It seems that OP’s family can afford UA or UT, so if he wants to attend there’s no reason not to apply.
If going to visit UA and driving from N or NE, I would also visit UAH (Huntsville) - UA/UAH/UAB are all under same Board but all 3 very different campuses/opportunities. UAB has a fantastic medical center with high rankings nationally. UAH is growing on more students not local (University at Home is a common theme for many) - but Huntsville is a hotbed of technology. We call it engineering Mecca. UA is the state flagship (with Auburn also somewhat of a flagship too). UA has terrific facilities for STEM and a strong pool of high stat students from across the country - in part due to strong scholarships for merit OOS.
Here is some of the story as to how UA is where it is now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrV8g7kxJps&t=554s
My engineering DD went to UA where she had broader opportunities in her engineering field and other. My nursing major DD went to UAB. Both could have attended UAH and received their degrees at UAH, but engineer student could not have received a double major in her engineering field (civil and architectural) and nursing student could not have been part several special nursing programs like she was at UAB.
@Lancer1010
You’d qualify the Amigo Scholarship (guaranteed) at University of New Mexico. With the Amigo, $15K + a federal student loans would cover all your attendance costs with $$ leftover.
https://scholarship.unm.edu/scholarships/non-resident.html
UNM’s computer science dept is accredited and well respected. Intel, Facebook, Sandia National Labs, Los Alamos National Labs, Air Force Research Lab are local CS employers. Most major West Coast companies recruit on campus.
https://www.cs.unm.edu
P.S. The weather in NM is much nicer than the weather in Illinois OR Alabama.
You have a lot of hot options! Check them out. Believe me , you will be grateful not to have crushing debts as you start your job. My youngest now doesn’t have the greatest paying starter job. But he also doesn’t have a student loan repayment bill many of his classmates do. It makes a difference
Look at schools that are need blind and offer no loans for middle class families. I know Colgate has such a program although the current cutoff is $125K. President Casey is working to get that number up to $150K.
The private schools using CSS profiles that look at home equity are actually very fair and are not necessarily penalizing the frugal family. That’s nonsense.
If you have an extra 10k a year. You can put it into a 529 plan. A taxable investment account or pay down principal on a mortgage (technically investing in real estate). The first two hurt you for financial aid. The third item wouldn’t. All three are “frugal”. So suppose I have 250k in 529 plan or investments. It would make great sense to cash these out and dump into a home or second home. Effectively hiding it. After school is done refinance with cash out and put back into the market and be effectively in the same place and have had incurred significant savings. Why would anyone save for college. Why have a 529. Just load up on real estate.
No the net worth test is fair. And avoids gamesmanship.
If you spend all of your money, you won’t have enough excess income to pay for an expensive college anyway.
@Lancer Most of the elite schools are need based financial aid only. If the net price calculator is telling you 50K, it’s highly likely that when you receive the financial aid package it is going to be very close to that. My advice to you is to open your mind up to some possibilities that you may not realize are there.
Your grades and test scores are certainly high enough to receive top merit at University of Alabama, University of Mississippi, and many others. Likely Alabama would fit in your dad’s expectations of $15K per year. You might have to work summers to earn money for extras, but you have most of it covered right now.
Take a look at what some of the public flagships offer you: Honors Colleges, special research opportunities for top students, etc. These can make a huge public university feel much smaller.
We are also from Illinois, and our son had similar stats. He ended up at the University of Alabama. He’s in the Blount Scholars Program and the Honors College. He is on campus now for his freshman year and just finished a week long honors action project. He’s already had opportunities to meet with professors in his field and had a chance to go visit and talk about research opportunities.
The dream schools for us had to be taken off the table as we found that the net price calculators were actually off and showed LESS than what the school was expecting. The calculators sometimes have numbers for tuition and costs that are a few years old, so were be off by as much as 20% for some schools due to a double whammy in tuition increase plus merit budget decreases.
Find some schools that your family can afford and go visit them. Don’t fall in love with a school that will saddle you with a mountain of debt - it’s NOT worth it.
@Lancer - as @mom2collegekids stated, with your current stats and major you qualify for both the Presidential and Engineering scholarships. My son also has these, and the costs paid directly to Alabama were just under what your dad wants to pay per year. With a summer job to cover books and miscellaneous spending - you wouldn’t even need to take loans out. University of Alabama Huntsville would be even less expensive. UAB comes out slightly more expensive than the flagship for some reason, but for students going into the medical field, the opportunities there are absolutely top notch. All three University of Alabama schools were impressive to us, and my son could have seen him self at any one of them. Ultimately, the Blount Scholars program sealed the deal, because while he is a Chemical Engineering major, he wanted some of that liberal arts experience that he saw at other colleges. He truly feels that he got absolutely everything he wanted at Alabama. I highly encourage a visit - it’s an amazing campus and an enjoyable experience to visit.
I’m just tagging you because those that did so in the last few posts tagged the wrong poster. Please read these responses.
“If I was his parent I wouldn’t encourage UA or UTD if he could get in down the road at UIUC or a great in state option though. … The question is would he be admitted?”
3.5 UW GPA, 3.8 W GPS for CS? UIUC is a reach unless OP changes his major out of CS or engineering. However, other posters have given him fantastic options.
The way they are giving generous scholarships, Alabama is going to scream up the ranks in the next few years.
UIUC in state is out of budget without significant merit-based aid. COA in state varies by major, and starts at more than 30k per year.
What is your dream schools and what majors interest you?
Are you interested in ROTC? Are you interested in a five year program with co-op? My nephew just graduated from Georgetown University with a four tear ROTC scholarship. CS is probably a major they are interested in. Another student I knew continued the ROTC scholarship for graduate school, but then you pay with more years of required service. Do you want to fly planes? ROTC scholarships are usually also available at your Flagship universities.
The nephew studied Mandarin and was not even a CS major.
Thank you very much for all the insights. The information in this thread is going to help me for making a final decision. I would like to ask one more question before closing this thread.
Do you think that I have a chance at UIUC for computer science with my std. test scores and GPA (1500/34 and 3.5)? I see that my Net Price comes to 25K (in-campus and also I am in-state). Are there any opportunities to get any scholarships from outside to bring this cost down? Thanks!
Some colleges reduce their aid by the amount of any outside scholarships a student gets, so I wouldn’t depend on those to make a school affordable. It would be difficult to find a $10k renewable scholarship. Most outside grants are one time awards of a few hundred dollars.
@Lander1010 UIUC for Computer Science is one of the toughest majors to get into. Your GPA puts you below the median of accepted students. The middle 50% SAT is 1480-1550, GPA 3.72-3.95. Illinois publishes the unweighted GPA for their admission profiles. You have a somewhat higher chance than an out of state student. Are you male or female, and are you possibly an under represented minority? Your chances would be somewhat greater. Think of UIUC Engineering as an elite caliber admit - it’s tough!
I don’t know why when I select the correct poster from the drop down it is picking the one either above or below. I am trying to select @Lancer2010 each time. It is working here on my PC - but on my iPad it was making me select from a list. I apologize for the wrong grabs.
Are there guaranteed transfer pathways for graduates of the CCs that you could commute to to UIUC? That could be a way to save money during the first two years and get you into UIUC for the last two years.
"Are there guaranteed transfer pathways for graduates of the CCs that you could commute to to UIUC? That could be a way to save money during the first two years and get you into UIUC for the last two years. "
If that is something the OP would consider, he should look at Parkland College.