Deadline Approaching, need help choosing a school [NCSU $23k, Purdue $42k, GT $52k, Duke $93k, Alabama $7k first year, $22k after]

College Majors Engineering Majors
61

Fair points - OP should think about - if you take classes elsewhere (if they went to UNC) the getting to other campuses - convenience, desire/logistics, etc. I have a friend whose kid was at Brandeis and took classes at Tufts - and said never again. So one has to think about that…the logistics…is it ok for them?

But that’s a fair opportunity too if interested.

To @aquapt point, with another student to put through school, the student definitely should factor in finances - loans aren’t just a $$ amount but a $$ amount that is higher due to up front fees and then interest each month. It’s hard enough to pay rent, for a car and other things - it’s another monthly payment that is unnecessary given there are options to avoid it.

62

There is a shuttle between campuses. They also have special program mentioned above Robertson.
But OP has to understand how everything is working prior to committing…

63

:100: this. Either of these two options sounds very viable for OP, depending on what they want to do. Both great schools, great programs, and it sounds like both are affordable. I don’t think any more options need to be put on the table. Just, NC State engineering (with the FYE system that allows choice of major)? or UNC business school?

Looking at the OP’s description of what they want to do, I don’t think they are saying absolutely they want to do technical sales, but more that they are imagining “something like technical sales” which could cover a range of things. I do not know if the OP is really going to be enthusiastic about all the engineering work involved in an engineering degree, but maybe? My own kid thought he wanted business, but at the last minute picked engineering and now he loves it and cannot imagine being business. But it could have gone the other way too.

If I were the OP’s mom, I would recommend just really spending the next couple weeks trying to figure out which of these is your path.

  • Really look at the curriculum at each school, does this look interesting? Does it feel like what you want to learn and do? Look at class descriptions, books you would read, projects you would do.
  • Look into clubs and extracurriculars at each school, and typical clubs/ECs that engineering students do, and that business majors do. Which ones of these are intriguing or exciting?
  • Talk to students if you can.

Both paths would have perfectly fine ROI. These are both good schools with plenty of good career paths. I would not think about ROI between these. I would think about what you want to learn and do.

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64

OP, visit UNC CH and NC State again. Ask to attend classes. Speak with students. Compare your feel about Engineering vs Business.
Where would you be happier?
Commit there and never look back!

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65

That is a great idea too!

66

That is a potential positive, but can also be a negative in that NCSU does not have enough space in all of the engineering majors, so entry into some of them is by competitive admission. There is no automatic admission GPA (unlike Purdue’s 3.2), and information on how competitive each major is can be hard to find.

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67

I am totally going to do this, thank you for this idea.

68

There is some info here about placement statistics: CODA Statistics | College of Engineering

There is also more info about the CODA process here: Join a Department – Change of Degree Application (CODA) | College of Engineering

It looks like BME may be the most competitive (as it is the only one with an essay requirement) and that is the major the OP already applied to. I do not know if that gives the OP an advantage in declaring BME, but frankly the placement data looks favorable for students to get any of the majors as first choice (compared to placement data that I have seen at many other engineering schools), if you look at the second page in the spreadsheet showing each major and the number of students receiving that major as first choice. (also, I don’t see anything that would prevent a student from going through the process a second time if they were unhappy with where they landed.)

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69

Quite a few schools have an IBE major now - Purdue, Lehigh, Fairfield. UPenn, Carnegie have something similar. It is a rebranding of Management Information, Management and Technology etc. It is not an engineering degree, but at Purdue the student takes FYE courses that taper off through sophomore year. Idea is to create a business student that understands engineering enough to be able to manage engineers/projects/pre-sales. Not a bad idea, but not for everyone.

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The key word is “rebranding”. Nobody would think to “rebrand” Electrical Engineering or Mechanical Engineering :rofl:.

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Maybe it should be :joy:… It just sounds so “old”… We are in the “A.I.” era you know…:wink:

72

You can’t go wrong between UNC (business) or NC State (Engineering). Your parents will be happy and presumably as an NC resident you will have a network of friends at both schools. If you are not sold on engineering, I would take the honors path at UNC.

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73

This kid views students he knows and close to home as a positive…so it is for him.

I have to agree…UNC as an instate student sounds like the best option. Is that affordable for your family? UNC has a huge variety of majors, and is just a great university overall. Lucky you that you are an instate resident!

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74

From what I’m reading…this student is a senior choosing where to attend now. Don’t students apply for the Robertson as incoming freshmen? If so, I think that opportunity has passed.

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75

Nope. You can do it as freshman too… Just Google. That is what I did :rofl:

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76

Can you imagine GaTech rebranding their ISyE major? Tech is #1 in that area for last 30+ years… No way…
Rebranding usually happens when you have a difficulty to “sell” , or something terrible happened and business needs to hide it. :thinking:

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77

I am a bit biased here. My OOS D24 has committed to NCSU. But, the FYE program at NCSU is very good. While you do have to CODA into your engineering major, it does not appear to have the degree of difficulty or stress as ETAM at Texas A&M. NCSU also has a breadth of engineering majors not available elsewhere. This may or may not be of interest to OP. But, NCSU has the only ABET certified textile engineering program in the US. If you have not looked at the Wilson School of Textiles, it is phenomenal in its field. Outside of that, in general NCSU is quite strong in STEM across the Board. UNC…not so much. Admittedly, UNC is stronger than NCSU in business (with the exception of agribusiness) and the liberal arts. The question for the student, however, is what path do you want to take? Do not focus on the name (which can be a prevalent problem on this board), but what is your path and what you want to study. If it is liberal arts and business, then go to UNC. It is engineering and science, go to NCSU. Your state has done a wonderful job of creating two incredible public universities for you that specialize in different things. Once you know your path, then you will know your school.

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78

Is there any scenario where Georgia Tech is worth it over NC State? I have asked many adults. Those who went to elite schools said it was worth it, those that didn’t told me it wasn’t.

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Is there - of course there is?

You may find a job there that you don’t at NC State or vice versa.

You may meet your wife at GT vs. not at NC State…or vice versa.

Anything is justifiable it if you want it and you can afford it.

You mentioned Ga Tech with $50K in loans - vs. NC State (and I’d still have Bama in there) with no loans and getting back $10K more than you thought.

btw - that’s not saying that NC State is $50K less than Tech over 4 years. It’s likely less expensive that that with your merit - so now you have a bigger delta. Maybe your parents can help you with grad school or first year living expenses, etc with that more than $50K in savings.

It’s not a question of elite vs. not - it’s a question of affordable vs. not - and $50K in loans is not affordable, especially when you can go with no loans.

You’re looking for a business job with an engineering degree - and that’s even more so an argument why it wouldn’t work.

Let me ask you this - why are Ga Tech and Duke the dream schools? They are vastly different.

So are they truly dream, do you know about them - or is just they’re insanely high rank that put them on the dream chart?? I ask - because in the reality of life, that’s not a reason to attend a school.

I gave you examples above - at least in my kid’s case - he outperformed the Ga Tech kids at his internship and works with Michigan/Purdue types and next year they have Ga Tech in the class…I just think, rightly or wrong, engineering is really equalized, especially with the online recruiting today.

Look at a school like Cornell (I use because their outcome board is very helpful). - top engineering school, Ivy. Top two ways people found jobs - internet posting (think indeed) and secondly linkedin/facebook. Third - Handshake - which is the system all schools use (sort of an indeed for college students).

Interview on campus and career fairs - way down the list and low volume.

So the world has changed and will continue to do so.

So I would take the word “elite” out of the equation - because elite means different things to different people. Some will say Purdue is elite or Ga Tech is elite and others won’t - to them, just MIT, Stanford, JHU, etc. are elite.

It’s more a question of affordability - one should never choose a school not affordable and in my mind, that’s what Ga Tech is. You couldn’t even borrow $50K. Your parents could - but you can’t - and when you get the same job with the same salary as the NC State kid, where are you going to get the extra $650 a month for the next ten years - to pay it back? And frankly, I wouldn’t choose NC State - but that’s selfish of me - I just didn’t like the split campus. I see it as inconvenient. I’d run to the money :slight_smile: We all have different “strategies” on this - but that’s mine. I might even choose a UNCC in that sense - I would think about - are you ok with the split campus - because putting money aside, that is something that will impact your day to day every day for years. Obviously, thousands are ok with it!!

Anyway, that’s my take.

Good luck.

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80

Duke has been a dream school because I have grown up setting the high goals for myself as a form of motivation, and it was the “elite” school that I was most exposed to as a kid, living in NC. I also really loved the campus and feel of the school. I just thought it would be cool to go there, but for $93k per year, I am treating it essentially as a rejection letter. For GA Tech, I toured the campus last year before I even started applying to colleges and just loved the school. It felt like it would be a place I would fit in and thrive at. This was before I was even aware of its ranking, but cutting all emotion out of it, I do think that is affecting my opinions toward it. I really enjoyed meeting the other kids on the admitted students day, and felt I was similar to many of them, more than NCSU.

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