<p>With an ACT 35, your son has some options…</p>
<p>You may need to cast a wider geographical net.</p>
<p>USC in Calif might give him full tuition (he’d get half tuition as a NMF).</p>
<p>What all does your son want in a school besides engineering?</p>
<p>Is he a social type? Would he want a social rah rah sports atmosphere or a more quiet small campus?</p>
<p>He’s not actually interested in engineering, he’s more interested in Computers and in particular Game Design, with an emphasis on the programming side. But he’s not 100% sure that’s what he wants so a place with some flexibility would be great. </p>
<p>He’s not into sports at all. He’s like school spirit over some non-sports stuff more. He was impressed by RIT where they were playing some kind of zombie game all across campus 
He’s done a lot of drama in HS. He doesn’t want to study it, but he might enjoy acting in something for fun. For fun, he plays D&D with a handful of friends.</p>
<p>When we visited colleges, UMass Amherst felt too big and too general, compared to WPI and MIT which we visited the same week. He liked the feel of the techy schools. Northeastern he liked, but again not as much as the more techy schools. He’d strongly prefer a school whose humanities core does not require a history class, and would prefer if he can get out of the writing requirement with his AP English credits. The project program at WPI was very appealing, and a co-op program would also be great, and help mitigate some of the cost. :)</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions.</p>
<p>oops about Engineering. However, USC might still be a good choice. Don’t know how it is with computer games, but is good with computer programming and computer engineering.</p>
<p>Re…MIT…since you’re quite sure that you can’t afford the expected family contribution at schools like MIT, it probably is a good idea to avoid visiting those schools. It can just add to the frustration to a high stats student who might think he “belongs there” and will feel “cheated” that he’s being made to consider lesser schools.</p>
<p>I think USC actually has a highly ranked games program, so we’ll probably take a look, even though it’s further than he’d prefer to go. MIT we already visited when i was in my financially naive stage. He hasn’t visited any one place where he totally fell in love, and is quite realistic about looking at the various offers he gets before deciding where to go. We’re making a spreadsheet and my husband and I will figure out what we can afford to spend, and then go over the spreadsheet with him. The thing that surprised me was how much schools like WPI and RPI will still end up costing, even if he gets a “good” merit scholarship offer. That was the piece that I was missing, thinking that merit money at those schools would make them affordable 
I think he <em>will</em> be disappointed if it turns out that none of RPI/WPI/MIT/RIT turn out to be doable. :-/ So, I’m glad that we’re expanding our horizons and coming up with some viable alternatives, but also still hoping that we can find a way to make some of those places work out somehow.</p>
<p>The thing that surprised me was how much schools like WPI and RPI will still end up costing, even if he gets a “good” merit scholarship offer. That was the piece that I was missing, thinking that merit money at those schools would make them affordable</p>
<p>I know what you mean. Yesterday, I was talking to a mom whose daughter had accepted what they thought was a “generous” merit offer ($15k/yr - a bit under half tuition). The mom said that when it came time to pay the rest, the generous merit didn’t seem so generous anymore since they still had to pay about $37k. </p>
<p>That’s the funky part about merit scholarships from pricey schools. The amounts can seem large (like $20k per year), but in truth, a $15k scholarship from a less expensive OOS public can actually be more valuable since the COA is a lot less.</p>
<p>My college kid got $25K+ in scholarship from one school. The depressing part was that we would still have to come up with $30K+ to meet COA there. </p>
<p>Our state school offered a mere $2500 in scholarship. But with the full cost being under $20K at that time, it was a deal. Had he gone to a local state school, it would have been free. Another state option gave him extra money the way it worked out. </p>
<p>As it is we are paying $35K and he is paying some as well.</p>
<p>I just found out about the tax credits that are available for college tuition. Do people generally think the American Opportunity Credit will be continued? I need to do more reading on this. If we can actually get a tax credit, that will help bump up a bit what we can afford to spend per year. Is there a thread on CC discussing the credits? I did a quick search and did not find one.</p>
<p>I believe the fine print on the tax credits includes limitations based on income. I think the limit is $150K or so, not sure if that’s AGI or not. It would be HORRIBLE to be just over that line and not get any credit and still be paying 20 - 40K a year!</p>
<p>For this year, it starts phasing out at 160K and phases all the out at 180K. (That’s modified AGI – AGI with some excluded foreign income added back in.) That’s pretty generous as tax credit programs go.</p>
<p>Also I read a hint that even if you haven’t used a 529 to save in advance for college, there can be tax benefits to depositing money you’re about to withdraw for current education expenses. In VT you can get a tax deduction for up to a certain (relatively small in this context) amount put into a 529 plan. That could save a few bucks.</p>
<p>The tax credit is nice…but it’s not really a huge amount.</p>
<p>Not a huge amount, but if there is, say, a 10K gap between what financial aid covers and what you can really afford, then a 2500 tax credit gets you 1/4 of the way there. And maybe the kid finds a couple of small outside scholarships, and finds a way to earn a little extra money this summer, you save a little money on taxes by going through a state-tax-advantaged 529 plan, and slowly you chip away at that gap…</p>
<p>Of course we don’t know what kind of money the kid will get offered at most schools yet, but every 2.5K we can find helps :)</p>
<p>Keep in mind that many/most outside scholarships are only for one year. While they are nice, usually you can’t depend on them.</p>
<p>That’s a good reminder, thanks. In some cases that may be offset by the fact that in later years the student may be able to earn more money, especially if enrolled in a co-op program.</p>