<p>Yes to both above. If you are out of state for any of the publics in your list make sure you have your own state’s flagship engineering school on the list. Also add a couple engineering schools where you at the very top of the entering class if that isn’t represented above. You want to make sure you are accepted at a school you are willing to attend that meets your financial needs …or the best school you can go to that meets your financial needs. You can get a picture of what might financially happen by doing some “research.” Take a look at each of the colleges websites, compare yourself to the statistics for this year’s class (or last year’s). Get together with your parents and run some financial aid calculators to figure out what the minimum you and your parents will be expected to pay. Search on the forums for each of the colleges to get an idea of what kind of packages are being reported. Finally, there is data (and links all over this forum) to Collegeboard data, etc. for percentage of need met by the colleges and universities. Mom2 has posted a link to a good thread for merit aid if that is your number one consideration in choosing a college/uni.</p>