Best schools for merit scholarships for Aerospace Engineering

Paying for College
1

My son is just starting his Jr Year. We are located in East TN. (He does not want to go to Univ of TN). I am curious what schools are best for merit or out of state scholarships. His 1st choice is Ga Tech but I know that they do not give out many scholarships especially to OOS students. (Visit already scheduled for Oct) We are also looking at Auburn and Miss State. He would like for the school to also have a marching band. (He is a percussionist.) Prefer Southeast but really he is open to anywhere in the US. Any suggestions greatly appreciated since we are starting to plan college visits.

Misc information (as of end of 10th grade year)

  • 4.050 GPA - All A’s 2 APs classes so far. 3 AP this year and 3 AP senior year
  • 29 ACT (know this has to come up. Not worried about him making a 31 or higher)
  • Eagle Scout
  • Member of marching band
  • Worked all summer as a life guard at Boy Scout camp
  • Active in youth group at church

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

2

UA Huntsville has some nice OOS automatic merit, as does UA Tuscaloosa - and both have aerospace engineering.

3

I agree with @Nerdyparent give UA Huntsville a serious look. A friends kid was is in state for CA schools opted to go to UA Huntsville for aerospace great program and great merit there. Not sure about the band.

http://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/merit-tuition-scholarships

4

@FutureGTmom Make sure your son preps for the PSAT for National Merit! Here’s the list of National Merit Schools:
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/

5

What do you want your net costs to be? He qualifies for HOPE in Tenn, which I think is free tuition, so are you looking to match that?

If so, then you may need a new list. GT won’t give him the merit he wants, neither will Auburn (AU has cut back on OOS merit).

If your son gets at least a 30 ACT, he would get free tuition plus 2500 per year from Alabama. You may not be aware that in the last decade Bama has been building an amazing mega-sized Science and Engineering Complex to rival what any other univ has. The new complex is over 900,000 square feet of new STEM space.

With an ACT 30 your son’s net costs would be about $12k per year.

At a minimum you should visit (and be prepared to be blown away).

Yes! prepare for the Oct PSAT! Have him take the Oct SAT which is the week before. He won’t have scores back, but he’d have the practice of taking the test, pacing himself, etc.

6

Prepping for the PSAT is critical. That ONE test can determine if is a student is eligible to win scholarships worth hundreds of thousands of $$ at colleges across the country.
If he does well on it [ scores above the Tenn cutoff score] then be SURE he also takes the SAT the end of his JR year.

7

Can you move a bit more east, across the state line? GA Tech might love you better if you do.

Seriously, though, I would also look at Tulane and strategize how to approach them.

8

Thanks everyone. He has already taken the PSAT. Took it during his sophomoreyear. Scores were not what we hoped. His writing score was terrible. Thinking AP Language will help with that. (165, TN is 212) He is taking again this year. Really do not have a figure that we are looking to achieve. Just do not want him to be in huge debt once he graduates. Like all parents, want the best education at the best price.

9

Is he interested in the military? I’d give serious thought to USNA or USAFA.

He should look at Embry-Riddle and Florida Tech. They have a lot of merit money. U of Colorado has great aerospace eng but not great FA. Worth looking into.

And he should get over ‘not Tennessee.’ Lots of kids have this view that there is something wrong with their state school ('it’s just like high school). Well, unless his high school has 20,000 students it will not be just like high school. At any school he goes to there will be kids just like those he went to high school with - geeks, nerds, cheerleaders, athletes, debate winners, class presidents. At any school. Doesn’t want big classes? Look for the smaller ones.

10

It’s a very different test this year.

11

@FutureGTmom the big problem UT Knoxville has is that one has to piece together many small scholarships (the Hope, Volunteer, etc) which barely cover tuition even for high SAT and ACT scores.

If he can get the ACT score up a bit, the Bama schools might be appealing - especially UA Huntsville - which has a decidedly strong aerospace interest because of the NASA connection.

12

Have you considered Purdue in Indiana? My son attended as an OOS student and majored in Aeronautic and Astronautic Engineering (basically, Aerospace Engineering). He also minored in Business Management. Purdue was ranked #4 in Aerospace Engineering in 2011, when he entered. He just graduated this past May, with a job at Boeing waiting for him. He felt he received an excellent education and college experience. Oh…and, yes, Purdue has a marching band!

He received a $10,000 Presidential scholarship. A 3.0 GPA was needed to maintain this scholarship and it should be noted that Purdue does not have grade inflation…so the GPA requirement can be tricky for those in engineering. Luckily, he was able to stay well above the requirement. He was also a National Merit Scholar, and the $2,500 scholarship was applied to his freshman year.

As mentioned upstream, the PSAT is extremely important. The National Merit Scholarship Program opened many doors for him. His final choices also included Texas A&M (ranked #12 for aerospace) and the University of Alabama (not ranked for aerospace, but in an industry hot spot for the field). Both of these schools were almost full rides for him.

He was also accepted to Georgia Tech (ranked #2), University of Washington (ranked #12), Cal Poly SLO with an OOS scholarship which truly surprised us, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida with a substantial scholarship.

Have fun planning!

13

Yes it will be like high school if he is in the marching band. About 1/3 of his high school band marches in the band there. He has visited and he would not be happy there. He is an outdoorsy person. Not much green space. Tall buildings, etc. I know that Ga Tech is in downtown Atlanta. But lots of green space and more of an open campus. He also would like to be farther than an hour from home.

14

TN Hope scholarship would be $3500-$5000/year for freshmen- doesn’t cover the tuition. Though UTK does have some strong, unique programs in aerospace in conjunction with the Space Institute in Tullahoma-- this may be one of the best reasons to stay in-state and Go Vols!

15

Miss St and Ole Miss have really good merit $$ too. Bama is really nice but big. My son is OOS too and trying ti pick between the 3.

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<<<
Just do not want him to be in huge debt once he graduates. Like all parents, want the best education at the best price.


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lol

HE CAN’T be in huge debt when he graduates. HE can only borrow small amounts. To borrow more than the small federal amounts, YOU WOULD have to be on the hook…and it doesnt’ sound like you will want that.

So, it’s probably a good idea for you and your family to figure out how much you can spend each year.

For instance, if you think that your family can provide $15k each year towards college (mix of parent income, student income, small student loan), then your child would need a FULL TUITION merit award, so that the $15k can pay for room, board, books, fees, travel, and misc expenses.

If you’re not sure what your budget can be, look at it this way: IF a family has no “college savings,” then for parents to provide $18k per year towards college, they would have to squeeze $1500 a month out of the family budget for 48 STRAIGHT months. That should assume that the household will likely be experiencing about 4-6 unexpected expenses every year (dental work, car repair, car replacement, major appliance replacement, home repair, etc).

That $1500 a month contribution would be like adding 3-4 car payments to the household budget for 4 years.

If there are younger children to also put thru college, then those costs would also need to be considered.

Sometimes looking at it this way, helps with perspective.

17

+1 for Embry-Riddle. He won’t get anywhere near a full ride unless he’s an athlete or goes the ROTC route, but it’s a great program, and they do have good merit money.

18

<<<
Like all parents, want the best education at the best price.
<<<

Right, because an employer isn’t going to pay a student more money because he graduated from School X. When a company hires, it will pay the new-hires from UTenn, Alabama, Purdue, GT, UCLA, CSULB, Cal Poly SLO, and similar the SAME salary.

(Imagine how annoying that is for the ones who took on debt for a “name” school only to find out that their fellow new-hire from a local public is being paid the same!)

The nice thing about engineering is that there are SO MANY very good programs in the US.

This country and each state has a vested interest in having several schools in virtually every state that have quality ABET-accredited eng’g programs.

The simple truth is that this country has such a high need for high-tech engineers that we can’t depend on only a handful of schools to produce them. Heck, the state of Calif alone has over 25 schools with very good eng’g programs.

Virtually any established good school, particularly state schools, will have very good eng’g programs. They have to.

19

UA-H is a smaller school of around 5,000 so that may not work from the marching band perspective as much as it would from being in Rocket City.

@SillyRabbit13 a 29 ACT is a long way from NMF. And what was your kids stats to get those awards, can you share? Also did he have related EC? I thought Embry Riddle didn’t give much except to the handful of most desirable.

20

http://www.uah.edu/ahs/departments/music/ensembles/bands

Band info from UAH.