Don’t fall in love if your parents can’t afford it. You can run NPC (Net Price Calculators) these days for most schools to get an estimate.
Perhaps you already know this, but Cornell has no merit based scholarships. (It has need-based Financial Aids, but many families can’t pay $60K a year yet don’t qualify for much FA). Cornell was one of our first college tours, in 2005 before it was as easy to learn things online. So it’s where I learned that most tippy top schools don’t have scholarships.
My parents likely can afford it since my sibling was accepted recently (didn’t attend). His financial aid package was amazing. I would still like to look at other scholarship opportunities though.
@Rojobot - That’s great that you have a way to know the Cornell Financial Aid package. You can also apply for outside scholarships (check with your guidance counselor), but those will be usually small and just one year.
@colorado_mom Thanks! By any chance, do you know if Cornell Engineering emphasizes anything in particular when evaluating freshman applicants?
“Top Ranked” is a nebulous term. According to who? What’s most important is that it’s according to YOUR criteria. My son was a competitive candidate, but based on HIS criteria only one of his top three choices were competitive. He ended up at Cal Poly which for ME is very competitive (similar to Cornell), but since they don’t offer PhDs, they aren’t even ranked alongside schools like MIT and Cornell. So, what is important to you? Does class size matter? How much of your instruction will be by TAs? Weather? Big time athletics? Access to hobbies you like? Skiing? Hiking? Surfing? Food? Entertainment? There are LOTS of VERY good engineering programs. Narrowing your list depends largely on what is important to you.
Neither of my kids applied to Cornell. But I recalled that some websites list importance of various factors and conjured up the right words for Google;) . For example found this (for Cornell in general) - https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/cornell-university
@eyemgh I understand what you’re saying. I really wish to attend an undergrad engineering school with good name recognition in my field and will provide me with intern/research/job opportunities as well as the ability to run for my school team and observe natural beauty (whether that be gorges/waterfalls or a simple river). I would also prefer something NOT in a big city like NYC, although Cambridge is fine. Thanks again for the advice
@colorado_mom Thanks so much for the link. Unfortunately, as you already noted, I am looking specifically for info on Cornell Engineering. Thanks though!
I am not sure if Cornell has engineering-specific criteria. Hopefully others can comment more on that.
There really are plenty of very fine engineering schools that meet most of your your criteria. (Even though you might not recognize the names yet, employers do.) Some of the schools might not have an opportunity to “run fo my school”, but you’ll likely find avid running buddies everywhere.
@colorado_mom If you could name some of these schools, I’d be very happy. It would also be really helpful if you could tell me about their admission criteria as well as their financial aid services. Thanks so much for all this advice!
In our case, we were chasing merit scholarships, but it did seem that the more competitive school had the best need-based aid.
This is a list of excellent engineering schools. (I only learned of the list here, after my younger son had already applied to colleges). - http://www.theaitu.org/. I do remember Carnegie Mellon seemed to talk about good FA (need based financial aid) at info sessions. Olin too, but it is too teeny/limited for most students. When we were looking (2009), Case was more known more for merit scholarships.
That is by no means a comprehensive list. It’s just a good collection of highly regarded engineering schools.
@colorado_mom Thanks so much!
Try this site too - Cornell Engineering info, including other similarly ranked schools - http://engineering-schools.startclass.com/l/6/Cornell-University
The schools that offer good merit aid are the ones with good endowments trying to attract top students to up their rankings. It’s sort of a game to try to get the most education for the least money, especially if you’re from a high EFC family. It’s hard to argue that any undergraduate degree is worth $250,000 purely as an investment.
Good schools with a reputation for offering good merit aid are Case Western, WPI, RPI, CMU and Olin to name a few. They are all very expensive though, so even with $100,000 of aid, they’ll still cost as much or more than an in state flagship.
There are also publics that offer good merit aid and their starting points are lower. Alabama and Utah are a couple of examples. Alabama is automatic. Utah is competitive.
Lastly, if you want pretty, UC Boulder and Utah both sit at the base of some of the best mountains in the country. Cal Poly and UCSB are both on the ocean.
How far are you willing to be from home? Which is where? Do you want to ultimately live East? West? North? South? Midwest?
Well, I wouldn’t exactly say Cal Poly is “on the ocean.” San Luis Obispo is still quite a few miles from the shore. Now, UCSB IS “on the ocean.”
I live in NY and would be open to living anywhere so long as the surrounding area is scenic/filled with natural beauty. I currently live in NY. Thanks so much for all the feedback everyone!
@NoVADad99, true, UCSB is one of the few schools “on the ocean,” but by nearly all accounts, CP is considered a beach school. It did make Surfer Magazine’s Top 10 List of Colleges for Surfers. That though is beside the point which is to broaden search horizons to what is important to personalized goals and to get beyond static ranking systems that might emphasize things not germane to the OP.