That suggests that Purdue is really a reach, since she is aiming for one of the rare scholarships, rather than admission. Also, Colorado School of Mines would only be a safety if she were assured a scholarship that brings the price to within your limit.
But note that there is a secondary admission process to the major (entry-to-a-major or ETAM); students who earn a 3.5 college GPA can choose any engineering major, but those with lower GPAs go into a competitive admission process for whatever space remains in each major.
The exception to the Brown open curriculum is ABET accredited engineering majors, who must take at least four humanities and/or social studies courses, since ABET accreditation requires some general education. This is, however, of lower volume than the general education requirements at some other colleges like MIT and CPSLO.
Colorado School of Mines is a school she’s applying to because it’s free application and no essay required with Gold status. If she gets in, she will look at it, but it wasn’t on her original list of schools. So it’s a safety in that it’s a free option to apply to and a good school. We had looked at it and know the scholarships are limited, so may not be viable even if accepted. Safety may not be the right label, it’s basically a free hat to throw in the ring.
Purdue net price is $40k, which is at the top of her price range. That’s with no merit. So it’s a match and would work and be viable if she gets in. A scholarship would make it more attractive.
Texas A & M is a school we looked at and with the National Merit designation and other potential merit options including qualifying for in-state tuition, was an attractive option and still may resurface. She wasn’t keen on living in Texas was the hang-up. Florida schools weren’t really looked at either, but if she makes National Merit level, we will have to revisit her options and what doors that opens up.
@Matt34 Just to clarify, at Texas A & M, you qualify for NO tuition. I believe the Texas legislature has a law where if an OOS student receives a merit scholarship from a state-run school over $1K? $4K? per year, the student will automatically receive an OOS tuition waiver (as UT Austin provides in an extremely competitive format.)
At Texas A & M, the scholarship technically only covers in-state tuition, but it meets the threshold set by the state to waive OOS tuition, leaving you only with room & board/other fees like books (see the admissions website for specifics, as I think the scholarship offered is slightly more than tuition.)
The tuition waiver is an optional waiver that Texas public university campuses can offer. At Texas A&M, the minimum amount of other scholarships to qualify for the waiver is $4k (so the NMF award of $7.5k qualifies by itself, but the NMSF award of $3k does not). https://scholarships.tamu.edu/Non-Resident-Tuition-Waiver
@Matt34 …An earlier post made reference to Texas A&M’s engineering school as “good”. Without getting into a subjective word argument, I would move A&M’s engineering school WAY beyond the “good” category. If the financial numbers work for your family it should be a serious candidate. With a giant and extremely loyal alumni base and one of the largest endowments in the country, an engineering degree from Texas A&M can take your daughter as far as she wants to go in life.
Although I did not see it mentioned earlier in this thread, a solid safety school with a good engineering program and loyal alumni base is Auburn. Based on their past “merit awards”, the complete cost of attendance for an out-of-state student with your daughter’s stats is around $35k a year.
@RealityCheck13 I didn’t apply to Texas A & M or for engineering at any college (public health major, which is pretty far from engineering) so I didn’t really mean anything by calling it “good,” all I knew is that the school has a strong engineering/CS program. I’ll make sure to choose my words more carefully next time.
@PikachuRocks15 …It was certainly clear to me what you meant. I just wanted to alleviate any doubt the OP may have had regarding the quality of A&M’s program since he was from OOS (Minnesota) and was looking for opportunities for his daughter.
I know A&M has an excellent engineering program, I didn’t intend my choice in adjectives to make it appear theirs was not. We’ve looked at all the ‘good’ programs including MIT, Stanford, A&M, etc…thank you for the insight and your passion! If my daughter is fortunate to make the cut for National Merit Semi-finalist, we will definitely revisit the amazing opportunities at A&M and other schools that bump their offers to those that qualify.
I don’t think that Princeton offers Biomedical Engineering or Cal Poly offers Chemical Engineering…
If you like Boston/Cambridge (which is home to the top Biotech Cluster in the country), then you might want to look into Tufts.
Tufts is four miles from MIT and two miles from Harvard - all connected via the subway. Founded by Universalists, Tufts offers a very inclusive culture, and is known locally as a “kinder/gentler” version of MIT (i.e. “drinking from a fire hose” is discouraged because it tends to be unnecessarily painful as well as wasteful of a critical global resource).
Tufts has been a pioneer in encouraging women to explore engineering since the 1980’s. Three faculty members have received NSF/Presidential Awards for mentoring underrepresented minorities in STEM. Tufts created the Lego Mindstorms (leveraging some research done at MIT) and runs a global program to attract more K-12 students into engineering. Tufts has been running a net zero attrition rate out of engineering since the 1990’s.
Tufts meets full need financially, and was recently awarded an NSF grant that provides partial scholarships for students on financial aid that enroll in their 4+1 masters program.
Tufts would be a reach, but if your daughter enjoys and is successful in her STEM mentorship activities, then that would probably resonate with admissions and make her a “good fit”.
Thank you for the info! Yes, she knows that Cal Poly doesn’t offer Chemical and Princeton Biomedical, so she’d have to truly determine which is her passion if she were to be accepted and decide to attend. My cousin went to Tufts and loved it.
Their Engineering Plus program gives students the opportunity to combine engineering with other areas of interest. http://viterbiadmission.usc.edu/plus/
Finally, the Viterbi fellowship program enables students to do research as early as first semester of their freshman year. http://viterbiadmission.usc.edu/fellows/
In general, everyone should understand the competition for a tippy top is fierce. I think you’re in the right place, re: finding a good balance of schools and being rational. You’ve come far. But this this perspective is worth remembering, by anyone in any search that looks at the “most competitive” schools:
From post 15.“While she may say she’s interested in engineering, your daughter’s ECs don’t demonstrate that so for the more competitive (ie holistic reviews) schools this may be a challenge for her…As an example, my DD had many engineering related activities in HS - robotics, STEM clubs / tutoring, summer jobs in the STEM field, etc.”
It’s just a fact of the sort of kids competing, their energy and drives, plus how they tested their interest in some way, in the real world.
Granted, she picked up the girls in stem activity (and has other nice rounding.) But for strategy purposes, any chance she has- or can get in- some quick first hand exposure to engineering beyond this? Many kids are attracted to engineering by the great inventions, innovations, and the sorts of problem solving, etc, not realizing the day-to-day work and the value of collaborative skills. This understanding is important IF the supplement asks why the engineering interest, how she feels prepped, and her goals.
With the uber reaches, it’s good to have some idea of how to package oneself.
Thank you all again for the great feedback. The engineering interest is a newer one. Prior to that, she had been looking at going into either being a Statistician or an Actuary. She has always been very passionate about math, but only recently was exposed to chemistry and developed an interest in that as well. She has been a math tutor to fellow students within the school the past 2 years and now this fall is online tutoring a student who lives in South America. Frankly, between her school coursework, competitive swimming year round, speech team, band and softball, she doesn’t have a lot of hours in the day to do a whole lot more. I don’t know where she would squeeze in many more activities. So hopefully her leadership roles as Swim Team Captain and Drum Major and Section Leader in Band help elevate her resume in addition to running the Women in STEM Club.
As far as trying to gain some first-hand exposure. I have a good friend who is an executive at Cargill, and she is going to put her into contact with some engineers and mathematicians that work for her, both as people to speak at the Women in STEM meetings hopefully but also people for my daughter to talk to and gain some knowledge into their respective engineering fields.
I believe the Texas legislature has a law where if an OOS student receives a merit scholarship from a state-run school over $1K? $4K? per year, the student will automatically receive an OOS tuition waiver (as UT Austin provides in an extremely competitive format.)