Son wants to start narrowing his choices from his current acceptances. He applied Mechanical Engineering with an interest in Aerospace (wants to explore but is not a do or die) and for sure wants a strong opportunity to minor in CS, which is where I believe his natural talents are. Important for him are the strength of program, industry recognition and opportunities and overall experience. This is our final COA after merit and aid. Max budget is $30k anything over that will have to be loans.
NJIT honors college $7k
Rutgers honors college $19k
RPI $32k
RIT $ 46k
Embry Riddle $40k
Lafayette (apply RD but let’s assume he is accepted NPC $37k) is his favorite “vibe” and definitely will be part of the conversation if accepted.
Assuming $30k parent contribution: NJIT and Rutgers no loans with money left over; RPI small loans or student work earnings; ERAU, Lafayette (if admitted) direct loans and student work earnings; RIT not affordable.
I am not sure why RIT, Embry-Riddle, or Lafayette would be worth substantial loans; that seems not a great investment to me. I would drop those straight away personally give your situation..
To me it would be down to Rutgers and NJIT (which I know less about) and maybe, maybe RPI only if your son really wants that vibe of an (almost) pure engineering school and wants the option of a pure aero major… it is also more well known than NJIT nationally. I think its academic reputation exceeds Embry-Riddle by a lot, personally. Those costs are a BIG difference over 4 years, and prices go up each year..
But in general, to me, I would lean to Rutgers honors… My bias is that state flagships are well known, reputable, even if they switch industries, etc., down the road, which is sometimes under-appreciated, or if you move cross-country or something. But that price of NJIT is AMAZING and really for mech-e if it is abet-accredited it probably doesn’t matter if rutgers or NJIT, as long as they can participate in some Baja or build teams/internships and get through the classes.
FWIW I have one college (RIT) as an engineering major and one in HS applying to engineering programs…
Any of those schools listed are going to be great options. (not counting the cost)
With the information you gave- I would recommend NJIT or Rutgers. But of course, there can be lots more that goes into the decision than just the $$ aspect- and that is family specific. (1 family taking out $15-20k loans per year may be affected way less to none at all verses another family that if they tried this could impact the quality of their financial future)
And something else to think about – many engineering students take an extra semester or two to complete the 4 year degree. (these are tough programs) Check each schools 4 year graduation rates to get a feel for what to expect. (or even reach out to the school and ask for the specific program)
That with the information that your son could possibly ‘explore’ a bit and even want to minor- I would just make sure your financial plans include a tentative extra semester just to be safe.
Even with loans- is that doable?
My D26 has committed to RIT- so no shade to RIT and it was obviously our favorite pick. But if we were in the same situation that the original post indicates- she would need really strong reasons and arguments for us to be willing to pay that price diference.
Maybe for your situation, Lafayette would be worth it. But I would deep dive into that now so when they get that acceptance, you have made the financial decision based on facts and situation- not on emotions.
I’d also suggest doing a deep dive on the depth of course offerings for both his intended major and minor if he is accepted at Lafayette. I think he will find that in comparison to some of the other schools on this list they will fall short.
The student’s academic credentials are likely much more predictive of semesters to graduation than the overall graduation rate of the school. This is assuming no financial difficulties – students who have to work a lot to afford school may have to take lower course loads over more semesters (another reason to be cautious of schools that are financial stretches).
Rutgers. You could argue RPI and NJIT. All are fine because all are ABET accredited. And all three are at or close to budget.
Rutgers will have Big 10 sports and Honors is well thought of. RPI will be more focused STEM and if Lafayette is the favorite, RPI and NJIT won’t be as unfocused. The others simply cost too much. Since you are willing to go to ERAU, you could look at UAH which could be low 20s stat dependent. But RPI could be a better fit but UAH is SURROUNDED by aero companies as Huntsville is Rocket City.
Rutgers is well under $30k and is a fine school. For the win….
Lafayette is a small LAC . You could pull it off with loans and work but why when Rutgers gives you cushion of 10k an year and a ‘better’ engineering name - not that it’s needed. And college often costs more than they say.
I’m assuming the Rutgers and NJIT costs include living on campus. I wouldn’t live at home.
Congrats but I’d lean Rutgers, especially if the student has Honors and The Honors curriculum appeals to them.
Students at just about any ABET accredited program are going to be equally competitive when they graduate if they have done well in school and had internships along the way. If you also had MIT or Caltech in the mix that would be a different story, but unlike some other majors where college brand can be important the landscape of engineering programs as viewed by employers is relatively level.
What may make more of a difference for where he ends up is regional recruiting. It’s easier to find internships or post-college jobs at companies that are within a few hours drive since they’re more likely to send reps to career fairs and on-campus interviews. And in a feedback loop they’re more likely to already employ engineers from area colleges who in turn may give a helping hand to new alums. This isn’t an absolute, though; with Zoom you can talk to HR college recruiters or hiring managers anywhere to get the ball rolling.
I have to admit I’m a bit skeptical about the Honors College aspect. I don’t think you’re ever going to find an engineering student that says “Gee, I don’t think they’re really challenging me here. If only there were more rigor.” So your son really needs to dig in and find out not just about the benefits but if there are additional requirements to be part of the Honors program that make engineering even harder than it is already.
There is one engineering option I will 100% endorse and that is the five year BS/MS program. If offered, some undergrad classes will dual-count towards the MS. Many find it worth getting a MS not just for the higher starting salary but for the technical depth an extra year focusing just on the slice of engineering they want to do can bring. Of course this implies the kid has done co-op or internship programs to get real world experience and find out what they like (and don’t).
I agree with @mikemac on Honors. I’m not skeptical as they anre and some have said they’ve gotten an internship from them. My kids applied for both intern and full time jobs to 100+ places with success.
I think my son mentioned there wasn’t a single app where you can show Honors. My daughter the same.
My engineer son applied to some but not all Honors Colleges as many had humanities type stuff he wanted nothing to do with. He did his where he attended for the early class registration and getting his own dorm room but like many dropped out of Honors last semester, barely fulfilling requirements. My daughter, on the other hand, and my son’s college gf, ate up Honors. They loved everything about it. So for them, the experience was worth it.
So do it for you, not for jobs. Of course, if you get an interview, then it’s pertinent because it’s on your resume. But for getting the interview, unlikely.
Best of luck. The only bad choices here are the ones with debt and for that reason. I suppose a small amount is ok but what could you do with that $40k from Rutgers in your pocket or $80k from NJIT?
I’d encourage the OP to do a deep dive in the honors college acceptances. They are not all the same. My D’s HC experience was that it wasn’t about creating more rigor but more opportunities for interdisciplinary courses and discord, closer relationship with professors, built in leadership development, special advising, guaranteed research, more experiential learning, special study abroad opportunities etc…Those relationships and experiences did lead to internships and some companies would only talk to freshman honors engineers.
It’s certainly not a must have but our D’s experience at another school was that it was a big value add.
Thank you for the honors perspectives. I don’t think my son is putting value on any perceived advantages after graduation or job placement. He would be most interested at Rutgers in making a huge school smaller, with more personalized attention and faculty mentorship or research opportunities. If this is indeed seen in practice and not just in paper. At NJIT he definitely likes the dorm perks for the first 2 years, the assigned advisor and of course the financial merit that is given because of the honors placement. But maybe these are a given at a LaC like LaFayette? (Except for the $$ of course).
My daughter didn’t have the option of taking an extra semester or two to finish, at least at the school she attended. We couldn’t have afforded it as her scholarships covered only 8 semesters and an extra semester would have cost more than her entire 4 years there cost. She could have taken some credits (summers) at a state school or even at a community college for the social science requirements or just extra credits needed for graduation (she needed 131 credits but had finished all required engineering courses before her last semester except the senior showcase).
It can be done to graduate in 8 semesters. it may be more fun to do it in more.
My nephew and his (now) wife did the 5 year BS/MS degree. Their school suggested to not graduate after 4 years as then the 5th year is at undergrad rates and student loans may still be available at undergrad rates. Neither had a cost restriction but just wanted to do the 5th year. Both did finish all BS requirements in 4 years, went through graduation exercises, but just didn’t apply for the diploma.
It can be done.
Don’t be surprised if ERAU offers more money during March (if he’d like it to still be in the running).
Just to note that the smaller class size is a potentially big benefit of Rutgers Honors College. For example, all engineers are required to take general chemistry. There’s a special section for general chemistry for engineers that’s in a room that seats 500 students. There’s a special section for Honors College students that seats 90. In many of the large intro STEM classes, there can be a big benefit of smaller class sizes.
I’ve also heard a lot about the advising and research opportunities, and students I’ve spoken to have talked about getting special emails and notices of opportunities that essentially come to the Honors College first.
While the HC doesn’t have the benefits of honors colleges at other universities (the big lacking benefit is early course registration), it does seem to offer some pretty good benefits to make Rutgers feel a little smaller.
One other thing about Rutgers is that all engineers start in a first year engineering program. They don’t declare until the end of freshman year. That can be useful if your son isn’t sure yet about mechanical versus aerospace (versus even something else entirely!)
Lastly on Rutgers, the one negative of Rutgers is that the CS department has historically been heavily subscribed. I’ve seen lots of reports of students needing to get special access from the department to enroll in classes they needed to graduate or resorting to automatic course “snipers” that look for when someone drops a class so they can try to quickly get the spot. This was particularly a problem for CS majors. I’m not sure how that might have impacted students doing a minor.
For RPI, I’ll note that the one very big thing going for them is what seems like a really active alumni network when it comes to recruiting. There are companies that are particularly heavy recruiters of RPI grads specifically because they’ve developed a robust pipeline and the alumni are happy to hire more RPI grads. I’m sure Rutgers must have a similar set of companies, but it doesn’t seem to be the hardcore loyalty that I’ve seen from RPI.
The other positive for RPI has been undergraduate access to research. Because the ‘tute is undergrad focused (about 6000 undergrads and 1000 grad student), undergrads get lots of research opportunities.
Many schools will tell you they don’t have Honors because it’s all Honors. Lafayette is a great school - no doubt - very different than others you applied to.
CS was always the major in mind but pivoted to engineering because of the AI impact and all the news about CS major having a had time getting internships and jobs. Aerospace is a recent interest and he definitely wants to explore it. He has the skills to make engineering work but I will feel better if he has a robust CS department to default to.
But I would deep dive into that now so when they get that acceptance, you have made the financial decision based on facts and situation- not on emotions.