I don’t think UNC CH is a reasonable “just in case nothing else comes through” kind of option for the high school we’re coming from. I’ve seen a lot of amazing students with solid grades and ECs not even get waitlisted from our HS.
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Note that NCSU engineering students apply to start as Engineering First Year (EFY). After taking initial courses, they then need to apply into a competitive admission process to declare specific engineering majors. Some majors are harder to get into than others, although it is not necessarily obvious which ones are.
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Note that Virginia Tech has a similar process for engineering majors, but, for students starting in the engineering division, guarantees choice of major with a 3.0 college GPA.
I too was reading the ‘no greeks, sports, politics, religion’ and thought ‘does this kid even want to go to college’? Those are some of the things that make colleges attractive to students. There are a few colleges that don’t offer sports or greek life, but not very many. And many kids who thought they didn’t want (or need) greek life end up liking it, or aren’t ‘sporty’ end up loving intermurals or playing in the pep band.
If you/he think the math level is going to be an issue, is there a way for him to take pre-calc in the summer and then take calc in senior year? I don’t think it will be a problem as my daughter didn’t take calc in hs but was accepted at an engineering school and just started taking calc as a freshman. She did just fine and graduated on time. Her school, Florida Tech, has a small greek life, small sports life, very little religion or politics happening on campus (for those who aren’t looking for it), but it is in Florida (although on the coast so not that hot) and it does have an unbalances male/female ratio.
Also, I don’t think most consider Colorado school of Mines as cut throat or uncooperative. Most grads I know found it a fun place to go. My nephew is there now and thinks it is fun but difficult, but he’s coming from a small town and the rigor is more than he was used to. He does play on the hockey team for fun.
Most schools have a path out of engineering so if there’s interest, that may be a place to start. It’s right up there with any major for most don’t finish.
On the other hand some schools don’t even require a major until 2nd year 2nd semester.
Others have an open or more open curriculum that allow you to follow pursuits b4 deciding.
But they might not offer engineering or might offer it via a 3-2 program.
Finally many schools have a make your own major - of course it has to be approved.
But in theory no one should end up pigeonholed.
It’s great to see RHIT - but it is small - not just population wise but also campus size vs say a Denison which my daughter found super large from a footprint point of view.
I do think it’s great to visit schools of various sizes and environments - urban, rural etc. and you have so many near home in both Carolinas and Virginia. If you have a day here or there or are driving past, take an hour, check some out.
Some walk around a might give you a sense b4 you plan further visits of what to really target - so various UNCs, Elon, CNU, W&M, JMU, ECU, etc. …wherever you can get to.
If some campus types are like - no way or heck yeah- you know how to start building your actual list. Then your extensive travels can be more productive.
My apologies for not following CC etiquette, and posting too many replies! I’ll try to consolidate here. Many thanks to those of you who have offered up new places to consider, I appreciate having options to look at.
I know I provided a lot of (too much) information. I was just hoping to get some new ideas during what feels like pretty discouraging process for a kid who actually seems pretty darn bright. While I put a lot of things down on the list for what hasn’t been attractive to him, I was hoping it might jog someone’s mind to places that haven’t typically been identified on these lists.
I’ll continue to be grateful for suggestions. Thanks to all who are helping an anxious parent with positive options!
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Your son sounds a lot like my S24. Fall of his junior year we were trying to figure out what he might want to major in to help guide his college applications. Long story short, after exploring lots of possibilities, he decided to apply for industrial engineering because it combines business & engineering and it is easier to switch out of engineering than into it. He has also tried to apply to schools where switching is possible. That also meant he applied to a lot more schools then we preferred, because he wasn’t completely sure what he wanted in the college, and he knew how he felt my change over the time between when he applied and when he made a decision, and he wanted to have possibilities.
I can’t tell you how it turned out, because we are still in the middle of the process. But some of the schools on your list are on ours: RIT, Lehigh, CWRU, RPI. Northeastern and Tufts as big reaches. WPI would have been on the list, but his older brother is there and they wanted some space. And then a lot of public schools: Kansas State, Mississippi State, University of Rhode Island, our state flagship UMass Amherst. He could have added a lot more public schools that fit his requirements for having an industrial engineering program, and also some flexibility to switch if he decided, but he wanted either close to home or very inexpensive.
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You did not breach any cc protocol! It’s extremely helpful to hear as much as we can from the OP. It helps the community help you. All too often the reverse happens- an OP poses a question, many cc’ers offer advice and may ask for some clarification or specific additional information , and the OP disappears. So who or whatever gave you that impression, sorry that happened to you. It’s all too often the opposite- that some posters post too many responses when they aren’t adding additional information or value. That should be a breach of cc protocol!
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Miami of Ohio, UDel, Clemson or maybe Ohio University. All have engineering. Mid sized public’s with merit money. Clemson not as much merit as the others. Easy ability to change majors. My D21 at Miami is on her third major and with AP credits accepted will still graduate in 4 years.
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You’d be surprised. Since your son didn’t seem to love his big high school, maybe a smaller, intimate setting will excite him. My son came from a middle school class of 10 and high school class of somewhere between 60 and 70 and is thriving at a 30,000+ school. However, I think part of that was that he had already had very small classes and close relationships with his teachers. His roommate from a graduating class of 10 seems to be having the same experience, while their suitemates from very large schools are struggling a bit more. If your son hasn’t experienced that yet, he may love it.
U of R immediately comes to mind with its open curriculum, ability to change majors or double/triple major (even giving you a free 5th year to do so), and lots of musically inclined kids around due to the conservatory.
Most engineering programs expect you to be “calculus ready”. Pre-calc is okay, but just know that that first calc. class is a weed out class in many schools.
I seem to recommend Colorado State to everyone because S23 is having such a great experience, but it might be worth a look just because it seems to be a place that ticks a lot of his boxes. It’s a pretty “you do you” school and big enough that you can find just about any activity you want to do. There is a Greek system, but the only people that seem to acknowledge it are the small percentage of people that are in it. It’s in a great college town with a charming Old Town and then also easily accessible to any restaurant or big box store you could ever want to visit. Most importantly, with his GPA he’d be invited to apply to the Honors Program which offers really interesting discussion-based interdisciplinary classes rather than the boring gen ed classes.
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Some students are attracted to colleges for the education in their subjects of interest.
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Don’t all of the IB math variants include some calculus, although only A&A HL has enough to be likely to get advanced placement?
Precalculus is the prerequisite for calculus that engineering and physics majors start with in college if they do not have advanced placement.
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Given his strength and interest in German, would he be interested in one of the dual-degree International Engineering programs? These are typically five year programs where the whole fourth year is spent in the target country, so that students can both study and do internships there. These programs often lead to great opportunities with international companies.
U of Tulsa’s program is particularly flexible because it includes some non-engineering majors as well. Plus, Tulsa has Engineering Physics (as does CWRU) which could be a nice starting point if he’s unsure about engineering vs. physics Program: International Engineering/Science and Language Program - University of Tulsa - Acalog ACMS™ (There’s Greek life at Tulsa, but only 22% participate. They heavily recruit National Merit Semifinalists, so there are a lot of strong students there.)
Other International Engineering programs are at URI https://web.uri.edu/engineering/academics/iep/ , UConn EUROTECH – Our German International Engineering Program and U of Arkansas International Engineering Program | College of Engineering | University of Arkansas
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I agree lack of Calc is going to be an issue for many Engineering programs. Test scores (required) are also a bit low for OOS FYE.
If he is open to the new Indy campus it could help.
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Thank you for the link. The info is fascinating.
As schools along the Great Lakes like U. of Rochester and Case Western aren’t too cold, I gave myself some latitude on the weather front. But some additional schools with numerous ABET-accredited engineering majors and a major in German (not that you said it was desired) that you may want to consider include:
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Drexel (PA ): About 14k undergrads in Philadelphia and there’s a very strong co-op culture here.
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Fairfield (CT): About 4800 undergrads
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Marquette (WI): About 7500 undergrads in Milwaukee
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Saint Louis (MO): About 11k undergrads here
I believe that all of these schools allow students to switch majors readily, so engineering to business to English to CS, etc. And there are some Jesuit schools on the list, but Jesuits tend to be more about intellectual curiosity and behaving well towards others than trying to push a particular religion. As Dayton is on your list, your family appears willing to consider religiously-affiliated schools, so long as it’s not a big focus of the school.
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You might check out this list of schools and other things on the website. They’re part of the E3 consortium for studying engineering abroad, including in German-speaking regions. Rochester, RPI, Pitt, Case Western, Drexel, and Rose-Hulman are on the list.
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It is amazing to see how a few college tours change the whole college scene for a high school junior – whew! So many good comments from this thread rattled around in my brain as we looked at schools, and now it is so much easier to focus on what S25 wants instead of what he doesn’t want. But it sure took a while to get there.
We’ve now toured eight campuses with an eye on declaring mechanical engineering as a major. Big winners were NC State and Virginia Tech, still in the running are Auburn and University of Alabama at Huntsville, lukewarm feelings about WashU and Clemson, and safe to say Case Western and University of Tennessee at Knoxville are out.
Seems like the kiddo like a self-contained campus with a big area to look out on. (I don’t see how NC State exactly fits that, but I have a feeling there is an element of familiarity that overcomes lack of a nice drill field.) I’m getting the sense that traffic running through campuses is a big turn-off (again, NC State has a totally separate campus for engineering … time for mom to back off the analysis!) and wider sidewalks (like Auburn) are better than narrow ones (like Clemson).
S25 surprised me by suggested he take AP Calc in addition to his IB math class next year – he only has room for one elective, and while I think doubling up on math is going to make for a strenuous year, I also believe he can handle it. Feeling like that’s a bonus in the “rigor” column anyway, and again…I seriously think he can handle it. Fingers crossed!!
We bailed on our mid-March tour of University of Dayton due to high school social activities, and at this point I don’t know if it is still on S25’s radar. Watching the threads on acceptances and waitlists makes me realize the importance of targeting realistically for at least one easy acceptance he can count on. At this point, I expect that is UAH, but I would love to give him other options.
This summer, hoping to hit up University of Rochester, Worcester Polytechnic (want him to consider overcoming the cold/male heavy biases), Lehigh and maybe Pitt. I think Pitt will be a hard sell, but I’m open to being surprised.
S25 has some buddies who are interested in UNC Charlotte for engineering, so it is possible we will take a day trip there.
Husband might insist on a trip out to his old stomping ground of Purdue, and if that happens, maybe we hit up Colorado State, too.
This thread has been so helpful, though…what a great community to offer insights and suggestions and support. Thank you all!!
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Well, Colorado State definitely has wide sidewalks, and depending on your dorm, you could end up with an uninterrupted view of the mountains.
Does he ride a bike? While the sidewalks are wide, it looks like Copenhagen when the kids are moving around campus during the day.
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AP calculus has significant content overlap with IB math, although it depends on which AP (AB or BC) and IB (A&A or A&I, HL or SL).
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