well.
If it’s ED, it might have a good chance?

Anonymous wrote:If you decide to look at private schools Bucknell, Lehigh and Union have amazing engineering with the bonus of smaller classes. They all have excellent career outcomes.

But none are large urban schools

What about NYU Tandon as a safety?

Have a very city-loving city slicker son at Purdue and he absolutely LOVES it. Campus is always busy and bustling and downtown Lafayette/west Lafayette is quite charming with pretty much everything a college kid could want (coffee shops, cute restaurants, a few bars)… He committed within 2 hours of our first visit because he said it just felt right - It was big and busy enough to give him a city feel (but in reality he was on a super safe campus), he did not have to deal with big city life while in school (he wants to save that for after graduation), he frequently goes to Indy (drives himself or takes the shuttle) and Chicago (2 hours) for real city fixes. Driving there may feel like you are in a children of the corn movie but once you hit the edges of campus most people are shocked at how lively and “non-rural” it is. Oh… and top notch engineering program recognized world wide. He already has 4 job offers and spent this past summer in San Fran and made bank.

If you decide to look at private schools Bucknell, Lehigh and Union have amazing engineering with the bonus of smaller classes. They all have excellent career outcomes.

Anonymous wrote:University of Toronto (St George) campus is integrated into downtown Toronto. It has a "residential college" system that is analogous to the houses at Yale or Harvard.

UBC is not very urban, it is suburban and bot near downtown.

U. Guelph (Canada) and U. Waterloo and McGill also might be options.

All of these are good universities. Not sure if all offer engineering - at least UT, UBC, and Waterloo do offer engineering.

Many US tech firms recruit at all of the above for STEM graduates -- and have done for decades now.

I can't believe this list is helpful at this point. We have U. Guelph mentioned but not U. Delaware when OP lives in MD.

As others mentioned, Pitt and Minnesota work well as rolling admission options rather than traditional safeties Both are large, urban schools with strong engineering programs that provide early decisions.

Consider visiting Lehigh or Case Western to experience smaller engineering-focused environments. This can help determine if that size is your kid’s jam.

Unless a school has strong national recruiting or your student wants to work in that region post graduation, I'd focus on schools closer to home or school with national recruiting footprints.

Since your student prefers large universities, state flagship engineering programs are worth prioritizing. They typically offer the most diverse engineering specialties and better resources. Schools like SMU, Villanova, or GW may be excellent institutions overall, but their engineering programs aren't as well developed. Only include them if your student has strong non-academic reasons for interest.

University of Toronto (St George) campus is integrated into downtown Toronto. It has a "residential college" system that is analogous to the houses at Yale or Harvard.

UBC is not very urban, it is suburban and bot near downtown.

U. Guelph (Canada) and U. Waterloo and McGill also might be options.

All of these are good universities. Not sure if all offer engineering - at least UT, UBC, and Waterloo do offer engineering.

I second some of the suggestions above - Lehigh, Santa Clara, BU, CU Boulder and then would suggest San Diego State, UC Irvine, UCSD, UC Santa Barbara, University of Washington, Waterloo, UBC Vancouver

Anonymous wrote:My go-to exercise for finding targets is to go to College Navigator and enter in a few filters. For example, here's a search for schools over 5,000 students with a Mechanical Engineering major, an acceptance rate over 20%, and relatively high SAT scores.

Binghamton University
Brigham Young University
Case Western Reserve University
Colorado School of Mines
George Washington University
Lehigh University
North Carolina State University at Raleigh
Ohio State University-Main Campus
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rochester Institute of Technology
Santa Clara University
Southern Methodist University
Stony Brook University
University of Florida
University of Maryland-College Park
University of Massachusetts-Amherst
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
University of Rochester
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Villanova University

You might update the filtering to match different engineering majors, different admit rates, different student body sizes, etc. But that should give you a pretty solid list of candidates to start with.

Thank you for this!

Anonymous wrote:Pitt, Minnesota, Ohio State, GA Tech, Wisconsin or Washington. The University of Cincinnati would also work but I think you could do better.

Emphasis on urban.

FWIW, I know a bright, talented kid with similar stats who was accepted to several highly ranked engineering programs but chose Cincinnati because they gave him a ton of money. he was also impressed by their co-op program. Might be worth looking into.

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for Mines! It’s on the small
Side, but close to Denver in the cute town of Golden. Our child has had a great experience and was given a scholarship with his high SAT and minimal extracurriculars.

Golden Co. is nice especially if you are the outdoorsy type.

Another vote for Mines! It’s on the small
Side, but close to Denver in the cute town of Golden. Our child has had a great experience and was given a scholarship with his high SAT and minimal extracurriculars.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If he gets into UMD engineering and does not go, that's a dumb decision unless money is no object for you guys or unless he gets into someplace like MIT (which he won't, with that profile).

He might not get into UMD engineering. But he should be working towards that goal because that is likely to be his best option. It's regularly ranked around 20 in the engineering schools rankings. It's hard to get into.

I wouldn’t say money is no object, but we could afford private. He just isn’t excited about spending four years in a DC exurb, having grown up here, which to be honest I get. When I was his age I wanted to see the workplace (and he is definitely considering McGill etc).

McGill's engineering faculty is excellent and Montreal is an amazing place to be a student. Just be sure your son actually will buckle down and do the work amid all the distractions, because the program is no joke and McGill won't either hold his hand or hesitate to flunk him out.

What about BU? It's in a city.