It’s true that at certain auto-merit schools, a higher ACT might bump up the amount of merit that these stats would elicit. I haven’t found a specific example so far, though. (At 'Bama and UAH, for example, anything 32+ gets the same merit unless the GPA is also 4.0+… and at Bama, the weighted GPA would need to be 3.5+ to get anything, whereas at UAH there’s merit for 3.0-3.49)
If there’s a specific school of interest where moving the ACT needle would make a financial difference, then a retake could be worth considering, but not just “on spec” without a clear payoff.
@Noko528 please take the time to run the net price calculators for these colleges…with your parents. See if the results are in the ballpark for what they can afford to contribute.
Just keep in mind, the NPCs are currently set for students starting college in fall 2025, and that isn’t you. They will be updated for the next academic year start in late summer.
The financial profile - budget and need-based aid eligibility - will determine which schools will turn out to be affordable. As Thumper said, Net Price Calculators are a good place to start.
Public universities in WI and MN with ABET-accredited ME:
University of Minnesota Duluth
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Minnesota State University Mankato
St. Cloud State University
University of Wisconsin Green Bay
University of Wisconsin Madison
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
University of Wisconsin Platteville
University of Wisconsin Stout
Be aware that University of Minnesota Twin Cities has secondary admission to engineering majors (3.2 college GPA → automatic admission) and University of Wisconsin Madison has progression requirements to stay in engineering majors (for ME currently, college GPA of 3.2 technical and 3.0 overall). Most students’ college GPAs are lower than their high school GPAs.
At U of Nebraska-Lincoln, a 3.2/35 qualifies for the 16K New Nebraskan Scholarship, which offsets the OOS differential for students from MSEP states. COA would be around 31K/year. Would this be affordable? UNL Engineering requires a 3.5 GPA or a qualifying ACT, so you meet that criterion. If it works financially, it could be a great option; vibrant campus life in a great student city, and well-regarded for engineering, and I don’t believe the engineering majors have secondary-admission barriers other than maintaining a 2.5+ GPA.
(For comparison, full pay in-state COA at Wisconsin-Madison is around 29K, and full pay for WI residents at UMN, including the engineering surcharge, is over 39K, and the bar to progress into the MechE major is higher.)
At OOS reciprocity schools like this, you wouldn’t receive need-based aid other than Pell Grant, if you qualify, and guaranteed loans. If you need more financial aid than that, then your in-state schools may be the only affordable option, but fortunately there are good options there too.
Is there a study that actually examined outcomes for such dual degree programs? That would be interesting to see.
To be fair, one is not paying for 5 years to get a bachelor’s degree. One is paying for 5 years to get two. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that at least in some cases (if not many) a second degree does confer some career advantage, particularly when interested in something new arising from the interplay of multiple fields of study/research. After all, something is actually learned in the years earning a degree in an underlying natural science or math or computer science, not to mention the other courses taken at the originating institution.
Incidentally, I wouldn’t assume a typical engineering student earns their BS in 4 years. The 4 year grad rate for engineering majors according to the table on p5 in this report is 33%. According to p10, schools in the top grad rate quartile see that rise to 40%. Such data may have some bearing on the opportunity cost issue raised above, though very possibly the student who can finish a dual degree in 5 years is more likely to complete an engineering-only degree in 4.
As an aside, the 3+3 and 4+3 WashU programs discount tuition for the WashU part by 55%. So, a student pays for 4.5 or 5.5 years of tuition (absent any other aid) to get two bachelor’s degrees plus an MS.
All that said, these are challenging programs, and I can completely understand why a student would be reluctant to leave their original institution a year early for either of the 3+ options!
Actually, it looks like 40% was the bottom edge of the top quartile of 4-year graduation rates in 2014. The top of the range was over 80%.
Graduation rates do tend to correlate strongly with admission selectivity. Student financial means is also an obvious correlate, since a common reason to drop out of college is running out of money.
In quartile terms, like we do for test scores, the report says the 75th percentile of schools has a 40% 4 year engineering grad rate. I believe what you are commenting on (just over 80% graduating in 4 years) is the max grad rate observed.
Yes, more selective schools have higher 4 year grad rates, hence my quoting the average for their 75th percentile, which is 40%, per the figure.
Does it take into consideration schools that offer co-ops, which are wonderful opportunities but leads to a student graduating in maybe 4.5 or 5 years?