<p>My son is a junior in high school, hopes to become a civil engineer or construction engineer. We live in Washington state and he wants to 'get-out-of-Dodge to a warmer climate. The schools that he is presently looking at are: San Diego State, CSLUB, Stanford, UHM. He also has considered the Cal Poly's. We have visited the U of Idaho. We did the sneek peek only because we cannot afford to tour other schools that are further away. Idaho is a perfectly nice school, with a nice CE program, but it is in the middle of no were-wheat fields, and definatley not in a warm climate as he requested! I am trying to tell him that he can go were ever he likes as long as he can find a way to pay for it. We did the fafsa4caster, and it said our ECF would likely be $0. But it seems that since he would be an out-of-state student, he wouldn't qualify for anything more than federal aid.
Tell me kind, knowledgeable people, is there hope for my son to go to a school that will meet his requirements of nice weather, as well as a decent education? We can also speak about the fact that most of the Cal State schools are 'impacted' so what does that do for odds getting in?
How about for UHM, that they only take so many mainlanders?
His GPA is 3.72, pleanty of cs. Eagle Scout, DECCA vp... His present SATs are a bit on the low side: 480/540/540, and retaking them again tomorrow with better results, hopefully! Suguestions please!</p>
<p>There's quite a huge, and I mean HUGE gap between SDSU/CSLUB and Stanford, whose 25 percentile SAT is around 660-690 per section. Based on his SAT scores, I would scratch Stanford off the list and look into the University of California campuses. With a nonresident GPA of 3.45 or above, which your son has, he would only need to average a 380 per section on the SAT I and two SAT II exams to meet the minimum eligibility requirements and be guaranteed admission to UC Riverside and UC Merced. And if your son manages to pull up his SAT scores, he could check out schools like UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, UC Irvine, and UC Santa Barbara, all of which have more respected engineering programs than the Cal States. UCR, UCI, and UCSB are in SoCal, so all have warm weather.</p>
<p>Any ideas how to pay for those schools, besides debt?</p>
<p>Since your EFC is zero, you could probably expect to get some federal aid like a Pell Grant, although the maximum amount is only $4731 for the upcoming school year, which barely makes a dent into the out-of-state tuition and fees. All I can say is to apply and see what kind of financial aid you get. It's likely that you'll have to incur some debt; exactly how much would have to depend on the financial situation of the school and the state funding situation, which currently is not looking good for the UCs.</p>
<p>Have you checked out the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) Program? It allow students in the Rocky Mountain and Western states to enroll in cooperating western public colleges for 150% of the in-state tuition rate. (California does not participate in the program, but other "warm weather states" do. But please realize not not all majors are available for WUE students at all colleges.)</p>
<p>WICHE</a> - Student Exchange Programs</p>
<p>You can enter your preferences and see if there are any matching colleges.</p>
<p>Won't pay for college completely, but it'll make the tuition bill a bit lower.</p>
<p>Oregon State in Corvalis would be warmer than Idaho, but you're still looking at OOS tuition. School</a> of Civil & Construction Engineering - Oregon State University</p>
<p>He would qualify with his current SATs, but it's still better to retake and try to get those numbers up. Merit aid and scholarships are usually tied to higher stats than the average. </p>
<p>You might want to post your question on the engineering majors forum. </p>
<p>The reality of life might be that he goes to school locally, then heads out for the warmer climate to go to work after graduation.</p>
<p>UArizona is pretty warm (OK, scratch that, it's scorching), but anyone can get a pretty good education there. It's not going to have the prestige of Stanford, but it's a pretty good safety and the chance of getting a partial scholarship is high, even among OOS residents. I'd say it's better than the Cal Poly's, even. </p>
<p>His SAT is about average there, FYI.</p>
<p>My son is retaking the SATs as we speek. We do know about the WUE. That's how I found out about University of HI Manoa, and also Idaho. I guess it will take serveral weeks to get back the scores, but we will continue looking!</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies. I was glad to find yet another helpful sight. Now I will have to divide my time from leasure searching at cruisecrtic and the serious stuff here!</p>
<p>Also check into University of Alabama and University of Houston. They both have the majors that your son is looking at. I believe they use a sliding admissions scale (if your gpa is high your SAT can be lower) for admittance. They also are not as expensive compared to a number of other colleges nowadays. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Try the ACT. He might just be someone who doesn't do as well as his grades would predict on the SAT. Some people inexplicably do better on the ACT. (and some do better on the SAT. I don't know why)</p>
<p>Here is a warm college that has cheap out of state tuition. It is not prestigious but look into the department of interest and see what you think. Safety school?</p>
<p>University of South Alabama, out of state tuition about $8000 tuition for an academic year
He could take civil engineering, and I bet he would get a Presidential Scholarship
College</a> of Engineering
[url=<a href="http://www.southalabama.edu/admissions/ugscholar.html%5DScholarships%5B/url">http://www.southalabama.edu/admissions/ugscholar.html]Scholarships[/url</a>]</p>
<p>(With his good grades and your low EFC, you might find you will spend less at a school that has higher tuition but has good scholarships available.)</p>
<p>No matter what one's GPA is, only California residents are truly guaranteed admission to colleges like UC Merced, right?</p>
<p>Try maybe the Florida schools? UF and FSU are both fairly prestigious, and offer fun (warm) environments.</p>
<p>He may in fact get a break going farther away. College like to plan the "we have students from all over". So the U of Ala, Houston, AZ, AZ state, may be very good suggestions and he would get something.</p>