Financially Responsible to go OOS or Private?

Paying for College
41

3.88/4 gpa and on ACT that was after 2 weeks of studying meaning i did 3 practice tests and I hadn’t taken trig yet so I scored the lowest in math. Thinking I’ll pull a 33 after 2 months of studying. I talked to him and clarified with him that my sister and I would both be at school and he said he could make a school like Cornell work without a doubt. He makes a lot of money and has about 60-70k for each my sister and I saved for college funds. He didn’t want to put more into it for tax reasons if we didn’t use it all.

I understand UT is an amazing program, but I am just trying not to put my eggs in one basket.

This is my list so far:

UT Austin
A&M
Cornell
Cal Poly
UC Berkeley
Trinity College
SMU
TCU
Georgia Tech
Baylor

I think it is a pretty varied list. Thinking SMU, TCU, Trinity College, and Baylors are safety schools, UT Austin, A&M and Georgia Tech are matches, then Cornell, UCB, and Cal Poly are reaches (saying with a 32 or 33 ACT)

42

Why not other Texas publics instead of expensive private schools as safety options?

You father may not want to pay private school price if the prestige is not high enough.

43

@ucbalumnus, though he likely would get merit at some of those privates. Still, I would toss UT-D in there.

Cal Poly would be easier to get in to than GTech.

44

Oh my…you would go to Baylor but not consider some other schools - or are you purposefully putting your list together based on what you think is prestige? And hoping dad will pay if you get in (like to Cornell)?

You haven’t been on CC enough to understand why having schools like CalPoly and UCBerkeley are not going to ‘make it’ on a few different levels.

Love for @mom2collegekids talk about your list from post 40.

Do you think you will be class val? Will that impact your decision on staying at in-state public or another school that gives merit for that?

45

@SOSConcern … He does think he will likely be Val and he has acknowledged then benefits of a year of free tuition at a Texas school.

@Jpgranier Your new list kind of looks like a hodgepodge. Baylor, TCU and SMU are not schools renowned for engineering (I’m scratching my head to even think of any engineering grads from those schools!). Pretty sure it would be more respectable to have an engineering degree from UT. Are they on the list just because you feel you would be likely to be admitted??

46

What are safety engineering schools then? I will not go to UTD cuz Ik kids who go there and no one lives on campus it’s a commuter school and my friends don’t like it. I agree UT would be much better, I was just trying to think of schools that I would get into if UT didn’t work for some reason.

47

@ucbalumnus posted this list of TX publics WITH engineering programs. I’m thinking all of the will be safeties…and if your unknown GPA is high enough, you have a good chance of getting acceoted to UT-A.

In addition you noted that University of Alabama would be a place where you could get accepted…and I agree. At Birmingham and Huntsville you would get great merit aid.

you have been give some good suggestions for colleges with merit aid potential, and as safety and financial safety schools. But you keep coming up with reasons NOW why those just won’t work…town is not pleasing, friends don’t like it, etc.

48

A week ago your budget was $100k total. Now it’s $220k or more? A parent who’s thinking $25k/year may, in the moment and blinded by prestige, say they will pay for a Cornell or other prestigious school. But in April, when they’re getting ready to write that check, a ~$25k/year UT starts looking really good compared to a ~$55k/year Berkeley.

You need to develop a good list of reaches, matches, and safeties that fall within that $100k budget your parents gave you (after merit aid and the federal student loans are applied). Add a few schools that are a reach financially if you want, but run their net price calculators now, show them to your parents, and ask them if they’ll pay whatever the results say. There’s a huge difference between $100k for a UT and $220k for a Berkeley. Better to know now what their comfort level is. You don’t want to waste your time applying to colleges that are unaffordable or end up with acceptances to a bunch of schools your parents won’t let you attend.

49

@austinmshauri

Agree with you. But didn’t the OP say he would also get free tuition at a TX public for the first year for being Val? That would make the difference in cost between Cornell even MORE.

50

UTD may not be a good choice for you socially but they do have 6000 undergrad students living on campus out of 15000 undergrad students. My DD has a roommate from San Jose and one from McKinney. They are building a drag across the street with more housing. UTD is getting away from being a commuter school and it is good for STEM.

A&M would be a closer instate safety for you but they do not admit directly to the engineering major and mechanical engineering is very popular there. You would need to get a 3.5 GPA. You would need to apply before 10/15.

51

You’re right, @thumper1. I forgot about that. OP needs some good financial safeties. I’d hate for him to be one of the students we see scrambling in April because the parents suddenly got cold feet when faced with the actual bills.

52

OP, I attended Univ of Houston (just for graduate school pre-reqs while living in Houston) and then TAMU for MBA while H worked in engineering in College Station. Fair number of family members are engineers - and have gone to schools in their home states mainly. H and my home state was WI - H went to MSOE while I attended another Milwaukee University.

I advised and worked with a lot of engineering students when I was on the senior staff for a large cooperative education program.

Looking at your GPA and ACT/SAT - in AL you can do very well in engineering at UA or UAH. UA has a great honors program, and you can take advantage of that - and class priority by being in honors. UAH has a ton of engineering opportunities in Research Park and on Redstone Arsenal - but is a smallish campus and mid-sized city - so it may not appeal to you.

Just be sure to apply and cross all your t’s/dot all your i’s in time to apply to the various schools/scholarship programs where you may want to go that make sense cost/benefit, and where you can attend as an engineering admit.

You can always visit OOS schools to compare and decide later.

I have been on a lot of campuses - TX, WI, IA, AL, LA.

Students often are attracted to a certain size of school in a certain size of town.

There are a lot of high stat students OOS that go to UA. UA is the fastest growing flagship in the country, but will still stay a lot ‘smaller’ than TAMU which was huge in the early 1980’s when I attended there. Tuscaloosa is a ‘college town’ but has more appeal because the stores/eating places are all shaped around the University - and it is an hour from B’ham which has what Tuscaloosa doesn’t.

If you get accepted to TAMU engineering and UT engineering, you need to weigh those out if you like the larger campus experiences as apposed to other schools/programs.

I don’t know a lot about some of the other Texas schools as far as depth of their eng programs/ABET accreditation.

Although UAH is a smallish school, it is big with engineering - lots of their engineering programs through PhD (it started due to the demand for graduate tech programs for NASA and Army/now Missile and Aviation Command on Redstone Arsenal and government contractors in Research Park).

Do look at info on-line with various schools - including the video clips that they show with campus. You may see what you like/don’t like to keep your application list more manageable.

Can also PM if you have more detailed questions/want more specifics…

53

http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg05_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=273 indicates that 62% of frosh live in campus dorms at UT Dallas, so there is a substantial resident student population (though also a significant commuter student population).

Now, if you live in Dallas, your sample of friends may be biased in that your friends may be more likely to commute there than live there.

For comparison, UT Austin has 63% of frosh living in the dorms, Texas A&M has 60% of frosh living in the dorms, Texas Tech has 92% of frosh living in the dorms, and Houston has 50% of frosh living in the dorms.

54

The problem is that UT Engineering is not guaranteed. So, you must choose other colleges that offer * direct admit to engineering * ‘just in case’.
One could be UTD or Texas Tech.
U Minnesota, Rpi, Northeastern, URochester, UAlabama, and Cal Poly SLO are excellent picks provided you reach ACT32.
Cornell, why not?

55

TCU is off my list for sure. Went and visited today and their engineering program of 200 kids is too small for me. SMU engineering visit is scheduled for tomorrow morning. I’ve visited UT and A&M I did a 2 week STEM camp with and I like UT more.

Cal Poly sounds like a great school to me, but of course I’ve never seen it. My parents are going to dinner with parents of a recent Georgia Tech engineering grade tonight so I’ll have a better feel of that and know if I want to pursue it.

Safety school will be either Alabama or Arkansas probably. Equally ranked engineering programs and Arkansas I get 110% in state tuition there automatically, while at Alabama I would have to apply for their scholarships(unless I’m wrong?). Tech I have visited, but it’s just not my feel.

What are yalls thoughts on decent engineering programs but being in the honors engineering there? How does that compare. Let’s say honors engineering Alabama. Where is that to scale on UT rigor and appeal for internships and jobs.

Thanks everyone so far! Y’all are all a ton of help!

56

deleted

57

@ucbalumnus … Wait what?? I was just on their website like an hour ago and all that was listed. Pretty sure it still is.

58

@mom2collegekids

What scholarship would this kiddo get at Alabama?

To the OP. The Alabama scholarship application is easy peasy to do!

59

Oh, found it. Was looking at the wrong part of the Alabama web site.

The part with the scholarships is at http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.php .

There are small ($1,500 or $2,500) additional scholarships for engineering majors, but the engineering scholarship web site no longer lists the main scholarships as well: http://eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholarships/ .

60

@Jpgranier

That Alabama awards are ASSURED as long as you have the stats and apply by the deadline.

<<<
Unweighted GPA 3.88, ACT 31(
<<<

You’d get a 2/3 tuition award plus 2500 per year.

If you raise that to a 32, then you’d get free tuition plus 2500 per year.


[QUOTE=""]
Safety school will be either Alabama or Arkansas probably. Equally ranked engineering programs and Arkansas I get 110% in state tuition there automatically, while at Alabama I would have to apply for their scholarships(unless I'm wrong?). Tech I have visited, but it's just not my feel.

[/QUOTE]

The Bama app is easy. The award is assured.