Hello Friends, first time post, so please let me know what I may be missing. This site is overwhelming but obviously a treasure of great information!!
Our kid is a rising Junior and has mech eng/Robotics/maybe Aeronautics as potential areas of interest.
He has good extra curriculars but GPA is not going to be the strongest. Mix of As and Bs student in general.
He is very practical. Loves being hands on with his Robotics program. Really enjoyed summer program at UCLA in their Mech Eng group.
I am trying to figure out programs at Tier 2 colleges to start discussions later this year on forming the application list.
I am really looking for colleges that provide great internships (eg full year as part of the program) and are feeder schools to actively recruiting companies.
Where do we start? I come from a Euro country where the number of colleges is one tenth we have here.
Getting industry experience is our number one criteria. Help! Thanks
Thanks for asking.
Home state: CA
Unweighted GPA: around 3.5
Budget: public would be ideal. could stretch to private tuition if it’s really worth it/bang for buck ( $40 to $50k a year tuition)
Putting Aerospace into the mix will be a challenge, because there are very few of them. Cal State Long Beach has AE, ME and EE, and he’d very likely get in.
If he’s willing to pass on AE per se, and would be OK entering aerospace with a ME degree, then I’d highly recommend Chico State. It’s more of a college town experience, but more importantly, they have a robust mechatronics and robotics program.
Check out Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, RIT and RPI. Not sure about internships specifically, but those are all strong engineering schools with more reasonable admit rates. My son did a tour at RPI and they said lots of big name tech companies recruit heavily each spring.
In California, you have the following public universities with mechanical engineering:
CSUs:
Chico [1]
Fresno
Fullerton
Humboldt [1] (new program, not yet ABET accredited; contact department on timeline for ABET accreditation)
Long Beach
Los Angeles
Maritime Academy [1]
Northridge [1]
Pomona
Sacramento [1]
San Diego
San Luis Obispo
San Francisco [1]
San Jose
UCs:
Berkeley
Davis
Irvine
Los Angeles
Merced
Riverside
San Diego
Santa Barbara
[1] CSU campus is not impacted at the campus level or for the mechanical engineering major, so it should admit applicants meeting CSU baseline requirements.
In the western region, there are some less selective state universities that offer WUE tuition (1.5 times in-state tuition), according to https://www.wiche.edu/tuition-savings/wue/wue-savings-finder/?degreetypes=Bachelor’s&majors=Mechanical%20Engineering (although the search function gives results of schools with either bachelor’s degrees or mechanical engineering majors, rather than bachelor’s degree programs in mechanical engineering, so some results may not be valid).
We are not geographically limited, however after discussions with kids/parents who have been thru this, it seems few CA kids settle well in some of the north east climates.
So in my mind, anything but tundra cold is ok.
E.g. Arizona and Texas could be on the list, especially as the kids will be back home for the summer.
Specific notes for California public universities:
California public universities do not consider SAT or ACT scores for admission, although some may use them for placement in English or math courses.
California public universities do not require recommendations or transcripts on application. Applicants enter courses and grades into the application. Verification is by final transcript if the applicant is admitted and matriculates.
California public universities recalculate high school GPA:
Based on academic (a-g subject) courses in 10th-11th grade. San Luis Obispo uses 9th-11th grade.
+1 for each honors (if designated here – not all school-designated honors courses count for UC/CSU), AP, or college course.
Three variants are calculated: unweighted (no +1 points), weighted-capped (up to 8 +1 points), fully weighted (unlimited +1 points). Most UC and CSU web sites use the weighted-capped version.
A semester college course counts as one course and grade for UC, two courses and grades for CSU.
CSUs admit by formula; some campuses are more transparent than others about their formula and prior year admission thresholds for each major (e.g. Northridge, Pomona, San Jose).
Math grade has been A, or within a mark or two of an A. Agree, engineering being super heavy with math is something I am prepping him for as best as I can.
If the student is likely to do well on the SAT, then the PSAT taken in 11th grade is the qualifying tests for National Merit Semi Finalist status. Getting there and going on to National Merit Finalist can attract large scholarships at some colleges.
However, the PSAT threshold for National Merit Semi Finalist is very high in California.
It would be great to place my kid somewhere where he is a ‘big fish in a smaller pond’. Able to excel academically and get a good college GPA that leads into internships and first grad job.
If that is preferred, then colleges where he is in the upper range of the incoming student academic stats would be preferred. These would be those which are more likely, or automatic, for admission (e.g. the non-impacted CSUs listed above and probably many of the WUE schools and those where getting a big scholarship is more likely).
Engineering majors do have significant inherent rigor, regardless of the academic strength of other students around.
You’ve received lots of great advice already, so I’ll address a couple of other points that I think were not covered.
So, no college provides internships. They may provide help (such as through their career center, job fairs, alumni networks, professors’ connections, etc.), but it’s up to each student to actually land these internships. Some schools have co-op programs, while at most others, students do internships during summer break.
Which companies are actively recruiting is dependent on each firm and the state of the economy. This is entirely out of the control of any college. However, if you meant you’re looking for schools that have strong industry ties - then yes, some schools do better than others depending on the industry and location.
