UAH, while excellent for aero, is a small commuter-type school. Only 4300 undergrads, only 20% of which live on campus (90% are in-state). Keep that in mind and investigate thoroughly to see if it’s the right fit. UA (Tuscaloosa) is the flagship with the “full college experience”.
Purdue, even with 10k scholarship, is still above budget for this OOS student. Same for Georgia Tech.
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29 ACT is a long way from NMF.
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I’m guessing that was taken as a sophomore, so not too crazy low for someone from a state where the NMSF cut-off isn’t too high.
His soph year PSAT is modest, but one of my son’s classmates moved from a 150 to a 220 in one year…so it can be done. With this student, it sounds like the W portion was his downfall.
****The NEW PSAT 2015
I hope this family knows that the PSAT will be different this fall. It has undergone an overhaul. It may pay off for the family to look over the changes.
Here are some FAQ for PSAT 2015 changes.
http://www.testmasters.com/psat/new-psat-2015-faq
Bama is really nice but big.
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Yes, Bama has a large campus, but it is very well laid out to minimize criss-crossing. The STEM classes are in the NE quadrant of the campus.
The GE/Core classes are mostly in buildings surrounding the Quad, but if he comes in with AP credits, he probably will likely have fulfilled all his Core. My eng’g son didn’t have to take any Core, and the only times he had to venture into the other academic quadrants is when he took Philosophy, Spanish and Italian classes for fun. But even those were a 5 minute walk, not a biggie.
The honors dorms are very close to the STEM buildings so that is also very convenient.
Have you looked at TN Tech? Nephew from E TN wouldn’t look at UT-K, but loved TN Tech. He graduated with CS degree and with having Co-op experience with ADTRAN and a summer internship. Smaller kind of school, but history of technical performance. Not sure if it is a fit with major or desire by your student. Parents were happy with his use of scholarships, and the money he made with his co-op job. Mom was very impressed with his first job salary too.
GA Tech is not the be all, nor is Vanderbilt.
@SillyRabbit13 “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.”
How much was the merit scholarship $ amount offered from Embry-Riddle?
@BrownParent
My son also had a 29 ACT score toward the beginning of his sophomore year, like the OP’s son. He was able to raise it to 34 by his junior year. I don’t remember his SAT, but comparable to his ACT. GPA UW was 3.99 (one A-). Salutatorian. For ECs, he was really into drug prevention since middle school. He ended up working with the police department/public health as an undercover tobacco and alcohol compliance operative. He also did a lot with drug/tobacco policy and house bills at the state level. Was a varsity and club swimmer for 4 years. I think the thing that helped him with scholarships was that he concurrently graduated with an AA from our community college with a 4.0. He had absolutely no aerospace or engineering ECs, although he exhausted all of the mathematics and physics courses at the CC.
@Jay1811
I honestly don’t remember, but I believe it was $25,000/year. I remember that it almost covered all of the tuition (less ~$5,000) but not room/board.
OP,
If he did terrible on the PSAT last year there is still time for him to prep for this years test.
Its worth it.
TN Tech does not have a Aerospace Engineering degree. Only school in TN is UTK.
Yes the ACT 29 was as a sophomore.
Ga Tech is a family school. Originally from Georgia. His uncle gradated from there with an Aerospace Degree and has worked for NASA for 25+years. Lucky for me, the uncle is encouraging other schools if he gets scholarships.
Another reason for looking at other schools is the AP issue. Ga Tech requires “5” on most AP test to receive credit. If he can receive credit at other schools for a 3 or 4 then that helps a lot with Core classes.
Yes we know that the PSAT is different this year. Yes, writing was his weak spot last time. His writing has improved drastically from when he took it last Oct with help from his English teacher.
Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.
It would be hard to suggest school without a final score.
@FutureGTmom the new PSAT will be better for your son. The PSAT was one third math, one third reading, one third writing. The new PSAT will be 50% math and 50% reading and writing.
Aerospace is a specialization of mechanical engineering. Schools without specific aerospace major often have a mechanical major with many of the same courses available. Plenty of people are hired into aerospace companies with mechanical engineering degrees. Don’t let the lack of an aerospace major automatically disqualify a school.
Another thought is to major in ME and then do aerospace as graduate student - if the $$ works out.
Since he is now going into junior year, can do a summer program (like UA SITE) where he can see all areas of eng (and with UA, also CS).
H is a ECE; he helps students with rocketry (TARC - Team America Rocket Challenge) and comments about how aerospace is a big package of skills/knowledge.
Maybe others can comment about ME and AeroEng.
DD was able to determine her field of eng study via UA SITE between her Jr and Sr year of HS (Purdue and other schools offer something similar). Can look at information which could help student get a glimpse of a particular school and ‘research’ - can affirm chosen field and also student can gain insight. This program was very helpful to DD (she wanted to go to UA, which is where she is, but we would have sent her even if she was going somewhere else for UG).
Your sign on kind of gives your persuasion for GT. Is is going to work out financially, or are you trying to seek true options? Has your family visited UTK to see strengths/weaknesses of their program/facilities/educational opportunities? Should visit UTK and TN Tech. Nephew would not visit UTK but was totally sold on TN Tech.
^^ And don’t forget that aerospace companies hire way more mechanical engineers than aerospace engineers. Mech Es design engines and powerplants, structures, and are responsible for the manufacturing process, just to name a few of the things they do.
^^
Right. And many young kids who “think” they want AeroE end up switching to MechE with some add’l AeroE classes to make themselves more marketable. There are fewer jobs for those who are AeroE.
“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.”
I think there are TEN (10) different entries for funds on my daughter’s FA award sheet this year, and we accepted 9 of them. I don’t care as long as the ‘Pay This Amount’ at the bottom of the page is close to zero and the loans are small. It really is no more work for me to keep track of those funds than it would be for the school to just give one full ride scholarship, just a few extra clicks of the mouse on the ‘accept’ page. It was a little work freshman year to follow up on a few; Florida Bright Futures didn’t show up at first, but got it fixed (name didn’t match up), no more problems.
Most of the merit scholarships cover tuition or most of it; R&B is usually on the parents or through extra outside scholarships. Your son might get a small one for being in the band (which is a lot of work/time at big schools), might get one for engineering, etc., but usually the ‘full ride’ that you hear about is not really a full ride, it’s tuition.
Even if he goes to another big flagship, I think you’ll be piecing together aid. That’s just how it works.
It’s an odd thing in Alabama, but this low a percentage of students living off campus is the norm. At Alabama only 26% live on campus, at Auburn only 21%. It doesn’t mean they are commuter schools, there is just a strong tradition of living in apartments off campus, especially for upperclassmen.
UAH is historically a commuter school, but 55% of freshman live on campus, which is more indicative of the trend towards residential culture at the school now. (Even this doesn’t tell the whole story, as only 69% of freshmen live on campus at Auburn.)
Does that 26% at Alabama include the Greeks? It makes sense if it doesn’t as 26% is about the freshman class. But a huge number of students live in Greek housing, which is on land owned by the school.
At CU for many years (don’t know the stats for now), almost all dorms were for freshmen only, with of course a few upperclassmen RAs. There was also some married student housing (not much) and the football/basketball dorms. Freshmen had priority for dorms, and often no one but freshmen cleared the waitlist, so about 25% lived on campus.
My daughter in Laramie has a much higher percentage of upperclassmen living ‘on campus’ because the university owns a lot of apartment buildings, but they aren’t really ‘on campus’, more like the surrounding neighborhoods. Dorms are almost all freshmen, and a group of engineers because there is an older dorm way across campus near the engineering school.
Auburn is a great college for AE, but even with max (non-NMF) merit aid you will be looking at a net cost of ~$30,000.
Mississippi State is a good choice and could give strong merit aid. You should also look at Alabama, Oklahoma State, Wichita State, and New Mexico State.
There are others that have been mentioned, but they either do not have marching bands (UAH, Embry-Riddle, etc.) or cost would still be high after merit (Purdue).
I agree with what others have said about mechanical engineering. It is a more in-demand major and concentrations in Aero are possible. If student is open to ME, then you can also look into Arkansas, Louisiana Tech, Ole Miss, South Florida, South Carolina, South Alabama, and Tennessee Tech.
Check out Wichita State University in Kansas. It has the 6th oldest aerospace engineering program in the country and has connections with a lot of aviation companies - Cessna, Spirit, and lots more. Wichita, Kansas is called the Air Capital of the world. Easy admissions, like 96% acceptance rate. Try on that PSAT, WSU gives a full ride for NMF. But there are also some competitive scholarships that are pretty decent depending on how much you can actually pay.
Texas A & M in the 1980’s (and a period earlier with high growth when they switched from all ROTC and all male to include women and non-ROTC) had off campus apartments built by investors so they could focus on academic buildings and other needs. TAMU realized they needed to spend about $1M in new buses in 1980/1981 (they had free shuttle for students from specific pick up points at these apt complexes) when the old ones would break down and make students late for class.
UAH does have some music ensembles that if a student wanted to keep up skills on instrument.
Sounds like OP has some investigating based on feedback and ideas.
Very important with the 4 year merit to start at the right school that student is happy with and will stick with.
No, the numbers do not include those living in Greek houses. The land is owned by the school, but leased to each house for a $1 per year. lol Now, that’s some rent control!
It's an odd thing in Alabama, but this low a percentage of students living off campus is the norm. At Alabama only 26% live on campus, at Auburn only 21%
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@Bobwallace I’m not sure that is all that unusual for large publics. Once a school has more than, say, 10,000 students, it’s pretty hard to provide beds for them all. Frankly, it’s a losing proposition since after the first year, most WANT to live off campus, so a large school would end up with a lot of empty beds if they tried to have too many.
I guess if a larger public is really in the middle of nowhere, then the school might provide most of the housing, but when a school is in a mid-size or larger city, there’s no need to.
Privates can operate a little differently…usually they’re smaller, and more often have an 18-23 year old undergrad group. Larger publics have a lot of non-trads, vets, marrieds, etc, and even some local commuters.