Hi,
My Daughter got selected to Texas A&M (Eng),Purdue Indianapolis(Mech Eng),Boston University(Mech Eng),RPI(Mech Eng),ASU(Barrett -Mech Eng) ,University of Wisconsin Madiaon( Mech Eng) colleges for fall 2025. Now we are not able to decide which one is the best out of these . Cost is not a factor.
Please advise .
Thanks
It all depends on fit. Would you mind giving a bit more info, like hobbies/personality? For example, BU has a significantly more competitive environment compared to UW Madison, which is collaborative.
she is from southern california so wheather is factor for sure. Plus in general lively campus she is looking for.she does have option to go UCR or UC Santa Cruz as well but for engineering ranking is not that great for those colleges.
First, congrats on many amazing options! I’ll address each college based on weather first:
Of course, these are just my thoughts, but based on weather alone, these are the vibes. Look for clubs, if possible, for hobbies. These are extremely important!
Congrats to your D for having some wonderful acceptances!
I will say this is a very different group of schools! Is your daughter wanting a big school, smaller school, city campus, location (warm/cold) preferences?
Some things to consider:
TAMU has a very high threshold to transition to major, 3.75.
Purdue Indy is a new campus and a very different experience than main campus which is over an hour away.
RPI - smaller, very tech focuses, Troy NY is a small town
Barrett - honors experience in a warm city
UW - a traditional Big 10 college experience in a fun city
She will get a great education at any of her options so I’d focus on what kind of experience she wants in regards to the other factors.
She can also check the 4 year plan of study to see if there are any differences that stand out to her.
Thank you this helps. Will look for possibilities in each college.
Thank you.
Be aware of the secondary admission at Texas A&M (called ETAM) and the weed-out progression GPAs for Wisconsin engineering majors.
For Texas A&M ETAM, a 3.75 college GPA auto-admits to the desired major. Otherwise, admission is competitive in holistic admission including essays. Mechanical engineering is one of the more competitive majors.
For Wisconsin, mechanical engineering majors need to earn a 3.2 college GPA in technical courses and 3.0 college GPA overall to stay in the major, according to https://engineering.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/First-year_GPA_requirements_for_progression_2024-25.pdf .
good to know
Has your daughter visited any of these campuses? If not, does she plan to attend any Admitted Student Days for these schools? Getting an in-person feel for the campuses and their respective student bodies might help with her decision.
yes, we are visiting Purdue (Indianpolis) ,ASU and Texas A& M for now. May consider Boston university but due to cold weather not 100 percent sure. Any idea about ASU(Barrett) mechanical engineering reputation/quality.
No idea about ASU, sorry.
Purdue University Indianapolis and Indiana University Indianapolis used to be part of a combined Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Before the split, about 60% of frosh did not live on campus, which is usually a proxy for commuter students. A mostly commuter university may not be the best social experience for an out-of-state student attending residentially.
Yes i heard its a small campus and not too many labs and research facilities there also.
Congrats on the acceptances.
Don’t worry about ranking. If she is interested in UCR, she can safely go.
What you need to be concerned about is ABET accreditation. My son went to a lower ranked school and interned and was hired with kids from the top schools like Michigan and Georgia Tech. And he also has a UCR colleague. Rank is for magazines - not real life. Santa Cruz does not offer MechE (or is not accredited) so it wouldn’t be a good choice.
A&M is HUGE - and has secondary admissions.
Purdue at Indy isn’t gonna be a lively campus.
BU - if A&M is suburban, no school is more urban. Budget doesn’t matter to you - but you are paying a lot more (double plus in some cases) to get the same outcome.
Wisconsin is a huge, rah rah school, on a lake - fine school but it will get cold.
ASU is a big, rah rah school, and it’s warm and closer to home.
I would first decide - if UCR, not thinking about rank, would be the favorite - I’d go there.
Not sure it’s lively.
If weather matters and warm, you can chance TAMU but you may not get your major.
So it seems to me ASU would be the way to go. If she’s into what Barrett offers, that’s a huge positive too - it’s one of the most respected Honors colleges. And you know you’l be in MechE - which is most important.
Bonus of ASU is it’s less than half the cost of BU. The beauty of BU is you’re smack in Boston - and while it’s not “campusy”, Boston is often considered the best of all college cities.
But one thing I’ll tell you is amongst all these schools - the outcome is likely to be similar - so in that sense, I’d say budget does matter (if you don’t want to overspend for no reason).
Best of luck whatever you decide.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. Make sense.
Any idea how is Purdue Indianapolis campus is for engineering?
ASU Barrett is one of the top honors colleges in the US. They have a whole separate dorms and cafeteria for their students. Although ASU once had a reputation for being a party school, they have attempted to change this perception by removing all frats and sororities from off campus onto campus. It is very hot and the campus is very huge. When you go to the ASU welcome you will see how massive the student population is. When my son took the tour, there were literally a thousand students touring with us and a thousand people sitting in on the various discussion groups about the various colleges and majors. It’s impressive to witness, but something to be aware of. Moreover it can get HOT. It is in Tempe after all. But I hear great things about ASU and Barrett College.
Being from California as you, both UCR and UCSC are very good schools. Riverside is hot and there’s little happening. To get to LA or Orange County will take you an hour at least. Moreover, it’s not that safe, Santa Cruz is pretty nice and about 30-45 minutes from San Jose and Silicon Valley. Housing, however is very limited and expensive I hear. I do know the students seem to like the school though. I haven’t heard much great things about UCR though.
Toured BU and we did not like the fact it has no campus and is basically two long streets a mile long. It did not feel like a college but their new Data Science/comp sci building does look kind of cool. The other buildings don’t look as nice and look like they are straight out of the 1950s brutalist architecture movement. Great location in Boston. Great college town. Very good school, too.
Self toured UWisc and that university was very nice. Right on the lake, beautiful college, fun college town, but it does get cold and I’m sure snows quite a bit. People are very nice and Chicago is not too far away (couple hours). Very good engineering school.
I don’t know about TA&M but great engineering school with great school spirit. College Station apparently is a bit tricky to get to. Probably need to fly into Austin or DFW and drive or take a bus or shuttle the 60-90 minutes. However, there’s a lot to do in Austin and DFW area. Houston is not too far away. Huge school but I’ve never seen it. Probably gets hot in the summer.
Don’t know about RPI but very good engineering school. Purdue West Lafayette main campus great engineering program but I don’t know about the Indianapolis location. I hear it’s smaller and new and doesn’t have as much of a reputation as the main campus.
If I was going to take everything into consideration and if money was no object, I’d probably want to go to a school with a good program and a place where I’d enjoy my college experience. To me, that would be either A&M, UWisc, and maybe BU. Outside would be ASU because of Barrett. If school program and prestige is important TA&M or U Wisc or RPI If college area and environment, BU or UWisc.
Good luck!
It is the same Purdue degree but the experience is not the same. The facilities, maker spaces, labs, etc… are on main campus. Not to mention sports and most clubs. There is a free shuttle but one hour each way doesn’t seem very practical.
My impression is that there are more instate local students at Indy, unless they are interested in auto sports engineering.
If your D wants the Purdue experience, I’d look closely at UWisc. That will come closer than the Indy campus.
That said, call admissions and have Purdue connect your child with an OOS mech e in Indy to see how their experience is going.
Thanks a lot for very detail explanation for each school. That cleared lot of our confusions. We are planning to visit Purdue Indianapolis and Texas A&M and ASU (Barrett) for sure.UCR and UCSC are always here for us since we are in California. Heard good things about BU and UWisc as well. So those are also in our radar.Thanks again.