<p>Moving out from Calif:
Univ of Utah – not having money issues
Univ of Washington – some cut backs and huge school
Arizona State – but same problem with money that UCs have
Univ of Colorado – but little money there either
I personally think Oregon State is very underrated</p>
I agree on the first statement - I was just responding to the post that stated something regarding Regents and finAid - I stated that they are actually given based on merit and not financial need. Not that many receive them but for those who do it can be significant. They appear to have awarded higher amounts a few years ago than they do now but award amounts vary with the campus.</p>
<p>Regarding the criteria - I don’t know exactly other than it’s not based on financial need. It doesn’t necessarily require perfect SAT scores but one does need to be very competetive. I think UCLA’s website said they ‘consider’ the top 1.5% of applicants for it and select from them. You can be sure that UCLA’s top 1.5% have fairly stellar stats.</p>
<p>When he applies to the UC system, assuming he does, he should apply to many or all of them. It’s about as easy as checking another checkbox and paying an extra fee per campus but in the scheme of things the extra fees aren’t that significant. Besides UCSD, UCLA, UCB, there’s also UCI, UCD, UCSB, UCSC, UCR, and UCM. He could apply to all and see what happens. He should spend some time on the websites of some of the other UCs, like UCI, UCSB, UCSC, etc. checking out their CS/CE departments.</p>
<p>It’s possible he could find some of the privates less expensive than the UCs though if he gets any kind of grants/scholarships so it sure makes sense to apply to any of those that he finds appealing.</p>
<p>That was not our experience. Both daughters were offered Regents scholarships at multiple UC campuses. I know they were all merit-based because we do not qualify and did not even apply for any need-based aid. The amounts of the scholarships they were offered varied from as low as $1000 at Berkeley to $7500 at Davis. Unfortunately for my wallet neither girl chose to attend a UC. $7500 in merit money could have gone a long way at UC Davis.</p>
<p>That sounds about right…the top 1.5% would likely be a group that had the SAT equivalents of ACT 34-36. (I’m guessing)</p>
<p>And, as you suggest, they pick some from that elite group to award these few merit scholarships. I guess once that top 1.5% is identified, a special hook or something causes them to single out a few spectacular students for these awards.</p>
<p>GA Tech is really a city school and Atlanta is one of busiest International Airports in the US. Easy access to Europe, South America. Great school.</p>
<p>You might be surprised by UT Austin --though traveling will be a little more complex. If all he wants is a movie and restaurants, consider Texas A and M. Slightly easier to get into than UT, great engineering programs and it is the same application as UT.</p>
<p>UCSD is an excellent school in a beautiful location, but socially it is somewhat lacking. A lot of kids who are very, very intensely focused on their educations - no greek system to speak of, no college town. That being said, if UCLA and UCB are out of reach for you, UCSD is the next best school in the UC system.</p>
<p>UCSD and UC Irvine were both highly recommended to us when son was looking at strong schools for Computer Science. This was a recommendation by someone in the industry.</p>
<p>“Arizona State – but same problem with money that UCs have”</p>
<p>Yes, but it is far less expensive than the UCs in the first place, I believe. When we toured U of AZ, one of our engineering tour guides was a student from CA who mentioned that U of AZ was more cost effective for him than the UCs even though he is from CA. Of course I don’t know all of this student’s personal/financial situation, but his statement made an impression on me.</p>
<p>UCSD has one of the top bio-engineering programs in the country, so it that aspect its higher than Cal or UCLA. SD also does well in humanities – it’s linguistics program is top-notch, for example. But, Cal and UCLA both have D1 sports, and more of a collegiate community to offer.</p>
<p>It might be preferable to phrase comments like this more neutrally. Not everyone wants the same social atmosphere. For some students, a school with a Greek system is socially lacking. My son wouldn’t consider a school with a large percentage of fraternities, and if I were looking for a college for myself, I wouldn’t either. For us, fraternities create a poisonous social atmosphere. And not everyone objects to college students who are focused on their educations (heaven forfend!).</p>
<p>I don’t think that’s necessarily true. My brother and I both applied to 3 UC’s; he was offered Regents at UCI, I was offered Regents at UCSD. He was also offered a Regents scholarship at UCLA, while I was invited to apply for it. My oldest brother was also offered a full scholarship at CSULB, though he decided to transfer to UCLA. Now, we all had SAT’s between 1530 and 1600 (/1600), so that probably played a big role. </p>
<p>From what I’ve seen from others at my school as well, if you’re a top student you will have a good shot at merit scholarship at least at one of the lesser UC’s. And if you have financial need, as most at the school did, they’re a very good deal. Regents at UCLA may only be $2k, but with other guaranteed financial aid, my brother made more than $1,000 his first year.</p>
<p>Yup, and the vast majority of applicants do not have such stellar scores. The same gpa and a 1300 will earn zip. And, of course, there are plenty of students with such scores who are not invited to apply.</p>
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<p>In such cases, Regent’s scholars get more finaid, but it is ALL need-based aid. Nearly eveyone from OOS is full pay, so it would not apply.</p>
<p>S2 has received direct mail requests from Cal urging him to apply, they are nearly pleading in their tone. He is OOS and was surprised because we have always heard that OOS recruitment was not emphasized by UCB. Looks like they are indeed looking to increase OOS enrollment.</p>
<p>Cardinal Fang, my bad. You’re absolutely right about different needs for different students. I was actually trying to compare it to UCLA and UCB, which have much more of the traditional college activities - Div I sports, large greek systems, etc.</p>
<p>Your son should consider Auburn… Gorgeous campus, good weather, friendly students, strong academics, excellent engineering, fun off-campus hangouts (very cute “strip” of hangouts), nice school traditions, etc…</p>
<p>Very good “high tech” school. Your son would definately get accepted. </p>
<p>OOS is reasonable -
OOS Tuition/fees (15 credit hours) is about $20k,
Room/Board is about $9k,
Books is about $1100.<br>
So, the total is about $30,100 plus personal expenses. Not bad for OOS :)</p>
<p>Auburn also has a good honors program [Honors</a> College](<a href=“http://www.auburn.edu/honors/college/]Honors”>Honors At Auburn | Honors College)
And a brand new honors dorm with “super suites” (each student has his own bedroom in a 4 bedroom suite, 2 bathroom, with a living room and kitchenette) </p>