<p>I'd love to apply to CalTech (I heart small schools with lots of dorky people. CalTech would be my first choice) and MIT, but do they give really really good financial aid? I've heard that some private colleges boast of throwing money at people who have incomes of >$100k, but for my parents that would be a bad year. From what I've heard my stats will not distinguish me at all at such institutions, and to top it off I will be graduating without math competitions or AP tests.</p>
<p>Hi foofit - Check out Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. They offer great merit scholarships and have a very good engineering program.</p>
<p>Rice is in Texas</p>
<p>You need to look at Cooper Union, Webb Institute, and Olin. All free tuition, but not exactly what your specs are (Cooper is probably closest). Your stats should make any of these a good possible fit.
As far as other top Engineering schools with a lot of merit aid:
Case Western Reserve - very good fit
Rose Hulman - They want more women, especially with your stats.
Rensselaer Polytech - They also need more women. They have an automatic $15,000 per year scholarship, the Rensselaer Medal, if your high school will contact them. You may be able to get the rest of the $ you need through merit aid.
Virginia Tech, U Virginia, U Illinois, Penn State, Purdue, Michigan, Cal Berkeley, U Wisconsin and U Maryland all have very good engineering programs and some may give you a full ride, but all are large schools.
MIT, Cal Tech, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown, Tufts, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Harvey Mudd, Swarthmore, and Northwestern all all top tier engineering schools in the small to mid-size range, but the amount of merit aid is in question.
You also should look at the tier 2 or tier 1a engineering school who would also seriously consider you for a full ride. There a many of them, a few in the northeast are: Bucknell, Lehigh, Lafayette, Union, U Rochester, Rochester IT and others.
Lastly don't forget the military academies, great engineering programs and free.</p>
<p>Rose-Hulman is top-notch, but my friend is a male version of you and didn't get any money from them whatsoever. He did, however, get a ton of money from RIT.</p>
<p>Even though applied math is one of your "musts", I would suggest checking out Franklin W. Olin School of Engineering because it is such a good match in every other way. You can take math at Brandeis if Olin's math classes aren't enough, but the program is definately hands-on engineering. It's an amazing school that pays full tuition.</p>
<p>Foofit: if you're looking for a 4000-5000 student top engineering/science environment, music-affiliated non-fraternity non-south school with significant merit aid, start buying your winter underwear now, when they are having the after-ski sales. University of Rochester meets just about all your requirements except perhaps a specific major in applied math. But check their math department yourself.</p>
<p>University of Chicago and Rice.......no shortage of "dorky" kids there</p>
<p>rice is in texas guys...she doesnt want to go to the south. i love rice a lot but its not for her if she doesnt want to go to texas.</p>
<p>also, about caltech, i dont think they offer merit aid, probably impossible to get because everyone is already so brilliant that they should all qualify for merit aid, but im not sure. as for need based, theyre suppose to be the number one or so in financial assisstance according to usnews or something. def apply there. dont assume that theyll give worse aid then a lesser known school just because its highly highly higly selective. i think you'd love it there.</p>
<p>There are many schools, IVYs and others, that give no merit $ instead choosing to only give need based aid. So they are off your list. If you are in the top 10% of applicants at schools that give merit aid you will have a good shot of getting a half or full ride. Lehigh gives 10K to top 10% and maybe more to students with your stats. Our S got a half tuition scholarship to BU with no need to apply beyond the regular application. Northeastern and BU would likely offer you $ and also Univ. of Delaware. At these type of schools you would also qualify to be in their Honors Program which often provides enriching experiences, special classes, top research and internship oportunities. (especially if in/near a city) Check out the web sites of various schools and type in "merit scholarship" under search. This will get you started since they typically show the stats of students who recive merit aide.</p>