My son wants to major in Mechanical Engineering. He has a 3.9 GPA and 32 ACT. We live in Missouri. He is uninterested in Missouri S&T due to it’s small size. He is interested in predominately larger Division I schools.
University of Missouri would also be a good option financially, but he has lukewarm interest in this school.
I’m interested in finding other similar schools with merit based aid for OOS students. I know Alabama gives pretty good merit based aid for OOS students. Mississippi State and Kansas State also give decent aid. Are there any others that I haven’t found yet?
As others said, check out Iowa State. My D is going to go there for Design in the fall and we are OOS. Engineering is a pretty big draw for them and based on his stats, he qualifies for one of the automatic Merit awards. Very nice campus and the town of Ames is nice for a smaller town.
One thing I have seen about ISU however is the tuition increases and some programs have a bigger jump as you move into your major so you’ll want to check that aspect as well.
If it’s for Fall 2020 admission you’re going to want to get going on Iowa State because you need to be admitted before they send the invitation to apply for the Engineering scholarship and the deadline for that is 12/1. Luckily, the admission decision is quick.
University of Missouri with my son’s GPA / ACT with in-state tuition, guaranteed merit based scholarships, room & board, and books should cost around $14,000 / year.
Iowa State:
Tuition: $24508
Room & Board: $9149
Books (Estimate same as what I’m using for Missouri): $1400
Adventure merit award: -$8000
Total cost: $27,057.
On paper, Iowa State is looking like 2X cost of Missouri. With my son’s GPA and ACT are there other scholarships that he is likely to qualify for to bring down this amount significantly?
When we applied to Ohio State Engineering, they had scholarships for OOS students, tiered by ACT scores, that made it about the same price as in-state for my D with a 32 ACT.
University of New Mexico would be about right. Your son would at least qualify for the Amigo Scholarship which would give him instate tuition. IIRC, the total cost of attendance is well under $20,000 a year.
Another vote for WVU. I think he qualifies for $21500 per year in scholarships . OOS tuition is only about $25k so most of tuition is covered, so you just pay room and board (~$10.3k) and ~$3.7k tuition. This is under in-state cost. I happen to be a WVU ME grad myself ('94).
Another vote for WVU. Engineering Excellence plus scholarship distinction level 1 = $21.5k. Total cost around $15k/year. You’re basically paying room and board which you’re paying now. Hard to beat. I don’t think UTD AES is automatic anymore. Got very competitive.