<p>Hello,</p>
<pre><code> I am planning on attending school next year and currently have the choice (by residency requirements) to attend schools in these states. Does anyone have recommendations about schools in these states, their programs, life outside of school, etc.
I would like to go into engineering, but I haven’t decided on a specailty yet. Thanks in advance for all replies.
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<p>You said nothing about your interests, what sort of campus you’re looking for, what fields other than engineering you’re considering, etc, so it is difficult to give a lot of information.</p>
<p>Based on your comment, though, it looks like you want an in-state engineering school. From those states (and just looking at rankings and prestige): </p>
<p>Best: University of Maryland
Very Good: Ohio State
Good: Rutgers, UC-Boulder
OK: Dayton, Cincinnati, Colorado State, Colorado School of Mines</p>
<p>You’ll have a very different experience at each of those schools, though.</p>
<p>To throw out another name for Ohio, Case Western is a great overall school with good engineering. It is private though so being in state wouldn’t help you out.</p>
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<p>Yeah, I tried to avoid the Private schools (since the OP talked about residency and only listed states where he/she can claim residency), otherwise I would have mentioned Hopkins.</p>
<p>To the OP - are you certain you can claim residency in all of those states? Many people are mistaken about residency requirements and think they can claim a in-state somewhere that they can not (e.g. they have divorced parents in two states and assume that can use either, when in fact they might only be able to use the one from which they graduated high school).</p>
<p>Thank you for the information and I’m sorry that I wasn’t more detailed. </p>
<p>I am prior military and will be using the post 9/11 MGIB to fund my education. Public schools are best or ones with a Yellow Ribbon program. </p>
<p>I am currently a resident of Maryland and have been doing a little research about waivers for veterans and their residency status. Most schools offer a waiver if you seperated from the military within one year but I left the military over two years ago. The states I listed prior (CO, NJ, and OH) are the only ones I have been able to find a residency waiver for if you are veteran.</p>
<p>Interests…thats a good one. My current interests are to do something different…almost anything different. I am looking at engineering in general, but would definitely need a school that offers a good variety of majors. I find almost everything interesting these days and might possibly change my major at some point. I currently work 65-80 hours a week and don’t have time for anything else. I’m currently making 50K but with those kind of hours and the job being manual labor, I really need to do something else. I also feel as though I am getting dumber as the days go on.</p>
<p>Outside interests: All the generics, traveling, watching movies, plays, darts, motorcycling, etc. Of course, I don’t really plan on being able to do any of these things while I am in school. I also haven’t done these things for over a year now and am quite broken of these habits.</p>
<p>College/Campus looking for: I must say that I can make the best of a situation and I’m not so much worried about that. I do believe that I would like a friendly location where people are kinder in general. (I used to live in southern VA and the people down there are much more hospitable/open than the people I have met here in MD.) I would also really like somewhere that you can get around easy enough and don’t require a vehicle.</p>
<p>So, looking back over all of this, the University of Maryland is a top choice, but I would like to hear about other schools that you all might be able to recommend.</p>
<p>I would love to find out about other schools that are able to waive the residency requirement or possible schools overseas. The problem with studying abroad though is that I don’t know of any schools that will accept you as a freshman and not being registered with a college in the U.S.A.</p>
<p>So, any and all comments are welcome. Also, thank you for reading this, your input, and your time.</p>
<p>Bill</p>
<p>Do you have SAT scores or a GPA or anything like that? It would help to see what level of school you’re shooting for. There are a lot of Yellow Ribbon schools (a LOT), so that would help us reduce the list.</p>
<p>Also, one thing you’ll have trouble finding is a southern school (i.e. “nicer people”) with good public transportation (able to live without a vehicle). Southern colleges tend to be in more rural areas, and even those in major cities do not have the best public transportation system.</p>
<p>I think Ohio State University is a great idea. Columbus is a great medium-sized city, the college is right in town, and you can survive there without a car. OSU is big; I think you need a big school so there are many other students of all ages, good support for vets, and many academic programs in case you change your mind about what you want to major in.</p>
<p>OSU Core Services support for students who are veterans:
<a href=“404 - Human Resources at Ohio State”>404 - Human Resources at Ohio State;
<p>And, I just wanted to add, people in Ohio are very nice.</p>
<p>I do not have an ACT/SAT score (A long time ago). When I graduated high school only the ACT was required and that was back in 1997. My GPA from High School is low…about 2.5 or so. I believe that since I’ve been out of school for so long that I usually have to take a competency test for all colleges but I’m not sure about this. I’m also not sure how the Yellow Ribbon program and your prior school grades are figured into it…let me explain that a little better.</p>
<p>Ex: Gentleman retires from the military after 25 years of service and decides he wants to go to college. Decides to use the Yellow Ribbon Program and apply to Harvard. Harvard then asks for GPA from High School and ACT/SAT scores.</p>
<p>Now I could definitely see having to take competency tests, but other than that…I really have no clue about being able to get into a Yellow Ribbon school.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve been finding that you require a vehicle for most smaller/rural colleges.</p>
<p>Thanks for the recommendation of OSU. </p>
<p>Once again, thanks for all the info!</p>
<p>Bill</p>
<p>Since you’ve been out of school for 10+ years, you’re considered a non-traditional student. Different schools have different requirements for non-traditional students: some still require an SAT score, some do not. Some look at high school grades, some just at work experience. Looking at the Post-9/11 GI Bill, it also looks like there’s no standard for admission to Yellow Ribbon schools. </p>
<p>Is there someone at the VA you can contact to discuss this program in detail? Maybe they have more information. You can also try posting on this section: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/non-traditional-students/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/non-traditional-students/</a></p>
<p>One personal suggestion as someone that was in college at the same age - avoid college towns. In those places, most of the events are centered around drinking with the 21 year olds, and while that might seem fun at first, it gets old very quick when you’re in your late 20’s / early 30’s.</p>
<p>You may have more options than you realize. If you have Maryland residency then you qualify for the Academic Common Market, where you can pay in-state tuition for programs not offered in Maryland at many Southern colleges. Here’s a listing: <a href=“http://home.sreb.org/acm/SearchResult.aspx?state=MD[/url]”>http://home.sreb.org/acm/SearchResult.aspx?state=MD</a> and there are multiple pages. I don’t know of any reason you wouldn’t be able to qualify for the program, but if you email your state representative from the site you should be able to find out for sure.</p>
<p>Thank you both for the information. I like the ACM info and will have to look into that a lot more.</p>
<p>Yeah, the drinking (younger crowd) sounds nice at first, but then again, I’ve already had plenty of those times in the military. </p>
<p>Thanks to all!</p>
<p>Bill</p>