Great - keep the updates/differing of opinions coming so OP can hone - or if I missed any that should be added, please add for OP.
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UA does serve as a great cost efficient option and some kids thrive there. However, I just did a quick LinkedIn search and noted that alum from Purdue and Georgia Tech seemed to have more senior and prestigious roles.
Hardly an extensive review and likely a flawed methodology (because I didnât really dig into it) but in my opinion the prestige and alumni network of schools like GT and Purdue seems to result in better outcomes.
UA is more of a âcost safetyâ in my opinion. Given you donât have financial limitations and the dream school is Stanford I donât see UA as a great fit.
Rose-Hulman would be a good âlikelyâ for her.
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Except for the âwarm climateâ part ; )
RHIT is a great school - but in addition to the warm climate, she doesnât want small. Itâs small in population and very small in physical campus size.
If the student likes the Bay Area, then I suppose an Oregon State can be good.
All of this, of course, is safety based - so the OP doesnât have to get too crazy, but find a few, they like - as a just in case.
And if the student loves California, but maybe not one of the regional publics, thatâs where an Arizona type school can come in as the ultimate safety.
Or at least can be visited to seeâŠbecause all the Arizona publics, even NAU (although itâll have some cold spots at Winter), all are near CA, varied in their environments, and are very good schools (with very easy admissiosns.).
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You are getting some great advice on building a list. I would also consider âsoftâ criteria like housing and foodâŠ
We often hear about kids suffering from periodic and persistent low blood sugar and prioritizing housing like private toilets. Thankfully my kids were focused on academics but different kids have different priorities so something to consider.
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True, possibly a better fit than some of the other random schools that were just thrown on a long laundry list.
The laundry list was simply based on - again, OP asking for safeties, in warm weather that were mid-large size.
They are in the 10th grade - and just want ideas.
It wasnât targeted on anything other than that - and OP has stated a desire for CA but as noted, I threw in sort of, subjectively, everywhere warm weather.
It wasnât targeted to âapply hereâ - they already have a healthy high level list so this was just - hereâs a lot to look at and maybe one or two might end up your safety.
Thatâs all it was.
Thanks
Yes, the OP can pull up the list of ABET certified programs and find a laundry list of schools to look at. I strongly agree with @blossom that it may be a bit early to start worrying or thinking about this. It is quite likely that the studentâs priorities will change, their interests may change, and we do not want to see more young adults getting burned out with stress, depression, and anxiety. itâs likely more helpful to provide a narrower list of appropriate schools. Itâs unlikely that a very strong student from a boarding school in the northeast is going to be interested in several of the schools on that list.
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So we did go look at college but as stated for size more or less. We had lunch on campus and just walked around. To get a feel /vibe. I would just go easy with no expectations as stated till Junior year. We have been in listening open houses and some kids were in 9th grade. Like really??!!
Anyway, you have the luxury of time. So try to have some fun and keep it low pressure /expectation. But once we decided my wife took my daughter through out the East Coast (were are Midwest) and they had a lot of fun. But at some point that fun wore off. It can get monotonous. And does. Take notes since after while you wonât remember which college has the cool sponsored Chem lab (pro hint : They all do 
).
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So, I hear the request for mid-sized schools or larger in a warm climate. But as @tsbna44 has shown, that leaves a ton of schools available as potential safeties.
As others have indicated, itâs still early and your daughter will likely evolve a great deal over the next two years (so many talk about how much their kids evolve from fall of senior year to spring of senior year!). But some questions to think about as the search progresses are:
- How does your D feel about high enthusiasm for intercollegiate sports?
- How does she feel about Greek life?
- How would she describe the people she thinks would make up âher tribe?â
- How does she feel about campuses that are urban, suburban, small town, or rural?
- Are there any government policies or political leanings that she cares about that might influence her decision?
- Are there any particular activities or other pursuits that she would like to participate in while in college?
- Does she want to be a certain distance from an airport? Or only be near locations that have a direct flight to Logan? Or�
As your family does any traveling (vacation, visiting families, actual college trips) have your D take the lead in terms of guiding you through the airport, or navigating in the car, or hailing a taxi/Uber, etc. See how she feels when sheâs flying across the country and see if thatâs really how far away she wants to be from home.
You already seem to be thinking about this, but I would think carefully about your Dâs psychological makeup and how that should relate to the balance of schools on the eventual application list. For some people, receiving a rejection is just adding fuel to their fire to prove how awesome they are. For those people, having a long list of schools with a low probability of admission is fine. My sense is that most people probably do best if they get more positive feedback than negative feedback (i.e., aim to have more acceptances than rejections). Others can be really intent on any negative feedback and focus on it despite receiving 90% positive feedback. For someone like that, a list composed entirely of likely or extremely likely schools might be better. Obviously this is very individual dependent, but I would think about what is likely to work best for your D.
Iâve done some very rough chancing for the schools you mentioned earlier as well as some other schools that have been mentioned, just for context. As you learn more about your Dâs preferences, we can help suggest more likely and extremely likely schools, but I only added schools that seemed to have a very similar feel to the ones you already listed.
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
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Cal State: Chico if she wants a sure thing in California
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Too many to list
Likely (60-79%)
Toss-Up (40-59%)
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Loyola Marymount
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Santa Clara
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Southern Methodist
Lower Probability (20-39%)
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San Diego State?
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U. of Miami
Low Probability (less than 20%)
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Stanford
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Rice
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UC Berkeley
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UCLA
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Vanderbilt
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Cal Poly â San Luis Obispo
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Georgia Tech
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Would you say UC Davis would be in the Likely (60-79%) category, with a strong student, and overall 60% OOS admit rate? Or would you put it in Toss-up because the student is interested in an engineering major?
Itâs often compared to Cal Poly SLO (and a lot of students who like one, also like the other).
This
Her time is now is better spent seeing if she likes big, medium, small, urban vs rural, sports or no sports, Greek or no Greek, requirements outside the rigorous engineering major requirements, public vs private, etc. You live in an area (when she is not at school) where you could do some informal campus walkabouts (no need for formal tour/info session unless you really want to), pick up a school paper, talk to students, etc. that should help her get a feel for some preferences. Good luck.
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And the SF side of the bay has so many microclimates you can literally be in fog on one street and sunshine on the next. My older DIL grew up in the E bay (and they live there again with lemon, orange and tangerine trees in their yard, but the pomegranate tree was dying). She went to college on the E coast and laughed that she had to learn that just because it was sunny out did not mean it necessarily was warm out!
For the OP, warmer climate might just mean that it is only cold/potentially snowy 3 mos out of the year instead of 5.
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And Flagstaff and Oklahoma
Yep.
Most of the chancing regarding the California publics I leave to experts like @Gumbymom and @ucbalumnus. Pretty much the only ones I feel comfortable chancing are Cal and UCLA (always low probability) and non-impacted Cal States (extremely likely).
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Estimated admit rate for Cal Poly SLO and UC Davis Civil Engineering is around 30% so I would put in the High Target/Low Reach category. What the admit rate does not show is how competitive the applicant pool is for each school and major.
If the college budget is not a concern, then both are worth considering but I would be hesitant to pay full fees especially as an OOS applicant for either school. For the UCâs the current price tag is $74K/year. SLO is slightly more reasonable at $54K/year.
OOS students will get little to no financial aid from the UCâs and CSUâs and they are all test blind.
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This is an amazingly helpful list @tsbna44!! Thank you!!
But I have to ask: is there a reason you didnât include any colleges from North Carolina or Virginia? Iâm asking selfishly because my son is looking for safety engineering schools in warmer climates, and has loved both of his views of NC State and Virginia Tech, and I would be oh so happy to find something comparable. And I think they might be worthwhile for OP to investigate, too.
(FWIW, @jessvig, my engineering-minded kid also liked Auburn and University of Alabama at Huntsville as well, but wasnât a fan of UT Knoxville or Clemson, for whatever reason his brain came up with.)
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Itâs a long time ago - maybe the weather component - I didnât go North enough likely based on weather - which warm is subjective in regards to how North. Looks like I pulled the ABET list for civil is all listed warm states. And I removed non safeties.
Not sure thereâs a like school to NC State in either of these two - the state flagship (one of) and a campus that is 1 mile away (a 20 minute walk or short bus ride). And in the capital.
Here are all the civil schools accredited by ABET in those two statesâŠall schools, none eliminated.
Safer than NC State - UNCC, NC A&T, GMU, ODU. VMI is an entire different world so your student shouldnât / wouldnât consider. Of these, GMU and UNCC would be most substitutional with NC A&T an HBCU. Old Dominion is even more regional but could be looked at too if Virginia is the desire.
To me, the most like school to Va Tech is Penn State - many similarities and an easier admit. Of course, less warm. UGA share some characteristics but Penn State is the most equal (in my mind) when I think of two schools. Auburn less so - but if they like Auburn check out MIssissippi State (better merit), which has a fine engineering program. Bama has beautiful facilities and great merit but you didnât mention it. But if you like UAH as you note - check out UT Chattanooga - less emphasis on engineering as an overall of the school but accredited, in a similar size town with more actionâŠand Tennessee Tech - smaller town but like size school as well.
Good luck.
| University of North Carolina at Charlotte | Charlotte | North Carolina |
|---|---|---|
| Duke University | Durham | North Carolina |
| North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University | Greensboro | North Carolina |
| North Carolina State University at Raleigh | Raleigh | North Carolina |
| Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | Blacksburg | Virginia |
| University of Virginia | Charlottesville | Virginia |
| George Mason University | Fairfax | Virginia |
| Virginia Military Institute | Lexington | Virginia |
| Old Dominion University | Norfolk | Virginia |
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