<p>My financial aid stats are relatively similar to yours, and I get a bit less than $15,000 in total aid from my school…home equity=a pain, in terms of aid calculation. My family is making up most of the difference in loans, and it is a hardship, but I’m very lucky that my parents are willing to help me to follow my heart rather than a budget, as it were. </p>
<p>I know at Harvard and Yale, my family would have been expected to pay about $15,000 a year tuition, but most of the other similar schools…rest of the ivy’s, stanford, prestigious private university of choice…don’t have the dough to give that kind of aid.</p>
<p>I applied for aid at UChicago. They laughed. Rather rudely. </p>
<p>What is your in-state school?..in my case, I ultimately turned mine down, but the honors program at my state university is pretty well regarded, and they offer a ton of half and full tuition scholarships to middle class students who they figure will get into top ten schools who they want to lure away with cash. Don’t know what the case in your state is, but it could be worth looking into.</p>
<p>You also might want to look at schools like Emory and University of Washington Saint Louis, which offer more merit aid or special scholars programs. I don’t know specifically engineering, but they are both very strong in general. </p>
<p>There is some engineering school that gives full tuition…don’t remember who though… I think its pretty competitive, for obvious reasons, but could be worth looking into.</p>
<p>I also know someone who had Northrop Grumman foot the bill for their education, in exchange for working summers and then I think a five year commitment post grad…comp sci rather than engineering, and after the five years she went to grad school. That was a sweet deal…I think most companies that have programs like that are targeting lower-income brackets and/or minorities and/or women…google defense firms, government agencies, those type of places and maybe you’ll meet the criteria for a couple.</p>