My Son is a Junior in HS (Illinois). He is interested in studying mechanical engineering. His stats:
ACT 33
Unweighted GPA 4.7.
Eagle scout if he can complete in time
Doesn’t want to go to college in urban location, suburban or rural ok
We plan on going on some college visits soon, but I don’t want to visit colleges that we know are not a good financial fit. A common choice for Illinois residents is UIUC, but this would be too expensive for us. We wouldn’t qualify for need based aid, and UIUC is stingy with the merit based aid. It looks like UIUC is $35k/year for engineering, which we couldn’t afford. $20-25k/year would be more reasonable for us. What are some good engineering schools in the midwest that would provide a reasonable COA based on my sons stats?
Typically if one is seeking merit aid you move down in terms of selectivity. Since he’s interested in ME so long as the school is ABET accredited he should do fine. A school that pops into my mind would be the University of Toledo. It really has a good engineering program though they do have a mandatory coop program so he’d need to be willing to coop. He would be a top student there but engineering is more selective so he’d fit in well. It’s suburban, a nice campus, division 1 school, and they have a strong engineering dept. A friend of ours has a son working for Honda after graduation from UT and it’s fairly close to much of MIchigan’s auto industry. A smaller school in Ohio (very rural) would be Ohio Northern. It’s private but I believe the cost could be where you need it to be after scholarships. Miami University is a more selective school that might offer him enough scholarship money. It’s a gorgeous campus though surprisingly I would put UT’s engineering program a bit above their’s.
Definitely apply to UIUC. Since he’s instate they just might surprise you. I’m sure there may be other options north in Wisconsin and to the west. What I don’t know is how urban those schools are.
Look into Iowa State. It’s a gorgeous campus in a small town. My D received merit aid as an OOS applicant and after visiting its one of her top choices. She’s majoring in Industrial Design so I can’t really speak to engineering there but I’ve heard it’s got great programs. I was impressed with the facilities.
Nebraska, Kansas. Next to Midwest: Oklahoma, Oklahoma State. Outside Midwest, but he’d get amazing aid: Texas Tech. Check out the Midwest Student Exchange Program.
Valparaiso. Small school, great engineering program, would give good money for those stats. Only knock on it is it’s in the middle of nowhere - otherwise S would have gone there.
I often post this nice summary of merit aid from Miami of Ohio. It seems like it’s just what you are looking for. Note that the school super-scores for admission AND aid; merit aid deadline is Dec. 1 (it’s earlier than the regular deadline at other schools as well); these scholarships are not guaranteed. It seems like something for you son to research though.
I’d also add both Ohio State and Michigan State. Both have excellent programs and beautiful campuses. We visited the engineering departments at both schools last year. Both schools list their merit scholarships on their websites. S (who had similar stats to your son) received competitive merit scholarships from both schools.
Look at Kansas State too. Great financial aid for OOS students with his stats. Nice engineering program depending on his area. Lots of son’s friends are engineering majors and very happy there. I also second Iowa State and Miami or Ohio.
Check out those schools that participate in the mid west student exchange program that grant you reciprocal instate tuition rate too. Otherwise, just with merit aid on top of OOS tuition may still be very expensive.
Hi Alexandre,
As parents our preference is to have him attend in the Midwes (to minimize buying plane tickets), but I think we would consider further away if it was a good school with merit aid.
University of Alabama-Huntsville
Tuskegee University
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Louisiana Tech University
University of Mississippi
Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University
Utah State University
I know this is going to seem a little unorthodox, but give the University of Michigan Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute a look. I can think of many benefits:
Living in Shanghai for four years is a great cultural experience
They offer strong programs in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering
Off the charts placement into top graduate engineering programs
Tuition is roughly $13k/year (not including living expenses)
Another one that should be on your son’s radar: Trinity University in San Antonio.
ABET certified, small class sizes, new 1.35M integrated science and engineering building for all his engineering classes, massive endowment with very generous merit aid packages.
One nice thing about Trinity is that their merit is completely transparent. If you contact Admissions, if you input the ACT score and grades they will tell you up front what merit aid your S would receive.
Iowa State an excellent option. I think Rose Hulman will exceed your $25K budget.
