Match Me - D26 - Biological/Ecological Engineering/Bioengineering [NC resident, 3.8-3.9 GPA, <$25-30k]

Chance Me / Match Me
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HI, I’m looking to see what colleges would match my daughter’s profile and desired target major - biological/ecological engineering (not biomedical or civil/environmental engineering). Information below.

Demographics

  • US Citizen
  • State/Location of residency: North Carolina
  • Type of high school: Early college focused on information and biotechnology - on the cybersecurity track, taking DE courses for cybersecurity
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: Female/White

**Intended Major(s): Biological engineering, ecological engineering (not civil/environmental engineering or biomedical engineering)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.82 full GPA, 3.9 Core/Academic GPA
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.24 full GPA, 4.4 Core Academic GPA
  • Class Rank: 34/85 - Note specialized school for information and biotech - so many high-achieving students
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1200-1300 estimate

**Coursework - rising high school junio
Taken:
Math I (completed in 8th grade), Math II, Math III - all A’s
Spanish I - B, Spanish II - A
Biology honors, Environmental Science Honors - Both high 90’s final grade, A
English I honors, English II honors - all A’s
2 APs so far - GOPO and World History - 4 on both APs, both A’s
Python I and II - passed PCAT cert = B+'s in both
Comptia + class and certification - A
Networking I and Networking II - did not take cert due to not enough lab time offered - A’s final grades
Excel honors - A and certification

Next two years planned:
Pre-calc AP, Calc I AP
Chemistry honors, Physics honors (highest level science classes offered)
English Comp AP, English Language AP
US history AP, Civil course
Core cyber track (all community college/DE courses - each worth 3 credits):
operating systems concepts
security fundamentals
network and security concepts
Web, programming & database fundamentals

Extracurriculars
*Freshman class secretary
Yearbook
Art club leader
Soccer ref for 2 seasons per year
Volunteers monthly to help test local streams for home town (“Adopt a stream” program)
Engineering summer camp at NC State fosusing on sustainability engineering problems (this summer)

Cost Constraints / Budget
*$25-30K total buget

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability)
    UNC Wilmington (feeder into NC engineering/CALS)
    SUNY ESF

  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
    Michigan State
    Oregon State

  • Match
    UNC Asheville (feeder into NC engineering/CALS)

  • Reach
    NC State
    Clemson
    Virginia Tech
    University of Georgia

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Confused - you say this:

HI, I’m looking to see what colleges would match my daughter’s profile and desired target major - biological/ecological engineering (not biomedical or civil/environmental engineering). Information below.

Then you provide a list of schools - so that’s not really asking to see which match.

On top of that, your student just finished their first year of high school?

It’s not worth answering the question - sorry.

Let your student be a student…getting involved, etc.

If you start traveling, maybe take an hour stop every day or two and visit a campus - a small, medium, large…an urban, suburban, rural.

Let your student get a sense of what type of school they like.

It’s far too early to put names to schools - not enough of a record, no test score, and frankly, the student may not have cemented an interest. You might think they have - but mine, for example, had four different interests Junior and early Senior year.

So it’s a bit too much to be trying to tackle this now.

You certainly put up fine names though - although as you note, not all are engineering but the potential to transfer into schools of interest.

But it’s waaaaaaay too early to set safety, likely, match, or reach - and while most your schools are large, you have SUNY ESF (which is attached to Syracuse) and UNCA which is small - hence the need to actually figure out what type of school your student wants.

Best of luck - but the journey is very early - and you are well beyond where you need to be at this time - IMHO of course.

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I believe “2026 Freshman” refers to the year she would start college. The words “rising junior” appear later in the post.

4

OK - thanks for the clarification. I saw Freshman.

In that case, the guidance still remains - does the student have a preferred campus type.

That said, given the status, estimated test, etc. - Michigan State and Oregon State will not hit budget. Nor will Clemson, Va Tech or UGA. And a non affordable acceptance is the worst thing.

UNCC would be a solid target school for this student.

You might try Iowa State, Kansas State, and Mississippi State - which aren’t assured to hit cost. UAH is another depending on SAT.

Of course, the major will matter too.

Good luck.

5

It sounds as if you’re already done a pretty exhaustive search for schools that have the kind of program your daughter wants. There are some great schools that she could certainly get into; it’s the budget that’s going to limit her choices. (I’m assuming that you do mean $25-30K per year - sometimes when people say “total budget” they mean the total amount for all four years.)

So basically… NC State would be terrific and affordable, but first-year admission is not a sure thing, so you have 2+2 “feeder” schools on the list as well. SUNY ESF would be great and attainable admissions-wise, and it should be in-budget at their flagship-match rate, so she should have a four-year option that could well be preferable to a “feeder” situation.

The rest of your list consists entirely of OOS schools with great programs, but with OOS sticker prices well above your budget. (I believe Purdue could be added to that list also, and it’s less pricey than some of the others, but still unambiguously over-budget.) She could get merit at some, but probably not enough to get down to $25-30K/year.

There’s the question of whether private schools that meet need would give you enough aid to make budget, but for her interests, the only school I can think of is Cornell, which is pretty unlikely despite her very solid GPA. If the NPC shows an affordable price, she could lob an Early Decision application to CALS (which houses biological engineering and which is test-blind, so her SAT wouldn’t matter) - nothing to lose since she has no other ED options anyway - but it would be a moonshot.

But bottom line, she probably ends up at either NC State or SUNY ESF; and either would be a great outcome! Oregon State has a terrific program that I’d love to lobby for, and I’d say some merit is likely there, but it would be a pleasant surprise to see it bridge the gap.

This program is a little different from the ones you’ve identified; would it be close enough to what she wants? Environmental Resources Engineering, B.S. | Cal Poly Humboldt Cal Poly Humboldt’s OOS COA is estimated at about 38K/year, and it’s a very strong in ecologically-related fields. The first-year themed housing for students in this program is a nice enhancement: Baduwa't to Bay | Cal Poly Humboldt

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UNCC doesn’t have the exact major. They only started the civil/environmental engineering, which is not what she wamts.

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In abet.org , there are 38* schools in the US with ABET accredited biological engineering. The two NC publics there are NC A&T and NCSU.

*41 entries, but 3 are former institution names.

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Understood - you have biological/ecology or bio engineering.

The SAT score is going to hurt at top schools - but she’s going to have to find one within budget.

You can often pivot from one engineering field to another in life (maybe not student) but buttress with a minor, etc.

So you’re going to have to find schools based on budget - hence the UAH or Mississippi State mentions.

The feeder start programs are a risk, of course, that the student doesn’t progress. A WCU would be better - but again, not the right kind of engineering - but the student, could for example, get a job with a pharmaceutical company and over time try and get into an organization where they can work in the area of desire.

After all, 75% of STEM kids (so beyond engineering) don’t work in STEM jobs, according to multiple studies…the point being, there’s a lot of transitional opportunities out there.

Bottom line - the budget will drive this decision and with what you provided, the in state engineering programs (short of an A&T) aren’t likely with the test score you noted. Perhaps if the student can get the test score higher.

But the UAH, UAB, and Miss States of the world are excellent schools. You might also look at a Tennessee Tech, not sure if can get to cost.

But doesn’t sound like it would cover the majors either.

Miss State has many majors, concentrations and with a 1300 SAT (1260 in fact), you’d be low 20s or mid 20s with a 1200 SAT. See scholarship chart below - it’s off a high 30s full pay.

Good luck.

College of Engineering - Undergraduate Programs (tntech.edu)

Undergraduate Education (msstate.edu)

2023 -2024 Scholarship Sheet for Freshman Out-of-State Residents (msstate.edu)

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Look at ECU instate.

They have a great facility at the outer banks as well for some undergrad opportunities.

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