Pilot Kid Gets Wacky Results..what the heck?

Applying to College
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Demographics: Nothing helpful lol, no hooks

Intended Major(s): Aerospace Engineering, MechE for some

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1540 (800M, 740RW)

UW/W GPA: 3.79UW/4.35W

Coursework: AP Calc BC (5) AP US History (4) AP Physics C (In progress) IB Physics HL (In progress) Multivar Calc, AP Comp Sci Princ

Awards: A few related to aviation/flying. Won $26,000 to pay for flying/flight training. A couple leadership awards. Nothing insane.

Extracurriculars: (Will try to keep concise and anonymous, I’ll just do top 5)

Private Pilot License - Airplane & Glider ratings + instrument rating: 200 hours of flight time across 15 aircraft types.

Line Service Technician: Service & fuel a range of civilian/military aircraft, customer service, etc (part time job, work 10-12 hrs/wk during school year and 40 hrs/wk during holidays)

Squadron Commander, Wing Glider Coordinator, Civil Air Patrol: Responsible for statewide glider ops. Lead 45 cadets in military-style aerospace training.

Volunteer Pilot, Scholarship Coordinator: Offer free flights to encourage local kids into aviation. Manage youth flight scholarship program.

Marching Band - Saxophone Section Leader: Varsity level 5A competitive marching band, 2-time State Championship finalists.

Did some summer stuff. Boys State, service academy/military stuff, etc.

Essays/LORs/Other:

Personal Essay: 7/10, pretty okay. Nothing great, I’m not a great writer.

Supps: 6/10, okay, mostly.

Teacher 1 LOR: 8/10, Physics teacher who I had for 2 years, likes me

Teacher 2 LOR: 7/10, Math teacher who I had soph and now senior year, okay.

Counselor LOR: 6.5/10, She barely knows me.

Other LOR: 9.5/10, retired Air Force general, knows me very well.

Decisions:

Arizona State University OOS: Accepted w $16.5k/yr for AeroEng

Colorado School of Mines: Accepted w $2.5k/yr for MechEng

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University AZ: Accepted w $23k/yr for AeroEng

Georgia Institute of Technology OOS: Rejected for AeroEng

Purdue University OOS***: Deferred → Accepted for Engineering (■■■?)***

University of Colorado Boulder: Accepted w $4k/yr for Undecided (not AeroEng!!)

University of Southern California: Deferred → Rejected for AeroEng

Thoughts:

Can anyone guess what the hell happened here? I’m in-state to CU Boulder and was fully expecting to get into my intended major of Aero Engineering there. They gave me Exploratory Studies instead (undecided). I’m OOS for Purdue, applied for the same major there, and was deferred then accepted for First-Year Engineering. That just made no sense to me. I’m currently trying to decide where to go. COA for Purdue would only be slightly higher than Boulder. On another note, is it possible to leverage my Purdue FYE acceptance and somehow get Boulder to put me in AeroEng instead of Undecided? That might be a stupid question, sorry.

Thanks for the help.

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Sure-

CU is one of the top aero schools in the country - and honestly, you can study MechE and get the same result.

ASU is formula based.

ERAU is an easy admit and they need to buy kids to get them to go - but a good school.

Congrats on Purdue - your GPA is a big low and you basically said your essay and LORs added little to your candidacy.

So you can go to ASU, Mines, ERAU (in Prescott), Purdue, and CU.

What went wrong?

Nothing

You scored.

Congrats.

PS - if you’re initial thought was that your ECs trump all - guess again. This is school. Yes, they’re a differentiator but trump all, nope.

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Thanks - I just assumed that aero engineering for CU instate would be much easier than Purdue Engineering OOS. Do you think there is a way to leverage the Purdue acceptance into direct admission into the College of Engineering at CU?

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No - you can ask - but they won’t be interested. CU is a tough admit for engineering and CS. You are in a pool of many.

Purdue is a great great school - but admission wise, it’s not brutal, even for engineering.

I thought you mean you got into CU engineering but not aero. What are the requirements for aero or any engineering at CU? See what they are - and work hard at it. Or if you need in state go to Mines.

Or chose one of the others - what you’ll learn in life is whether you go to say Purdue, CU, ASU or anywhere - you’ll be working with others - so I agree you should start in engineering if you can, but the where won’t matter.

My son works for a big areo - and has 50 in his class - they come from Michigan, Purdue (who he turned down), Alabama (where he went), Washington - but also Utah, W Michigan, Akron. This year they have someone from Ga Tech in the class. You need ABET - and then you’re good - so you’ll be fine with ASU, School of Mines, ERAU or Purdue. But if you wanted other options you can still apply to an Arizona (excellent for aero), Bama, Ms State, UAH for smaller…but then again, why - you already have great opportunities.

Yes, if you want to be an engineer - you would have risk at CU.

How bout CSU - you didn’t apply there?

You likely overstated yourself based on your ECs if I’m reading that but you got great opportunities and there are others out there still taking apps.

Good luck.

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We’re in CO, too, and even though my kids are not STEM kids, I hear enough chatter about CU admissions to know that Exploratory Studies is just considered temporary, and a lot of people hoping for high-demand majors start there because a lot of those majors just don’t allow many first-year admits. You can’t leverage admission to Aero Eng now but possibly later. You should do a little more research to see the likelihood of admission to that program as a sophomore, whether you’ll have access to the pre-reqs you’ll need to set you up for admission, etc. Ask current students about their experiences in this regard. It’s a fairly common pathway. Btw, we know a lot of marching band kids who went to CU and ended up playing for their marching band and have had a great time!

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CU gave me the Exploratory Studies program (basically Undecided), but I applied for aero. I did apply to CSU and got in for Mech with a scholarship. But honestly I’d rather go to Mines over CSU.

I have already research major-transfers at CU and it sounds like it’s not too big of a deal. I don’t doubt I’ll be able to do so at CU. Now it’s just a question of whether I should go to Purdue or CU. COA is pretty similar for both…

Thanks for the advice!

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Have you visited Purdue?

CU and Purdue are different environs - took my son to Purdue and daughter to CU - I bet one will speak to you when you’re there - I’m home, I’m home.

Mines - also a neat campus - but sounds like you want big!!!

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I’ve visited Purdue, I liked the campus but I have reservations about how isolated West Lafayette is haha. I also prefer CO weather over Midwest weather. I guess I feel like if I went to CU over Purdue, I might regret it later on because Purdue is higher ranked and in general is a better engineering school. But there are also questions about how much of a big deal that difference really is. I was pretty set on going to CU before I got the Purdue acceptance, but now in bit of a dillemma.

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Yes to the rank - and hard to say that it’s better. I’m sure for some it’s better and for others CU is better. Higher ranked doesn’t = better though.

At one you can study engineering. At the other, the jury is still out.

As I told you, W Michigan and Akron kids work with and make the same money as Michigan kids. At least where my son is and he turned down Purdue for a lesser school (wanted his own dorm room) but he had an engineering option at Bama.

That really is the question - are you willing to roll the dice exploratory?

PS - if you think about it, W Lafaeyette is no more isolated to Indy than Boulder is to Denver.

But ASU gives you the mountains you might like (although not the cold) and you’re smack dab near all. And Prescott gives you mountains and snow - and like Golden, but even moreso that old west feel :slight_smile:

You’d likely get a similar job from any school on your list - but only if you’re an engineer - and at CU you’re not assured - so that’s the question you have to answer for yourself. It sounds like it’s a very reasonable track but if it’s not 100%…of course, at Purdue, only engineering is assured but not the discipline.

And you have other options where aero is assured.

Good luck - but I wouldn’t let ranking or pedigree drive this - because they don’t really impact careers.

My co worker kid from W Michigan has had a distinguished career at Pratt & Whitney. And my son’s company has lots. He’s a MechE at an aero company.

It’s the ABET certfication that matters.

Best of luck in whatever you decide.

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I know an OOS student who applied to CU for Aero, but got put in exploratory studies instead, but then easily (I think even within the first semester) was allowed to switch into Aero.

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If CU is your top choice then I guess the only question is how does admission into your preferred major from Exploratory Studies work. If they don’t limit admission to your major after your first year then it’s an easy decision.

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The CU process requires a minimum of C in every “Technical” class but also - and this is not as easy in college as in HS, certaibly not in weedout STEM courses, though doable- a 2.7 science GPA. If you transfer math credit through AP you need to take CSCI or alternate classes instead.

While Purdue is nationally-known for Engineering, CU is nationally known for Aerospace Engineering (as well as a few other fields. ) So, in terms of rankings, it’s a wash.

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You still have to make the grades at Purdue to get into your preferred major after a year. Are you planning on working hard to make the grades at Purdue or CU or any school to keep the scholarship?

My nephew got into CU engineering. First semester beer played too big a part in his study plan, and he didn’t do well in Calc so was ‘invited’ to take it again (and then had to take Calc II in summer school to stay on track). Really, that was a preventable outcome if only he’d sat in a chair and studied more (as he did second semester). He now works for Northrup.

It is up to you. The exploratory studies students trying to get into engineering take the same basic classes as the engineering students (I think calc, chem, physics?) and then two electives. i think (but not sure) you are allowed to live in the engineering dorm and join engineering clubs if there is room (but most freshmen live in Willie Villie anyway, even many engineering students).

But if you like Purdue, go there. If you like Mines, go there (another nephew does and is in MechE and loves it).

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This. It doesn’t sound as if the barriers to still getting Aero at Boulder are any higher than those in the secondary admissions process at Purdue. Both are attainable with diligence, but neither is assured. If you want a slam-dunk aero major, you’ve got a couple of direct-admit offers, but it sounds as if you like CU and Purdue the best, and I don’t think the risk with either is too high so long as you are committed to being disciplined and getting the grades in that first year. One advantage of Purdue, though, is that everybody is in that boat, whereas at Boulder, you’d be earning your way into a major that others already have nailed down.

But I don’t think there’s any argument that you should choose one over the other for reputational reasons. Both are excellent, and it sounds like costs are about at parity, so you should go where you feel the best fit and believe that you’d have the best experience.

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Just a small update, I was able to leverage my Purdue FYE acceptance and get CU Boulder to switch me into aero!

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Congrats to you - does that mean you’ll attend there?

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I’m not sure yet, I need to make a decision soon. I visited both last week, and I’m leaning towards Purdue. However I’m also waiting on a scholarship decision from CU that should come in soon. If it’s substantial, I’ll probably attend CU for aero. If not, Boiler Up!

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Good luck to you - congrats on convincing them to switch.

It’s a good lesson in - if you don’t try.

Best of luck.

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This is great. I am also in the same situation and wanted to know what you decided between CU and Purdue. Also, who did you contact to get your transferred into Aero from PES at CU. What information you provided? Can you please share that as well. I am the same situation.

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I committed to Purdue recently. I actually bumped into the guy who runs the Engineering Honors program on a campus tour, so it was all verbal. I guess he had some pull with the admissions people. I did not provide any information other than the fact that I had an FYE acceptance from Purdue. Are you instate? I think being in-state helped my case a ton.

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