<p>Hi, I'm new so please bear with me!
My daughter is a Junior with 3.94uw, PSAT scores 69cr,72m,63w(she scored 70w as a soph so bombed this year). Her class rank is just barely at 10%. She's taking the SAT this Saturday, the ACT in April and most likely SAT II in math and physics in June. </p>
<p>We live in Colorado so she has a few in state safeties to choose from. I'd like to suggest to her a list of engineering schools that we might be able to afford before she gets her heart set on really selective schools like Rice (maybe too late).</p>
<p>She is currently taking: </p>
<p>AP Calc BC
AP Lang/Comp</p>
<p>Next year, she will take as a Senior</p>
<p>Calc III
AP Writing/Lit
AP Physics and maybe
AP Art(drawing and painting)</p>
<p>She spent her Freshman and Sophomore years in England at a British school (we were living there) so studied Bio/Chem/Phys each year plus history/geography/etc. She also took online math classes in Alg II and Pre-Calc to stay on track since we found out that the UK math curriculum is different from the American curriculum. </p>
<p>Her EC's are weak since she's a quiet kid. She played soccer all her life there and here. Otherwise she's got pretty basic school club stuff. She completed their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award in the UK - which is sort of like a scout/leadership scheme, but is pretty prestigious there. She is looking for a job as soon as she gets past this test.</p>
<p>Any ideas for not-large engineering schools with good financial aid if she goes out of state would be very much appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>Does your EFC match with what the schools think it should be? Check out Fafsa4Caster (“pretend FAFSA”). If the schools think you can spend as much money as you think you can, then the very top schools are good choices because of their excellent need-based aid. My son (also in Colo - hi!) got excellent need-based aid from Rice and Caltech, and good from Harvey Mudd (all of which “meet need”).</p>
<p>Other than that, my son got good merit aid offers from Rose Hulman and Case Western.</p>
<p>*Any ideas for not-large engineering schools with good financial aid if she goes out of state would be very much appreciated. Thanks! *</p>
<p>It’s hard to know without any real SAT or ACT scores.</p>
<p>As for financial aid. Some schools give good financial aid, but do you know if you would qualify for aid at those schools? Even if a school gives good aid, if they determine that your income/assets are too high, it won’t help you much or at all.</p>
<p>Do you know how much you can afford to spend each year? </p>
<p>If you determine that your income/assets are too high for the aid that you need, your D may need to apply to some schools where she will get good-sized merit scholarships.</p>
<p>I just ran some quick number through Fafsa4caster and got an EFC of about 25K. This did not have us include any of our savings and I used about $1200 in earnings for her as a guess for planning purposes. Unless she does really well on her SAT’s Harvey Mudd is likely not a realistic option for her.
Has your son decided where he’ll go?</p>
<p>Take a look at Union College in Schenectady, NY. It has an excellent engineering program, is quite “girl friendly” and offers the full liberal arts experience. It’s also nice that if she changes her mind and doesn’t want to study engineering, she won’t necessarily have to transfer to find another major.</p>
<p>Also University of Rochester in Rochester, NY (not a public school, so out of state doesn’t matter). It has an excellent School of Engineering on the same campus as the main college. Again, she won’t have to transfer if she decides not to be an engineer.</p>
<p>Both give good merit aid. Of course, nothing is guaranteed, but they may be worth a shot.</p>
<p>RIT (NY) wants more females, as does RPI (NY).
Both private schools. </p>
<p>Alfred University (NY) has Inamori School of Engineering, AU has merit aid & need based aid, Honors Program, and Co-op Program. Also AU has School of Art & Design, College of LIberal Arts & School of Business, if she decided Engineering was not for her.</p>
<p>I just ran some quick number through Fafsa4caster and got an EFC of about 25K. This did not have us include any of our savings and I used about $1200 in earnings for her as a guess for planning purposes</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>Are you saying that FAFSA4caster didn’t ask you about savings? Hmmm…that seems odd. </p>
<p>Your D can earn up to about $4k per year without affecting EFC. However, any savings that she has will be assessed at a higher rate than the parents.</p>
<p>Are you fine with paying $25k per year? (of course, it could be higher when savings are considered or the school is a CSS Profile school…or the school doesn’t meet need.)</p>
<p>TIP…Merit aid only reduces “need”…UNLESS it is sooooo big that it covers all need and THEN it cuts into EFC.</p>
<p>So, if…</p>
<p>COA = $50k
EFC = $25k
Need = $25k</p>
<p>So, if $25k per year is not affordable, your child would have to get merit scholarships that EXCEED $25k per year in “need,” in order to reduce the $25k in EFC. </p>
<p>Of course, if the school doesn’t meet need, then that’s another issue to deal with.</p>
<p>If money is a concern, I would include 1 or 2 schools that give ASSURED big scholarships for stats. These scholarships are not competitive. If a student has the stats, they will get the scholarship as long as they apply on time.</p>
<p>Case Western
Washington University in St. Louis
Rice
Bucknell
Tufts
Rose-Hulman
Lehigh
Swarthmore
Northeastern
Carnegie Mellon
Cooper Union
Olin
RPI</p>
<p>I agree about Colorado School of Mines and Tulsa. If Texas is on the radar, you might have your daughter check out Trinity University in San Antonio. About 2500 UG, but only offers 3 types of engineering-ChemE, MechE and EE. Generous w/meritt, and has SW airlines for flights.</p>
<p>How much does your daughter know about what engineers do and whether it’s the right career for her? The reason I ask is that nationally about one half of all engineering students drop out of the major before they graduate. With some majors it’s as high as two thirds. So you can see the danger of focusing on a college that mainly has engineering unless she’s really sure that’s what she wants to do. It might be worth looking at universities that have a strong engineering college</p>
Mudd could still be a really good reach school for her.
I applied ED there with an SAT of 2120 (with only 720 in math). For subject tests, I got a 720 in Math II, 790 in Chemistry, and 650 in Literature, and I have a 3.95 uw GPA. I still managed to get in.
I feel like Harvey Mudd doesn’t focus on just the numbers when they look at each candidate. They seem to view each app pretty holistically. And they give out good financial aid, so it’s worth taking a look.
Some other schools you might want to check out are Carnegie Mellon, Rensselaer, Tufts, Olin and Case Western.</p>
<p>*How much does your daughter know about what engineers do and whether it’s the right career for her? The reason I ask is that nationally about **one half of all engineering students drop out of the major before they graduate. **With some majors it’s as high as two thirds. So you can see the danger of focusing on a college that mainly has engineering unless she’s really sure that’s what she wants to do. It might be worth looking at universities that have a strong engineering college *</p>
<p>This is very good advice. It would be a shame to choose a particular small school for its engineering. If your D were to change her major, transferring typically mean crappy aid and no scholarships. </p>
<p>Since it sounds like you need good aid (either need-based or merit-based), your D may need to consider mid-sized or larger universities so that if she were to change her major, she could remain at a school with the good aid.</p>
<p>Hi Everyone - thank you so much for the wonderful ideas! Now I have some great options to look into that D is finding interesting. This is a wonderful forum and you guys all ROCK!</p>
<p>@mikemac, I do understand the concerns about sending a kid off to specialized Engineering school. I’m sort of a “retired” Engineer and have seen firsthand what happens in first year physics and math classes. D had a 7th grade excelerated math class that required 2-4 hours of homework a night. We were worried about her, but she soldiered through it. Now she knows that she can put in the time and work to acomplish her goals. So I think she has the skill set and temperment to get through a rigorous program. But regarding whether or not she changes her mind, who can tell? I’m keeping an eye on what other programs schools offer (saw something intriguing at Bucknell). She really enjoys art - painting - and I thought Cooper Union would work for her since she loves Art, is great at math and looked at Architecture as a possible career path before Engineering! But getting in…
Ultimately it will always be her choice, but I’m just trying to present some nice carrots for her to choose from. If worse comes to worst, she’ll be going to school in Colorado and has some nice options in our backyard.
Thanks again everyone!</p>