My preference is “meets full need” schools, but for the most part those schools are too reachy or LACs that don’t meet the engineering or big sports criteria. I feel it is awful risky to attend a school on merit aid that requires a certain gpa for a student that was not a 4.0 type in high school, especially in engineering.
I personally think Lehigh would be a long shot. As a male engineering major in the tri state area, they have tons of applicants. Also they mostly give need based aid, you would have to be a very very strong candidate to receive merit aid. Lehigh did win the Patriot League and made the playoffs, it is not a big rah, rah football school.
Lafayette is easier to get into and has engineering, but it’s small. I still don’t know how easy it would be to get merit aid.
Michigan I thought is upping it’s need base aid for OOS students. I know they offer to meet need for in state students.
Alabama is a great and perfect suggestion. I think Ohio State offers some merit aid for OOS students.
It depends on what your budget is. How much merit aid does he need.
@deb922 I had just mentioned above that need based aid is preferred over merit aid. I think the merit aid discussion started because S3 is interested in the OOS publics that don’t provide need based aid. How much merit aid though? Basically a full ride like Alabama.
Lafayette/Lehigh type schools would work well financially but are not what he is initially looking for. Our HS salutatorian was rejected by Lehigh engineering in 2015 however so I agree with your assessment.
I ran the NPC on Michigan and their OOS need based aid was excellent to my surprise. He can’t get in there though so it is irrelevant.
I will take a look at Ohio. I haven’t mentioned it but he also wants warm weather…
It is early and I am in the exploratory phase just trying to figure out what is viable before I present him with guidelines.
The school is ABET accredited, and has a fabulous, relatively new engineering facility. Plenty of strong engineering majors there from all over the country.
The rankings for engineering are not as important as younare making them. At the end of,the day, you will graduate from an ABET accredited program which means you will have what you need to eventually take the PE exam in your field.
@mom2collegekids could you also please tell,this misinformed poster about recruiting and internship opportunities at UA in engineering?
I’m not sure that was called for…I stated that I looked at the rankings for perspective. I previously said that I don’t know anything about engineering…that I am in exploratory mode…that I am not hung up on rankings…that I “might be completely wrong” about the importance of the ranking…I am not sure how much more diplomatically I could have posed my question?
Is it not worth discussing that it might not be the wisest move to support S attending a school 1000 miles away so that he can watch football games when he can attend a higher ranked engineering program probably for free in NY?
I understand wanting warm weather. My dd won’t apply to any schools north of NC! I have to chime in about Ohio, though, a friends son is a sophomore (NJ resident) and got the most merit aid of any of the schools that he applied to. He is very happy there.
Yes, I agree, the big OOS schools with big sports that would give him full tuition, would not be ranked higher than UA.
Merit awards were very different at Pitt this year, compared to two years ago when my D applied. Especially in engineering.
http://undergrad.osu.edu/cost-and-aid/merit-based-scholarships
^based on this OP’s son might qualify for $15k merit at OSU, but that would still leave over $25k to pay.
@mom2and …I agree that a few years ago these stats would have received a LOT more merit at Pitt.
It simply is not true anymore. At all.
I have a kid with ACT 34 and top 2% and she got $15,000. From looking at Pitt merit awards for the college class of 2019 she would’ve received full tuition. Even last year it looked 50/50 between those with the same stats who got full tuition and those who got half.
There are others with a 4.0 and 34 who got $10K and still also kids with 35 ACT and 4.0 who got $15K. There are zero 33 ACT’ers with anything more than $10K (at least none who have checked in on CC).
The times…they are changing.
D absolutely loved Alabama and if they had more in the program she is interested in she would be all over it. Heck, even though we’ve told her we can stretch and do Pitt, she won’t let me cancel her housing deposit at Alabama. She felt engineering was solid there, tons of opportunities, big but not too big campus…LOTS to love about Bama. MAKE your kid visit there for sure.
Oklahoma fits your needs.
Wow, amazing that it changed that much in two years. Pitt has gotten much more popular but the ranking hasn’t really moved up but clearly they don’t need to provide as much merit money.
Alabama seems like a good choice for OP’s son that likes warmth. My kid was not interested in the south at all or a school where Greek life was the dominant social scene. One reason for Pitt over Penn State.
@mom2and --yes, it’s been a crazy year for the Class of 2017. A lot has changed for those searching for merit aid. There was a 36 ACT valedictorian who was offered $20,000/year at Pitt this season—not even full tuition.
My daughter was not interested in ANY school in the south with a dominant sports culture or Greek scene. I don’t care–made her visit Bama anyway because full tuition plus a $2,500 per year stipend is a LOT on the table and I refuse to have a kid in my house who won’t keep an open mind.
I was surprised–she liked it. She can see there are many opportunities for her there and she would easily choose it over our two main flagship universities. She has learned and grown a LOT over this year. She has learned that you can make your way in almost any place, a lot will be up to her and her attitude AND she has learned about $$.
Hate to burst your bubble…
If your kid attends a NYC DOE school then
the score of a 91 is more in the B+ range
As per the NYC Academic Policy:
A- = 93
A = 95
A+ = 98
I would not put all of my eggs in the free basket at Buffalo because he is not a lock. Unless you know for certain that his 7th semester grades are putting in the top 10% (with a 91 average, there is plenty of room for people to knock him out of the box and unless he is going to get a 100 in everything over the next 3 semesters, even then, I would not expect his overall gpa to go up by more than 3 points), he will not be eligible for a STEM incentive scholarship from SUNY.
In addition is current GPA does not make the current cutoff for admissions in to the Honors College at Buffalo or for the
https://www.suny.edu/media/suny/content-assets/documents/summary-sheets/honors_programs.pdf
It’s a long shot but check out University of Florida . . . very good college of engineering (Wertheim).
UF doesn’t do lots of merit aid but you never know. They do give a limited # of OOS merit scholarships.
He might be able to get the OOS tuition waiver at FSU, but they are probably not the strongest choice for engineering compared to what you have in-state. We have friends with kids there and they love it, I will say that (though not in engineering).
Would he consider UCF (University of Central Florida)? They seem to do quite a bit for high stat students, and their engineering is pretty strong.
Alabama could be a fantastic option for him, truly. They are very good to their scholarship students and it is a beautiful campus. It is definitely worth a visit.
Clemson is great but not super generous with OOS scholarship $$$ . . . our son got merit there but it wasn’t enough to make a dent in the total cost.
Maybe you guys could take a road trip and tour some southern schools!
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Alabama is ranked pretty low for engineering. I am not hung up on rankings but I took a look for perspective. I was considering SUNY Buffalo a no name safety and I see they are ranked 50 vs Alabama at 103? I know I am not comparing apples to apples however Alabama seems to be dipping pretty low to hang onto football and school spirit, but I may be completely wrong? <<<
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Lol…since when is being ranked 103 “pretty low”. Do you have any idea how any ABET accredited eng’g 4-year BS programs there are in the US? Over 550 ABET accredited in the US.
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Alabama seems to be dipping pretty low to hang onto football and school spirit, but I may be completely wrong?
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???
What the heck does that mean??? How is Bama “dipping low” to “hang onto football”? What do you even mean by that??? Do you think UAlabama is spending ONE DIME on football???
Lehigh, a small research university with excellent engineering, (not to be grouped with Lafayette, which is not a research university and thus has inferior engineering opportunities IMHO) seems like the ideal solution. The key is to apply Early Decision. In the past, Lehigh has admitted a majority of students who applied ED, and they care a lot more about test scores than grades based on their Common Data set. I believe they meet full need with a $5000 per year loan cap, and that ACT33 should get him in if he can do his due diligence in time to be able to commit at the ED deadline. All sports at Lehigh are division I, and they are part of the oldest football rivalry in the US.
FYI lol, no one (except Brady Hoke, the former coach at Michigan) calls Ohio State Ohio. Ohio has Ohio State and Ohio University but OSU has never been referred to as Ohio. Brady Hoke did it just to annoy the OSU faithful. Sorry I saw a couple of posts where OSU was referred to as Ohio, I couldn’t help myself 
I didn’t see your post that need based aid was good. I wouldn’t put Michigan on the back burner. His ACT score and PSAT are high and his GPA isn’t bad. I also would if he wants to, throw out applications to Lehigh, Lafayette and/or Bucknell. All offer need based aid, although as I said being a male engineering applicant from the tri state area will put him at a disadvantage. Unless you are very sure, you don’t know how last year salutatorian’s scores were.
He’s a very strong applicant, don’t put his GPA down. It sounded like he struggled in language. At a school with hololistic admissions, you never know what they will or won’t consider.
It just depends on what your S is looking for. And I would send out some applications, you don’t know how they will turn out.
My oldest was NMF, 34 ACT and we are residents of PA.
He dismissed Pitt and Penn State for the opportunities he had at Alabama for Engineering.
He is on a 5 yr program due to co-op and due to graduate Spring 2018.
He did research his freshman year. Was offered REU his first summer, which he turned down.
He has spent one summer in Peru and one in Chile.
He has had an internship. His co-op is in Washington state, so the opportunities are not limited to the South.
Did I mention he does not like sports? The big time football was actually a turn-off for him during the college search process.
Frankly, he is child 1 of 3. Like @carachel2 , our family could not let him dismiss Alabama without a visit. He met with both the Dean of the Engineering school and the Dean of the Honors college on his visit.
Alabama may not have the ranking as other schools he visited, but it had all the pieces to make his experience the best possible and afforded more job opportunities than schools in our region.
Child 2 does not want to follow his brother, but he is using Bama as his yardstick to measure other Engineering programs.
<<<
Currently his default major is some sort of engineering.
**The only preference that he has expressed is that he would like big time Football/Basketball ** -other than that any questions get answered with a shoulder shrug.
Stats:
Average public school w/ a 2 year unweighted gpa of 91. His grades are on the rise so he might squeak into the top 10%?? Even relative ranking is undisclosed until senior year.
1st time ACT 33
PSAT 221 in NY so probably SF, but iffy for Finalist due to gpa?
ECs/Leadership/Awards-nothing really. He is a year round 3 sport athlete and that is about it. He has no plans to pursue sports in college.
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Is it not worth discussing that it might not be the wisest move to support S attending a school 1000 miles away so that he can watch football games when he can attend a higher ranked engineering program probably for free in NY?
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I highlighted your words about what your son wants because it’s important. If he wants a school with a big sports spirited atmosphere and it has very good engineering, then pushing him towards Buffalo ( a school that the Crimson Tide essentially donated $1M to its modest football program) seems like a bad idea.
Rankings for undergrad eng’g mean nothing. Really nothing.
This country and each state has a vested interest in having many good eng’g programs in virtually every state. Calif alone has over 25 very good Colleges of Engineering. My own state of Alabama has several univs with very good Colleges of Engineering…and it’s a low population state!