Help refine our list of state schools w/ strong engineering programs (non California, non red-state) [3.7 GPA, 1550 SAT]

College Search & Lists
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We are trying to solidify S25’s college list. He is curious about engineering but doesn’t have a ton of engineering experience, nor has he homed in on a particular sub-species.

Brief stats: ~3.7 UW GPA, 1550 SATs (780/770), 10 APs (including Bio, Physics I and C, BC Calc), basic extracurriculars (one niche varsity sport for four years, piano, a couple of other side things including summer homestay in honors French language program). Shy, quirky kid who is academically well-rounded.

I’m looking at his current list (too long) and realizing that w/r/t the state schools in particular, there’s not been a ton of method to our madness. While I think he might ultimately be best served by a smaller school, and a school where he doesn’t immediately need to know whether he’s EE or MechE or something else, I want to be sure that we aren’t being totally irrational or overlooking some place obvious.

We haven’t visited any of these places and likely wouldn’t get to before decisions happen.

On the current list:

  • U Washington (I think this is a huge long shot. He wants to apply because Seattle, and I think he has friends applying there.)
  • U. Wisconsin (suggested by his high school counselor. Dad is originally from Wisconsin. Madison seems like nice town. shrug)
  • Pitt (grandparents went there for graduate work; Pittsburgh is interesting city; C/C favorite and probably likely admit. But…are they known for engineering? are they better than, say, Penn State or Maryland or Minnesota or U Mass Amherst?)
  • CU Boulder (my dad went there; it’s in a great location–fun town, outdoorsy, blue-ish state; solid engineering reputation and therefore not a safety but seems like a strong possibility)
  • Oregon State (on west coast, likely admit, cool college town…)
  • Virginia Tech (a bunch of cousins went there. No idea how strong his chances would be. Naviance makes it look like a match but hard to say.)

Not on the list:
• Rose-Hulman, Purdue, Utah, Arizona, any place south of Virginia (son doesn’t want to live in solid red state, although he is making an exception for Ohio because he loved Oberlin/Kenyon/Denison. shrug)

Costs are not a concern.

This is also not the complete list. He’s also going to apply to

  • some liberal arts colleges, including a few that don’t have engineering programs (he’d do physics there and then do engineering in grad school),
  • a couple of private research universities (e.g. Rochester, maybe CWR, maybe Brandeis)
  • WPI (because he loved the Frontiers program and it seems like a pretty likely admit)

For purposes of this thread, I’d love to hear if any of the state schools on our list feel like major outliers, if there are gems we should be looking at instead (ideally not in solid red states aside from Ohio, which he is somehow okay with.) Should we be considering someplace like U Mass Amherst, Maryland, or Minnesota instead of Pitt or Virginia Tech or Wisconsin?

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Did I miss University of Delaware? It may be further south than you were considering, but it is well worth considering. The demographics should be fine there!

I happen to like Pitt. If it’s a likely acceptance, it is then more of one than UMD CP might be unless your student applies EA.

Are you an instate resident for any of these public universities? Honestly, for engineering, as long as the program is ABET accredited, it’s fine. Being “ known for engineering “ isn’t as important as ABET accreditation. Plus if you are looking for a public university that is known for engineering, Purdue absolutely should be on the list…you know…boilermakers!

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University of Minnesota was the one that seemed missing to me. Great city and tons of companies in the area for internships and jobs. And University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is the other one that I think is well known for engineering that could be interesting.

As for Pitt, I think the city of Pittsburgh makes it interesting again for the proximity to companies for interships and jobs.

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We’re in-state for California, which is its own whole separate affair.

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I almost forgot to rep our state school - Rutgers! Might be another one worth considering with a solid engineering school, Big10 sports and a direct flight from many places in California.

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Any CA publics on the application list?

What about University of New Mexico?

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Not a public…but would he consider Marquette?

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Re: CA publics, At the moment he’s planning to apply to a handful. They are all likely to be long shots. He doesn’t particularly want to live in Riverside or Merced or Pomona. San Jose feels too close to home. Any of those would be a much better deal financially than most other schools in the country (if we were being ruthlessly practical) but we’re willing to pay more for an interesting city or a beautiful outdoorsy setting, an unusually innovative curriculum, and reputation with PhD programs.

I think I’m wrestling here with the question of where it’s worth potentially paying a bit more OOS tuition for – and my rough list (in no particular order) is national reputation/recruiting opportunities, unusually innovative curriculum (e.g. more project-based like WPI or CPSLO), in a great city and/or amazing college town; and unusually cohesive, positive campus culture (e.g. majority of students live on-campus); and/or easy to access from California Bay Area (ideally multiple of these). A lot of this is a bit of a sniff test. There are the head-to-head comparisons – so, for example, OSU is a likely admit and son is positively predisposed to it. In the same admissions bracket are there obvious better choices? WPI is going to be another head-to-head, I’d imagine (although I don’t want to count that chicken before it hatches.)

I don’t know much about New Mexico or Delaware and am curious to hear about what makes those schools stand out in your mind. Tell me more!

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Unfortunately, uDub doesn’t consider SAT. But I don’t think it is a long shot for your son. S24 got accepted DTC Engineering OOS with UW 4.0 W 4.21, with 2 AP and 2 Honors. And they offered him $4.5 K merit/year. I think uDub can be a target for your Son. But be aware of their ETAM process to apply for specific Engineering major in second year. Good Luck.

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Also, have you considered Ohio State, since your son is OK with Ohio? S24 got accepted to pre-Aerospace ENG with $14.5K merit/year there with 1440 SAT. It turned out cheaper than Oregon State with WUE. About same cost as UC in state.

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They both have fine engineering programs…AND they fly under the radar screen. In addition, I believe it’s likely your student would garner some great merit aid at both, which would be a bonus.

@WayOutWestMom can discuss the strengths of University of New Mexico better than I can.

We know a number of happy Delaware grads in engineering who are very happy with their work outcomes as well.

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Since your son is ok with Colorado, have you considered the Colorado School of Mines? It’s a smaller public. My oldest son’s girlfriend is a recent grad and loved it there. Your son would most likely get some merit scholarship as well.

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UIUC is very strong in all disciplines of engineering and is in a blue state.

ETA: They also have an Engineering Undeclared major which might work well for a kid who wants to explore a bit.

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We looked into it and what I heard was that the culture was pretty intense. (I mean, all engineering programs are going to be intense but this one seemed a notch up.) Maybe we should give it another look? From a size perspective it seems more manageable (although I’ve heard they still have a lot of housing issues and students are commuting from outside Golden, which I wasn’t wild about.)

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Not a great idea. A MS in engineering is not like a MA in liberal arts subjects where you take a few classes and you’re up to speed. For a MS in engineering it would take 1-2 years of study if accepted as a MS student before he’d be ready to begin the MS courses.

For EE he’d be missing analog circuits courses, signals & systems, control systems, electromagnetics, etc. which aren’t going to be offered at a liberal arts college with a physics program.

Look at any sample engineering curriculum such as https://ece.osu.edu/sites/default/files/2022-05/Bingo-Sheet-ECE-EES-2022-2023.pdf and I doubt any of the engineering courses are offered as schools without a EE program.

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Useful insight – thank you. My husband majored in physics at Caltech and had opined that there was a fairly porous/fluid border between engineering and physics…but critically, Caltech has a full suite of engineering courses and he took a bunch of them – so he got a strong foundational engineering education that enabled him to function professionally as an engineer (albeit not with any kind of certification). He hasn’t been super involved in the whole search-and-selection process and I…don’t know enough about technical fields to know what I don’t know. Thanks.

Also, ugh. This probably takes Kenyon/Oberlin/St. Olaf/Macalester/Whitman/Occidental off the table (unless he wants to do the improbable 3+2 plan, which seems incredibly impractical.)

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Will a physics major with grad work in engineering make him competitive for engineering jobs? I think he will miss out on ABET accreditation. This is something I have been wondering about for other reasons, so would love to learn more if you know!

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Is he not considering any of the Cal States? I’d definitely have him apply to at least the three polytechnics – SLO, Pomona and Humboldt – as well as maybe a handful of the others? No essays or LORs, as I recall – so an easy app and he/you may be glad of a low cost option come next May.

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I may be oversampling on the people I know. Husband has degrees in physics (part of PhD program and undergrad); friend has degrees in physics/math (and PhD in applied physics). Both have only ever worked in Silicon Valley as engineers (medical devices, wireless networking, chip design, etc.) And they tend to hire people with backgrounds like theirs (not exclusively!)

He’s applying to CalPoly SLO but probably not Humboldt or Pomona (really doesn’t want to live in either place although I think Arcata is pretty cool).

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I think CS and computer engineering jobs don’t tend to require ABET but other fields do.

Others can probably chime in with better info.