<p>I've been trying to find schools to add to my college list, but I've had trouble finding schools that are affordable. I know I won't be able to qualify for financial aid, but my parents haven't been straight with me as to how much they will be able to contribute (possibly because they aren't sure yet). However, they have hinted at the fact that I'll have to take out a considerable amount of loans. For now, I'm going to assume that they will help cover the cost of books and maybe extra spending money. So far, I have these schools:</p>
<p>University of Alabama
Auburn University
Texas A&M (in state)
UT Austin (in state)
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Cornell (might remove)
Stanford (might remove)
MIT (might remove)</p>
<p>I'm a pretty decent student (2120/1380 sat, 3.9+ uw gpa, top 4%, predicting a 33 on the ACT) and I plan on going into chemical engineering. Also, I'll most likely be a National Achievement (not national merit) Semifinalist/Finalist.</p>
<p>To get to my question, I'd like to know what other schools I could add to my list that would be affordable. I've spent hours on CC and I found Iowa State and Arizona State, but I'd like more options.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long post lol. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>If you become a NA Finalist (congrats) then Bama will give you their new larger National scholarship.</p>
<p>You’d get 5 years of tuition (you can include grad school classes)
one year of housing
3500 per year stipend
study abroad money
iPad</p>
<p>Plus as an eng’g student, you’d get another 2500 per year.</p>
<p>As for your parents hinting for you to take out loans, they may not know that you’re limited to 5500 for your frosh year that YOU can take out. to borrow more (not a good idea) THEY would have to qualify and cosign. </p>
<p>If you can get them to agree to paying for your books, transportation, and some spending money, then Bama should be affordable for you.</p>
<p>I think you should keep MIT, Cornell, and Stanford on your list. Stanford gives super aid, so they might not expect much family contribution. MIT can be iffy about family contribution. I helped an AA student try to get more money from MIT (parents divorced, not high income) and MIT wouldn’t budge…he’s going to Columbia now who did increase aid. I was shocked that MIT wouldn’t cough up more money…this young man was Val of his school, high stats…MIT flew him in for a visit…mother made about 50k, dad made about 19k (divorced), yet MIT expected too much for the family to contribute. Odd.</p>
<p>Where do you live? Probably good to include instate flagship U as one of your safeties. You may get into their honors program and have a free term abroad, research and other perks. Congrats on your great record! Olin can be a good inexpensive option too.</p>
<p>if looking at alabama and auburn you might want to add UAB to your list. as a national acheivement scholar you would receive full tuition, FOUR years of housing, and a 2500 (one time ) stipend. the full tuition is for 15 credits per semester, and i would expect you might take more…oos rate for just those EXTRA credits (above 15) would be 666 per credit…so if you took 18 credits then it would be about 1998 extra. but that 4 years of housing is nice. all their engineering programs are accredited. urban campus, 11k undergrads.</p>
<p>Mom2collegekids, you’re actually the reason why I added UA to my list (I’ve seen a lot of your posts in other threads). The deal was too good to ignore.
HImom, I live in Texas, so my state flagship is UT-Austin. I don’t know if I want to call that a safety lol. From what I heard, chemical engineering (along with biomedical and petroleum) is really competitive.
Thanks for the suggestion parent56. How similar are UA and UAB?</p>
<p>UA is the flagship univ - more similar to what you’d find at UT or TAMU. The full college experience - academics, sports, etc.</p>
<p>My younger son went to Bama for undergrad and is now at UAB for med school. UAB is known for its health sciences - largely because the med school is there.</p>
<p>UT would be a safety if you are in the top 7% of your class. Last I looked U Delaware (which has a strong Chem E program) had some good scholarships.</p>
<p>Being in the top 7% guarantees acceptance into the school, but not my major. Even if I ended up getting into ChemE, it would cost over 20k each year.
I checked out Delaware not too long ago. The only thing that bothered me was that the average scholarship given was about 6k with only 10 or so full rides given yearly. Considering that the school is pretty expensive for OOS students, that amount won’t do very much.</p>
<p>I guess what I’m really looking for are schools that, with merit aid, have a COA below 20k per year.</p>
<p>Of your list, Alabama and Texas A&M would be safeties if you are NMF or NAF.</p>
<p>Go to the financial aid and scholarships forum and look at the sticky threads at the top. These list automatic (potential safeties) and competitive (potential match or reach) full tuition or larger scholarships. Note that some of the automatic ones have an ACT threshold of 32 or SAT CR+M threshold of 1400 (e.g full ride at Louisiana Tech), so you can aim for those. Some big ones that you can get now include those at Prairie View A&M, Florida A&M, UAB, and Howard.</p>
<p>Delaware would be a reach for the full ride Du Pont scholarship.</p>
<p>UT Austin would be a reach for the full ride 40 Acres scholarship (in-state need-based financial aid is not all that good).</p>