UD usually offers their handful of full ride/full tuition scholarships to students with near perfect GPAs, very high SAT scores and stellar ECs, etc.
In 2012, DD1 was offered a full-ride DuPont scholarship by UD, NMF, presidential scholar nominee, in state, 3.9 UW gpa, 2300 SAT w/, 800 CR 800M, paid science internship summer before senior year HS, strong ECs. volunteering, varsity athlete-competitive at state level, state level science competition winner. ’
In 2014, DD2 offered 7K(roughly 1/2 of in state tuition and fees) in merit aid w 2230 SAT, NMF, presidential scholar nominee, and rest of stats similar to or better than DD1.
The letter which invited DD1 to attend UDs scholarship weekend to compete for the scholarship stated that she was selected as 1 of 100 finalists for UD’s Distinguished Scholar competition out of 26,000 applications received that year. About half of the invited students were OOS. At the competition, there were a mixture of majors listed for the students in the schedule, some engineering and science, but also business, history, political science, etc.
These scholarships are extremely competitive(as are most big scholarships at most schools). Keep your grades up, study for the PSAT/SAT, participate/lead in ECs that you actually enjoy. Even if you do all of that, be aware that the odds of winning one of UD’s big scholarships are very low. UD does seem to offer strong students some amount of merit money, both IS and OOS, but they seem to spread it widely in more modest amounts.
As many CC parents advise, be sure to have some financial safeties on your application list. Maryland has some excellent state universities/colleges. The University of Maryland at College Park has an excellent Chemical Engineering Program. The University of Alabama offers large guaranteed merit awards for high stats students and they have been investing $$ in their engineering programs. Definitely check it out, it is spoken of very highly here on CC.
As far as internships go, applications for programs the summer between junior and senior year are usually due in January or February, or even earlier. Your best bets are to ask your HS guidance counselor for info about programs which might be available in your local area. Check websites for local colleges and businesses and look for high school outreach programs. You can also network through your parents, family and friends to find internship opportunities, start those conversations now.
Also have a conversation with you parents about college finances now. Run net price calculators with them so you all have a handle on potential college costs. If you need big merit aid to attend college, focus on applying to schools where your stats are much higher that average for the school, so that you might win some merit.
Do not waste time visiting or applying to schools that don’t give merit if you need it. Traveling, application fees, and score reports get expensive and essays take considerable time to write. Focus your efforts where is make sense for your family’s financial situation. Try not to fall into the unaffordable “but it’s my Dream School” trap that you read about all over this forum.
Good luck!!!