Check the websites. I did a quick look and JHU for example gives credit for 6 or 7 on HL math (it’s possible the people you heard this from were trying to get credit for SL courses? The few schools I looked at all take HL only)
As with APs, each college is likely to have its own rules about what it accepts, what score you need and what you can use it for, so check on a case by case basis. Of course, also do what you’re comfortable with, and if that is taking it again, that’s fine.
Your maximum budget is 40k + any savings from your part time job + 5.5k loan. That’s it.
An issue with your plan is that you can’t just “take loans”.
As an 18 year old, you can “only” borrow 5.5k, anything else would have to be borrowed by your parents. In addition, be aware that the Administration just passed a law establishing a maximum lifetime cap on college loans at 200k, meaning anything you take now is deducted from what you’d need for your Master’s degree, therefore you need to save as much for grad school as you possibly can since colleges offer scholarships whereas most Masters don’t.
At Penn State, are you applying as a Millenium Scholar? It’s the only way the school will be affordable, even if you increase your budget to 40k.
You can’t put all your eggs in the same basket wrt UMDCP and need at least one more instate safety - I mentioned Morgan State (has your major) and UMBC (doesn’t, so you’d need a substitute, however they do have Engineering). Towson doesn’t have Engineering at all.
SUNY Buffalo and SUNY ESF have been mentioned and should be seriously considered. Buffalo is one of NYS’ flagships, especially strong for Engineering.
At public universities, students easily get credit for HLs; for more credit, they may take the equivalent AP exam to their SL courses. Private universities usually use IB and AP for placement rather than credit.
There’s also SUNY Albany, which doesn’t have Civil but does have ABET-accredited Environmental & Sustainable Engineering. Buffalo has a much more complete range of engineering majors, but Albany is very racially diverse (which was mentioned as a desired quality) and has a good Honors College which has its own scholarships in addition to the ones offered by the university as a whole.
What did I miss here. This student is applying for civil engineering. Why does he need a masters degree or a five or six year program.
Perhaps better to think of a bachelors at an affordable ABET accredited civil engineering program, then work for a few years, and maybe then get a masters.
Few things - I’m just looking for a budget fix for you. You may want a big name but you cannot afford a big name - but yet these big state flagships are big names. Check career stats - you may be surprised. Read on line - everything I’m reading for Civil is much like other disciplines - ABET accreditation and low cost to avoid debt are most important.
Just to talk about diversity - Iowa State is 75% white per CDS. Alabama, as an example, 71% white.
Per College Factual, Iowa State first year are 3380 from Iowa, 1017 from Illinois, 200 from Wisconsin and then under 100 - the next two states Nebraska and Texas.
Alabama has more than 100 students in the first year from 15 states. A student yesterday said they were visiting the school with their Illinois HS shirt on and two came up to them. Illinois is #3 btw. There was an article in the Chicago Sun Times about the state brain drain because they are going there. 136 from Maryland, btw, in the first year class. Now x4 - they’ve got over 2k from some states, 1k from others. 2k from NY/NJ/CT area (combined).
It beats Iowa State in cost (crushes it), diversity and geographic diversity (crushes it).
It’s the south - which may not mean what you think. Iowa is likely no different as a state - very conservative.
Loans are bad but here’s your other issue and I applaud the government on this one - From Kiplingers with the article linked below.
“While current rules allow you to borrow enough with a Parent PLUS loan to cover the full cost of attendance, minus any financial aid your child receives, the lifetime federal loan limit under the new law is $65,000 per student.
The new legislation also limits graduate students to $100,000 in loans, or $200,000 for professional programs such as law or medical school.”
Too many kids are chasing a name and they can’t pay back their debt.
Now I’m just comparing two schools - because I think your ‘thoughts’ are based on faulty knowledge. Again, there are many inexpensive schools - likely not as cheap as Bama - which is how they get so many smart kids - they buy them in from all over.
There will unlikely to be more geographically diverse than Bama although some states will have a higher OOS ratio - but still more regional.
You can absolutely find more racial diversity although sometimes that’s not the right word. Morgan State is 70% black, as an example - but yes a much tinier white population than other school black population.
I’m not trying to say it must be this school. I’m using it as a comparator and urging you to look deeper - because I’m not sure why Iowa State - which will be more of what you don’t seem to want than others.
So dig deeper and unless you plan to bankrupt mom and dad, choose an affordable school. Most state flagships are very respected.
I hope you get into UMD but need that back up just in case - whichever it is.
good luck
Doesn’t but they want to - message 34
“I do want to do a 5 year masters program.”
100% correct! I was going with what the student had said but should have taken a step back: indeed, she has no need for a Master’s - if she wants one, hopefully after working for a few years her employer will help pay for it 
So, the 200k could be divided into :4 = 50k per year, plus 5.5k federal loan.
@skylarblue : do you have a part time job? Are you saving your wages toward college?
It’s understandable a person of color wouldn’t want to go to WV or AL, not due to its university but because of the State - that being said, how Iowa State fits into this is puzzling.
Btw, I think the novel *Moo* is based on Iowa State.
And you MUST have two affordable safeties so you have to choose two affordable places you’d be okay with.
Well I would never want to speak for the student.
If they plan a Masters and they said they do, then they need to budget for that and not four years.
If they don’t do one, then they’ll have money left over.
But their plan going in is yes and they won’t be the only.
Agreed that there’s no need to go directly to a masters; getting some work experience first is typically a good idea, and there’s no reason a student with an ABET-accredited bachelor’s in CivE shouldn’t be employable. Sometimes an employer will even pay for a masters, although this unfortunately isn’t as common as it used to be.
It is okay if the OP prefers Iowa State to ‘Bama. They are culturally quite different and any given student could legitimately prefer one environment to the other. Point well taken that neither is particularly diverse, etc.
The bottom line is that this student does not have to go that far from home to get an affordable education, even if UMD doesn’t come through on the first pass. (And I hope and expect that it will; the great likelihood, in my view, is that this student will end up at College Park.) Freshman admissions aren’t the last chance at UMD; they can always do the CC pathway to a UMD degree if their admissions outcomes are really unfortunate (which I don’t think will happen). Plus, if they prefer the northeast to the south or midwest, good options have been discussed, particularly the SUNYs.
U of Louisville has been very briefly mentioned but could be worth highlighting. It’s more diverse than ISU or Bama (64% white), and almost 30% come from OOS. Their curriculum combines a project-based philosophy modeled after Cal Poly SLO, combined with a strong emphasis on co-op education; and the engineering school also has its own LLC, which provides a great, supportive residential community in which to study engineering. They do have a 5th-year masters track, too. Civil Engineering » Perhaps worth a closer look. Out-Of-State Scholarships & Aid | UofL
Closer to home, I know several merit-chasing engineering kids who got fantastic merit offers from Temple and have been very happy with their education there and the additional perks of the honors program. It’s close to home, less than 50% white, has CivE with a 4+1 option and even offers engineering coursework at their campus in Rome so that engineering students can study abroad without getting behind - CivE students on a Rome semester get to “explore aqueducts, bridges and roads that are still standing 1,000 years after their construction.” Civil Engineering Major | Temple University | Temple University
They need one ‘assured’ at $200k for five years. If any of these are ‘assured’ at $40k, they’re a great back up.
You have made that point already, yes.
The CC pathway is “assured.” Anything OP doesn’t prefer to that can come off the table without berating the OP to accept options they don’t want. Good information has been provided; we don’t have to keep saying the same things over and over again.
(ETA: I believe Louisville is “assured” also. The OOS “sticker price” is 52K/year and it looks like OP would get at least 15K in auto-merit and potentially more.)
Civil engineering does not seem to be a particularly college-prestige-focused profession, so college prestige is not as important career-wise as it would be in something like investment banking or management consulting.
You may also want to investigate whether the schools of interest, their local areas, or their states have populations that tend to consider bigotry to be socially acceptable or desirable.
Assured for frosh admission, but (assuming that the CC is in the MTAP program) the MTAP program does require a 3.0 college GPA with some course requirements for assured transfer admission, according to Office of Undergraduate Admissions | Maryland Transfer Advantage… .
Fair enough, but any student aspiring to an ABET engineering degree ought to be able to clear a 3.0 in community college; I can’t see that being a worrisome hurdle for this student. (And I did link to that exact same page in my post, to provide the detailed info.)
The student can ask to speak to student ambassadors to get an understanding of how each school they consider is, day to day.
Why do you think you need a masters in civil engineering
Have you considered University of New Mexico? Excellent engineering and guaranteed merit aid that would bring your cost to under $30,000 a year.
Also diverse (only 31% white), urban (Albuquerque), and in a “blue” state if that’s a criterion.