Also…I am shaking my head at your 18 year old self who is bold enough and cocky enough and naive enough to say “New York schools aren’t too good for engineering.” You need to step back and really examine that statement.
@carachel2 i mean the public NY schools aren’t good for engineering. The private schools are excellent but they cost more than TAMU and don’t have as strong of a program and alumni base. I wanna go to TAMU for the opportunities and going to a state school in NY will make it more difficult to secure a job in Texas where the alumni network wouldn’t be for these NY schools. If LSU or UTK or one of these other schools offers me a financial package that I cannot refuse then I will most likely take it. All the schools I applied to are around the same cost and TAMU is really the best out of the bunch. If I’m offered a really good package at a school that is a little “worse” than TAMU for engineering then I would think about it and evaluate my options.
@carachel2 I have nothing against smaller regional schools, but it’s just in NY, paying a little bit lower for a SUNY school wouldn’t work out for me in the long run. But NY does have some good engineering programs but not so much that are public.
You won’t be offered anything at TAMU. No FA and no merit. Explain to me how you will pay? It will be 50K a yr or so. Break it down.
@Sybylla i don’t mean to be a jerk but you really don’t need to worry about it. Everybody has there different way of paying and it isn’t really your business to be asking that. I don’t mean to be rude it’s just not an appropriate question to ask if I have most of it covered.
Sure. As an adult though, make sure you have an instate option lined up. You will see in spring, how this plays out for many kids in your optimistic position. Have a fall back option. OOS publics won’t offer financial aid. Your chances at merit are better at schools that won’t be as good as your instate options. Good luck. Have the appropriate discussion with your adults. If you have it covered, this thread would not exist. If you personally hold big $$ savings, look at how that affects your FAFSA. You are penalized more than your parents for large assets, but you must already see that in the report.
@Sybylla thanks for that and yes I do have a fallback option and a few of those just in case. I had the question of FA just because I was curious about the topic and realistically how much one can be offered. But real offers and all of that won’t come out until Februaryish so that’s when the real decisions are made. Thanks so much
I agree with the statement that it’s not that important what school you attend for engineering major. Engineering is not like doctor or lawyer degree.
Would you like to guess how much merit scholarship $$ my ACT 34, #10/700 kid was offered at TAMU? Zero. She didn’t want to attend anyway and honestly TAMU is well within our budget (we are in-state) so it was no big deal. I’m only giving you some frame of reference. Would you like to know how much my friend’s son who was #3/600 something with an ACT 34 got from TAMU? Zero. The dad texted me a few months ago “yep, you were right, it’ll cost about $26,000 per year.” (in-state of course).
@Sybylla isn’t trying to be rude. Every year on CC there are kids just like you who think they have it covered. Their parents have said “we can make it work.” The kid and the parents only have a vague understanding of how the college financial process works and the parents have also been very vague with their kid about how much is in the 529 fund.
And then like clockwork every spring there are hundreds of posts here asking “where do we get private loans?” “I wasn’t offered a scholarship and don’t qualify for need based aid. What do I do now?”
So yes we are pessimistic old people who want you to avoid that. You keep saying you have it covered. So you are saying your parents have $200,000 set aside to pay for your college and will not have to borrow any $$?
You as a student can only borrow $28,000 for the entire 4 years. That’s it. That’s $5,000-6,500 per year. You will still have a major gap. It’s a simple question…is it set aside from savings or not? No one is trying to be rude. We’ve just seen this happen so many times and are hopeful to try to steer someone away from the heartbreaking trainwreck that is inevitable in the spring.
As a Civil Engineer, you will get about $17-20.00 an hour on co-op (average) Your starting salary will be about high 50Ks-low 70Ks tops. It doesn’t really matter what school you attend. I’m glad you have in-state safeties.
I thought the reputation for TAMU is that they were somewhat generous with their merit scholarships but maybe that is because TAMU still gives a National Merit scholarship while UT Austin no longer does. My husband went to TAMU and I went to UT Austin decades ago and we have a son who is a senior at UT Austin now. Older son didn’t apply to TAMU but my high school senior did apply to TAMU, UT Austin and UT Dallas. Does TAMU have anything similar to the The Texas Advance Commitment at UT Austin? My college senior has mentioned that some companies have hiring spots designated for UT Austin grads. He is an Electrical and Computer Engineering major. I’m not sure if companies have a spots reserved for TAMU grads. My Aggie husband (electrical engineering) has long said that Aggie connections go a long way in the workplace. However, we have told our kids if they cannot get into their chosen major at a particular school they need to go to a school where they can major in what they want. We highly discourage them from attending the school of their dreams if they are not able to major in what they want there.