He’s looking east of the Mississippi River
Attends a challenging prep school.
Will be graduating with 7 full science course (bio H, adv H Chem, Physics H, Engineering, AP Bio, AP CHem, AP Physics)
5 on all APs so far.
AP calc this year.
Mostly A’s in math & science classes.
Took honors level history, college prep level English
GPA unweighted is a 3.5, a B+ in his school.
C grades in German brought down GPA significantly.
School does not rank.
SAT - one sitting - 1530
math 780, EBRW 750
SAT Subject Math II 800
SAT Chem 780
We are having a hard time figuring safety/match/reach/huge reach so looking for suggestions at each level.
Looking for options where he might get merit aid, where the school is generous with FA, and are also applying for AFROTC as another option.
Family contribution less than $30K would be best.
He is a senior, is applying to some early action, but I am stressing hugely.
Thanks. He’s not interested in AF academy. We are in NY. I have checked net price calculators and some seem affordable, others not so much. He’s interested in UVa - totally not affordable ($60k) and then something like Johns Hopkins comes in at $20k.
Wouldn’t the SUNYs like Stony Brook, Buffalo, Binghamton, and others offer computer engineering and/or computer science at relatively affordable prices for NY residents?
University at Buffalo would be a great safety for him. I was really impressed by the engineering tour, which included computer engineering and computer science. He would almost surely be a direct admit to his major and to the honors college (if he applies early enough for honors college). It would come under budget.
I second SUNY Buffalo. Our dd1 did EE/CS degree at UB.
She’s had her pick of jobs out here in California and is highly successful with a large contractor. She was on a full ride at UB. I don’t know if they still offer that merit package.
If he wants to do ROTC, the military will pay for his school. All he has to do is apply for the scholarship. That being said, Texas A&M Corps of Cadets is considered the top ROTC program in the country next to the AF Academy. Also, check out Alabama. He’s eligible for the Presidential scholarship, which is a near full tuition scholarship. He’s in range for good merit aid for Texas State and UTSA as safety options. UTSA is one of the largest AFROTC programs in the country, because it’s only 20 minutes from Lackland AFB.
But aren’t ROTC scholarships competitive, so that the applicant is not assured of getting one, or may get a smaller one than needed to afford a given college?
The following have computer engineering and are likely to be affordable (based on your Johns Hopkins data)
Johns Hopkins - meets 100% of need
Northwestern - meets 100% of need
Notre Dame - meets 100% of need
Tufts - meets 100% of need
Vanderbilt - meets 100% of need
Syracuse - meets 96% of need
Lehigh - meets 95% of need
Boston University - meets 93% of need
Northeastern (can give good merit - similar selectivity to BU)
Stevens (can give good merit)
Clarkson (can give good merit)
@Tessamom I think he has an excellent shot, especially with his SAT scores. If he doesn’t get it now, he can apply for the scholarship in his sophmore and junior year too. Here’s another twist. For the University of Alabama, he’s already eligible for a tuition scholarship, so he’ll be covered even if he decides against the military.
Presidential
A student with a 32-36 ACT or 1420-1600 SAT score and at least a 3.5 GPA will be selected as a Presidential Scholar and will receive $104,000 over four years ($26,000 per year). Students graduating with remaining scholarship semester(s) may use these monies toward graduate school and/or law school study at UA.
@tessamom - Since you mentioned that Hopkins looked affordable, I was looking for other schools that give similar levels of aid that were east of the Mississippi with Computer Engineering programs. Unfortunately, they are all very selective. I looked up the admissions statistics (for engineering rather than university wide) in the Association for Engineering Education (ASEE) database in order to compare them with your son’s stats. The tricky part of assessing your son’s chances is knowing how schools will treat the C’s in German. There is a chance that they may not hurt him as much as they would if he was applying to a school of liberal arts. His Calculus grade and his Physics grade will be particularly important for Computer Engineering. Does your school track class rank and/or have Naviance?
Accept… Math…Reading
Rate… 25th/75th…25th/75th
12.7%…740/800…700/760…Johns Hopkins - meets 100% of need
8.7%…740/800… 670/740…Northwestern - meets 100% of need
18.9%…1370/1500…Notre Dame - meets 100% of need
11.2%…760/790…690/750…Tufts - meets 100% of need
11.3%…750/800…NR… Vanderbilt - meets 100% of need
48.8%… 620/720…590/660…Syracuse - meets 96% of need
27.8%…520/800…520/790…Lehigh - meets 95% of need
34.7%…660/760…590/700…Boston University - meets 93% of need
37.0%…650/750…630/720…Northeastern (can give good merit - similar selectivity to BU)
43.9%…640/700…680/760*…Stevens (can give good merit)
76.2%…590/680…570/660…Clarkson (can give good merit)
40.1%…670/740…630/700…UMass Amherst (can give good out of state merit)
@Mastadon Thank you! That is very helpful! His school does not give class rank. He had an A in physics and an A 1st quarter in AP physics. Calc will probably be a B+ first quarter. We do have Naviance.