Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

I am putting together an information package for the high school guidance office and did not have good answers to these questions.


Is there an unofficial list of where FIRSTers prefer to go to college?
What colleges attract or solicit FIRSTers?
Are there any colleges that actively recruit FIRSTers other than by offering scholarships?
How many FIRSTers go to your school?

Re: Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

a) I dunno.
b) USC solicited me, but not because I'm a FIRSTer. (Remember, good grades and high test scores go a loooooong way further to colleges than FIRST involvement!)
c) I never heard of any...but that doesn't mean they don't exist.
d) I am aware of three--myself, a resident in Preston, and one girl I bumped into in line for breakfast one day wearing a M'Aiken Magic (1102) shirt. More are likely out there.

Re: Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

WPI has an over-abundance of FIRST'ers. A day doesn't go by when i don't see a team shirt (that's not including any 190 team shirts).

I'd also assume places like Clarkson and Northeastern are the same way.

Tom

Re: Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

Don't forget about the Impact section in the FIRST Resource Center. Both the FRC and FLL sections have lots of good stuff.

Re: Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

I encountered quite a few former FIRST kids at RIT and many of them were not involved in RIT's FIRST program.
I'm sure FIRSTers mostly just go to college period and don't seek a particular kind of college.

Re: Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

I disagree. I believe that a majority of FIRST students lookinto engineering and attend good engineering schools (or any engineering schools). As you stated, you have encountered several at RIT which, from my knowledge, has a good engineering program. There are still several FIRST students that go for other degrees/fields.

Re: Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

I know Purdue has a wealth of robotics kids, since so many of them are my advisors :yikes:

Your best access to such a list may be to consider the scholarships that FIRST offers. Whether a student is involved with FIRST or not, most everyone needs financial aid of some sort nowadays. I know that I would choose a college that offered me financial aid out of respect for my family.

Something you can do is even ask for a submittion thing from college FIRSTers. This would give you somewhat accurate results.

Re: Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

USF....but not for FIRST....you go there cause it is cheap (comparatively).....:)

Re: Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

There's a high number of former FIRST-er's at MIT, but most of them had a lot more going for them than just FIRST. Their FIRST presense isn't really felt (the MIT mentoring team is pretty small). I guess people are working on bigger, more important things. (Although I can't imagine what is more important than FIRST, the few of us former FIRSTers actually on the MIT FIRST team are the exception rather than the rule.)

MIT does not actively recruit FIRSTers as far as I know (they pretty much don't actively recruit anybody), but it probably looks good to have FIRST engineering experience on your app.

Re: Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

Where do they prefer to go to college? The cheapest place that they can that still provides them with a level of education that they find acceptable.
What colleges attract or solicit FIRSTers? Obviously those with FIRST scholarships are a big turn-on to students (list of those can be found at the FIRST website) and those that are well known for their engineering programs are also good
Are there any colleges that use other ways? Not that I've heard of...
How many FIRSTers go to your school? To the best of my knowledge, 9 and we have 6 of them mentoring for us. The other 3 were on the list but seem to have disappeared off the face of the Earth. We're still looking for them...
(This is a very difficult question to answer when your school has 50,000 people at it...)

Re: Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

Drexel recruits FIRST students...

However, Northeastern is the #1 Co-op School!
(take-that!) :yikes:

Re: Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

Is there an unofficial list of where FIRSTers prefer to go to college?
If you look at the past year's threads of "Class of XXXX where are you applying", you should get a good idea of where most prefer to go.
What colleges attract or solicit FIRSTers?
Depends on the major...colleges with good engineering programs attract the engineering types...now whether they actively look for FIRSTers, I dont know.
How many FIRSTers go to your school?
There are quite a few. As Eugenia mentioned before, there are several - 25ish - that are involved with Purdue's FIRST teams. There are several ex-FIRSTers here too that I know of. I know of about 6-7others from my old team that are at Purdue but are not participating with FIRST teams and I know of a few more who will be up here in the following years...and thats just from my old team. I have met several others who I have seen wearing shirts or see my screensavers and wallpapers on my computer and say "Ooo, FIRST, I did that when I was in high school."
Eric

Re: Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

I go to Brigham Young University (Go Cougars!), and AFAIK, I'm the only one here... I wouldn't be surprised if there are other FIRSTers lurking in the shadows, though.

Dave

Re: Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

I go to the University of Michigan, and there's a fair number of FIRST students here. I believe there's only one FIRST scholarship, but we still draw a lot of them.

<shameless plug>if anyone's coming to U-M next year, or is already a student here, Team 830 wants your help! We're looking for more college mentors... contact me if you're interested.</shameless plug>

Re: Where do FIRST kids go to college?
 

Tom is right. My roommate was in FIRST, and at least 2 other guys on my floor were. Everywhere you look you see FIRST shirts/hats/etc.

We also have that wee little scholarship some of you may have heard of ;)