College Admissions Questions (1 Viewer)

[SFBayDuck]

Congrats, that is awesome!  Davis was her first choice, right?  If so, what are the considerations that might lead her to go a different direction (other than the food service issue)? I know people who’ve gone to LMU and really liked their experience. Chapman has a bit of a reputation as a school for spoiled OC rich kids (and yes, my kid goes to USC so I’m not being judgy).  UC Irvine is a good school in a great location (though I’m biased as I went to high school in Irvine).

As for the diet situation, would you consider campus apartment living where she cooks for herself?  I know that many school cafeterias are much more conscious of food allergies these days and go to great lengths to have separate food service areas for the most common allergies, but even so, maybe it would be better for her to prepare her own meals?

Thanks!  And I appreciate your thoughts on LMU and Chapman.  She's still not sure if she wants to go down and check them out, she was crying last night just overwhelmed and not knowing how she's going to choose, worried that she'd make a "wrong choice."  I just kept telling her she's got a couple of great "right choices" to choose from.

With her allergies, we've definitely considered an apartment with a kitchen, but my fear there is it would take her away from other freshman and the "normal freshman experience".  I keep telling her that there are already a lot of kids just like her already there, so they're used to dealing with it - of course I just hope that's true.  My guess is that from sophomore year on she'll be in an apartment type setting, so it's just that first year we have to get through.  But freshman year is so crucial to the overall college experience that I really hope we can figure it out.

 

[El Floppo]

overwhelmed and not knowing how she's going to choose, worried that she'd make a "wrong choice."  I just kept telling her she's got a couple of great "right choices" to choose from.

Can empathize with all of that...and your advice is identical to what we told my son. Very excited for you guys having such great choices!

I ended up deciding my own college choice the day decisions were due. I stayed home in a panic, uncertain how I was going to pick- and by chance, a local architect (he was an inspiration for me) and old family friend just happened to be walking by the house. My dad sent him in to talk to me- looked over the two schools and genuinely helped me make that decision (one school had a small architecture program, the other didn't).

It was the wrong choice unfortunately, and I've paid the price ever since. But no stress on you kid!

 

[Galileo]

Yeah haven’t been updating every day but my kid has now been admitted to the engineering programs at four different schools (Washington U. in St. Louis, UC San Diego, Ohio State, Virginia Tech), still waiting to hear from four more (Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, Carnegie Mellon).  

Awesome.  We are expecting to hear from Berkeley tonight.  They said afternoon/early evening (pacific time).

 

[The Z Machine]

Awesome.  We are expecting to hear from Berkeley tonight.  They said afternoon/early evening (pacific time).

Gllllllll

 

[Galileo]

Waitlisted at UC Berkeley.    Sort of odd this late in the game to get a waitlist.  Other colleges want to know intentions by May 1st.  Can't really wait around.  Oh well.  Looks like Purdue gets another big bump up the list.  We are driving to Purdue on Sunday and will check it out on Monday in person.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

Waitlisted at UC Berkeley.    Sort of odd this late in the game to get a waitlist.  Other colleges want to know intentions by May 1st.  Can't really wait around.  Oh well.  Looks like Purdue gets another big bump up the list.  We are driving to Purdue on Sunday and will check it out on Monday in person.

Mine was rejected from Berkeley.  Got a nice scholarship offer from UC San Diego today, though.  Has a trip booked to see Wash U. with his mom in a couple weeks.  
 

Berkeley was his first choice but he has a lot of good options he’s excited about.  Didn’t seem very disappointed at all — he’s on a zoom thing with admitted Wash U. students now.

 

[ericttspikes]

Waitlisted at UC Berkeley.    Sort of odd this late in the game to get a waitlist.  Other colleges want to know intentions by May 1st.  Can't really wait around.  Oh well.  Looks like Purdue gets another big bump up the list.  We are driving to Purdue on Sunday and will check it out on Monday in person.

We’re going to Purdue Saturday. We’ve been there before and my daughter loved it, but want to get  a fresh look. 99% sure it will be Purdue for her. Boiler up!

 

[Galileo]

Mine was rejected from Berkeley.  Got a nice scholarship offer from UC San Diego today, though.  Has a trip booked to see Wash U. with his mom in a couple weeks.  
 

Berkeley was his first choice but he has a lot of good options he’s excited about.  Didn’t seem very disappointed at all — he’s on a zoom thing with admitted Wash U. students now.

I didn't verify the numbers, but my son said he looked it up and they had ~115,000 applications for about 15,000 accepted spots.  7000 offered wait-list status.  College Hunch shows their applications at around 87-88k, so there was a pretty sizable bump this year.

 

[Sinn Fein]

This American Life

The Campus Tour Has Been Cancelled

How the pandemic has thrown college admissions process into a kind of slow-motion chaos. One of the biggest changes: most colleges have stopped requiring the SAT. For decades, there’s been a debate over whether schools should drop the test. What’s it mean that it finally happened?

link to apple podcast - this just happens to be where I listen to podcasts, but it would be available wherever you normally listen to podcasts.

 

[The Z Machine]

Purdue is a great engineering school.  If I were reviewing resumes I would definitely take note of a recent Purdue grad.

Lots of things to like about UCSD. Location and quality of life are excellent.  I don't know much about their engineering overall, nor Wash U of St Louis.  CMU is another good school and definitely worth considering if Peter gets in. 

 

[gianmarco]

Peter has never seen Wash U, his mother is trying to plan a trip to take him there in a couple weeks.  He hasn't seen Ohio State or Michigan either so depending on his interest there might need to also be last-minute trips to those.  College visits are something Peter has done with my ex, I haven't seen any of them.  I'll wait to just check out wherever he ends up going.

If you need any tips/help with that, PM me.

 

[=Smackdown=]

Been a while since I checked in . . .

Declined: Georgia Tech, MIT & UC Berkley

Still waiting on: Maryland, NYU, McGill

Wait listed: UCLA, UNC

Accepted to: VT, Buffalo, RPI, Penn State, Drexel, Clarkson, Sienna, Binghamton, Stevens, UC San Diego, & BU

Going for Mechanical Engineering - as of today it seems Stevens is the leader in the clubhouse offering roughly a close to 50% scholarship. Last week UC San Diego was the favorite. His decision changes by the day. 
 

I hope he stays on the East coast. 

 

[NewlyRetired]

Accepted to: VT, Buffalo, RPI, Penn State, Drexel, Clarkson, Sienna, Binghamton, Stevens, UC San Diego, & BU

nice group of schools!

My niece and nephew both just graduated from RPI and got fantastic educations there.  I have another nephew at Drexel and he loves it there.  It appears to be a very Northeastern like school in case you have any interest in Co-op.

For those hoping to see their kids move on to jobs immediately after graduating (specifically engineering/ CS students), look strongly at co-op programs.  My brothers kids are now 3 for 3 in being hired full time as soon as they graduated directly into the job they co oped at.

 

[=Smackdown=]

For those hoping to see their kids move on to jobs immediately after graduating (specifically engineering/ CS students), look strongly at co-op programs.  My brothers kids are now 3 for 3 in being hired full time as soon as they graduated directly into the job they co oped at.

Thx NR. Our first child to college so this is all new to us.

Can you explain the “co-op programs” - what it is and how he gets into something like that?

 

[NewlyRetired]

Thx NR. Our first child to college so this is all new to us.

Can you explain the “co-op programs” - what it is and how he gets into something like that?

Some schools (Northeastern is the prototype) have co -op programs.

These programs seed kids directly into jobs in their major.  It works incredibly well for engineering students since they can get hands on experience and the pay is usually pretty good too.   This gives their resume a HUGE leg up on other kids who don't get this experience.

The trade off for this advantage is that your college education is extended beyond the 4 years, typically running 5 years.   The reason the time extends is that the student usually spends a couple of semesters (and summers) working.

I did this when I was in school.  I was an average student at best and I got multiple job offers ahead of class mates who had  better grades but no experience.  I went with the company that I worked with on co op.  It just made things so much easier for your first real job because you already know every one and what is expected of you, and you can hit the ground sprinting.

 

[johnnycakes]

Some schools (Northeastern is the prototype) have co -op programs.

These programs seed kids directly into jobs in their major.  It works incredibly well for engineering students since they can get hands on experience and the pay is usually pretty good too.   This gives their resume a HUGE leg up on other kids who don't get this experience.

The trade off for this advantage is that your college education is extended beyond the 4 years, typically running 5 years.   The reason the time extends is that the student usually spends a couple of semesters (and summers) working.

I did this when I was in school.  I was an average student at best and I got multiple job offers ahead of class mates who had  better grades but no experience.  I went with the company that I worked with on co op.  It just made things so much easier for your first real job because you already know every one and what is expected of you, and you can hit the ground sprinting.

When I was with The Firm, we hired kids from Northeastern every tax season to assist in preparing tax returns.  Accounting majors.  And yeah, the best ones got job offers.  

 

[belljr]

Some schools (Northeastern is the prototype) have co -op programs.

These programs seed kids directly into jobs in their major.  It works incredibly well for engineering students since they can get hands on experience and the pay is usually pretty good too.   This gives their resume a HUGE leg up on other kids who don't get this experience.

The trade off for this advantage is that your college education is extended beyond the 4 years, typically running 5 years.   The reason the time extends is that the student usually spends a couple of semesters (and summers) working.

I did this when I was in school.  I was an average student at best and I got multiple job offers ahead of class mates who had  better grades but no experience.  I went with the company that I worked with on co op.  It just made things so much easier for your first real job because you already know every one and what is expected of you, and you can hit the ground sprinting.

Son went to Drexel and co-op for 18 months over 5 years at 3 companies. One offered him a job upon graduation

 

[The Z Machine]

Co-op programs are great to build experience. In ME in particular, and likely EE and CS too, the top undergrad engineering schools are really best at 1 thing: making engineering grad students.  They teach you how to do research, collect and analyze data, write reports, etc.  They don't teach the nuts and bolts of engineering all that well: tolerance stackups, technical documentation, CAD assemblies, failure analysis, etc.  That's because the professors aren't doing nuts and bolts research.  That stuff isn't important to them.  Finding good undergrads that they can turn into good graduate student researchers is much more valuable. 

So the co-op programs help teach those fundamental skills to the undergrads that they might not get in their coursework.

But if they want to get PhD, then a good undergrad education at a top school goes a long way. 

 

[⚡DEADHEAD⚡]

Wait listed at Pepperdine, but accepted at UC Davis!  So that's 7 acceptances, 2 wait lists, and USD still outstanding (which she isn't considering anymore).  Really proud and happy for her.

Davis, St. Marys, Pepperdine, and Santa Clara have been the leaders for most of this process, and with two acceptances and two wait lists, looks like her decision will be down to those first two.  She is considering a two-day trip down south to visit LMU, Chapman, and UC Irvine, something I'm encouraging her to do but I can tell she's just not sure she wants to leave Northern California for school.  

Still dealing with the FAFSA mess as well, but narrowing in on cleaning that up (ex-wife initially filed as divorced, which is obviously true, but she's re-married so underreported total income).  

Not sure I've mentioned it here but she has multiple life-threatening food allergies, so accomodations for that in student housing will absolutely be part of her decision.  That part is a bit overwhelming, as she has rarely eaten food prepared outside of her homes her whole life.  

Outstanding!

UC Davis rejected my initial application in 1989. I appealed that decision and got in, and committed on the spot. One of the best decisions I made in my life. I've lived in the Bay Area, with stints in Europe, since (I attended high school in the East Bay). My Davis experience - as a student, as a young adult figuring things out, as a social person, as a friend - was just plain outstanding. I made mistakes. I was allowed to make mistakes. And I learned from them. Davis is an excellent community made up of excellent people, and most doors I've built and opened since have some Davis element in their origins. Within a 30 minute drive, I have a dozen friends from Davis who I see regularly, and care about deeply. They are lawyers, engineers, tech investors, teachers, political scientists, recruiters, executives. My kids are friends with their kids, and who knows, some may date each other some day.

It's not to say kids can't have these experiences anywhere/elsewhere. It's all about fit. A college town with a challenging school about an hour and a half drive from my parents house was the perfect fit for me. Conversely, my brother got into and went to Cal, obviously a far more urban experience with many more distractions, and his experience was not a good one.

Wish her all the best in her decision-making! And congratulations! Bravo!

 

[SFBayDuck]

Outstanding!

UC Davis rejected my initial application in 1989. I appealed that decision and got in, and committed on the spot. One of the best decisions I made in my life. I've lived in the Bay Area, with stints in Europe, since (I attended high school in the East Bay). My Davis experience - as a student, as a young adult figuring things out, as a social person, as a friend - was just plain outstanding. I made mistakes. I was allowed to make mistakes. And I learned from them. Davis is an excellent community made up of excellent people, and most doors I've built and opened since have some Davis element in their origins. Within a 30 minute drive, I have a dozen friends from Davis who I see regularly, and care about deeply. They are lawyers, engineers, tech investors, teachers, political scientists, recruiters, executives. My kids are friends with their kids, and who knows, some may date each other some day.

It's not to say kids can't have these experiences anywhere/elsewhere. It's all about fit. A college town with a challenging school about an hour and a half drive from my parents house was the perfect fit for me. Conversely, my brother got into and went to Cal, obviously a far more urban experience with many more distractions, and his experience was not a good one.

Wish her all the best in her decision-making! And congratulations! Bravo!

Thanks!  And the bolded is where I think her head is right now, as well.  Wherever she chooses I hope she has as good an experience as I had at Oregon, and that it sounds like you had at Davis.

 

[SteelCurtain]

Thanks!  And I appreciate your thoughts on LMU and Chapman.  She's still not sure if she wants to go down and check them out, she was crying last night just overwhelmed and not knowing how she's going to choose, worried that she'd make a "wrong choice."  I just kept telling her she's got a couple of great "right choices" to choose from.

With her allergies, we've definitely considered an apartment with a kitchen, but my fear there is it would take her away from other freshman and the "normal freshman experience".  I keep telling her that there are already a lot of kids just like her already there, so they're used to dealing with it - of course I just hope that's true.  My guess is that from sophomore year on she'll be in an apartment type setting, so it's just that first year we have to get through.  But freshman year is so crucial to the overall college experience that I really hope we can figure it out.

If I were you, I would call the dining services at each of the schools and explain her situation.  Colleges deal with a multitude of dietary restrictions (vegan, gluten free, international students have their own restrictions, religious, etc.). This isn’t new and it’s completely appropriate to make this call.  Don’t talk to Admissions.  You need to talk to the dining service provider (which at many schools is an outside company contracted at the university.) At smaller schools, you may be talking to the executive chef.

Not only do you want to ask about what type of food would be offered to her but how would she get her food (call ahead, it’s put in a special location in dining hall, etc.)  Also ask about the secondary dining areas around campus if need be (i.e., will the Starbucks at the library have anything for her, etc.)

Good luck!

 

[NewlyRetired]

If I were you, I would call the dining services at each of the schools and explain her situation.  Colleges deal with a multitude of dietary restrictions (vegan, gluten free, international students have their own restrictions, religious, etc.). This isn’t new and it’s completely appropriate to make this call.  Don’t talk to Admissions.  You need to talk to the dining service provider (which at many schools is an outside company contracted at the university.) At smaller schools, you may be talking to the executive chef.

Not only do you want to ask about what type of food would be offered to her but how would she get her food (call ahead, it’s put in a special location in dining hall, etc.)  Also ask about the secondary dining areas around campus if need be (i.e., will the Starbucks at the library have anything for her, etc.)

Good luck!

Great advice! 

With my daughters social issues, she refused to ever go to the caf and always ate alone in her room.  When we explained to the school that she did not need to be on the food plan any more, they were ready to do pretty much anything we would have asked for to accommodate her diet (they had assumed it was a diet issue).

I think this goes for a lot of things too, not just food.  Schools are just a million times more accommodating for kids than they were for us, which was more of a sink or swim approach.

My daughter has been paid by the school for 4 years to provide her class notes to other students in need as part of an accommodations program.

 

[ex-ghost]

Been a while since I checked in . . .

Declined: Georgia Tech, MIT & UC Berkley

Still waiting on: Maryland, NYU, McGill

Wait listed: UCLA, UNC

Accepted to: VT, Buffalo, RPI, Penn State, Drexel, Clarkson, Sienna, Binghamton, Stevens, UC San Diego, & BU

Going for Mechanical Engineering - as of today it seems Stevens is the leader in the clubhouse offering roughly a close to 50% scholarship. Last week UC San Diego was the favorite. His decision changes by the day. 
 

I hope he stays on the East coast. 

Holy ####, so many applications!

 

[⚡DEADHEAD⚡]

My daughter has been paid by the school for 4 years to provide her class notes to other students in need as part of an accommodations program.

I did this at UC Davis in the early 1990s. It was called Classical Notes, and I'd guess it's still a service. I'd rewrite my class notes so they'd be legible, turn them in, the service would print and sell copies to students who either missed class or bought the notes for the quarter. I made $15/hour of class, which was good money. And I pretty much locked in a high grade in the class given time spent on the subject.

 

[Galileo]

Holy ####, so many applications!

That's a lot of fees!

 

[Galileo]

99.9% sure that Purdue will be the place for Galileo Jr.  We just came back from a visit and my son really liked it.  To be honest, I really liked it.  He wishes it was part of, or nearer to, a big city, but I think he is working past that.  We are going to take a ride to Ohio State tomorrow and look around also.  That is the remaining 0.1%, but I think he is sold on Purdue.

 

[bigbottom]

99.9% sure that Purdue will be the place for Galileo Jr.  We just came back from a visit and my son really liked it.  To be honest, I really liked it.  He wishes it was part of, or nearer to, a big city, but I think he is working past that.  We are going to take a ride to Ohio State tomorrow and look around also.  That is the remaining 0.1%, but I think he is sold on Purdue.

That’s awesome!  We really loved our visit there. And had dinner at a killer authentic Chinese restaurant. The campus is great and the engineering buildings are incredibly impressive. Did you see the moon rocks?

 

[bigbottom]

That's a lot of fees!

So many essays!

 

[The_Man]

With the expected Tufts rejection last night, we're done. 

Accepted: Tulane, Macalester, UVermont, American, George Washington, Boston U
Rejected: Tufts

UVM remains his clear front-runner, even though he's never visited. We lived in Burlington for 7 years (all of them before he was born) so he's been there a lot to visit and we still have good friends in town. We're driving up in 2 weeks and a friend of a friend is going to show him around. Then we'll drive down to Boston and walk around BU. I think these 2 are the only schools he's still considering and if it were up to him, he'd just enroll at Vermont now.

We're making him at least look just in case it doesn't match his mental image. I also grapple a little with my feeling there will be fewer resources at a public university dealing with budget cuts than at any of his other choices. And I have to deal with my own biases about him going to the lowest-rated school that accepted him, though ultimately I'm the world's biggest cheerleader for "fit" and that a kid's success is based primarily on being invested in wherever they end up. He's been accepted into a liberal arts learning program that gives him a housing group and an academically themed focus for the first year, which is the kind of thing I think will help him succeed. If that is his final choice, I'm going to see if we can negotiate his way into the Honors College, only because the priority registration its students get will ease a lot of my concerns about institutional resources. My older son's longtime girlfriend (since high school) graduated from BU last year and loved it, so she's pushing it hard! And my mother-in-law lives a couple miles from campus, so that's appealing.

Thanks to the jobs my wife and I have, tuition is pretty much covered at all these schools. UVM is the only merit award he got that can be applied to room & board, which means it would essentially be entirely free while the others would cost us $20-24K per year. Can't deny the appeal of that!

 

[The Z Machine]

UVM is the only merit award he got that can be applied to room & board, which means it would essentially be entirely free while the others would cost us $20-24K per year. Can't deny the appeal of that!

 

 

[Nigel]

Thanks to the jobs my wife and I have, tuition is pretty much covered at all these schools. UVM is the only merit award he got that can be applied to room & board, which means it would essentially be entirely free while the others would cost us $20-24K per year. Can't deny the appeal of that!

Dang that's awesome! Did the same thing apply to Brown tuition?

My SIL has a job that enabled her four daughters to all go to Boston College tuition-free, three have graduated and one is a soph there now. Almost a million $ perk. 

 

[bigbottom]

Dang that's awesome! Did the same thing apply to Brown tuition?

My SIL has a job that enabled her four daughters to all go to Boston College tuition-free, three have graduated and one is a soph there now. Almost a million $ perk. 

Yeah, my brother works for a university and all four of his kids have graduated or will graduate with four years free tuition. It’s such an incredible perk. 

 

[Nigel]

Yeah, my brother works for a university and all four of his kids have graduated or will graduate with four years free tuition. It’s such an incredible perk. 

The only downside is that my nieces never really had a choice where they went - if they got admitted they were going. BC is not a bad place to be "forced" to go, but it's not a good fit for everyone. 

 

[The_Man]

Dang that's awesome! Did the same thing apply to Brown tuition?

My SIL has a job that enabled her four daughters to all go to Boston College tuition-free, three have graduated and one is a soph there now. Almost a million $ perk. 

Johns Hopkins has a benefit that your kid gets half of JHU's tuition to take with them wherever they go. Since we both work there, it's 2 halves = 1 whole

Unfortunately you have to work there for 2 years to qualify, and I didn't pass that mark in time for my older son. On the other hand, we got 50% tuition remission on his private high school where I worked until moving to Hopkins.

Been paying at least one tuition every year since Fall 2012, been paying 2 during 6 of those years, very much looking forward to the full tuition benefit for second kid's college.

Let's just say that there's a lot of stuff we've been putting off for 9 years, combined with having no kids in the house for the first time since 1997, combined with the pandemic ending, has me the most excited I've been about back to school since the late 80s.

 

[The Z Machine]

Yeah, that Hopkins tuition perk is pretty sweet. Let's hope they don't cancel it in the next 15 years...

Assuming we stay in Bawlmer.

 

[The_Man]

Yeah, that Hopkins tuition perk is pretty sweet. Let's hope they don't cancel it in the next 15 years...

Assuming we stay in Bawlmer.

That’s the hard part. My wife has been there a long time and every time she talks about leaving, I’m like .... 6 more years .... 5 more years .... etc

 

[The Z Machine]

That’s the hard part. My wife has been there a long time and every time she talks about leaving, I’m like .... 6 more years .... 5 more years .... etc

My wife has a colleague that has put 1.75 sons through undergrad using that benefit.  3rd one is headed to college next year.  Golden handcuffs...

 

[=Smackdown=]

Applying to close to 20 schools with the essays, scholarship forms, etc. is like a second job - brutal.

College tours in full swing. Checked out Stevens in Hoboken yesterday.

VT, MD and RPI on schedule for this weekend.

Clarkson, Penn State, Buffalo all possibilities for next week.

CA schools after that.

 

[El Floppo]

Applying to close to 20 schools with the essays, scholarship forms, etc. is like a second job - brutal.

College tours in full swing. Checked out Stevens in Hoboken yesterday.

VT, MD and RPI on schedule for this weekend.

Clarkson, Penn State, Buffalo all possibilities for next week.

CA schools after that.

GL!

Seeing what my wife and floppinho put in for HSs this year...I can't even imagine what it's going to look like for college.

You guys near NYC? Hoboken would be a fun mix of urban/suburban proximities.

 

[ericttspikes]

99.9% sure that Purdue will be the place for Galileo Jr.  We just came back from a visit and my son really liked it.  To be honest, I really liked it.  He wishes it was part of, or nearer to, a big city, but I think he is working past that.  We are going to take a ride to Ohio State tomorrow and look around also.  That is the remaining 0.1%, but I think he is sold on Purdue.

Purdue Engineering for my oldest daughter as well. We visited last Saturday and had a great time. My only hesitation is not really knowing how restrictive college life will be this Fall. Tough to pay that kind of money for a watered down experience IMO. My daughter is also a musician and is trying out for several of their bands, including marching. So hoping things are better in the Fall and she can participate in those, especially after no marching band her senior year after finally making head drum major. Just crushing after all the work and time she put into that.

But Purdue is great. Chicago isn't that far away. We live just outside Chicago and proximity to home was a huge factor in choosing Purdue. Easy drive and we can see ourselves visiting on weekends to take in football and bball and see her play in the band. And it's an easy commute home for her to be with family.

She really liked the Engineering campus. Our tour was given by a student who is a part of the Purdue Women in Engineering program. She was a wealth of knowledge and we all liked the support system the program offers for her. We're excited.

 

[Galileo]

Purdue Engineering for my oldest daughter as well. We visited last Saturday and had a great time. My only hesitation is not really knowing how restrictive college life will be this Fall. Tough to pay that kind of money for a watered down experience IMO. My daughter is also a musician and is trying out for several of their bands, including marching. So hoping things are better in the Fall and she can participate in those, especially after no marching band her senior year after finally making head drum major. Just crushing after all the work and time she put into that.

But Purdue is great. Chicago isn't that far away. We live just outside Chicago and proximity to home was a huge factor in choosing Purdue. Easy drive and we can see ourselves visiting on weekends to take in football and bball and see her play in the band. And it's an easy commute home for her to be with family.

She really liked the Engineering campus. Our tour was given by a student who is a part of the Purdue Women in Engineering program. She was a wealth of knowledge and we all liked the support system the program offers for her. We're excited.

Awesome!  We had a lengthy dialogue with one of the Nuclear Engineering professors.  He said the university is planning a full return to in person classes with some downsizing of class sizes.  He praised the university for having foresight and not waiting until last minute to make decisions throughout the pandemic experience.  Obviously, if conditions dictate, those plans can always change, but he was pretty certain they would be back close to normal.  

 

[=Smackdown=]

Stevens grad here. Set me up really well. Happy to help if that is where he wants to go. 

@Gamma1210

Decision due by May 1st.

He's leaning towards Stevens right now - so any advice or insight you can give me Gamma would be greatly appreciated.

Hearing great things about the school but it is certainly not cheap. They are offering roughly 40% scholarship/merit. is that negotiable? Other schools have offered more - can we use those against Stevens? Chances they increase their merit award?

I have so many questions for you . . 

Did you do the 5 year co-op option with Stevens? When does he apply for something like this? How was your experience with the co-op? Do a lot of companies in the area offer this type of program?

When he leaves this school after 5 years and has student loans of 100-120K what is the ROI? Did you leave in crippling debt?

Clarkson offering much more merit - any experience with Clarkson? SUNY Buffalo/VT much cheaper and both have good reps - but he's dead set against going to Buffalo.

Where did you go to grad school?

I'm sure I'll have more questions over the next few weeks- - any help/guidance you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Gamma1210]

@Gamma1210

Decision due by May 1st.

He's leaning towards Stevens right now - so any advice or insight you can give me Gamma would be greatly appreciated.

Hearing great things about the school but it is certainly not cheap. They are offering roughly 40% scholarship/merit. is that negotiable? Other schools have offered more - can we use those against Stevens? Chances they increase their merit award?

I have so many questions for you . . 

Did you do the 5 year co-op option with Stevens? When does he apply for something like this? How was your experience with the co-op? Do a lot of companies in the area offer this type of program?

When he leaves this school after 5 years and has student loans of 100-120K what is the ROI? Did you leave in crippling debt?

Clarkson offering much more merit - any experience with Clarkson? SUNY Buffalo/VT much cheaper and both have good reps - but he's dead set against going to Buffalo.

Where did you go to grad school?

I'm sure I'll have more questions over the next few weeks- - any help/guidance you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Hey Smack, I'm sure I'll miss some things but here we go. 

For the merit, think I was around the same 30-40%, although it was cheaper then. Everything is negotiable, but I know this is a strange year with applications way up. I think it makes sense to have the conversation, it's a small school and admissions getting to know you and your son is not a bad thing. 

I did not do the 5 yr co-op, but I wish I did. Almost all of my friends did in a variety of majors. If I remember, you tell them you are interested now, then you apply freshman year, and its mostly just a quick interview. If he is going MechE, they have a ton of connections in the area to help get his foot in the door. It's as much about learning what you don't like as it is leveraging it for a job post graduation. MechE is a very broad field, does he know what he wants to do in it? The co-ops will help with all of that. Since most students do it there, the weird schedule will feel normal. There will be classes over the summer, co-ops in the fall, etc. Another plus is that you get one free class per co-op. If he may want a masters, between the free classes and taking extra classes (he'll have to work his ### off), he could end up with a masters in those 5 years for free too. 

I need to run, but I'll add more later. 

 

[dancer]

There seem to be some people knowledgeable of engineering here, so maybe I can gather some info to help my daughter make her decision. Looks like she will be deciding between Rice, Carnegie Mellon, GA Tech and Illinois.

Just looking at things like US news rankings, Rice is listed higher up on the "national university" rankings, while below the other three on the engineering-specific rankings. Then when looking at specific majors she is considering, CMU is ranked highest for computer engineering, while GA Tech is ranked highest for aerospace engineering. 

But putting aside rankings, and putting aside cost and location - what are some other pluses/minuses for these schools that can help one make a decision? Are any of these clearly better or worse than the other?

I think some things that are very important to my daughter are being around students who are smart, working under teachers that she can respect, getting good opportunities for summer internships and jobs upon graduation, and being in a collaborative environment where everyone tries to bring each other up (as opposed to a cutthroat environment where each kid is looking out for themselves). Does one of these schools fit that profile better than another? 

 

[Nigel]

I'll let others do the advising @dancer but congrats to your daughter on having some great schools to choose from.

 

[El Floppo]

I'll let others do the advising @dancer but congrats to your daughter on having some great schools to choose from.

Ditto. She killed it! No wrong choices in that group...gl to you guys on dialing in the best choice for her.

 

[NewlyRetired]

There seem to be some people knowledgeable of engineering here, so maybe I can gather some info to help my daughter make her decision. Looks like she will be deciding between Rice, Carnegie Mellon, GA Tech and Illinois.

Just looking at things like US news rankings, Rice is listed higher up on the "national university" rankings, while below the other three on the engineering-specific rankings. Then when looking at specific majors she is considering, CMU is ranked highest for computer engineering, while GA Tech is ranked highest for aerospace engineering. 

But putting aside rankings, and putting aside cost and location - what are some other pluses/minuses for these schools that can help one make a decision? Are any of these clearly better or worse than the other?

I think some things that are very important to my daughter are being around students who are smart, working under teachers that she can respect, getting good opportunities for summer internships and jobs upon graduation, and being in a collaborative environment where everyone tries to bring each other up (as opposed to a cutthroat environment where each kid is looking out for themselves). Does one of these schools fit that profile better than another? 

I did a ton of hiring of engineers before I retired.

All of those schools are excellent, first off.

When it comes to a job in engineering, your daughter will have a leg up to begin with because of her gender.  But if she really wants to stand out, experience is what separates young engineers who have just graduated from others. 

Do any of the schools you mentioned have a co op program?  While summer internships are nice, they pale in comparison to co op programs.

If none have co op programs then she needs to choose the one she feels the most comfortable at.  She is going to get a dynamite education at all of those schools.  To get in those schools she is clearly n excellent student.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

I haven't updated in a while.  My kid has basically narrowed it down to two choices - Washington U. in St. Louis or UC San Diego.  He's leaning towards Wash. U. but has never seen it.  He's going out there in a couple weeks -- if he likes it he'll go there, if he doesn't like it he'll go to UC San Diego (which he has already seen and he liked).

 

[bigbottom]

There seem to be some people knowledgeable of engineering here, so maybe I can gather some info to help my daughter make her decision. Looks like she will be deciding between Rice, Carnegie Mellon, GA Tech and Illinois.

Just looking at things like US news rankings, Rice is listed higher up on the "national university" rankings, while below the other three on the engineering-specific rankings. Then when looking at specific majors she is considering, CMU is ranked highest for computer engineering, while GA Tech is ranked highest for aerospace engineering. 

But putting aside rankings, and putting aside cost and location - what are some other pluses/minuses for these schools that can help one make a decision? Are any of these clearly better or worse than the other?

I think some things that are very important to my daughter are being around students who are smart, working under teachers that she can respect, getting good opportunities for summer internships and jobs upon graduation, and being in a collaborative environment where everyone tries to bring each other up (as opposed to a cutthroat environment where each kid is looking out for themselves). Does one of these schools fit that profile better than another? 

Wow fantastic options!!!

I have had a niece go through Rice, have a nephew currently attending Rice, and will have another nephew starting next year. I can’t speak to the other schools, but I’ll say that Rice definitely fits the bill with respect to most of the issues you mention are important to your daughter. The students pretty much across the board are super smart and very driven. The faculty is pretty amazing and my niece and nephew have had very positive experiences with their teachers. Internship opportunities have been pretty plentiful (though neither of them are engineering students) especially because Rice sits in the fourth largest city in the country. As for jobs afterwards, I’ll know better when my nephew graduates, but Rice is incredibly well-respected in Texas and there is a very strong alumni network. But I don’t know how recognized it is nationally for job prospects.
 

Based on what I’ve seen, the downsides (which may not be downsides for your daughter), Rice is very small and doesn’t have the same level of school spirit (in terms of athletics in particular) as some of the larger schools with big time programs. Also, the student body is mostly filled with super smart, incredibly driven kids which can make for an atypical social dynamic. But overall, my niece and nephew’s experience has been very positive. 

Re: Georgia Tech, the one thing I’d mention that was a concern for my son who applied there for engineering (he was waitlisted and then pulled his app) is that the school is like 83% STEM. If she is set on pursuing engineering and you can’t imagine her switching to a non-STEM major, then perhaps it’s not an issue. But if there is a chance (as there is with my son) that she may switch into a different academic path altogether, consider whether GA Tech is the right place for that. And even if she doesn’t switch, I guess it’s worth considering whether she wants to go to school where she’ll be almost completely surrounded by other STEM kids, as opposed to kids pursuing a variety of majors (art, music, English, history, etc.). 

 

[bigbottom]

I haven't updated in a while.  My kid has basically narrowed it down to two choices - Washington U. in St. Louis or UC San Diego.  He's leaning towards Wash. U. but has never seen it.  He's going out there in a couple weeks -- if he likes it he'll go there, if he doesn't like it he'll go to UC San Diego (which he has already seen and he liked).

Two completely different environments, but both are amazing from all reports. Hard to beat San Diego weather.