<p>My son prefers smaller schools, and most of the schools that give big merit scholarships are big. But, so far he liked Drexel quite a bit despite its larger size (and the fact that he was almost sure he wouldn't like a city school), so that's at least one place he'd be happy to go that will give him plenty of merit aid (full tuition). We're visiting Northeastern and UVM in February, to see how they compare. He has other schools he prefers in terms of size in his RD list, but we need to see if any of them will come through with the money. </p>
<p>As mentioned, I think WPI is out of the running based on money, though it will depend on whether they surprise us with enough need-based aid and are willing to talk to us in detail about how it would change in subsequent years. I'm trying to decide whether or not to visit when we go to see Northeastern. I don't want my son to fall in love if we can't afford it, so I'm leaning toward waiting until we know, even though it means a second trip to the Boston area (not a big deal for us from where we live in Vermont).</p>
<p>My DS is NMSF and very likely NMF, which would give him full tuition at UVM (only true because we are in-state). So UVM is affordable without any additional aid. (It’s actually even doable with the smaller non-NMF scholarship he was initially awarded with admission, though he might need to take some very small loans.) It’s not commutable for us, but R&B is affordable.</p>
<p>Drexel will be affordable if he becomes NMF. So will Northeastern, but with loans on his part (at least until he begins bringing in co-op income). </p>
<p>Because he’s applying for Mechanical Engineering which UVM offers, Vermonters aren’t eligible for NERSP tuition discounts for that major. The way the program works is if (and only if) you can’t do a particular major in-state, you can get the in-state price in one of the other states.</p>
<p>We’re not looking for suggestions of schools to apply for at this point. He has affordable options (and assuming NMF, at least one affordable option that he really likes). He has been admitted EA to UVM, WPI, Northeastern and Drexel. He is waiting to hear from RPI, RIT, Rochester, Lehigh and Waterloo. Waterloo will be affordable because he is a dual citizen. RIT should be affordable. The others are a big question mark on affordability, but were included because of something particularly attractive to him about each of them, so worth rolling the dice to see how that turns out.</p>
<p>Good idea starting the new thread - we were very off topic! Having a son in the same situation (NMSF / hoping for NMF, some overlap in schools applied to and acceptances, and having one or more siblings that will overlap some but not all years of college) we are also comparing offers and awaiting RD decisions. For us, WPI is more affordable than Northeastern now that NEU no longer offers full tuition to NMF.</p>
<p>GraniteStateMom, was your son awarded a major scholarship by WPI? I thought their maximum “normal” scholarship was $25K and they only guarantee $20K for NMF, whereas Northeastern still guarantees $30K for NMF, and costs about the same (WPI is actually slightly more, I believe).</p>
<p>Congrats to your DS on the Foisie! I was wondering if he had won that one. (WPI was basically on DS’s list on the off chance that he’s be named a Foisie Scholar, but we knew it was unlikely, as his main strength is his NMSF status and his high ACT, but nothing else interesting/exceptional. We were pretty sure the money would not work out otherwise, though I guess they may yet surprise us with need-based aid.)</p>
<p>Thanks Mathmom! S was shocked when he realized why they were calling. There are so many talented students applying to all of these colleges that he never would have expected to be chosen for the scholarship. Still not sure if he will take advantage of it, but it is a nice option. His biggest hesitation is that he plans to major in math and either computer science or physics. At one time he thought he wanted to major in engineering but has changed his mind over the past year. While he recognizes the strength of WPI’s engineering program, he is not as familiar with their math major and straight sciences. He will definitely be engaging in discussions with students and faculty to get a better feel for this. </p>
<p>One of the nice things about WPI is that the COA has actually gone down for us now that my D lives off campus. I read recently that about 50% of upperclassmen live off campus (I think it used to be more). Off campus is a little bit of a misnomer since the blocks around the school are filled with student rentals, so it doesn’t feel like off campus. In fact, many apartments are as close or closer to campus than some dorms. My D’s house is right across the street from upperclassmen apartments. I guess my point is that most students who live off campus still feel very much engaged in and connected to all aspects of the campus community - does that make sense? My D’s rental for next year (rent plus utilities for 12 months) will cost half of what living in a dorm for the school year costs. Just food for thought when comparing 4 year costs of colleges.</p>
<p>My older son lives off-campus in a house that is closer that is closer to the engineering buildings than the dorms he lived in freshman and sophomore years. But he’s not saving much because there is a lot of competition for close apartments (he signed a lease the prior SEPTEMBER with a huge deposit!) But he’s way happier in a house with 5 friends than he was in the dorms and still quite involved in his usual on-campus activities.</p>
<p>Interesting thread (this and the other one). It seems like my son has similar interests and has applied to mostly the same schools and accepted. He has lesser stats, so I’m really struggling with the cost. He won’t tell me his favorite yet, but I love WPI. I just don’t see how we can make it work with his merit offer.</p>
<p>Do yourself a favor and don’t fall in love with the unaffordable ones. Hopefully you have some affordable choices – find things to love there! :)</p>
<p>Can you all share other colleges your children have applied to or considered? I am trying to get a list going for my kids, both with STEM interests.</p>
<p>My older son is a high school junior interested in physics and eventual grad school. My younger son is a sophomore and interested in comp sci or engineering. We are trying to learn about school options and they are particularly interested in attending a school with a technical emphasis. We live in the Midwest but they are not particular about the region.</p>
<p>Places he considered but did not apply: Case Western (just didn’t set off the warm fuzzies for him, and we already had lots of viable options on the list by then), UMDCP (he liked it but prefers smaller schools, and was really overwhelmed by its size), Rutgers, U of Delaware, U of Maine, Clarkson – all had some appealing features but did not “make the cut” for this son. I also thought Olin would be a potentially good fit (though a major reach) but with their drop to half-tuition scholarships rather than full it was almost certain that the money would not work out for us so we didn’t explore any further.</p>
<p>My older son (with same test scores but a higher HS class rank & more “interesting” ECs) now attends Cornell (College of Engineering majoring in CS). He also applied to CMU School of CS (waitlisted but he did not accept a place on the list), MIT (rejected), and was accepted with merit to: RPI, Northeastern, RIT, WPI, Drexel.</p>
<p>My kids wanted to stay in/near the northeast, which bias is abundantly clear in their lists.</p>
<p>Oh, yeah, DS2 also visited Princeton and decided against applying, because their engineers were “too well rounded” (Basically, the tour guide emphasized how great it was to be connected to such a strong liberal arts college because they could take bunches of those non-engineering classes, and my DS wants to take as few classes as possible outside of engineering/math/science. We assured him that he <em>could</em> still do that at Princeton, but he’d rather be somewhere where that’s what most kids want.)</p>
<p>Hi Trilliums-I’ve been lurking this thread and others as I find some good snippets of info from the two original posters and my son has also applied to some of the same schools. He has somewhat less elevated academic stats but is still a VG student at a private prep in NJ. I think also we are probably in a somewhat different position financially as we’re not likely to get any need based aid. He was accepted EA at both WPI and U. Vermont (which was a safety) and with their negligible OOS tuition it’s almost the cost of WPI for us with his moderate merit aid there. He likes WPI very much and it is certainly in the top 2 or 3, but we will still look at the overall COA for us in the end. He also applied to RPI (a top choice but also need to see where merit falls in), RIT, and Clarkson (which he actually likes a lot for a variety of reasons). These later two may be our most affordable in the end. He also applied to BU and out west to Colorado School of Mines (very selective) and U. Utah (cause he likes to ski and it’s also probably a safety). Being in a ski area you might note is the common theme here besides good eng. programs.</p>
<p>Trilliums - there are lots of schools that might be good fits for your sons. Schools my S applied to or considered in the midwest include Case Western (got in with generous merit), U Chicago (got in with modest merit), WUSTL (RD, so still waiting) and Rose Hulman (decided not to apply as most advanced degree offered is Masters and there are other similar schools closer to home). Outside of Midwest, S applied to RPI (RD, so waiting), U Rochester (RD), WPI (accepted with generous merit), Pitt (accepted with generous merit, honors college), Northeastern (accepted to honors college with meh merit. Will increase if S is named NMF). He has a couple of other reaches that he applied to for RD. We also will likely not qualify for much merit. NPCs for most schools don’t paint a pretty picture for EFC, even with 2 in college. S did apply to a couple of need only schools that are more generous than most. He cast a wide net with other applications hoping to get generous merit and his strategy seems to be working out well. </p>
<p>When looking at schools, I was surprised that my S really liked schools that had a good STEM department of choice within a more liberal arts environment (e.g. WUSTL and Chicago. Also felt more drawn to Northeastern than MIT after visiting them back to back. Same with liking Pitt better than CMU even though the visit to Pitt was an unplanned, spur of the moment visit en-route to CMU).</p>
<p>I appreciate the comments. We look through college guide books and hardly know where to start. Reading these kinds of threads helps tremendously. We are generating a list of schools to look into in more depth. </p>
<p>Older DS will have strong stats, probably end up NMF (PSAT was well above last year’s cut off date) but his ECs are mediocre. Identifying potential <em>match</em> schools is proving to be quite difficult. Plus, we need to keep in mind younger son will be in college the following year.</p>
<p>My kids both have pretty mediocre EC’s fwiw. </p>
<p>We found that our boys didn’t really have any match schools. The schools where they would be a “match” stats-wise were the tippy top schools that are always reaches, not to mention looking for stellar ECs. Everywhere else they were well above the 75% levels. So they pretty much have reaches and safeties. Within the admissions safeties, we were looking for schools that would offer good merit, honors programs, and other interesting opportunities. Several of my DS2’s admissions safeties are financial reaches in that they will probably only be affordable if he gets offered one of their top scholarships (which I think is unlikely, given the non-stellar ECs, but we’ll wait and see…)</p>
<p>Correction to post # 16 - meant to say that we probably won’t qualify for much need based aid. Fortunately S’s stats are good enough to qualify for merit at many schools. Tough call on whether he has what competitive merit schools are looking for, though. His ECs are pretty focused and he has done reasonably well with them. That said, he’s not a super star who has cured cancer or saved the world. </p>
<p>The whole college selection process is so interesting. My kids are all strong math and science students. That said, My older D is very different from S. She was a very good student in HS but not quite the academic stand out that her brother is. She was a 3 season varsity athlete who was also active in the community. Was not involved in any STEM - type ECs. She ended up at a technical school (WPI) majoring in biomedical engineering. She’s in her 2nd year, loves it, and is absolutely flourishing there. I would not have guessed that choice or outcome for her any more than I would have guessed that my S would think the Core at U Chicago was the best thing since sliced bread. </p>
<p>Mathmom, that’s an interesting take on match schools. I hadn’t really thought of it that way. S’s stats are above the 75th percentile at many schools we consider to be matches. I’ll have to ponder that.</p>
<p>I completely agree with this. My D did a great job finding the right environment for her. S is still wresting with that. And yes, we are fortunate to live in a time and place that affords so many options :)</p>
and still quite involved in his usual on-campus activities.</p>
(Basically, the tour guide emphasized how great it was to be connected to such a strong liberal arts college because they could take bunches of those non-engineering classes, and my DS wants to take as few classes as possible outside of engineering/math/science. We assured him that he <em>could</em> still do that at Princeton, but he’d rather be somewhere where that’s what most kids want.)</p>