I’m pretty sure you will get into VT and Pitt, and possibly UVa, so I think this is fine.
But, how well do you really know Caltech? It’s very different from all the other schools on your list. Specifically, it’s a very small school with a very heavy research focus and not considered particularly undergrad friendly. So if you’re only applying because of its prestige I’d recommend doing thorough research to confirm it’ll be a good fit for you.
@tsbna44 thank you for the suggestions. I may apply to Alabama as a backup and a good money-saver if I get NMF.
@Momofthree24 I have other friends besides my sister who have gotten in with similar/worse stats. I know this evidence is anecdotal, but I have some stats too. According to Naviance, out of the 50+ Purdue applicants with a GPA higher than 4.4, only one was rejected. Further, Naviance has senior year GPAs, so a 4.4 is comparable to a 4.3 after Junior year.
@VisibleName2, does your kid know anyone who received the Bell Scholarship? Just wondering. I understand that without a major scholarship, any OOS will be much too expensive for my budget.
@DadOfJerseyGirl, to be honest, my counselor recommended Caltech. I’m not sure how much I would like it due to the small class size (less than half my high school’s size!!). I will consider taking it off the list
I agree Purdue is likely. Others think differently and that’s enough reason for pause. Just remember the weighting systems may not align.
In the end, you’re going to one - so ensure that ‘one’ is on your list just in case.
Right now - today - for tuition, room and board UM is $77k the first two years. $82k the last two.
Why these schools ? Pedigree? You have to look at outcomes to determine - is the excess spend worth it ? A Bama saves you $300k over UM. Well into six figures over the VA schools.
A Wisconsin would be a direct Michigan sub at your price point - when factoring in the $20k.
What is your industry of interest if one - auto, aero, nothing yet ?
The financial aspect, as you learn more, should be discussed with your family because significant $$ are being spent. Make sure they understand.
Btw 75% of engineering majors don’t have engineering jobs. Another thing to think about.
Finally, per UM, only 2-5 Bell scholarships are awarded yearly. So it doesn’t seem assured or am I missing something ? Might that be similar at others who accept it ?
Good luck.
UIUC for ME is highly competitive for admission (unlike some other majors there).
tsbna44 I generally enjoy reading your posts including some on the Politics Forum and Chance Me threads. You have your own, sometimes interesting and unique ways of looking at things.
However, I’m not sure if I enjoy seeing Alabama mentioned in EVERY single Chance Me thread whenever the OP wants engineering and is NMF-caliber. That and “my son turned down Purdue for Alabama” and “he interned alongside Georgia Tech grads and got invited back and they didn’t.” To the point that whenever I see your Chance Me reply I wonder how many paragraphs do I have to read before these get mentioned.
I understand that the OP might be seeing your reply for the first time. But for this particular thread, you kept going back to Alabama – I counted three times – even when the OP is asking whether any of the schools listed is mischaracterized and should be removed, and even after the OP indicated that they will apply to Alabama.
There is a variety of reasons an NMF student does not want to go to Alabama. Quality of education is one: not all ABET programs are created equal – just compare the syllabi and homework/exam problems of the same engineering course at Purdue and at Alabama. Graduate school prospect is another reason: it’s easier to get accepted to a funded Ph.D. program in engineering at the likes of MIT/Berkeley with a B.S. from Purdue compared to a B.S. from Alabama. Peer quality, distance from home, don’t want to go to the South, peer pressure (the OP is from a private feeder school in DMV that routinely sends kids to t20 schools, making “competition” among students inevitable), etc., are some other reasons.
That’s the five year aggregate acceptance rate. Last year was 37% and with the increase in applications this cycle, I expect it to be even lower this year.
That said it seems like the OP’s school had a strong record with getting students accepted to Purdue and they have strong stats. I just hesitate to call it a likely.
What is your actual budget? I read through this thread twice and I still can’t figure it out.
As a national merit semifinalist…University of Tulsa will not break your bank. And they have mechanical engineering.
University of New Mexico is also a possibility for you. I’ll let @WayOutWestMom give the details…but this school also has mechanical engineering and won’t break your bank.
Every student is different. I’m writing for the OP who likely hasn’t seen that - and not you, nor other regular posters. I am here to help students. If I do or have in any way, then great. If not, OP can ignore.
OP specifically asked this below and I referred them to previous messages (#2 and #11)- OP then thanked me for the suggestion. Does anyone have suggestions for an assured admit school that would fit my profile and not break the bank?
OP has a budget and noted they are NMF - which only matters if you apply to NMF granting schools.
So it’s relevant - in my eyes. There’s a reason Bama has the most NM Scholars in the country (at last report anyway)…like my son’s first year roomie from Arizona - they flock there. Tulsa notes it has the highest percentage of students - two years ago anyway, over 1/4 of their first year enrollment. Obviously, it’s a much smaller school. Others have free tuition, etc. like U Houston.
When one has a budget as OP appears to, it’s nice to know the different options. As I noted up thread, it’s good for a family discussion if nothing else so they understand the various financial differences.
As a parent, you’d likely want to know - food for thought if nothing else.
Thank you.
Also anecdotal, but I know in state kids for UIUC with better stats that were denied. One ended up at Northwestern and the other at Carnegie-Mellon. It’s not a likely.
@Momofthree24 did they apply for CS or other engineering majors?
@tamagotchi Sorry for not being super clear. My budget is 20-30k out of pocket. My Dad’s job will pay 20k, so my actual budget is 40-50k.
Based on my Sister’s aid calculations a couple years back, UVA, Purdue, UIUC, CMU would all be between 20-30k out of pocket, with VTech being considerably lower at less than 20k.
Several years can be a big difference in a school’s acceptance rate and merit aid. Merit aid has become nearly non existent at Purdue for OOS applicants as the university focused on a freeze in COA for all students.
Be aware the trustees approved an increase in fees for the upcoming year for OOS and international students so costs will be rising for the first time in 13 years.
Both applied for MechE as that is what you wrote as your intended major. CS is even more difficult there. OOS cost of attendance there will be around 60k so not sure it meets your budget anyways. There is a higher tuition rate for engineering.
This will change your list. So UIUC, Michigan, UT Austin, Pitt, Ga Tech, UMD won’t be affordable because they won’t give you any need based aid. You can look at the highly competitive big merit scholarships that some of those schools provide to see if you think you would be competitive and still apply. Just know if you don’t get a large merit scholarship, the school will be unaffordable, so I would minimize the number of schools you apply to in this group if you feel you must apply to any.
This is a great point - some schools have a tuition differential for engineering - I believe Purdue, UMN, CU as examples. And some have the same for Honors Colleges - U of SC, U of Az, ASU to name a few but there’s more of course.
For OP’s knowledge:
UMD grants a limited number of merit awards and they use a holistic evaluation process, so it’s impossible to predict whether you’ll receive one. Additionally, about 75% of their “big merit” scholarships (Banneker-Key) go to in-state students, making it even more competitive for OOS applicants.
Exactly what OP will have to do for each school and then decide if they will still apply. Often times these highly competitive scholarships require essays, sometimes interviews (UMD Banneker Key doesn’t, but one does have to first be admitted to the honors college there to have a chance at B/K.)
For OP, I would encourage you to not underestimate the psychological impact of being accepted to a school only to have it be unaffordable. Even if one knew that was the most likely outcome ahead of time, it can be difficult to experience once, let alone multiple times. So…I would build the list primarily with schools that you know ahead of time will be affordable.
I’d put Pitt back on your list because it does offer OOS merit aid. Two years ago my kid got $15k a year merit offer from Pitt in CS. You’re a very strong candidate from that magnet school.
There was not a separate application for the $. That amount made Pitt comparable to VTech in state.
I’m not sure if merit has changed but do apply to Pitt. Plus it’s rolling.
If it were me applying, I would definitely leave it on the list of schools to apply to. Purdue is a very good university for an engineering major.
Again, two more schools to definitely apply to. However, you need to make sure that you apply to safeties. If UVA and VT are not safeties, then you need to find another school that is (maybe Pitt???).
If you want to compare financial offers from multiple schools, then you should not ED anywhere. If you do not have a clear #1 top choice, then you should not ED anywhere. You do not need to ED. I do not think that anyone in my family applied ED anywhere. This meant that in March and April they were looking at a list of universities and were able to figure out which was the best fit with offers and financial aid details all in hand.
There is something about visiting a university in March or April with an affordable offer in hand. It is very real. You know what you really can be right there in September as a student if you just decide that you want to do it.
You could run the NPC twice, once with a sibling in university and once without.
Caltech is indeed a reach. It is also special in some ways. It is small and I thought that it had general engineering rather than specifically mechanical engineering. Also, it is very, very academically challenging. I did not attend Caltech but I did get my bachelor’s degree at MIT, which is similar in this respect. These schools are a LOT of work. Studying at MIT has been compared to drinking water from a fire hose, and I do not think that Caltech is any easier in this respect. You have to want to work very, very hard without a break for four years to attend either of these two schools. These are great schools for some academically strong students who want to work very hard, but they are not a good fit for all academically excellent students. Plan to spend many Saturday afternoons doing homework if you attend either of these schools.
The other schools on your list will be a lot of work also. Engineering is not easy, and is not supposed to be easy.
And I do wonder given your list and a potential ME major why MIT is not on your list. You might want to think about whether you want to attend the academically toughest school available, and then based on what you decide either drop Caltech from the list or add MIT to the list.
OP, you’re a strong candidate and I think you’ll do well. You simply qualify for a level of schools at which admissions are highly-competitive and somewhat unpredictable, so you need good backup options and you need to be prepared for mixed results.
Can you elaborate a little on your interest in MechE? It’s a broad field that attracts students with a variety of more-specific interests. For example, some would be most interested in schools with strong project-based EC’s like Formula SAE. Some would be most attracted to a project-based approach to their education overall.. Some are particularly interested in the design aspect. Some see MechE as a broad, foundational STEM education. Your geospatial research is interesting; is that something you’re hoping to tie in to your engineering education? If you bring your interests into focus a little more, people may have suggestions that are more fine-tuned than just shotgunning high-ranking programs.
If you’re going to visit Caltech - and I would never advise any student to commit there without visiting - then visiting Harvey Mudd on the same trip would be easy and potentially worthwhile. The two schools are similar in some ways - both admit very strong students and have a heavy core curriculum that includes liberal arts content as well as rigorous lab sciences, math, engineering and CS - but very different in other ways. Mudd is much more undergrad focused, and is part of a close-knit consortium with very strong LAC’s… so you get both the small “nerd school” experience and the benefits of more varied strengths and interests among the wider student population. If Stanford is the “dream” and Caltech is on the list, Mudd lands in the Venn diagram overlap between those two IMO. (If the NPC is favorable.)
In terms of financial safeties, in addition to 'Bama and Tulsa, you might check out UT-Dallas which is another full-ride possibility, with strong STEM, honors college perks, and a diverse student population.
I agree with others that some of the OOS publics (UMich and UT-Austin for example) are highly unlikely to be affordable even if you get in; tilting your reaches more toward privates that give need-based aid could be a better use of your efforts. For example, Rice might be a more fruitful reach application in Texas, vs. UT-Austin. Check out their MechE department’s “Design Kitchen”
Good luck!