Hi @aquapt - We sound like we are in similar boats, but your D is more interested in Design + CompSci or CogSci and mine has been leaning more toward Design + MechE. Frankly, we nudged her to look at blending in a more technical degree with design and she has embraced it. Of course, this has happened throughout the application process so we have had a bit of a moving target…
Our D has applied to 3 types of programs - industrial design (Cinci DAAP, Georgia Tech, CMU), engineering (Olin College, Case Western, Lafayette, Rice, WashU, Miami U in Ohio), and programs that offer a good balance of design + engineering (RPI, Lehigh). She considered Northeastern and a few other schools as well and should have applied… she just ran out of steam… We live in PA so most of the schools she applied to are on the east coast. She prefers a mid-sized school near a large city but not all of her schools match that.
So far, she has been accepted to Georgia Tech, DAAP and Miami U. At GT, she didn’t qualify for the big scholarships but she interviews for a smaller one tomorrow night. For DAAP, she got a little bit of merit aid but nothing to write home about. Miami U offered her a full scholarship + a small stipend. Of course, it is the worst fit of the schools she applied to as she would need to “weave” together their General Engineering (similar to Liberal Arts & Engineering) with some design classes, psych classes, etc.
We travel up to Needham this weekend for Olin’s “Candidate’s Weekend”. Olin offers a great program but the school is so small that I can’t imagine her getting much of a traditional college experience. She really likes Olin though.
Rice + WashU are reaches. She may be fortunate enough to get in to one of these but will likely get no aid which will remove them from contention.
So, we are still waiting to hear where she gets in and what merit aid she receives. Each time she gets an admission decision or aid decision we have another piece of the puzzle. I suspect she won’t make a decision until mid-April…