Looking for colleges to put on the list for junior daughter to consider. She’s leaning towards MechE. She really enjoys doing CAD and 3d printing.
Stats:
4.0 unweighted gpa
Will take 1st ACT this summer (schedule conflicts prevent taking it prior). Practice tests indicate ~33 so far. Hopes to increase that.
DE: College Algebra, Trig, Eng 101- all As. Will also DE Chem, Calc 1 and Physics.
Main EC is Science Olympiad team for all of HS. Many individual medals and team has gone to nationals twice.
One individual all-season sport. Should achieve highest ranking before graduation.
No leadership
One tech-focused volunteer activity.
Apply to the schools that give auto merit. Women in engineering isn’t especially a hook, and a 33 ACT/rest of your profile is generally pretty common in decent eng programs. If you need money, you need to look at schools wherethe stats are above average. this often looks like less desirable schools. As per above, define your actual budget. Engineering sets the bar higher, so even in nice state schools, eng programs don’t need to buy students. What is your home state? PSAT score?
Great point! Our baseline is the COA at our local uni where she can commute: $7k per year including the published automatic scholarships (including her cost of commute). They have a guaranteed graduate in 4- even for engineering. There is a possibility that she could be awarded other departmental scholarships, but I don’t include those because they are not a sure thing. I realize that unless she is awarded a tuition+ scholarship at most schools, the COA is going to be greater than that. We and she are approaching this decision practically. We are willing to spend more than that, if there is a compelling reason, but if she can locate opportunities where there’s the potential to be awarded at that level with her chosen major, we’d like to hear about them.
We’re in Idaho, so WUE schools would potentially be 150% OOS tuition but from what I’ve found so far, WUE is not always stackable with merit scholarships.
Ah…I thought I’d read somewhere that some schools, in an attempt to recruit more women to their male-heavy engineering programs, will offer scholarships to women.
Not just for women, but here’s a couple-
University of Wyoming for a WUE option. My D was offered WUE plus some other scholarships there, bringing the cost quite low. They also have a very strong study abroad program with lots of funding.
Illinois Institute of Technology offers competitive full tuition and full ride scholarships. My D’s scholarship covered a coterminal masters degree which was great.
It is great! And, we realize that it’s a great value and have no illusion that it’ll be less costly (or even very close) anywhere else. Just want to maximize her possibilities.
Clarkson would likely give a very nice merit package, maybe full tuition plus r&b. One of my daughter’s friends received that last year, actually got additional funds over and above the full ride. It’s a great little engineering school with great outcomes, underappreciated IMO.
So the home school is 7K but what WOULD you pay?
Room and board anywhere would be 11K a year, give or take a bit. The challenge is whether you have a pragmatic approach to the room and board cost or that is solidly built in to your price point. Nothing is going to beat 7K a yr because you are excluding living costs. Full rides are like hens teeth, maybe if her stats improve she could look e.g. Alabama or UT Dallas, but that is not necessarily offering a better school, just sleep away school.
Do you have any financial need?
Will your 4 year take her DE courses for core engineering? that might not be the case of OOS schools.
Your costs at Wyoming with either the WUE (very hard to get) or the Rocky Mtn Scholars (automatic to get) might not be that much. She’d get the 150% instate tuition under either program, so about $6k in tuition. R&B is about $9k. She could stack any engineering scholarships, and I think they are about $2500. It is really an excellent program.
I know a few OOS girls in Engineering at Iowa State. I do not think you’ll get the prices super low though; my daughter had good stats, but we couldn’t get it any lower than $22k OOS. There is a poster on this board who is looking at Iowa State right now and has been given a pretty good price . . . but i think she has pell grants figured into that.
Room and board is expensive. Very few places will cover that for you with scholarships (full ride). Getting a full tuition scholarship is more common; and that’s not even common. The lower the ranking of the school, it seems the more money is offered, as the school is often trying to buy stats. There’s a trade off with that of course . . .
So, she’s really not dying to leave home. She’s not against it. But, there would have to be a compelling reason for her to spend more to go OOS. Would she/we? Sure! Right now, there hasn’t been something pulling her in that direction.
For WUE schools try ASU or UNM where her stats might qualify her for full tuition scholarships (and perhaps more). You could also take a look at UT Dallas, which offers generous merit for stats.
I think it’s largely a myth that schools offer merit scholarships for women in eng’g. First of all, that would be kind of silly since soooo many incoming frosh engineering students change their majors…and then what? The student loses her scholarship?
Id rather find schools that have engineering who give merit for stats so that no matter what major the student ends up completing, they keep their merit award as long as the grades are maintained.
Our baseline is the COA at our local uni where she can commute: $7k per year including the published automatic scholarships (including her cost of commute). They have a guaranteed graduate in 4- even for engineering. There is a possibility that she could be awarded other departmental scholarships, but I don’t include those because they are not a sure thing. 
She’s not against it. But, there would have to be a compelling reason for her to spend more to go OOS. Would she/we? Sure!