<p>Unfortunately, my gpa is only a 97 weighted which puts me somewhere in the top 15%. My parents can pay 10-15k a year and we will probably not qualify for much if any financial aid. They make about 140k a year which probably sounds like a lot more than it really is since they have 6 kids and an expensive house to pay off.</p>
<p>I am a prospective EE major so I would prefer a school that offers a strong engineering program.</p>
<p>So far all I'm really considering is:</p>
<p>Alabama - I don't want to go here because it's basically the opposite of everything I want in a school. I don't like football, I don't like huge schools, I'm not going greek, and the engineering program seems weak. I've talked to a number of students from here and they all seem to be proud of the school as a whole but not the engineering department.</p>
<p>Rutgers - I am in-state but they are very stingy with merit aid so I'm not sure that this is a real possibility for me. If I get the $3500 scholarship, I'll incur 30-40k debt provided that my parents pay 15k a year, which is unlikely because they don't like this school at all. Here are the numbers I used:</p>
<p>Drexel - I'm not really confident that this school is possible either even with the co-op money. Here are the numbers I'm using 60k (tuition + room + board) - 20k (optimistic scholarship money) - 15k (parents) - 2000 (work study) = 23k. Over 4 years that's 92k. If I do 3 co-ops I can optimistically expect to make 50k, leaving me 42k in the hole. I think this is a better option than Rutgers because of the co-ops.</p>
<p>Pitt - I need 10k or full tuition for this to even be possible but I like this school a lot. I think my rank will put me out of the running for decent scholarships.</p>
<p>Cooper Union - Provided I get in (highly unlikely) I can get through with minimal debt. I am doing everything I can to make this happen (visiting, applying ED)</p>
<p>Any suggestions for decent engineering schools that offer generous merit aid?</p>
<p>Look into University of Minnesota. We have a wired law that caps difference in IS and OOS at 5k. The room and board is not as expensive as NY. </p>
<p>With your stats you might get enough merit aid. Although it is not guaranteed but you have a decent chance. Plus you probably will get in into Honors college.</p>
<p>I don’t believe the engineering department at 'Bama is “weak”. It’s actually good. Just because a school has Greek life doesn’t mean you have to go Greek yourself. I would suggest you visit this school if financially it is worth it. You might be surprised at what you see and learn about it.</p>
<p>You might get some good merit aid at University of Hartford, but my guess is it won’t cover the difference between the $15K your parents are contributing and the cost of attendance.</p>
<p>Few eng’g students at Bama are Greek…most don’t have the time or interest…so that shouldn’t be a concern. Your classmates wouldn’t be Greek…at least most them won’t be. The Greeks tend to be business, liberal arts, and communications majors…majors where that kind of networking may be important. </p>
<p>Bama’s eng’g is not weak. No eng’g program that is ranked in the Top 100 would be weak. The feds gave Bama hundreds of millions to build a mega-sized Science and Engineering Complex. If the Col of Eng’g were weak, the feds would have given the money to another univ. Bama received more than any other university to build those buildings. </p>
<p>My younger son is a Chemical Engineering major at Bama and he works his tail off for his grades. He was a high stats high school student as well and Saluatorian of his class. He’s also pre-med, so getting all A’s has been a priority for him for med school admissions. </p>
<p>You should visit the Bama forum on CC. You’ll meet many students and parents who can tell you what the school is like. </p>
<p>There’s a mom on the Bama forum whose older chlldren went to ivy leagues, but when it was time for their youngest NE prep school son to go to college, they could no longer afford the ivy cost due to some business set-backs. So, off to Bama their youngest went with a full tuition scholarship. They had (wrongly) thought that this school would be easy for him (and he probably thought so as well) because he had gone to one of those demanding pricey NE prep schools that send nearly all students to elites. Well, by mid fall semester, the student’s grades were scary low - because he wrongly thought he could coast through. lol…no. With a firm word from his parents that he’d be going to a CC if he lost his scholarship, he got his act together to end up with a 3.0…minimum to keep his scholarship. his parents have said many times that this son’s classes have been just as difficult and demanding as his older siblings’ classes at their elite schools. </p>
<p>If you visited Bama, toured the Eng’g Complex, and met with Eng’g professors, I think you’d be quite impressed.</p>
<p>At a minimum, with a full tuition scholarship plus 2500 per year, this is a very affordable financial safety for you. </p>
<p>Do you think every student at Bama loves football? lol…most students don’t even go to the games.</p>
<p>Check with your parents if they can give 10k or 15k. That may not seem like a big difference, but it can be. If they end up only being able to afford $10k, then that can change the situation greatly. Make sure that both parents are on board with the amount. it’s not unusual for one parent to think that the family can pay more than the other parent thinks. </p>
<p>Frankly, with an income of $140k and 6 kids, it may be hard for your parents to even pay $10k per year…that’s $1k a month for 10 months of schooling. I am very close to a few families with 5-7 children with similar incomes and they wouldn’t be able to pay $10k-15k per year. At most, maybe $8k per year. </p>
<p>*Pitt - I need 10k or full tuition for this to even be possible *</p>
<p>??? Are you instate? if not, then you’d need more than $10k. The OOS cost is over $40k per year. </p>
<p>And, yes, your rank would put you out of the running for big scholarships there. Entomom recently published the req’ts that UPitt provided for their big scholarships. Ranking needs to be in the top few %.</p>
<p>What about the Coast Guard Academy? You would need to want to commit to 5 years in the Coast Guard post graduation, but the career training and on the job experience is terrific. </p>
<p>I believe your grades and scores may put you at least in range. </p>
<p>Go to the web site for the admissions procedure if you are interested in exploring.</p>
<p>What did you score on the PSAT? (i.e. will you make National Merit cutoff?)</p>
<p>Alabama-Huntsville is a solid engineering school where you would get a full ride based on stats. It is located in a large research park and has many research and internship opportunities with NASA, Army labs, and local research companies.</p>
<p>Have you thought about NJIT?</p>
<p>I’m an engineer at a major research institute. I work alongside engineers from Pitt, MIT, Georgia Tech, Auburn, Illinois, Clemson, NC State, Michigan, and Alabama-Huntsville. I promise you there is no way you could guess where any of them went to school by observing their research or engineering knowledge.</p>
<p>SUNY-Buffalo. With your stats and out-of-state, you would probably get the Provost Scholarship and some Engineering money, worth a bit more than full tuition. Regarding their (lack of) big-school football culture, you might like to search for how University at Buffalo handled the 1958 Tangerine Bowl.</p>
<p>University of Delaware and Rose Hulman could be great options for you. Also potentially WPI and RPI. Your high SAT score gives you a lot of options.</p>