First time post: Rising Junior, Mech Eng/Robotics interests [CA resident, 3.5 GPA, <$40-50k]

Applying to College
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Cal Maritime has a lot of practical experience built in, between training cruises and internships - Mechanical Engineering Career Opportunities - CSUM and strong pathways to employment - they don’t have a robotics focus, though. Would he be open to the maritime focus, travel, training cruises, etc?

Cincinnati was mentioned already - this is where the co-op model was invented, and it has a city campus like your son wants. They have both MechE and Aero, and also a Robotics & Automation minor and a Robotics & Intelligent Autonomous Systems masters program. Cooperative Education (Co-op) Program | University of Cincinnati He would get Cincinnati’s National Outreach merit award if his GPA clears the 3.5UW or 3.85W threshold, which would bring the cost within budget.

Since you mentioned Europe… another way to add internship time, if it would be of interest, is to do one of the International Engineering Programs that includes an overseas internship as part of a dual-degree engineering and foreign language program. Examples include the programs at U of Tulsa and U of Rhode Island. I’m not sure he’d get enough merit to get either of these to budget, especially with the extra year… but URI might work. The U of Arkansas program would be in budget, but it’s offered only in German - worth a look if that’s of interest, though! International Engineering Program | College of Engineering | University of Arkansas

SD Mines is very hands-on and heavy on practical experience, internships, and co-op. There’s lots of robotics activity, and an aero major in the MechE department. It would be a safety, and a very affordable one at that. (Under 26K/year all-in, with WUE reciprocity - potentially even less with merit.) It’s definitely not urban though.

Oregon has MECOP which is a 5-year co-op program like the coop-centric schools have, but entry is competitive during sophomore year. Oregon State, Portland State, and Oregon Tech (public) and U of Portland (private) all participate. Mechanical Engineering (ME) The three publics all participate in WUE; he’d get the WUE discount at PSU and Oregon Tech, but not at OSU, as they only give it to the top 30% of OOS admits.

U of New Mexico - an urban flagship with WUE reciprocity - has an optional co-op program also.

Another excellent, hands-on engineering program with co-op, in a city, is U of Louisville (already mentioned by AustenNut but worth highlighting). Co-operative Education - J.B. Speed School of Engineering - University of Louisville It’s an urban (non-tundra, lol) public U, not too huge (16K undergrads, 2000 in engineering); he’d be eligible for their Regional Scholars merit scholarship, so it should be in-budget.
Mechanical Engineering (BS) < University of Louisville
Engineering has its own housing: ​Housing & Dining - J.B. Speed School of Engineering - University of Louisville

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[quote=“aquapt, post:41, topic:3672042”]
It’s definitely not urban though.
[/quote].

Agreed but I visited when we were in Rapid City. Close to downtown and big infrastructure in the area. Lots of food choices as a tourist city. 80k in the city. Not Denver. But not Terre Haute either.

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Speed patterned itself after Cal Poly, even coopting the slogan, Learn by Doing for a period of time.

Maritime is being absorbed into Cal Poly.

It’s hard to say whether or not a 3.5 GPA would hit that mark. Oregon State doesn’t have the OOS cachet that say Michigan, Cal and Virginia have. I wouldn’t write it off. As mentioned MECOP is a great program. I’ve known quite a few who have participated.

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From what I’ve read, Maritime will continue to operate on its Vallejo campus, but additional SLO programs may begin using the facilities as well, so that they’ll be better utilized. Hopefully the merger, assuming it goes forward, will be a big positive for CSUM.

I wanted to note the talking point about Louisville being modeled after SLO, but I didn’t have a source and wasn’t 100% sure I was remembering correctly. It seems pretty good on the co-op front in addition to the “learn by doing” approach, and the Engineering LLC seems like a plus as well.

You piqued my curiosity about whether WUE at Oregon State might be possible, so I went to the Net Price Calculator to see whether it projects merit based on GPA. At a 3.5UW, it projects an $8K Provost Scholarship, and provides this additional info: WUE Scholarships are competitive and awarded based on a holistic review of your application for admission. Only about 10% of students from a WUE state will be offered the WUE Scholarship, but many more will receive Provost Scholarships to reward them for their academic success and offset the cost of non-resident tuition. I’m sure I read that it was 30% before; maybe they have tightened it up more. :frowning: At 8K merit, OSU would be at around $48K/year.

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Ooh, they’re tightening up, probably getting back to pre-COVID standards where OSU didn’t offer WUE at all.

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I don’t think we have UC and CSU GPAs? These would be helpful for OP to run/know (now and at end of junior year)

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Also…what math classes will OP’s S have junior and senior years?

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Did you mean to say “no way were they going to get need-based aid”? You said “merit aid”.

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Big oops. Yes, I did. It’s too late for me to edit that post, but thanks for catching that!

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I corrected it. :smiley:

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Thanks for the calculator!

Unweighted GPA: 3.5
Weighted GPA: 3.8

Going into Junior year, I don’t see these numbers changing much.

Math this/Junior year is precalc.
Math senior year will be AP Calc I believe.

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This post has so much useful information I don’t know where to start, but just say thank you!

I have not heard of any of these colleges or programs!

I will spend some time researching everything you’ve posted here. Much appreciated! :+1:

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