iLEAD Academy
College Visits
University of Kentucky
I took a tour of the University of Kentucky's Engineering Department to see if it would be a good fit for me. The biggest take away for UK was how well put together their engineering program was. The had a highly innovative and technologically advanced program. the draw back to UK is that you are going to pay for it. Going to UK is huge investment but it was defiantly worth looking at.
University of Louisville
I also toured the University of Louisville and their Speed School. The school is close to home and offers a great experience. The speed school is comparable to UK and offers one of the best engineering programs in the state. I was very impressed by how easy the campus was to navigate as well as how helpful the staff were. I am heavy leaning towards UofL as I dive into the application process.
I completed FAFSA already and I'm expected to get around $6,100 in addition to my estimated $2,500 in KEES money. So far I have Earned $1,768 in KEES money.
Schools and Acceptance Letters
I narrowed my choices for engineering schools down to the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky. They both offered top notch engineering programs but in the end I chose UofL because it was close to home and was far cheaper than UK. I also have connections in the Louisville area for co-op opportunities.
I also applied to Eastern Kentucky University as a backup encase I choose to go into construction management rather than Engineering but I feel certain I will be attending UofL in the Fall.
Scholarships
Based on my ACT scores and GPA UofL offered me a $20,000 scholarship over the course of 4 years.
EKU also offered me a scholarship for my ACT and GPA. If I attend EKU they will give me $8,000 a year.
Final Decision
University of Louisville J. B. Speed School of Engineering
Electrical Engineering Student Shadow and Admissions Visit
In the afternoon I took another scheduled tour with two speed school students who work in the admissions department. After the tour we had a meeting about the basics of speed school. The meeting and tour was helpful to get a wide view of things but it wasn't personalized or very helpful in learning more about the electrical pathway. Earlier that morning I made a connection with the director of admissions for the speed school via Laith so after the meeting I went and met with him and set up a flight plan for my pathway. After this meeting I went and met with an honors adviser as as well as my counselor. This was a very busy day but I learned so much about my pathway at UofL and the next steps for getting my degree.
I spent the morning with Laith, an electrical engineering major at UofL. I attended ECE 533 and PHY 300 with Laith. The electrical engineering class was a very eye opening experience because I was able to see from a personal standpoint what an electrical systems class looks like. The Physics was also interesting because some of what they were learning lined up with what I'm learning in PHY 171. After class we went to lunch and hung out for awhile discussing co-op opportunities as well as clubs to get involved with at Speed School. We had some free time after eating so Laith took me on a tour of the Speed School and showed me all the buildings I would have lectures in. Overall it was a great experience and I made a great connection with Laith.
Mechanical Engineering Student Shadow
Early in March I went back to the University of Louisville for a second shadow experience. I wanted to revisit the Mechanical pathway, my original pathway. I went to a physics and chemistry class with a freshman honors student. the experience was great and I was able to connect with the former Technology Student Association president, an organization I am heavily involved in.
Flight Plan for Electrical Engineering
When I shadowed Laith I was able to meet the director of Admissions with the speed school (Jonathan Hughes). After several counselors at the main admissions office were unsure what to do with my transfer credits I decidid to go talk to Johnathan. We sat down and after telling him about iLead he was very impressed and told
me that I was welcome to come
by and see him whatever I
wanted and that he would make
sure I was put in the best
possible position to get what I
wanted out of my speed school
experience. We went over my
flight plan for the Electrical
Engineering major and what
classes I needed. All of my general
education courses and electives
are completed due to credit
transfers from JCTC. It is a four year
program and there's no way to finish
early due to the co-op requirements.
That being said my class load will be
light because I only need engineering
courses. In place of these general
education courses I am going to take
additional computer science and business
courses in order to graduate with my bachelors in electrical engineering and a minor in both systems programming and business. My goal is to go back and get my masters in engineering management as well as my MBA. these will take me one additional year apiece but their can be completed most;y online and the first masters will be at undergraduate cost.
Financial Plan
I currently have $17,000 ($2000 more was given from the Speed School after this was printed) in gift aid per year, in addition to this I plan to take out the $3,500 government subsidized loan in order to get around $20,500 in scholarship/loans. I will be commuting to school so my cost
will only be roughly
$6,000 a semester, the
summer semester is
only around $4,000.
As a Speed School
student there is very
little time to work
outside of the three
semesters of required
co-ops. The speed school operates on a three semester scheduled so I will be in school year round so I will need to rely on scholarship money for most of my income. In addition to the $20,500 a year I will get another $3,000 from UofL for the summer semester. After it Is all figured up I am looking at around $20,500 in scholarships/loans and $16,000 in tuition and fees.