Daughter '26 is interested in engineering (I posted once before about this and you all gave some great responses, thank you!)
She is working on building her college list so we can start planning some visits.
We did visit a couple schools in driving distance of our home during her spring break just to get a flavor for different schools! Cornell (dad went there), UMass Amherst, and BU.
She does not want anything in Worcester, MA (we basically live there, so it’s a turn off to her from a ‘new experience’ perspective) or Amherst/Northampton, MA (she attends a boarding school out that way now, so again she feels like she’s been there/done that). She wants a warmer climate and is very focused on CA, but willing to consider other places with mild winters. So those are our parameters.
Her list right now has too many “reaches” and “dream schools” for our comfort. She recognizes that and wants to add some more targets/safeties but we are struggling to identify them. She also thinks she should cut her reaches down to just 2 or 3 and just hasn’t yet. She is only a sophomore so we have time.
List thus far:
Stanford (reachy reachy …dream …like wining the lottery)
Rice (same)
UC Berkeley (again…reachy)
UCLA (yeah, still reachy)
Vanderbilt …
Targets:
CalPoly SLO (I somehow stumbled upon this school in google searches and it looks great)
Santa Clara
Safety:??
She has an unweighted 4.0 now, will be doing full IB diploma, hasn’t taken SAT yet but generally tests well (she did the PSAT as a sophomore without any prep and got a 1300. Planning to have her do a prep course this summer.)
Decent ECs (president of class, community service club, equestrian team, chorus)
If anyone has ideas for additional schools we should add to our list, please reply! Appreciate it!
Other CA colleges (in warmer Southern California) to consider with strong engineering - SDSU, University of San Diego and LMU. All of the UCs, CSUs and USD are test blind.
In most cases, the where won’t matter - so the kid going to Vandy or Purdue or Bama or Florida or Auburn or Kentucky or Arizona - are going to end up in a similar place job wise and compensation wise.
There are exceptions of course but in general terms, I think this is true (for 95% of schools). My son’s program he’s in has Michigan, Purdue, Washington, Case Western grads but also Alabama (him), W Michigan, Akron, Utah and others. Next year’s class has a CP SLO (this year’s might too) and Ga Tech - and when my son interned at a different company, there were two Ga Tech kids. He went back a second year - they weren’t invited back. So the “dream” school is great…but not necessary per se.
But warm weather - depending on the type of school (large flagship or midsize, etc.) she wants - will open up options and then the engineering type.
Budget matters too - because if you’re a full pay family - you could spend $20K a year or you can spend $90K+ a year. What do you want to spend or what are you willing to spend?
But there will be TONS of safeties for your daughter - and she may end up liking one better and choosing it over a target reach - and she’d be fine if she did (and you could have thousands more in the bank).
Tell us more - so we can find the “right” school - i.e. size preference, major and budget.
Cost wise, we can swing pretty much anything relatively comfortably.
For size, she would like to be at a mid to larger school. She doesn’t want a small school.
Civil engineering is her intended major.
Thanks
It looks like there are 12 different CSUs with Civil. (Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an equivalent table for the UCs.)
Also, there should be an asterisk on “more likely” … different campuses have different acceptance levels, and it really varies by school and major. Just wanted to note a resource that might help you see some options to look into.
Warm and Civil Engineering, the first school that [also] pops to my mind is Georgia Tech. Texas, TAMU, and Virginia Tech also seem obvious to me. Arizona State, Arizona, and NC State.
The big California engineering schools are fine too, but such hard admits, not least OOS.
Civil is one area of engineering where you definitely want an ABET program. So if Civil is her interest (or even MIGHT be her interest), a good place to start might be https://www.abet.org and make a list of schools in the geographic areas she’s interested in that have ABET accredited Civil Engineering.
Searching on the ABET site, I see 22 schools in CA that have Civil, so if she’s particularly interested in schools in CA, it might be manageable to start by going down that list and learning more about any schools you don’t already have on her list. And you can do the same search for any other state she’s interested in.
UCs listed on ABET with this major are: UCB, UCD, UCI, UCLA
UCSB does not have ABET accredited civil engineering. Nor does UCSD.
Among the UCs, I would suggest looking closer at UC Davis (if cost really is not an issue), because their Civil program appears to be rated highly, and the OOS admission rate for Davis is quite favorable.
I’m going to second some of the he suggestions made already. Georgia Tech should absolutely be on the list. Other reaches not yet mentioned include Duke and UVA. For matches maybe Clemson. Va Tech, NC State. Safeties could include Auburn and Alabama.
So I made this list - obviously subjective - but it’s mid size or larger that I would consider safe for admissions and in warmer climates. btw - I left CA on here but I don’t personally consider the Bay Area (or Chico on this list) as warmer. A couple on here might be target vs. safe but for the most part - a Clemson or U of Miami are probably not safeties although a lot will depend on the test.
I put all - vs. just CA but anyone looking for warm in CA should look in my opinion at Arizona schools, even New Mexico and potentially the Nevada schools. I don’t have the UCLAs, UCBs, etc. because you already have them and you asked for safeties.
So a long list - but since she’s in 10th grade you have the opportunity to sort of peruse a few.
The University of Alabama in Huntsville
Huntsville
Alabama
University of South Alabama
Mobile
Alabama
The University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa
Alabama
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff
Arizona
Arizona State University
Tempe
Arizona
The University of Arizona
Tucson
Arizona
California State University, Chico
Chico
California
California State University, Fresno
Fresno
California
California State University, Fullerton
Fullerton
California
California State University, Long Beach
Long Beach
California
California State University, Los Angeles
Los Angeles
California
Loyola Marymount University
Los Angeles
California
California State University, Northridge
Northridge
California
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Pomona
California
California Baptist University
Riverside
California
California State University, Sacramento
Sacramento
California
San Diego State University
San Diego
California
San Francisco State University
San Francisco
California
San Jose State University
San Jose
California
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
