Be aware that mechanical engineering technology is different from mechanical engineering as a major.
Some web sites describing the differences:
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The Purdue motor sport engineering major is only offered at the Indy campus.
OPās stats are in range for polytechnic, especially at the Indy campus. I think itās a match and would fall in budget.
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Thank you! Good info. Frankly, we are struggling with which type of program would be best. Being practical is important for our kid. Yet, we donāt want to āundersellā ourselves. Wrong word, I knowā¦
Building on @tamagotchiās great insights above ā¦ @eyemgh doesnāt post as much here these days, but you can look through old posts from him to see that he knew a lot about Mechanical Engineering at west coast schools and thinks incredibly highly of Oregon State. His son went to Cal Poly SLO and loved it, but I have the feeling that @eyemgh would put Oregon State at the top of the list of admits you have above (though obviously I canāt speak for him!).
Congrats to your kid on WUE as well! Thatās really excellent. Great job!
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Thank you so much for responding!
Oregon State certainly seems like a great option.
I went back through and looked at a few of his posts, and just want to clarify that he does absolutely hold Oregon State in high regard, but the thing he really emphasized was the quality of the honors program for engineering at Oregon State, which he said was the best honors program they found (āand by a LONG marginā) when he and his son were looking at schools. Sorry for misremembering that nuance of it! Regardless, good luck with the decisions, and congrats again on the early good news!
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I appreciate your effort to help us out here!
Thank you so much & I love your username 
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Congratulations to your son on all the acceptances so far!
What little I know about motorsports engineering and schools has already been covered by others, but one thing I havenāt seen mentioned is the campus experience. Some colleges are more residential in nature, meaning most students live on-campus or just off-campus, and life largely revolves around the university. Other colleges are more of commuter campuses where students primarily live away from the campus and come to campus to take their classes and then leave. Both types of colleges can provide a fine education, but itās a very different experience as a student.
From what I know, Chico is more of a residential campus, whereas Sacramento is more of a commuter one. Back in the day, IUPUI (which has now been separated out and has Purdue-Indianapolis) used to be a commuter campus, but that may no longer be the case. UNC-C used to have more of a commuter reputation, but I have heard that itās been changing a lot in recent years. @Sweetgum may have more insight on that school. I believe the other schools on your acceptances are residential campuses.
I am not local to any of the campuses on your list and have not visited any of them recently. Thus, I would urge you to look into what the current situation is like at the schools to make sure it has the experience your kid wants. Additionally, there are schools that might be primarily commuter schools but that have a fairly close cohort of residential students (for instance, a few musical theater programs at some NYC colleges). It could be that motorsports engineering might have such a culture at Purdue-Indianapolis, but I donāt know. I did want to put this topic on your radar, however, so that your family can investigate what the different campuses are like to see where your son would be most likely to thrive.
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Residential versus commuter can often be estimated by looking up the percentage of frosh living in campus housing (see the collegeās comm data set, section F1). Frosh living in campus housing are likely to be non commuter students, although some may be āsuitcaseā students who leave for home every weekend after spending the week at school.
Percentage of all undergraduates in campus housing is less useful as a proxy because many non commuter non frosh live nearby off campus.
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@OP, here is a documentary about UC Davis FSAE team. S24 had no problem joining the team during Freshman year. He learned so much and really enjoyed the hands-on experience. He was able to travel with the team to Michigan for competition last summer. Enjoy it.
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Thatās a cool and informative video! Thanks for sharing.
Congratulations on some fine admissions to date! When my S was considering engineering education, I thought this post from Northern Michigan University did a really great job drawing out the distinction of engineering vs engineering technology for student fit/interests and career paths.
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That is a great write up you shared!
weāve only applied to one Eng Tech course, and that oneās at Purdue. Likely the only one weāll consider.
Itās hard, as the practical aspect is the most enjoyable for our son. It would be best, I think, to have a program that does combine a significant amount of practical with an ME degree.
Looking thru curriculums, I havenāt found any like this. Perhaps others here can comment more if they know the specific ME programs on our list. I found the course list to be almost the same for first/second year. I guess that is ABET working its magic.
All ABET-accredited engineering major programs include both engineering science (theory) and engineering design (practice, usually in project design course work).
That said, there is variation in curriculum organization. Some stick to the traditional order of math and natural science (frosh/soph year), then engineering science (soph/junior year), then engineering design (junior/senior year), since it makes the most sense in terms of prerequisite sequencing. However, some try to bring some engineering design early in the curriculum to make it more clear what engineering design is like before the student gets too deep into the curriculum.
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I donāt know that much about UNC-Charlotte. I do have a niece that went there as a commuter, but it is probably the fastest growing school in the UNC system and I think it now has the second largest undergrad enrollment school behind NC State, so larger than UNC-Chapel Hill and plenty of kids that live on campus. It is not as selective as UNC Chapel Hill or NC State, but it has a pretty good reputation and I would expect their motorsports department would be good being in Charlotte.
Charlotte is home to the NASCAR Hall of Fame and motorsports, particularly NASCAR, are a huge deal in town. Many (maybe most) of the NASCAR drivers have their headquarters in Charlotte. Now for Formula 1, I donāt know. I am not an automotive racing person at all, but racing is pervasive in NC and especially in Charlotte. There is Z-Max Dragway in Charlotte as well as the Charlotte Motor Speedway. When my youngest was getting her license we went down there for a special driving class and got to do some driving on some areas adjacent to the tracks. I think there is at least one Formula 1 team based in Charlotte.
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Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo is known for its hand-on approach to classes, and U. of Louisvilleās engineering school has followed that model. Iām not sure if your son is interested in additional applications, but I thought it worth mentioning just in case.
With your sonās stats as a California resident, he would qualify for $14k/year in merit under the Regional Scholars Program (source), bringing tuition and fees to about $16k/year.
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If heās ambivalent about the heavy STEM-theory foundation for ABET engineering, does he have any preference for the design side? Because there are automotive-focused Industrial Design programs too; notably, U of Cincinnati DAAP, and their application deadline isnāt until March 1st, if he wanted to lob an application to keep that option open. Also CSU Long Beach, which is an easy application, open until the end of this month.
Heās probably already thought this through and ruled industrial design out, but just running it up the flagpole, as the MechE Tech option made me think he might still be considering alternatives to ABET engineering.
To add to the pile-on of endorsements of Oregon State, they are very strong on the design and prototyping side of things, with students participating in consulting for real clients. Student Information | Prototype Development Laboratory | Oregon State University Oregonās MECOP internship program is great too: https://www.mecopinc.org/
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@OP, since Mechanical Engineering is a popular major, be aware of secondary admission requirements.
Some colleges on your list, such as uDub and TAMU only accept students to school of engineering. Students have to re-apply to the specific engineering major after first year. For example, TAMU require 3.75 GPA to auto admit to the major you want.
Besides in state tuition, UC and CSU have the advantage of direct admission to Mechanical Engineering. Good Luck.
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Wow, thatās awesome! Can I ask how you son was able to get a WUE decision so quickly since I think some people just started getting decisions after EA ended on Nov 3rd?
As far as the hands on aspect, I think the Cal Poly Pomona and SLO are pretty good and local. Humboldt is too new and not ABET accredited for ME so I would not suggest that one.
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I was popping in to say the same thing. Many race teams/drivers are based in the Charlotte area. Charlotte Motor Speedway has corporate offices here. Seems like there would be lots of opportunities to reach out to teams and possibly get some motorsports engineering experience. Check with the college and see if they have any partnerships.
UNCC has successfully shed its āsuitcase schoolā reputation over the past decade but there will nonetheless be a large number of NC residents there as it is an in-state school.
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