Computer Engineering school suggestions

Asking for my son.

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.

If he wants to be an officer in the USAF, its academy offers computer engineering. But it is west of the Mississippi and is very selective.

What state of residency, and have you checked college net price calculators to see if their need based aid will make them affordable?

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.

Ohio State
He’s in range for their merit awards http://undergrad.osu.edu/cost-and-aid/merit-based-scholarships
They have Air Force ROTC http://afrotc.osu.edu/
A university airport with a highly ranked aviation program https://aviation.osu.edu/
Computer Engineering https://www.ece.osu.edu/
Honors/Scholars programs https://honors-scholars.osu.edu/future-students
Need to apply by Nov. 1 for direct admit to CoE and best chance for merit.

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.

JHU as a reach, Alabama as a good safety (with scholarship to boot) and SUNY as in-state match …

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)

UMass Amherst (can give good out of state merit)

Stonybrook (in-state)
Buffalo (in-state)
Binghamton (in-state)

Seconding Clarkson

You might also post your query in the engineering forum: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/

@Coolguy40 Are you saying you think he’ll be eligible based on grades/scores/etc.?

@Mastadon Most of that first group is pretty competitive. Are you saying you think he has a shot as some of those or just that they give aid? Thanks!

@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)

43.1%…690/770…630/700…Stonybrook (in-state)
50.3%…600/680…560/650…Buffalo (in-state)
38.2%…670/720…610/620… Binghamton (in-state)

*There is a chance that the Stevens Math and Reading numbers are reversed - it would be highly unusual for an engineering school to have higher SAT Reading than Math score.
http://profiles.asee.org/profiles/7636/screen/19?school_name=Stevens+Institute+of+Technology

@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.

I’d add RPI and SUNY Stony-Brook for consideration, those are match and safety.