I’m a junior high school student researching for schools. I want a good school with an aerospace engineering major and an OOS full tuition/ride scholarship I can apply for. I have a:
Any suggestions?
How many time have you taken the ACT? If you get into the 33-36 range, you’ll have a much better shot at competitive merit scholarships.
Once. Ill take it again in february.
I have heard of Wichita State and UAH for being generous with merit and having aerospace engineering.
Some schools may not have aerospace engineering as its own major, but as electives under mechanical engineering.
Those with automatic full tuition or better:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
Tuskegee University http://www.tuskegee.edu/scholarships/freshman_scholarships.aspx
University of Alabama - Huntsville http://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/merit-tuition-scholarships
University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa (retry for a 32 on ACT or 1450 on SAT to get it; 31 ACT gives 2/3 tuition) http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.php
Those which are competitive for the full tuition or better scholarships:
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
Check http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx for aerospace engineering or mechanical engineering.
Go to the website collegemajors101.com and see which colleges have aerospace as a major and then enter the term “merit scholarships” on those colleges’ websites to see if there are any full tuition scholarships. Are you a National Hispanic Scholar? If yes, then Mississippi State offers a full tuition scholarship to NHSP students. There are also some large merit scholarships, but I don’t know if they reach full tuition amounts. Arizona and Central Florida also offers a large award for NHSP.
Ohio State has some full tuition scholarship especially those in the Morrill Scholarship competition. Again it will be competitive for those scholarships. They are usually directed at underserved students.
Some other places to look at include Iowa State, University of Alabama, Central Florida,
Wichita as well. I second what ucbalumnus referenced – a Mech E degree will work just as well for getting a job in the aerospace industry, and is far more commonly offered.
^ This about Mech Es.
MechE is often a better choice because it’s more marketable. A MechE major can still get jobs in Aerospace, but as Aero jobs/internships are more limited, getting a degree in MechE can serve you better in the long run.
What is the home state? Agree with post #8.
You can attend a program between junior and senior year in HS (and often before junior year) at an engineering school (a number of them offer this) to look and see what the fields of study are all about, and get familiar with the facilities at that University. Purdue offers such a program; University of Alabama has offered this program for over 25 years - they don’t advertise it because all 3 one week sessions fill up. It is an excellent thing to do. My DD went to UA’s SITE program (Student Introduction to Engineering) before her HS senior year and was able to determine her eng field (at UA they also include CS in the college of engineering, so they are exposed to that field as well). UA SITE Program.
Here is the link to that and some other helpful information:
http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.php Get your ACT score to 32 to get Presidential scholarship
http://eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholarships/ You qualify for additional engineering scholarship
http://president.ua.edu/ UA’s President is an engineer with a great bio.
https://career.sa.ua.edu/connect/career-fairs/past-career-fair-recruiting-organizations/
American Society of Engineering Education, UA Profile http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/6799/print_all
NY Times takes notice:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/06/education/edlife/survival-strategies-for-public-universities.html?action=click&contentCollection=College%20Football&module=RelatedCoverage®ion=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article
UA Dr Witt youtube presentation which gives some background with how STEM has developed in recent years at UA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrV8g7kxJps
UA has updated its Quick Facts http://viewbook.ua.edu/quick-facts/
(2014 enrollment breakdown by state - new undergraduates - which would be freshmen for the most part): http://oira.ua.edu/d/webreports/enrollment2/Fall_2014/f18.html
http://oira.ua.edu/d/webreports/enrollment2/Fall_2015/e10.html
This URL gives FALL 2015 data for all of the university (not just freshmen).
http://oira.ua.edu/d/webreports/enrollment2/Fall_2016/front
There are many wonderful engineering programs in the US. UA has some exceptional opportunities and is financial friendly to higher stat OOS students.
Additional short summer programs for HS students to learn about engineering
UConn Explore Engineering - summer after 10th or 11th grade - http://edoc.engr.uconn.edu/explore-engineering/
Michigan State - High School Engineering Institute (HSEI) - summer after 9-11th grade - http://www.egr.msu.edu/future-engineer/programs.
I second the Purdue program, DD’s friends have done it and it is really great. Also MIT has a longer one and the application is still open. It is called MITES and here is the link: https://oeop.mit.edu/programs/mites In fact google the term “MITES” which stands for Minority Introduction to Engineering and you find some other ones. My DD did one at UVA that she really enjoyed and it helped her decide on ME. Many of the programs have financial aid if you can’t afford them. Some like SAMS at Carnegie Mellon are free. There is a forum here on CC for summer programs that list more of them. Also Black Excel has a good listing of a lot of summer engineering programs. http://www.blackexcel.org/summer-progs.htm
In addition to helping you learn about the different kinds of engineering majors, it has been my experience that such programs are helpful in the college admissions process by allowing a student to “test drive” college enviroments and by demonstrating to the college that you are familiar with the engineering discipline. My DD did such a program and the contacts she made during it lead to many more opportunities for her.
By the way my DD is an ME and she has gotten a lot more internship offers than her AE friends in the AE fields at major companies. I would recommend an ME degree then getting an masters in AE. You would be more marketable and many companies like GE Aviation would pay for your AE Masters.
I forgot to mention, Bernard Harris, the first African American to walk in space has a foundation and in the past he has had summer programs at different universities like UVA. You can learn more about him and his programs at this link: http://www.theharrisfoundation.org/ My DD had lunch with him last year and he is very interesting and inspiring.
Sorry for so many posts but I give a speech annually at a STEM Outreach Conference on summer programs in STEM so I have a lot of resources. A good free one is at the Colorado School of Mines. http://www.mines.edu/summet The application is still available. and the 2017 dates are on the program website.
This link is a word document that has info about a lot of summer programs. (www.sciserv.org/stp/index-s.htm) I forgot what year this document is from so some of the info may be wrong such as CalTech no longer has YES, but there are still many good links to programs.
The other benefit about applying to a summer program is that it will get you into good practice for doing college applications because the process is very similar. Also for some summer programs you might then get priority or extras points in the admission process for the particular college and I know some colleges will give the students a special small merit scholarship if they attend the college where the summer program was held.
Good luck!
MIT has a program for minority students. They flew my son out to spend a three day in this program. All expenses paid. Briefed by alumni that 50% would be accepted. As long as your parents income/assets are low enough you should get a good financial aid package. No merit though.
Are you a low income student? Will you qualify for need based aid?
Question concening AE and ME, looking at the curriculum of most colleges it looks like there might be 1-2 course difference would it be beneficial to dual major since it’s a minimal hours or spend that time specializing in a certain of ME. I know if your going AE you better be signing up for grad school. Thoughts?
You can get close to Embry-Riddle but it’ll take string-pulling (faculty advocating etc)
Double majoring will require extra courses beyond what can be done in 8 semesters; would have to have a lot of AP or CLEP, maybe going in at a high level of math already. However if some requirements can be done over the summer, or maybe taking a course while interning/co-oping, a possibility.
Even in a large engineering program, some courses are only offered a particular term, so working that out too. DD is double majoring within her civil eng major, and is taking 3 courses during the summer between junior and senior year - says she can finish it and graduate on time. She had 3 extra upper division classes. The summer schedule comes out at the same time the fall schedule does, so she will see what she can take in the summer and how her schedule can work out in fall. The remaining spring courses are the ones either left or that are just offered in spring.
Student may need to decide early on what they are willing to do to complete what they want.