BS Engineering: Manhattan (scholarship) vs NYU Poly or Stevens?

-Tetralingual international transfer with 3 years remaining
-Looking to study civil engineering, but may switch to computer science or some other more lucrative quantitative field.
-3.95 GPA
-99th Percentile SAT score
-will be living off campus

Manhattan College offered me merit scholarship of $17,500 per year, bringing effective tuition to $19,500.
Both Stevens and NYU Tandon offered me zero ($49K tuition).

I plan to take a 2 year break to have a child earlier in my career before continuing on.
Any advice as to where I should go? I really want to go to Stevens but the huge difference in price is really holding me back.

Would it be a bad idea to do a semester at Manhattan before reapplying to Stevens again in the fall with the hope of getting some kind of scholarship?

Thanks!

Sorry, I am a parent and cannot give the best advice. Manhattan College has good reputation for engineering, although Stevens seems to be the more reputable school- boasting higher entry salaries and guaranteed experience with the co-op program. My son has been accepted to both, but will attend Stevens. They gave him Merit Scholarship and Stevens Grant, but he applied ED, and will play a sport there as well. Manhattan just accepted too and gave $25,000 Pres. Scholarship. He loved Stevens too like you. Plus Manhattan doesn’t have a team for his sport, which he really wanted the college sport experience. You have to do what is right for you. Good luck to you!

Unless money is a non-factor for your family, I would go to Manhattan with the intention of staying for 4 years. Manhattan College has a fine engineering program. Transfer students rarely get merit aid so I would absolutely not count on transferring to Stevens and getting any more aid than you were offered as a freshman.