College Search
 

Good news for engineering students (that means most FIRST kids)….

This past summer Money magazine ranked US colleges and universities to find the best value schools. Of the top 10 schools, 6 of them are extremely strong engineering programs.

http://time.com/money/collection/moneys-best-colleges/

With college application season upon many of you, I highly recommend expanding your college search to include some of the smaller less known engineering programs in addition to the big ones like MIT. Below are a few with a brief description:

1) Webb Institute: With a total student body of 80 students, this extremely small school is more like an engineering family then a campus. This is a school you must visit in person! Anyone accepted receives a full-tuition scholarship. All students study ship design, however the program is set up to provide an incredible engineering background even for those who don’t want to design ships. www.webb.edu
2) Olin College: With a slightly larger student body of 360 students this small Massachusetts school has a strong focus on entrepreneurship mixed with engineering. Students do research projects throughout their time in the program. Students are also able to take courses at nearby Babson College. http://www.olin.edu/
3) Harvey Mudd: This school takes on a very mathematical approach to engineering. With a student body of 800 it still maintains a small school feel. Students can major in other fields include biology and chemistry in place of engineering. https://www.hmc.edu/
4) Embry-Riddle: With its main campus in Florida this school has a very strong engineering program with close ties to the aviation industry. Students here come out with great hands on experience. The campus even has an option for flight school. http://www.erau.edu/
5) Cooper Union: This small NYC school is located at the heart of Manhattan. While all students used to receive full tuition scholarships, a partial tuition has recently been put in place. The school has a good mix of engineering, math and architecture. http://cooper.edu/
6) California Polytechnic SLO: A larger school then the rest but definitely worth a look. This school also claims a very hands on laboratory experience. http://calpoly.edu/

FIRST scholarships are abundant. The new list comes out September 1st. Look for some of these schools on the list.

Anyone else have any recommendations for this years seniors?

Re: College Search
 

Thanks for the research.
Our outgoing team captain is attending SLO this fall for computer engineering. Most of our seniors the previous year did not get into SLO because it was so competitive, especially amongst California students.

Re: College Search
 

How is Georgia tech ranked so low? It's super cheap even for out of state and the education is top notch.

Re: College Search
 

Public (state) schools. My parents and I paid a bunch of money for me to go to a private school. It definitely worked out well for me, but it has been my experience that college is much more about what YOU do, and the value (education/$) is much, much better at many public schools. Many of my friends went to UMaine, and they have found great jobs doing awesome stuff and spent a heck of a lot less money on school.

There are definitely advantages to private schools (the name does help), but if you really know what you want to do and make it happen there is always a way to shove your foot in the door.

Re: College Search
 

I couldn't agree more with state schools, though I am a bit biased. Being born and raised in Indiana had (for me) the advantage of going to Purdue for crazy cheap (Something on the order of $4000/semester when I started. Costs have come up a bit now), but the out of state and international students were easily paying 3 times that much. And for a school ranked as highly as it is for Aerospace Engineering degrees, I think I made out well.

Also, if you live near enough to an out of state school, there are some schools who will charge you the "in-state" tuition (I believe University of Cincinnati is one of them, but don't quote me on that).

Re: College Search
 

For students in the Western United States, there is also the Western Undergraduate Exchange. http://www.wiche.edu/wue


It allows out of state students from western states to apply for 150% of in-state tuition at participating public universities. Most public universities in the west participate,
New Mexico/Colorado/S. Dakota/N. Dakota are the eastern most states and Hawaii/Alaska are included too!

Keep in mind, it isn't automatic, nor is it a guarantee. Many schools have SAT/ACT + GPA requirements for eligibility AND limited spots.

Re: College Search
 

South Dakota has it too, as I recall from my days of college applications.

I went to South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, which has a small-ish campus with a lot of hands-on practical experience. I want to say that in total it only cost about 15K a year, including tuition, housing, food, etc., but it's probably gone up a bit. Roughly 2500 students, counting grad students. FIRST presence (besides FIRST alumni) is minimal, which for some folks (me) is a good thing. On the other hand, those college-level engineering competitions can take even more out of you.

Re: College Search
 

Bloom where you are planted.

As a teacher, I often admire students who choose the community college route to knock off their prerequisites before transferring to a four-year school. They can also work a part-time job and gain maturity, motivation, and insight into their passions.

Your job(s) after graduation may be more important than the name of the school you attended.

Boiler Up! #76, whaaaaat?

Re: College Search
 

Unfortunately, most people don't consider 180,000 dollars to be "super cheap". Unless you qualify for financial aid or win a competitive merit scholarship, it's hard for many families to afford 180,000 dollars right out of their pocket.

Sure, college fees have been on the rise lately, but there are cheaper alternatives out there (e.g. University of Minnesota at 120,000).

Re: College Search
 

Texas A&M has one of the highest return on investments for a public(state) school in the country, and typically ranks in the top 5 "Most Hire-able". It also has a really strong engineering program and a computer science program where Bjarne Stroustrup is a chair and lecturer.

Re: College Search
 

Sometimes distance isn't even a factor in that. The University of South Carolina offers several scholarships that include getting in-state tuition as part of the deal.

Full disclosure, USC (yeah, I said it--we were a college before California was a state!) is a proud supporter and host of FRC4901. It's great to be a Gamecock.

And a pretty good football team, we found out last week. :rolleyes:

Re: College Search
 

Should of checked those figures. Anyways, the return on investment is great.
http://www.bestvalueschools.com/top-...on-investment/

Re: College Search
 

Boiler Up!

Number 10 on this "list"
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp...n 14.20140902

BSNE '79

Re: College Search
 

Agreed, Great schools. We have alumni at both Webb & Olin. , Let me know if you are interested in connecting with one of our alumni.
Rice is our primary school that the DiscoBots collaborate and work closely with college student mentors. I also highly recommend Rice to people !

Re: College Search
 

Cooper Union is my alma mater. I really liked it for a variety of reasons (which I can go into if anyone is interested). The short version is that Cooper allows students to have a very large influence on their own education and the projects that they are involved in, but demands a remarkable amount of fortitude and resourcefulness. It is not for everyone. But, if you can make it through, there is a VERY high job and grad school placement rate with very nice starting salaries.