Auburn vs Clemson vs Georgia Tech

College Search & Selection
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<p>My DD is a high school junior in Florida. She qualifies for Bright Futures money (in state program for high achievers) so financially it makes sense for her to go to UF since it would cover more than half of her tuition costs. However, she wants a real college experience farther away from home. Her current top choices are Auburn, Clemson, and GA Tech.
She is interested in Engineering...torn between Chemical and Computer
Current HS GPA 4.0 unweighted.<br>
SAT scores (taken January of her Junior year) 1380 R/M and 2060 R/M/W
She will graduate with 9 AP classes (providing her senior schedule goes as planned)
Her extra curricular's are somewhat limited:
Academic Team Competition (grades 9,10,11)
Digital Arts and Media Academy (Adobe Certificate earned in 10th grade)
Math Honor Society
Spanish Honor Society
100+ hours of community service.</p>

<p>So...What chance does she have of getting some financial merit awards? Do any of these colleges ever offer a "full ride"? Which would be safest (don't like the idea of GA Tech being in downtown Atlanta so I want to remove that school from the list even though it would be a good fit for her) What other southern colleges should she consider?</p>

2

<p>You’re not likely going to be big merit from those 3 schools unless test scores are higher.</p>

<p>Auburn offers a large merit scholarship for National Merit Scholars.</p>

<p>With a 1380 M+CR and a 4.0 GPA, Auburn would only give her $10k per year…which is less than half of the OOS tuition</p>

<p>Auburn Heritage Scholarship</p>

<p>Requires a 31-33 ACT or 1360-1480 SAT score and a minimum 3.5 high school GPA for consideration.
Awarded at $10,000 per year (OOS tuition is about $23k…COA is about $38k)</p>

<p>(the above assumes that scholarships will not change for next year…usually changes for the next application cycle occur in the May/June timeframe.)</p>

<p>Clemson might want a bit higher stats to get the “instate rate”. I think the instate rate at Clemson is about $28k per year…with tuition being about $13k for instate.</p>

<p>GT typically requires much higher test scores to be a contender for their merit scholarships. Their awards are HIGHLY competitive and her M+CR should be closer to 1500 to have a good shot at some merit there. The students at GT have high stats, so to be unique enough to get merit, you need really high stats.</p>

<p>To give you an idea…GT’s upper 25% of students have an ACT 33-36. Your D’s SAT is equivalent to an ACT 31. Your D’s stats put her in the middle for the school. Merit scholarships tend to go to students in the top 5-10%…and bigger scholarships tend to go to those in the top 1-3%…so very high stats.</p>

<p>You would likely have to pay all costs at GT…which are about $40k per year.</p>

<p>As for other southern colleges…</p>

<p>The University of Alabama </p>

<p>With her current stats, if Alabama’s scholarships remain the same (and rumor is that they will stay the same), then…</p>

<p>With your D’s current stats she would get TWO scholarships…</p>

<p>2/3 tuition from the university (OOS tuition is about $21k)</p>

<p>PLUS</p>

<p>1/3 tuition from the College of Engineering…PLUS 2500 per year.</p>

<p>So, she’d get FULL TUITION plus 2500 per year. total value over $90,000</p>

<p>AND…the amounts of Bama’s scholarships are INCREASED as tuition increases. :)</p>

3

<p>“So… Which would be safest (don’t like the idea of GA Tech being in downtown Atlanta so I want to remove that school from the list even though it would be a good fit for her) What other southern colleges should she consider?”</p>

<p>We visited GA Tech last fall and were surprised and pleased to find that the school actually has a nice campus feel even though it is located downtown, so there is kind of a campus “bubble” - you don’t really feel like you are downtown when you’re at the school.</p>

4

<p>Further away, University of Minnesota Twin Cities has a relatively low out of state list price, and has a high reputation in both chemical engineering and computer science (especially chemical engineering).</p>

<p>North Carolina State and Virginia Tech are other schools which have relatively low out of state list prices.</p>

<p>As mentioned above, University of Alabama Tuscaloosa with its large merit scholarships can be quite inexpensive if she has the grades and test scores. Birmingham and Huntsville also have large grade and test score based merit scholarships.</p>

<p>But she ought to include University of Florida in her application list as a baseline anyway.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.abet.org%5B/url%5D”>http://www.abet.org</a> can help you find ABET accredited engineering and computer science degree programs.</p>

5

<p>Thanks! Will have to do a bit more research on UA…that looks like a good option to consider. She will obviously apply to UF since the in-state tuition and Bright Futures are too good to ignore, but just wanted to explore some other options. Both of her sets of grandparents still live in Gainesville (we live 3 hours away now) and she feels like they would be “on top of her” all of the time. Plus, it’s a HUGE school and she really likes the idea of something around 20,000 students.</p>

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<p>gritsmom, if you are going out of state for engineering, UA is not the place to go. Auburn is the engineering school in Alabama. Georgia Tech is an amazing school to go for engineering and well worth the cost if you don’t end up getting major scholarships anywhere. In all honesty, a school like UF is probably better than Clemson or Auburn for engineering.</p>

<p>Here are the minimum requirements to get merit scholarships at Clemson: <a href=“Office of Student Financial Aid | Clemson University”>Office of Student Financial Aid | Clemson University;

<p>Let me know if you have any questions about Clemson! I’m a junior civil engineering major there.</p>

<p>If you want me to send you a list of the lastest US News engineering rankings, I can do that too. It’ll help you get an idea of what groups of schools are better than others for engineering (don’t take the exact rankings too seriously)</p>

7

<p>

m2ck, can you explain this a little bit. I’m trying to determine where to send D2’s free SAT scores. Her CR+M is greater than 1500 and she has 4.0 uw GPA. Possibly engineering, but not 100% sure. She is NOT NMSF. What kind of money will she get?</p>

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<p>Alabama’s engineering scholarships and general scholarships are described here:
[Scholarships</a> - Undergraduate Students - The College of Engineering - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholarships/]Scholarships”>Scholarships – College of Engineering | The University of Alabama)
4.0 GPA and 1500 SAT CR+M gets full in or out of state tuition. Add $2,500 per year for engineering majors.</p>

9

<p>University of South Carolina will likely give her in-state rates.<br>
VaTech may give her good money.
NCState may offer a scholarship.</p>

<p>She will get into Clemson and Auburn no problem. GaTech is an issue sometimes, but I have seen kids with lower gpas and scores get in. </p>

<p>She should retake the SAT perhaps in June of this year or October Senior Year and see if she can bump it a tad. 1400 is often the cutoff for substantial aid at many schools. Statistically that is very few questions on the SAT.</p>

<p>Full tuition is hard to come by.</p>

10

<p>Post #8, thanks for the link. The way m2ck broke out to 2 scholarships in post #2 made me think she knew something that’s not on the website. Also is this U of Alabama from Tucaloosa(sp?)? Does it have rolling admission?</p>

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<p>Yes, that refers to the flagship campus in Tuscaloosa (some other campuses include Birmingham and Huntsville, both of which also have big merit scholarships for stats).</p>

<p>It has a relatively early deadline to apply if you want to get one of the big scholarships. Check its admissions web site.</p>

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<p>* if you are going out of state for engineering, UA is not the place to go. Auburn is the engineering school in Alabama*</p>

<p>Pierre…
While Auburn is currently ranked higher than Bama in engineering, it’s silly to say that Alabama is not a place to go for engineering if you’re OOS. Bama’s engineering ranking will rise in the near future since it is literally spending tens of millions on new buildings, new equipment, hiring more profs, etc. It is ABET accredited in all of its eng’g disciplines. Its brand new mega-sized Science and Engineering Complex is impressive and is a significant piece of the strategy to increase rankings.</p>

<p>I would guess that at least half of Bama’s engineering students ARE from OOS. And, Alabama is ranked higher than Auburn overall (and Bama has more money). To claim that Bama shouldn’t be an option to an OOS eng’g student is just preposterous. </p>

<p>Since this student has UF as an inexpensive instate option with BF (remaining costs are probably about $15k at most), there’s no need to pay more for Auburn. A $10k per year scholarship isn’t really a discount when her tuition would be nearly free at UF. </p>

<p>At least the student would not be paying more by attending Alabama (if her goal is to go OOS). You know that I really like Clemson, but if this student was awarded the “instate rate,” she would likely still be paying twice as much to go there rather than UF with the BF discount. Don’t see much of a point of doing that. </p>

<p>Dr. Google:</p>

<p>As UCB indicated with the link in his post, your child would get full tuition plus 2500 per year as an eng’g or CS major. If your child’s major is outside of eng’g, he’d get free tuition.</p>

<p>And the scholarship does increase as tuition rises.</p>

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<p>mom2collegekids, lets put our biases aside and look at the facts. Alabama is ranked NINETY-FIFTH for engineering! (95th). Is it really worth going out of state to go to Alabama if you have UF as an in-state option which is ranked 27th for engineering? If you are going out of state and want cheap options, I’d look at other options that are well regarded in engineering (maybe Minnesota?) ABET accredited is nice but I know for a fact that people at Georgia Tech have a whole lot more opportunities than I do at Clemson. I’ll give more credit when Bama’s ranking does rise but that’s all we know right now as a fact.</p>

<p>I’m just saying that if you want to have a good excuse to leave home, you better make sure the cost is right and the school is good as well. (No, I don’t think Clemson would fit the bill here ha)</p>

<p>PS: Georgia Tech is 5th, Auburn is 57th, Clemson is 66th</p>

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<p>Pierre,</p>

<p>You don’t realize that any school ranked in the top 100 is going to be good. There are 4000 univ in the US. If there were just a couple hundred univs, then your point would be more meaningful. </p>

<p>Schools that are ranked in the top 5 or so will probably have a lot more opps, but once you start getting past 20 or so, the differences aren’t spectacular. </p>

<p>And rankings do not really tell you where the opps are. Eng’g students attending UA-Huntsville have excellent opps since their campus is located in Cummings Research Park…the second largest research park in the nation. So, rankings don’t really tell you what opps you’ll have. </p>

<p>Yes, GT would offer amazing opps, but if the family can’t pay the $40k to go there, then that’s the final word. Right now, the student’s test scores would not get merit, so they’d be paying full price. That would be crazy with UF as an option, unless money is no object for this family.</p>

<p>I didn’t think the OP was looking outside of the SE, if she isn’t, then UMinn wouldn’t be an option. That said, even UMinn would cost a LOT more than UF. Stats aren’t high enough for much/any merit at UMinn, so likely paying full price (around $27k for an OOS student).</p>

<p>Yes, UF is a great choice for an instate student…no doubt. But if the student insists on going OOS and the family is trying to keep costs similar to what they would pay at UF, then their choices will be limited. Since the parent asked about “free rides,” it would appear that large merit scholarships are needed/highly desired for an OOS school to be affordable. </p>

<p>Affordability is a big deal to many families. You’d be surprised how many kids with ACT 32+ who live in states like Illinois with UIUC in their backyard choose to come to Bama CoE because of affordability. </p>

<p>Lastly, as you know, a good number of students start out in Eng’g, yet do not stay in that major. That’s another reason why the student shouldn’t commit to a pricey OOS school just for eng’g. The student’s best merit opps will be as an incoming frosh only.</p>

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<p>"…any school ranked in the top 100 is going to be good."</p>

<p>Touche and absolutely true!!!</p>

<p>Gritsmom, you’ve gotten much sound advice thus far on this thread.</p>

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<p>mom2collegekids, you’re just saying all this because you’re an Alabama homer :slight_smile:
no disrespect but I’m just trying to look at this from and present another perspective I guess.</p>

<p>I’d ask this question in the engineering forum as well. Lot’s of professional engineers there who know what they’re talking about. (Neither of us post there)</p>

<p>“Any school in the top 100 is good”</p>

<p>Too bad not every school has engineering unlike a major like english etc… Let’s take a company like General Electric for example: <a href=“http://www.ge.com/careers/students/recruiting/united_states_info.html[/url]”>http://www.ge.com/careers/students/recruiting/united_states_info.html&lt;/a&gt; looks like they only recruit at 44 schools or so. I’d say that Alabama is an excellent choice if you want to work in Alabama after college and maybe the surrounding area but if you want to go somewhere else probably not.</p>

<p>I’m done with this thread. Gritsmom, you’ve gotten some great advice here on this thread and definitely do not go to a school you cannot afford. Take advice with a grain of salt though (including mine, I’m biased towards Clemson, mom2collegekids towards Alabama) and lay out all the options for yourself and your DD and figure out what the best college choice is.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>Pierre…</p>

<p>My response is based on the fact that I come from an engineering family. My H, my brothers, and my BILs are nearly all hiring engineering mgrs, directors, and VPs for companies like Northrop Grumman, Boeing, DirecTV, Canon, and other Fortune 500. These companies do not limit their hirings to 50 schools or so. </p>

<p>And, they don’t pay engineers more based on where they went to school. The eng’r from UAH or Cal State Long Beach that gets hired gets paid the same as the engineer hired from GT or Purdue. That’s just the plain truth. And, it’s very frustrating for those who went into debt to go to a higher ranked school. Their colleagues are paid the same and they have less/no debt.</p>

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<p>Just want to note that M2CK consistently gives really good advice in threads and is experienced with this kind of thing. Pierre is a college junior.</p>

<p>I have to agree that taking out insane debt at Tech is not a good idea. Even though it’s a better known engineering school, the total cost over 4 years is at least $140K. If you don’t get any aid, it’s simply not worth it, because even a Georgia Tech engineer doesn’t make that much with a BS in her first year out.</p>

<p>Alabama is well known or giving great merit aid, so I would apply there. And yes, not all 4,000 schools in the nation have engineering - but I would wager that at least 1,000 do, so a school in the top 100 is still in the top 10% of schools for engineering at the very least. Alabama is well known as a good school and I disagree that a graduate of the school would be limited there - that’s ridiculous.</p>

<p>I still think UF would be the best choice - her grandparents don’t have to always be on top of her, if you make that a foregone agreement. </p>

<p>I also want to chime about Tech being in downtown Atlanta - I went to college in downtown Atlanta. It’s a pleasant city, pretty safe, and Tech has a very campus feel to it. I never felt unsafe in downtown Atlanta in college (but my college also had a great public safety force).</p>

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<p>Honestly in the scheme of things, i.e, outside of the top 10 engineering schools, rank #60 is the same as rank #100.</p>

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<p>I agree with juillet overall. I think I made some outrageous statements in my attempt to “win” the argument with mom2collegekids (kinda annoyed with her Alabama plugs sometimes haha). </p>

<p>The engineering rankings measure the perception of engineering schools from deans of engineering schools around the country. If you are planning to stay in the southeast I don’t think you’ll have any problem at either Alabama or Florida assuming you keep your grades up since companies in the southeast know about the engineering schools in the area. If you are planning to maybe work in Washington State or Maine, I do think that Florida or Auburn would be a better option than Alabama in the engineering field. A company in Seattle will not be as familiar with the engineering programs and the rankings is one way to figure out where a school stands. Just my opinion though.</p>

<p>I still think that Florida overall is a better choice than Alabama though.</p>