Iâm not sure of all your accepted colleges (congrats!), but Iâll note that Arizona State is in an area with several automobile manufacturers that do vehicle testing there. Both Nissan and Toyota do testing out in the Sonoran desert and do hire ASU mechanical engineers (a good friend of mine went to ASU and works at Nissan there).
Are the costs affordable for your family. You are quoting tuitionâŠbut there will be room, board, fees, personal expenses, books, transportation, and possibly student health insurance.
@beefeater just gave you some good feedback on AZ. You need to get similar info from other affordable options on your list.
Congratulations on all the acceptancesâŠit sounds like you need to find ways to eliminate some of these choices. I know that sounds backwards, but reallyâŠif there are things your kid doesnât like about a schoolâŠput it at the bottom of his rankings for now.
At some point, you probably will want to visit the top three contenders. And you can visit schools closeby too. I would suggest you specifically ask to be connected with the engineering department.
Do you have a budget. Donât forget room and board.
UNCC is actually $19066 + $3208 in fees.
FIT is $45,960+$1320 in fees.
If you are interested in Formula SAE, look up each schoolâs team - but then see how active they are.
You can get to automotive from any school - but UNCC is a fine choice. But I believe they are motorsports engineering, not automotive.
The South is a fine place to be for the auto industry since so much is moving there. You might add a WVU, Alabama, or Mississippi State, al l of which excel.
All your schools are fine - where do you want to be (so far from home, etc.).
I canât imagine you get into Clemson. NC State, Purdue, UW, Rutgers, Northeastern, etc. USD, LMU, and SCU are religious - is that a concern?
I think youâve got too many.
Think about budget and comfort - how much can you spend (including room and board) and where do you want to be?
You already have great acceptances.
But one way to narrow down is not every school will have a Formual SAE team. You can also look at ecoCAR schools.
Since this was my sonâs main interest too, I will comment on some of the schools we personally visited.
When you go on school visits, I highly recommend that your kid contact the FSAE club before the visit (look them up online)! In every case, they were happy to meet with my son and show him around! It was VERY eye opening for him to see each clubâs garage / workspace, and to talk to the students.
Oregon State â this is one of the most advanced FSAE teams in the US and IMHO, it is worth a visit if possible, just to see their workspace and learn about their cars. My son says that they are also welcoming to new team members and have a well developed training / mentoring process. Lots of things to like about this school for a ME student. From your current acceptance list, my son would 100% pick this one (and would also choose it over many other schools on your list), but everyone has different priorities.
U of Washington â my son chose not to attend this school because it was such a difficult / competitve process to join the FSAE team that he thought he was unlikely to get to participate. The team itself is strong but they do not accept many applicants.
Cal Poly SLO â my son did not actually expect to like this school as much as he did, but when he visited, he loved seeing their workspaces and talking to students. Hands-on is a real thing at CPSLO, not just a buzzword.
UC Davis â a great school with an up and coming FSAE team! They were struggling a bit with garage space when my son visited but I gather that has been worked out now. Worth a visit if accepted.
UCSD â good school, has FSAE, but note that it is very difficult to switch into ME if you are not admitted direct to the major.
UC Santa Cruz â they do not have an ME major (yet?) but Formula Slug seems to be a great up and coming FSAE team.
How much research on the FSAE clubs could be done before a visit? Any tips on how to engage/who to engage? Having a good FSAE club and getting into it are high up on the priority list!
Itâs not always easy to find FSAE club info on the universityâs main web site. We had the best luck just searching for clubs with google by âschoolname formula saeâ or similar search string. Sometimes the most up to date info is posted on instagram or facebook rather than a web site. Most clubs will have someone to contact, and most were pretty friendly!
My son kept a spreadsheet page with info that he found to be relevant about each club, such as: number of members (this varies a lot), application process (some admit everyone, others have a process), details about the car, where is the workspace located (itâs great if it is right on campus), etc.
Thank you! I would like to keep the tuition under $25k, factoring all other costs my budget is roughly $40 to $45k a year. Iâd push to âperhapsâ $50K a year if there was some good reason. Going over $50K all in is not appealing & will break the budget for sure!
Getting to a top 3 is important, I agree. I would love input from folks if they have a strong top 3 opinion. Right now, its probably 1. UNCC, 2. Oregon State, 3. Arizona State 4. FIT (if costs come down?)
Thanks! Budget as mentioned above is $40 to $50k max.
The UNCC progam looks good (correct, Motorsports not auomotive speciality). Charlotte seems a nice place to be, but I have no idea really. Only ever been to RTP in NC.
Yep, likely we have too many. Thats a combo of being scared of not getting in anywhere good in CA (UC or CSU) plus us being new to the college process and UC colleges altogether!
Seems like there are already two CSU admissions (Chico and Sacramento).
For UCs and CSUs, the recalculated GPA by the method given in GPA Calculator for the University of California â RogerHub is most relevant. There are three versions â unweighted, weighted-capped (found on most UC web sites), and fully weighted. CSU uses weighted-capped, except that if college courses were taken in high school, they count double. CPSLO is an exception among CSUs in calculating with 9th as well as 10th-11th grade.
Just another note about Oregon State. They are unique among teams in the US, in that they have a partnership with a school in Germany and regularly compete in many of the European events over the summer. The European teams are generally more technically advanced than the teams in the US. This adds another dimension to their team that my son found to be very attractive.
This is really top quality info! It would be amazing to have opportunities like this, teaming up with German teams etc. Appreciate the links! Thanks so much.
Thanks. Weâve done some deeper research and if the impacted CSUâs and UCâs are as competitive as last year, we will not get in. Perhaps UC Merced if we are lucky.
So if I wanted to spend $40-50K and wanted to be in automotive (Iâm in automotive but not engineering - I work with engineers - my list might look like:
UNCC since you got in
Not FIT
Oregon State is great but I suspect you wonât get WUE.
You have in-state
Schools like Clemson, NC State wonât get you to cost - not close so.
Now, one thing Iâd think about - am I ok being far from home?
If you like the aspect of UNCC, then the Purdue campus you want is in Indianapolis.
I would add WVU and Miss State to your list - both do well in automotive and both will hit budget. But again, you are leaving out West.
UAH will hit cost - and has a Toyota/Mazda plant there.
Tennessee Tech and UT Chattanooga will both hit and are buy Nissan and VW respectively.
If I were to stay out west, any schools - a CSU, UNM, and WASU should hit budget. Utah too.