<p>You have to research each school and see if there are any merit awards at all, if there are a decent number of them, and what the average award is. A good source for a quick look would be the collegedata.com site. For example, you can go to <a href=“Lehigh University Tuition | CollegeData”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=794</a> and see that for Lehigh only 6% of the freshmen last year got merit money without need with an average award of about $10K Given the cost of Lehigh, that is clearly a drop in the bucket and the chances of a big award is not good. You can look at Binghamton in the same site ans see that only 36 freshmen, 1.4% of them got merit money without need with the average award of $3500. YOU have to do this sort of thing, Surely you don’t expect other people to do the research. </p>
<p>You can fill out NPCs for schools and get an idea of what your family will be expected to pay in terms of eligibility for fin aid. Assets in your name generally get hit at 20% if not in a 529 plan, just to let you know. Might be better if you reimburse a parent for expenses and have him/her put it into an account joint with you with parent name and ssn primary. Parental assets get hit at about 5.6% after a protection allowance. </p>
<p>But, yes, it takes time, research and work to get your list down. As a female in engineering, your odds are a bit better than average in getting awards. </p>
<p>I don’t know about other schools, but my D didn’t get any merit aid from these school:</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon
Virginia Tech
Rensselaer</p>
<p>Her stats: National Merit finalist, 2360 SAT (1 seating), 790 - 800 on 3 SAT2s, 7 AP tests - all 5, about 30 quarter units of college-level physics, chemistry, and math classes. She applied as a freshman, not a transfer. She took the college-level classes when she was in HS.</p>
<p>Thanks cptofthehouse. I’ll definitely check out that website.
Pentaprism, wow those are impressive stats. I guess I can cross those off my list. Thanks! </p>
<p>Julianna, a good friend of ours has a daughter with stats similar to yours and she got a very good scholarship, all merit from Georgia Tech. So one never knows, which is why this is so difficult. You can look at the schools and see what the average test scores are, and then see what is available in terms of big ticket awards. If a school just gives out, say 2 big awards and rest are max $10K awards, then you can pretty much figure that the odds are not good for you at all. </p>
<p>CMU does have some awards (or they did) that are specially earmarked for female engineering majors. That is a sign that they are actively seeking them. So as difficult as the admissions is, near impossible to get merit money, they have specific funds laid out for that. Check it out and see how closely you match the requirements, and go for it if you do. On the other hand, some of those schools, like Binghamton, where only 36 freshmen got merit money without need that averaged $3500, I think you are wasting your time.</p>
<p>I am surprised at Pentaprism’s daughter’s results at RPI as I know kids who have gotten merit money without such a stellar resume. What was her major? But I can tell you the awards for some mighty impressive kids ranged around $10-20K from there. </p>
<p>Case Western used to be very specific as to what they give for what scores. DOn’t know if that has changed.</p>
<p>Case Western’s app is free I believe. Drexel is also in Philadelphia, is it Temple that you don’t like or the city?
I would keep the Ohio schools on the list, also UMD, definitely your state schools, Lehigh. That’s six.
I like college navigator to compare schools side-by-side.</p>
<p>Case doesn’t have automatic scholarships anymore sadly. </p>
<p>I don’t really like Philly or any college that doesn’t really have a definite campus. Like in temple I couldn’t tell when I was in the campus and when I wasn’t. I wouldn’t mind a college that’s in a city but more secluded. I don’t know what drexel’s campus is like but their co op program is very tempting. </p>
<p>I didn’t find many big state schools on the southern east coast that I could actually afford so I started looking at Ohio, NJ, PA, and lower NY. I figured Ohio would be warmer than Massachusetts. Is Cleveland a lot colder than NJ? </p>
<p>I’ve lived in Cleveland, Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, New York, and the weather is similar in that one can have long hard winters. We had a particularly cold, long winter this past year in NY. My sons have lived even further north, and they didn’t feel it was orders of magnitude worse in Buffalo , Michigan, Wisconsin. Especially living in a college community and near a city. I’d feel the effects of the weather more, out away from active cities and towns, at schools that are not close to anyplace without a lot happening, though some people do like that. Cleveland is in the snow belt, by the way, Not gonna be balmy there.</p>
<p>Why not look at the southern schools? University of South Caroline, University of Alabama, both very good choices for a vibrant campus life, good research level academics and mild winters. </p>
<p>South Carolina is very far. My parents would hate that. Alabama is even farther but probably more favorable because mom2collegekids told me I could get a full tuition scholarship. I was hoping for Virginia or Maryland but at the least I didn’t want to go somewhere that’s a lot colder than where I am now. </p>
<p>As another member here wrote on this forum, most of us do not have the choices that Goldilocks had in the three bears’ house of “too cold”, “too hot”, " too small", “too big”, when financial constraints are in the picture. Absolutely apply to your favorite schools in the areas you most want but you had better hedge your bets with some sure things.</p>
<p>South Carolina has some generous merit money that can bring your cost way down too. Give it a look. </p>
<p>My son was a NMF last year,with good stats and EC’s, but nothing extraordinary. He was offered a 30k merit scholarship from Case Western and a 40k merit scholarship from Lafayette. As a woman interested in engineering, you might also have an advantage.</p>
<p><<<
a good friend of ours has a daughter with stats similar to yours and she got a very good scholarship, all merit from Georgia Tech.</p>
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<p>That would be rare. GT typically requires MUCH higher stats, even for females to get merit. That D must have had some odd hook. I personally know a Kansas female applicant to GT (NMF, ACT 35, val of her class, excellent ECs) who got NOTHING from GT. I would have thought that being from Kansas, being female, top stats, etc would have warranted something, but no…nothing. </p>
<p>I know you mentioned that you don’t like schools without a campus. That’s too bad because Drexel would likely be very generous with you. University of Scranton would probably be pretty generous as well. </p>
<p>This is just my opinion, of course, but I think TCNJ is on the rise. Soon it will be more difficult to get in there than Rutgers. They’re courting out of state kids pretty heavily. And it’s working. We’re less than an hour away in Philadelphia and I know of three PA kids who now consider it their top choice. As far as I know, those 3 kids don’t even know each other. </p>
<p>My friend’s DD is URM, so yes, that is an additional hook. But a young man with comparable stats got zip in mert from GTech and he is URM. So being female, URM and whatever else in her app got her to a point of getting nice merit. The only merit she got, by the way. it was unexpected. I know the family very well, in this case, so I 'm not just guessing here in her case. It’s real. </p>
<p>I’ve seen kids get nice awards from Drexel, but then the cost is up there too. It’s what one ends up paying, not what one gets that counts. Some of the private schools that give $10-20-30K awards still leave a lot to pay. That was a sobering realization with our one son when he got some $30K awards. The state schools with NO award were still less expensive; with just a little merit, far less expensive.</p>
<p>This is definitely true. My sample is skewed. Living in the area, most of the kids I know who go to Drexel either commute or only live on campus their first year. Typically, the students move home with their parents to do their co-ops. Then they may sublet a place in Manayunk or West Philly when they’re back on a class rotation. The OP lives in Jersey so she may be in a position to do the same. Finding a co-op near home is a huge savings - the Drexel grads I know have little to no debt. Most of the Drexel students in my neighborhood get their co-ops in King of Prussia, Plymouth Meeting, Radnor, or Great Valley. I’m assuming kids in Jersey (or at the very least South Jersey) have similar convenient employment centers around their homes. </p>
<p>Of course, we still can’t overcome the geography - Drexel is smack in the middle of West Philadelphia. That’s a problem for my D too. However, Drexel is in a nicer area than Temple and it does have Penn’s beautiful campus right next door. </p>
<p>I am absolutely NOT dissing any suggestions or idea, by the way. Best that OP applies to a variety of schools and sees what pans out, but makes sure there are some affordable doable things on the list without many contingencies. After that, might as well buy them lottery tickets, gotta play to win. The one thing to definitely check out is whether the money is even there–I see things like international students applying to schools,wanting fin aid when those schools out and out say no aid for internationals You want to fish where there is some life in those waters. So if you need a certain amount of money, looking at a school where only 1% get an average of $3K in merit money, is not a good pick, for example. But otherwise, give it a go. Each of my kids got at least one surprise in the process. Not always good ones, either, but there is a wide range of possibilities here.</p>
<p>What is your SAT W score? If you can get your SAT total up to a 2250 you may receive the Presidential full ride at Rutgers. You are supposed to have an ‘A’ average, but you are pretty close. You should call and ask if you qualify for that with a 3.95. When you apply, you can list up to 3 schools to apply into. It is easier to get the Presidential in SEBS than it is in SAS or the other schools, so you should include SEBS as one of your choices. </p>
<p>I don’t know about chances for this scholarship. They give out quite a few. In 2010 it was over 100. Don’t see more recent info on a quick scan. If you do call you could ask how many they award.</p>