Congrats! You landed 3 great choices: Purdue, UMD and UT. Which one are you leaning towards?
Thanks for coming back here to update us.
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Thanks! currently leaning toward UT because it’ll be a lot easier to adapt to weather coming from CA. that said, I’m still waiting on merit scholarship possibilities because whichever offers more aid will be on the top of my list.
Sounds good. Do keep in mind though, that none of these 3 schools are known for providing much (if any) merit aid. Are they affordable if you get no money from them?
Purdue is, UT and UMD are a bit expensive. if I don’t get any aid, then I would hope to get accepted to a decent UC school and attend there.
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Merit in and of itself shouldn’t matter.
Your two cheapest will be SDSU and Alabama (likely Bama less than SDSU). There is a possibility of aid at UMD, especially if you got a Banneker Key invite.
Otherwise, Purdue will be cheapest of the majors and by far vs UT and UMD.
Merit in and of itself means little. Each has a total cost. I would not expect merit from this list except potentially at UMD.
At the same time, if you look at career outcomes, they won’t be far off one another - and that includes your safest schools as well.
For example, in 2024 UMD grades earned $83,655 but most in high cost areas as only 20% were outside of DC/VA/MD. A Bama is $77.5k but obviously likely won’t place in a similar high cost area overall. Their top markets are Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas and Houston. So you can’t look at salary as just a #.
It’s not just three great acceptances but more. How much would you save at SDSU or Bama vs a UMD and how is that ROI long term? That’s a lot of save to make up.
I suspect you’ll have anptjer in state acceptance or two to help you ROI wise.
The point - if you are looking at merit for value reasons - then look at cost (Purdue wins here of the three you seem to favor) and overall ROI - which will include - where are people being placed. Companies generally pay by location, not where you went to school. Purdue, in 2024, for engineering, had an average of $80,271 btw. They place widely - looks like Indiana is tops at 172 and Illinois next at 100 with Texas 3rd at 58, then Ohio at 43, and CA at 39. So their ROI is likely above UMDs too when factoring in the where.
Ahhhh - I see you are aero - here’s some stats:
UMD was $87.3K with 20% still seeking - whenever the last 24 survey was taken. They don’t show a knowledge rate so no way to know - what % of grads that data includes.
UT Austin - $81,227
Purdue - $81,608
I don’t see Bama broken out by major nor SDSU showing stats at all.
Look deeper than the name, especially if you are value conscious.
Best of luck.
And congrats on a great application season….but you know, you will have more successes to come.
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Congrats on getting into one of your “low probability” schools and deferred at another with a few more still pending. Great outcome.
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Hi, so after more decisions have come out, my priorities have shifted a bit.
I got no aid from ut austin, so its out of the mix bc too expensive
i got into ucsb with regents scholar (mechanical engineering), so now my primary comparisons are between ucsb, purdue, and umd (ucla rejected, still waiting on berkeley and slo)
Any advice on which one to pick? Of course, if i get berkeley or SLO, hands-down i would pick those options. But in the event that I dont, I’m stuck between these 3 because UCSB has the benefit of being in-state and regent scholar benefits, UMD has amazing robotics labs, and Purdue is one of the top ranked aerospace programs in the country. I’m looking more towards the logistics aspect now, such as cost/weather/dorms/campus etc.
UCSB COA: $43k
Purdue COA: $55k
UMD COA: $54k (10k merit)
UCSB with Regents will be under $40k. I would go with your best offer unless money is no issue.
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You should look at tuition, fees, room and board. COA isn’t good to look at because everyone puts different amounts to things like personal and travel. So your amounts for Purdue and UMD are overstated. Initially you said $80k or less and UT would be.
Any reasonable person would pick any of these three - there’s no right answer. I’d lean toward Purdue or UMD but there will be successes at UCSB and failures at Purdue.
I’m not sure the situation would changed with UCB or LA. Someone could easily pick Purdue or UMD over the UCs or CPSLO.
The UCs have three terms vs two. You talk about robotics - all will have but initially aero. What is it you want in a school ? Where do you want to be - weather, size, distance to main city etc.
There’s not a bad choice here. In the end - your drive, hustle, persistence etc are far more important than school name - especially when comparing strong program vs strong program.
Good luck
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Among the UCs, Berkeley and Merced use semesters, while the others use quarters.
All CSUs use semesters beginning fall 2026 (CPSLO will start semesters then).
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rejected from berkeley and slo. most likely i will be committing to ucsb mechanical!
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Best of luck to you!
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