My father is accepting a transfer to California this winter. I have always enjoyed California so am interested in applying to engineering schools in California to attend next fall. We won’t qualify for in-state tuition yet so please suggest some schools that I may be able to get merit with my scores of 35 ACT, 2360 SAT, 4.1 gpa unweighted. I have leadership and volunteering, etc. and just received a national scholarship along with NMSF. Parents will contribute some but with the move and increased cost of living I would like to minimize their personal contribution.
USC:
http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/firstyear/prospective/scholarships.html
Santa Clara University:
http://www.scu.edu/financialaid/Scholarships-and-Grants.cfm
UOP:
You can also apply for need-base financial aid at Caltech, Harvey Mudd, Stanford.
LMU and USD are also worth a look.
You may want to check the UC, CSU, and community college residency rules to see if you will gain residency after both your parents and you live in California for over a year. If so, you may only have one quarter/semester to one year of out-of-state tuition, so the UCs and CSUs may be more affordable than the privates if the rest of your attendance is at in-state tuition.
Note that the CSUs’ (including the Cal Polys’) list prices are not that high even at out-of-state tuition.
You can also check the residency rules of your current state and see if you can retain residency there and attend a state university there at in-state tuition.
You can also look at merit scholarships around the country:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/