Expected Family Contribution and financial aid

[NJEngineerDad]

@Debnbill Getting merit at Rutgers has been getting harder and harder over the last few years.

I posted some info a little over two years ago in a thread that I felt could be useful to NJ residents looking for merit in the engineering field, and I am linking it here for reference.

Side discussion thread for top New Jersey engineering students looking for advice getting merit aid

Hello. I am starting this thread for the top 10% students from New Jersey that might be following the thread “Looking for advice in Merit aid for a top 1% student” with interest because they want to study engineering or computer science and are looking for merit scholarships. If you are a NJ resident, my advice is that, on top of all the schools that have been mentioned so far in the “Looking for advice in Merit aid for a top 1% student” thread, you should apply to Rutgers but do not consider it a financial safety because all top NJ students have high SAT scores and the bar to get a merit scholarship is apparently being raised every year. A few datapoints I have gathered suggest that a score in the order of 1530 single-sitting SAT (35 ACT) might be needed to get accepted at the Rutgers Honors College via the School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) and a score in the order of 1570 single-sitting SAT (36 ACT) might be needed to get accepted at the Rutgers Honors College via the School Of Engin…

@Tictacmissus pointed out at the time that the data I gathered was incomplete and that there were outliers, but I nonetheless think that it provides some interesting reference points.

The following thread is also worth reading imho:

Rutgers real price: NJ in-state

Assistance or feedback appreciated: Our EFC is around 50K (based on an atypical income for look back year) but we need merit aid, as much as possible. (A little thing called the recession happened a few years ago and resulting job loss cleaned out our savings and equity.) Daughter has 3.9 weighted/3.6 unweighted and 34 ACT (waiting for results of her 2nd try on ACT.) Tons of Leadership and class officer stuff. I did the NPC on Rutgers site and we would not get ANY merit aid. Our price would be $32K room and board. Is this typical? Thank you.