incadinca

Hi, my junior DS just received his first ACT scores and now has to get down to the business of finding good fits, which I where I hope CCers can help. Definitely interested in aero engineering. Size, location of school not important to him.

ACT composite: 33 (eng 32, reading 33, math 31, sci 36)
GPA: 4.3 w, 3.8 uw
AP: will have 9 courses when graduates, only taken APUSH test so far - a 4
Class rank: top 10%, close to top 5 in class of 385, public school
SAT: will take in March

ECs: marching band - 3 yrs, section leader
Jazz band & pep band - 3 yrs.
All State Fair Band - 2 yrs,
Regional youth wind symphony - 2 years
Team America Rocket Challenge - 2 years
Boy Scouts - 7 years, various leadership spots
Academic Challenge - 1 year

Community service: Wounded Warriors, various Scout projects but not a lot overall

He would like a school where he could continue his musical interests including marching band. Not likely to get much financial aid so good merit schools are a big plus.

Thanks for any suggestions you could offer!

ucbalumnus

University of Alabama - Huntsville
Aerospace option in Mechanical Engineering major is ABET accredited for both Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.
3.0 GPA and ACT of 31 gives automatic full tuition UAH Silver scholarship.
3.0 GPA and ACT of 34 gives automatic full ride UAH Blue scholarship.
Next to NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (may be an advantage when seeking jobs and internships there).

ucbalumnus

University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa also has a full tuition scholarship for his stats.

Schools with aerospace engineering but lower than typical list prices (around $30,000 to $35,000 per year) include:

California State Universities: SLO, Pomona, Long Beach, San Diego, San Jose
Iowa State
Kansas
Minnesota
Mississippi State
North Carolina State
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Virginia Tech
West Virginia
Wichita State

However, you may also want to check for schools with mechanical engineering (a more widely available major).

incadinca

Thank you ucbalumnus! We will definitely check out the UA options. I am thinking Huntsville probably doesn't have a marching band.

ucbalumnus

UA Huntsville's bands: UAHuntsville - Liberal Arts - Ensembles - Bands

The Pep Band plays at hockey and basketball games.

Obviously, UA Tuscaloosa's band gets much more visibility in football games.

boneh3ad

Of course, to be honest, I haven't exactly heard rave reviews of Bama's engineering departments. Make sure you look at the companies that recruit on campus before committing to anything since that should be probably the most important factor in determining whether a school will get you where you want to go.

incadinca

I would love to have him go to my alma mater, Univ. of Michigan, but I hear they are rather stingy on the merit aid and at $50K-plus, it's out of our league,which saddens me as a happy alum. We are in Ohio, so any comments about Ohio State's aero program would be appreciated? How is it compared to Cincinnati?

boneh3ad

Ohio State is certainly better than Cincinnati for engineering in general, let alone aerospace engineering. Ohio State may not be Michigan for engineering, but it is still a quality program. As a Wolverine, though, could you really live with your son as a Buckeye? haha. I suppose he could be part of "The Best Damn Band in the Land" though. ;-)

incadinca

@Bonehe3d: I have three Buckeye alum siblings so I'm pretty used to it. I'd have to stay loyal to Blue on game day though! Unfortunately, the Best Damn Band in the Land is an all-brass band, which eliminates my sax-playing son. What about OSU vs. Purdue? Moneywise the difference is big, but is Purdue $20K better when it comes to aero programs?

GLOBALTRAVELER

Wolverines....Buckeyes....blah.

From the Spartan. :-)

ecjuventude1913

Wichita State has a really good Aerospace Engineering department. OOS tuition is cheap, cost of living in Wichita is really low, and Wichita has so many internship opportunities, since Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft, Learjet and Spirit are located here. The professors are amazing, acessible, and there are a lot of opportunities to do undergrad research (if that's something that interestd him). As far as marching band, we don't have one, but the music department is well acclaimed in the region, and I'm sure he could play sax in the student band in basketball games

boneh3ad

Hey, I'm an Illini here, so I am not particularly fond of Wolverines OR Buckeyes, even if both regularly kick our tails in football. Always had respect for the Spartans though. Tom Izzo is a class act.

Back to the topic at hand, Purdue and Michigan are on par with one another for aerospace, so both are better than OSU, but are they $20k+ better? Probably not. It all depends on what you are looking for. Honestly, check out what companies typically recruit at the respective career fairs. That ought to give you a good idea of how respected they are in industry and by which companies. As long as the school is being recruited by the types of companies the student wishes to work for, then it should be fine. All will keep graduate school as a viable option as well.

ucbalumnus

If you put the sports rivalry down for a moment, The Ohio State University at in-state price is a very good choice in terms of cost and academics.

boneh3ad

I think if you read through that conversation you can probably tell that we were all just having a little fun with regards to the rivalry and that all parties were more objective than that. Relax.