I get the sense that the question has an implied “expensive East Coast” answer expected. If that isn’t true, there are some affordable options in the Midwest.
^You are correct. She lives near NYC and wants to stay in the “northeast."
Realistically good merit aid is generally between $10k to $15k per year. Great merit aid would be $15k to $20k. So even if your D got the highest merit aid mentioned, since most privates are at least $60k, you would still need to come up with $40k minimally.
Beyond that, your D’s test scores and rank will probably make it difficult to get the best merit aid most schools offer.
We are also from NY and D looked into merit aid at a number of schools you mentioned. This was a few years ago when non-need merit aid was more available. In recent years, schools like F and M have put most of their $ into need based aid. Maybe some awards for ivy caliber students still exist, but even that is hard to come by without need.
To give you an idea of what the process was like for us, here are some details: D was school president, founder/ manager of an acappella group, lead in musical, all state vocalist and on several other executive boards. She was top 5% of her class (98/100 weighted gpa) with a 2130 SAT. Great letters of recommendation.
Several of her merit awards reflected talent $ for music as well as leadership and academics. She got $15k from GW and $11k from NYU for talent. $15k from Brandeis for leadership/ grades–deans scholarship which I believe is now $10k a year and even more competitive. Muhlenberg gave her $19.5k which was their max at the time. It is a bit higher now. That included talent awards for art and music as well as leadership/ grades. She got $22k from American which included talent/ academics. She was also accepted to Barnard and Binghamton.
I would suggest getting info from the common data set from every school you are interested in. And then I would double check that the info is accurate for this coming year. Policies can change year to year.
In order to realistically get merit aid without need, you have to place in at least the 75th percentile for that school in terms of gpa and test scores. That’s where the common data set can help it can show real numbers for accepted students and what their average merit awards are. Also it will clarify whether a school gives merit aid without need.
The question is: would your D be happy at a school that would offer her merit aid but would most likely be lower ranked–or would she be happier at a SUNY?
A school like Hofstra has a presidential scholarship that pays $20K to $25K max. But the 75th percentile for both math and verbal SAT in enrolled student is in the low 600’s. Most students score in the mid to high 500’s. Only 28% of their accepted students were in the top 10% of their classes in high school.
I agree that getting your D’s tests scores up would help. D got a 650 on SAT math, but when she took the ACT, her math score went up to a 35 which is a significant difference. She took the tests consecutive weekends with no additional prep for ACT other than a few practice tests for science section.
And of course you need to decide if you can only pay $30K a year now that you have the facts. That may be the maximum number that you can pay, or it may be the maximum number that you want to pay. In the end I paid more for both D’s than I would have hoped, but it worked out. When I saw the facts after doing a lot of research, I had to change my expectations. I also had a realistic conversation with my D as to what my true limit was.
You have every right to say that you can get a better eduction at schools like Binghamton, Buffalo or Stony Brook vs. Hofstra or Clark. And you’d be saving a bunch of money.
@CHD2013 Just saw it’s for a friend. 
Lafayette has merit scholarships at two levels. Both have Marquis in the name. For several years, they offered one at $20K. Within the last two years they have offered another at $40k.
Three paths:
- SUNY
- find a school where she is at the 75th percentile or higher on test scores for merit
- move up the budget from $30k and go for a higher profile school in the northeast
Having difficulties with editing on the iPad. The lower level of merit at Lafayette is now $24k, the higher level, is $40k.
If you have a high income and if your daughter is certain she wants to pursue engineering, you may want to reconsider the cap on tuition. Maybe you could loan your daughter the difference between the cap you have placed on the amount spent and the tuition at the school she wants to attend. I say that because the starting salaries for grads from decent engineering schools (especially in electrical, chemical, geo, aero) can easily be over 100K. In fact the averages are at about 100K for many of those. Further,the job search is often sealed before even starting senior year. So the risks related to loans is lower than it would be for those majoring in topics that are unlikely to lead to well paying jobs. The risk is reduced further if parents are the source of the loans. Seems worth it if your daughter ends up loving a school that is 5-10K more than you planned to pay.
I have no idea what data you are working from but you should relook at it. http://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/best-schools-by-type/bachelors/engineering-schools
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-Salaries_for_Colleges_by_Type-sort.html
Either way that’s heart stopping amount of money for a bachelor’s degree.
I’m loving how high NM Tech is on the wsj list. It’s a thrifty choice.
Merit aid almost certainly requires high scores. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Here is the thread with links to threads on scholarships:
Of course, they need to be filtered by which scholarships are available to her for her qualifications, and by whether the school offers her desired major(s).
She may want to retry the SAT and ACT to see if she can qualify for more of the scholarships (e.g. Temple automatic full tuition if she gets 1420 SAT CR+M or 32 ACT). She may want to consider relaxing the geographic restriction to add more schools to the candidates which may be affordable (beyond the obvious SUNYs and Howard that are currently for her).
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I say that because the starting salaries for grads from decent engineering schools (especially in electrical, chemical, geo, aero) can easily be over 100K. In fact the averages are at about 100K for many of those. F
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I don’t think so. Depending on the E discipline, I’m seeing starting salaries ranging from $50k-85k, with the higher end starting salaries for ChemE and sometimes EE. CivilE, EnviroE, IndustrialE, and ConstructionE tend to be on the lower range.
Salaries can also be heavily influenced by the cost of living in the area, so even with a higher starting salary, a good chunk of the income can end up being eaten by rent and other costly regional expenses.
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Merit aid almost certainly requires high scores. Otherwise, what’s the point?
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Exactly. The school is buying high scores to bump its reporting middle quartiles. The more that they can report that their upper quartile is a 3X+ ACT (or SAT equivalent) the happier they are. The champaign corks begin popping, people are dancing on tables, rankings are climbing, and donor dollars are raining on the campus.
I wonder what the definition of “High income” is. Many posters eroneously think their incomes are too high to qualify for some FA. I suggest the family try the Net Price Calculators provided on each college’s website.
Always the best idea. Different colleges have different cutoffs for aid.
It seems like Stony Brook will be one of the best options. How do engineering graduates from Stony Brook fare in the job market?
Going to a good engineering school will pay dividends. Seems fool hardy to limit the amount you are willing to spend since a good school will help to offset the cost immediately. If you are high income, lend the student the money! Good students can make about 15K each summer in internships. The student does not seem to have the kind of scores that would yield the level of merit that could bring down the cost to 30K without really going to a school with very weak students. The best companies won’t recruit heavily in those places. So you may get a good deal in the sort run but wil be handicapping the student in the long run.
Consider what it means when a school gives merit money to wealthy students with 1900 SATs. The best companies are unlikely to recruit for the best positions there.
My earlier estimates were starting salaries for engineers from the better engineering schools by the way. I love the people who insist the school you go to makes no difference but then object when you post salaries for those who graduate from the top schools-if it makes no difference then the salaries from grads of top schools would be similar to those of other schools right? Or does it make a difference? Now I think it does but so many posters On CC insist that any school is as good as the next. LOL Sure. http://www.payscale.com/research/US/School=University_of_Michigan_-_Ann_Arbor/Salary
Not to be the Fresnel lens of disillusionment, but based on what I’ve seen since the 80’s …
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starting salaries are going to be similar to each other at a given company. Occasionally there will be a small premium for graduating from the same school as the CEO or CTO, and some companies may be a little different, but basically HR is going to bring in all new engineers at a single pay grade. In general, HR views engineers as a fungible commodity, and they hate paying extra for something fungible. A fresh master’s degree from just about anywhere generally starts a salary grade higher than a fresh bachelor’s from absolutely anywhere.
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after 5 years, nobody except your alumni group really cares where you went. You’ll get some teasing during sports seasons maybe, but that’s it. Because after 5 years your peers will know whether you can do the work or not.
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Your peers are the people who will get you the next job, and that next job is where the rewards really begin to be felt - not just in money, but in job satisfaction, location, people you get to - and more importantly don’t have to - work with, and so on.
Bottom line, and this is what I’m telling DD, graduate pretty close to debt free, set yourself up so a master’s degree is an option, and ABSOLUTELY LEARN the basics of your trade. Be a professional, capable, creative person that people want to work with, and you’ll worry less and enjoy your work more than 99% of the people on the planet. That’s worth more than gold.