<p>My son wants to major in electrical engineering or computer engineering and go to a school that is predominantly focused on science/engineering. He has a 36 ACT in both science and math and a 34 composite. Grades are mostly A's with a few B's. He We are hoping to find some schools where he might be a candidate for a big scholarship, as we can't afford those big price tags.</p>
<p>Did he take the PSATs and is he a national merit scholar?</p>
<p>You need to come up with a list of schools that give big merit for stats for reaches, matches, and safeties. That may or may not include schools that only focus on techie majors. </p>
<p>RPI, Rose-Hulman, Harvey Mudd, Case Western, could be reach/matches.</p>
<p>Many of these schools do NOT have assured merit for stats, so you can’t count on any of them to give merit that will make the school more affordable.</p>
<p>However, you need to include some financial safeties, too.</p>
<p>Also, how much can you afford to contribute? These privates are running about $50k+ per year.</p>
<p>It sounds like you know that you won’t qualify for much (if any) aid. Many find themselves in such a situation…a high EFC which means no aid or aid that includes big loans.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that if your son does get - say - a half tuition or $20k per year scholarship, you’ll still have to come up with $30-35k per year. IF that’s not doable, then you need to include some other options.</p>
<p>Also, be sure to include some financial safety schools. These can be instate publics that you can afford and some other schools that will give your son ASSURED huge merit for his stats.</p>
<p>Be sure to look at the mid 50 band at each school. Schools that give merit are more likely to give bigger awards to students who are well penetrated into the top 25% band.</p>
<p>Rice gives half and full tuition scholarships, Cooper Union is free but has like a 5% acceptance rate. Our Val got full tuition at Rice and Cooper Union, with similar if not lower stats, though being female she had an advantage obviously. A lot of Big State U’s are strong in engineering and offer full rides or nearly for those stats. What’s his unweighted GPA?</p>
<p>Take a look at Momfromtexas’s thread. A lot of such schools are IT schools that have engineering majors. When my son was looking at possibilities, he found a lot of engineering scholarships. Some biggies are Cooper Union, Olin, Webb Institute, Georgia Tech–very selective. But schools like Illinois Institute of Tech, SUNY Maritime, and such schools were also abundant.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech can be a mixed bag scholarship-wise. You can try it, but don’t count on anything. </p>
<p>Be sure to include some schools that will give assured scholarships for stats.</p>
<p>Is he in FIRST robotics? If so, check out schools with FIRST scholarships (I believe Kettering University in MI - my alma mater - has really good FIRST scholarships).</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd has very little merit aid. Case Western Reserve, Cooper Union, Cal Tech, MIT, Rice, and USC all come to mind as schools with engineering and good merit aid. Does he have a geographical preference?</p>
<p>If his GPA matches his ACT, he should consider applying to University of South Carolina. And he should complete their honors college application which is also their McNair scholarship application. The McNair is full ride scholarship including a laptop computer. Their engineering school is good. It’s not a tech school, but once you declare your major as engineering, you spend the bulk of your time in that discipline anyway regardless.</p>
<p>Thanks so much everyone for all of your suggestions. I will definitely be utilizing them. My son did take the PSAT and finished very well, but just missed the National Merit cutoff. As this is my first child going to college, I am finding this process more work than I anticipated! Thanks for all of your help.</p>
<p>Roboticsmom – A couple of suggestions:
- He should apply as early as possible to all of those out-of-state public schools. Getting some of the admissions awards nailed down early in the year is a big help. ASU Barrett Honors College, U Alabama Huntsville, and U South Carolina seem to have given some pretty big awards to OOS kids with high stats – financial circumstances are getting tighter, but these could still be worth a strong look.
- If you haven’t already done so, you should do the FAFSA forecaster to get some sense of what some schools might have as an expectation for what your family can contribute. (Is that weasily enough, or what?) If you see that the Forecaster projects an EFC of $25,000 per year, and you know that your family can’t possibly contribute more than $12,000 per year, then he’ll want to look even more widely at schools that offer full tuition and fees to kids with scores like his, and your contribution can cover room & board. If there is a non-custodial parent issue then you’ll have to do another level of analysis.
- Rice has given some very, very nice merit awards to some “cash poor” middle income families at our high school.<br>
- Depending on his class rank, extracurriculars, …some of the tippy-top schools with really generous financial aid may be possible – hard to say from the info you posted, since they’re all looking for a lot more than just fabulous test scores – but a number of them (like Stanford) have very direct information about how much families are expected to pay based on certain income constraints which are rather generous. An ED or SCEA application to a financially & academically well-chosen school could be a real opportunity. You just don’t want to put all your eggs into one basket (or send in an ED application to a school that at best meets FAFSA EFC needs that you can’t make work.)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>The absolutely lovely thing about engineering is that there are really a lot of very good programs out there, and the engineering curriculum is almost always offered in a School of Engineering where you’re predominantly taking classes with like-minded peers. </p>
<p>Congratulations for thinking about some of these financial issues now.</p>