Chasing engineering merit aid - open to any advice

Looking for help in trying to find a school for my daughter to get merit aid for engineering. She is ranked 2 out of her class of 250. Has a 1490 SAT (780 math 710 v). 4.0 unweighted GPA and 4.7 according to state weighted GPA guidelines. As parents we had financial struggles in the past and do not have a lot saved for college which breaks my heart. But our income has recently gone up a lot so we are not going to qualify for a lot of financial aid because it looks like we have money. She has a lot of leadership activities, captain of varsity sports, NHS, etc. and works up to 25 hours during school. She’s likes some expensive schools we cannot afford and we have told her this. We need to really chase merit aid to make college doable for her. Open to ideas across the country if there are any schools that she may qualify for a full scholarship. Open to any advice.

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What is your home state?

Also, what type of engineering does your daughter wish to study (if she knows at this point)?

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From my experience (5 college students), merit is usually based on GPA and pre-covid, test scores. My kids only applied to safeties, no reaches, in order to get merit. The more competitive the school, the lower the merit (in general).

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The bigger question is….how much CAN you pay annually for this student to attend college?

Top schools charge an extra fee - sometimes $2500 - for engineering students. One school I know of pays you $2500 for a 30 ACT - doesn’t charge - and they have tons of smart kids - including my son…not to mention possibly the nicest engineering facilities in the country. U of Alabama. Murray State is another - you’d get free tuition + a $1500 stipend.

You may also look at Alabama Huntsville, MS State and Arizona - they publish scholarships online. So for U of Az, you’d get $35K off a year - tuition is $38K, not sure if engineering has a surcharge. Auburn is not as strong merit wise - but this person got into Yale and got a full ride at Auburn.

You might also look at South Carolina (Honors), Arkansas, Florida Tech (likely 1/2 scholarship), and Bradley U - although they will still have significant expense.

Look at directional schools - Western Michigan, Southern Illiniois, Western Kentucky - typically have reasonable tuition.

Finally, if she has one more app in her and small is ok, check out Washington & Lee. They have the Johnson Scholarship and then other full tuition scholarships and relatively speaking, they are plentiful. They are a top liberal arts school with top engineering placement but do not have the ABET accreditation. I wouldn’t hesitate.

Get on the email list for W&L and other schools and they’ll send you fee waivers.

btw - when you say you can’t afford anything but your income has gone up - top schools - Rice, the Ivies, W&L - use income charts - so for example, if you make less than $100K, it might be free tuition, etc. - so depending on your income (and assets) at the schools with the biggest endowments, you might find some aid surprises.

Growing brain drain: University of Alabama’s gain in drawing Illinois students is a loss for Illinois - Chicago Tribune

How the University of Alabama Became a National Player - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Yale University loved her Papa John’s Pizza college application essay, but she chose Auburn University - The Washington Post

New Freshmen Scholarships (murraystate.edu)

SMU could give quite a bit of merit for those stats. They’ve beefed up engineering in recent years. Leadership puts one in the running for Hunt and President’s Endowed Scholars.

Otherwise, I suggest Purdue and Florida which have relatively low cost for OOS students. Maybe your daughter could get honors in one or both.

We need to know where you live before we can help. Big 10, in state schools can be great for Engineering(i.e. Purdue), and relatively inexpensive, depending on where you live. You might look into Iowa State. They are prompt and unfussy with their admissions process, and they have vg to Exc Engineering, depending on the program you choose.

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Yes, a former Purdue professor and Wisconsin grad sent his son to Iowa State because they focus on keeping you in engineering and graduating you with a good job. Could be a good safety option and see how much merit you get.

From northeast. I am trying to remain anonymous as I am mortified by our prior financial situation. It’s expensive to live where we live. Minimal money in savings. Income last year about $140K, but prior years much, much less. In the past, we would have qualified for free tuition, but not now. I can handle all of the criticism of all our bad prior financial decisions. It took us years to get out of the slump of the last economic downturn. I never want to be in that situation again. But now I am trying to solve this problem. We have equity in our home, but don’t want to take out money in our home as if the economy ever takes a downturn again, we need to be in a situation where we can pay our mortgage. In the past so many people were unemployed for years. I am willing to explore all options out there. We know the top schools are not going to give the merit aid. We can hopefully save money over the next year to come up with the first year payment. Looking like a financial aid estimator puts us at being out about $30-35K if schools meet full need. I do think that we really cannot afford that as though although on paper it may appear we can. In state school will probably not give us any benefit of financial aid so this would still cost the same as other schools. Trying to explore any full ride scholarships although I know they are few and far between. Maybe there is just a school out there that I don’t know enough about and can explore.

Two more options:

  • Temple U in Philly historically has offered full tuition President’s Scholarship with those stats.
  • NJIT in Newark NJ, good chance for full tuition Dorman Honors scholarship.

Also, consider having your D take the ACT as soon as you can in the fall, and apply with the test where you outperform compared to the other. Both my Ds with similar stats did better comparatively on the ACT – and only used that ACT score for applications.

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Clarkson University gives fantastic merit aid if she would consider a small school in the North Country NY. They do have the Ignite Scholarship which I believe is full ride.

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Thanks. She has not yet taken the ACT, but may consider it.

@hopefulmom13 so $30,000 a year will be a stretch. Can you pay $15,000 or $20,000 a year? If so, a full tuition scholarship would work.

I hate to ask this…and I know it’s not your ideal…but is there a public college within commuting distance that might work?

Please, please do not feel badly about not having saved a lot for college. The vast majority of college students have zero dollars in college savings. They figure out a way to get their bachelors degrees at an option that is affordable for their family.

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I am ruling out commuting. I will do whatever I can to make it that does not happen. A full tuition scholarship would definitely work. We are all working to save as much as we can over the next year.

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My daughter had very similar stats (but a 3.9 gpa), Temple was still $30,000+ after scholarship. OP what state? We are in NJ and I believe our best bang for the buck would have been in state (but not Rutgers, TCNJ or Stevens). Look at the less competitive in state colleges in your state.

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In addition to Temple and NJIT, consider UMBC right outside Baltimore. Do keep in mind that NJIT and UMBC have limited choices outside STEM majors if she changes her mind about engineering. Also, check out UNH, Univ of Maine, URI to see if there are any merit scholarships. Your daughter has great stats! You can PM me for more info about NJIT. My son just graduated from there.

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I think W&L can give you what you want. Arizona, Alabama, UAH (free tuition and first year dorm room covered so you just pay food., Arkansas, MS State as I said can give you what you want. Ole Miss too. Florida State too - in regards to cheap cost. Murray State (tuition + $1500) and others. W&L can truly be a free ride with the Johnson Scholarship (offered to 10% of the class - so 40+ students). Others earn full tuition. U of Utah is very aggressive for someone like you. many schools (Alabama, Arizona, UAH, Murray State, MS State, Arkansas and more tell you up front what you’ll get). Also consider tech focused schools - Missouri S&T, South Dakota School of Mines, etc.

Colleges, such as UAH, that you haven’t heard of are very well regarded in engineering. Huntsville is the 2nd home of NASA if you will.

My son majored at a major automotive this Summer - goes to Alabama. Most/all the kids had internships. His two roommates are at Georgia Tech.

I applaud you for thinking about your finances. I have two kids in college (one about to be). Both at OOS publics.

One is at Alabama - I pay about $2500 a year after his $28.5K in scholarships + his apartment - so maybe $17 or $18K a year.

The other is about to start at College of Charleston. They don’t have engineering - but just to show you how it can be, I just stroked a check for first semester. Under $4K including room and board.

I can’t tell you how relieved I am. They chose the schools - they got into higher ranked schools but these worked for them. I could be paying $75K a semester for each kid - and this is soooooooo much better even if the names are not as strong. And I won’t have to work til I’m 90.

Also, apply for local scholarships - not the ones you get from the scholarship aggregators that are national. They are hard to get.

My employer gave me $2K for my daughter and $1K for my son through its scholarship. My “needed aid” friend got a $500 a semester scholarship for all four years through a local rotary or something. On those, you have hardly any competition.

I do agree (for low cost relative) a Purdue (but will still be over $40K) - they offered my son a $10K merit but they are rare. UMD - very little merit - so $53K not cheap. Florida State and Florida are both reasonable - but with Florida you’ll get tuition at $7K because they’ll waive OOS - but their engineering is off campus. Bang for the buck and reputation - you can’t beat U of AZ.

i think your SAT is fine. I mean, it wouldn’t kill the ACT to see if you got a 34-36.

Quick story - I went to Syracuse and my (now) friend from Montana came. Her parents sold her house and moved into a trailer to send her to Journalism school there. Two years in, couldn’t afford SU and she transferred to Montana. So many people act like spending $30K, $40K, even $80K a year on college is just what you have to do. But honestly, you don’t - it’s not just the payment or the opportunity cost - but it’s the mental stress you have of making those payments. So if your kids go to a directional school or less prestigious school - so what. The curriculums are typically ABET approved so they are similar in what you learn and today so much of the recruitment is done on-line, not at the schools.

So I applaud you for being up front and aggressive - no reason to be embarrassed, it’s frankly smart for you…even if you had money. Engineers will find jobs…period…if they want jobs.

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Western Carolina U has limited Engineering offerings, but is ABET accredited. The good news is that yearly costs would be a maximum of about $21K-$24K. OOS Tuition is approximately $11K/yr and the remainder is mostly R&B. It’s in a scenic area with plenty of outdoor activities, and you may receive minimal merit aid. WCU could be a nice safety to have.

New Mexico Tech has a combination of lower costs + merit pay that would create a comparitively lower price than most OOS universities. The scholarship page says the Competitive Scholarship would grant an OOS student in-state tuition if that student has at least a 3.5HSgpa … check to see if the Silver Scholarship ($4k/yr for 3.25HSgpa) can be stacked on top. In-state tuition+R&B+fees would be a little less than $22K/yr, and that might be reduced by $4K if the Silver is allowed to stack.

Many Catholic-affiliated mid-sized schools have a base price of $60K-$70K but if you avoid the highest ranked half-dozen, many others provide significant merit aid for students with stats like yours. UDayton’s top merit scholarship is worth up to $30K/yr, which would just about get you to $30K/yr. St Louis University awards multiple full tuition Presidential Scholarships for students with stats like yours. U of St Thomas (St Paul, MN) offers up to $33K/yr for a general merit scholarhip, and also has Engineering specific scholarships that range from $4K/yr, $10K/yr up to full tuition.

There are a lot of creative ways to get to your price point. It may require considering a location you had not before. It may require going to a directional-public university when you had not before. It may require a name that your friends don’t readily recognize (no UMiami, no UCLA, no UTexas, no Boston College, no Harvard, no MIT, no UWashington, etc.) But there are many more great universities out there than most people realize before they start this process.

When $ is the primary driver, some other preferences may have to take a back seat.

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Iowa State. The OOS total cost of attendance is about $37k. There’s merit scholarships AND engineering scholarships (that they don’t talk about). If you have the grades and scores it can get cost under $20k/year.

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Hi @Mjkacmom – Test scores also seem to play a big role in Temple merit, at least historically. If you look back at the accepted students threads here on CC for past years, it seems like those with at 34/35 ACT or higher got the Presidential Scholarship. Both my Ds had ACT in that range, and similar GPA and class rank to the OP and both were offered full tuition. We’re also out-of-state (NY). They also both got the full tuition offer from NJIT.