good engineering schools that offer generous financial/merit aid?

College Search & Selection
1

I am interested in applying to MIT, Stanford, Northwestern, and Rice next year for engineering, but I realize that all these schools are very selective and it’s completely possible that I could be rejected to all of them lol.

Safeties: NC State (Park Scholarship), UMD-CP (Banneker-Key Scholarship), ASU

does anyone know of any other schools (selective or non-selective) that offer good financial/merit aid for a upper middle class student? I’m having trouble finding any other colleges that 1) give good aid to OOS students and 2) have a solid engineering program.

2

RPI, Lehigh, Union, RHIT?

3

It totally depends on your stats and your budget. “Good aid” is very subjective.

BTW, UMD CP for engineering is not a safety for any student, especially if you are vying for Banneker-Key.

4

Since I’m not completely set on engineering, I would like to attend a school that offers a variety of majors - hence why I haven’t really been considering RPI, Stevens, etc.

Stats: 1580 SAT, 4.0 UW/4.8 W GPA, president of 2 clubs, VP of another club, 180 service hours so far, volunteering at a local hospital over the summer

As for my budget, we can pay $10,000 - $20,000 per year, but I’m trying to minimize the amount of student loans for obvious reasons. Since I hope to attend grad school, affordability is important for me.

Does anyone know how much engineering rankings matter? I noticed Case Western is ranked below ASU, but from what I have heard, Case offers many more opportunities since they are better known nationally.

5

If you are at an ABET accredited program, I wouldn’t worry about rankings.

Are you an NMF?

Look at schools like Alabama, ASU, Iowa, Florida… in addition to your instate publics.

6

Not a NMF, unfortunately.

7

I am probably in the minority here, but rankings don’t matter in engineering. Have worked with many great ones from lower-ranked schools, and poor ones from higher-ranked schools.

Alabama. Automatic merit for your scores, and even more for NMF.

8

Great engineering schools but not safeties-reaches for all: georgia tech, Michigan, etc
Safeties: RIT, Clarkson, Stevens

9

GT and Michigan are not going to be in budget ($10-20K/year).

10

I don’t think GT and U Michigan are 10,000-$20,000 a year even for instate students, unless they qualify for need based aid.

11

You have combined merit and financial aid. Merit you can (somewhat) control, but need based aid is what it is.

12

The University of Utah would offer full tuition with the possibility of a full ride to someone with your stats. It’s worth comparing what they offer to ASU if you are interested in that part of the country.

Are you sure that places like MIT, Stanford etc would be affordable with an “upper middle class” income and a $10K-$20K pa budget? If not, then why bother applying? Better to focus on merit scholarships instead (the cohort based full rides such as those you listed are a particularly interesting option and there are quite a few others to seek out, with varying levels of selectivity).

13

From what I’ve heard, MIT and Stanford give excellent financial aid. Based on Stanford’s FA policy, we would only have to pay 10% of family income, which is within the budget I mentioned earlier. The hard part is just getting admitted to these highly selective schools.

I should also make myself more clear - we could probably pay more than $20K, but I just don’t want to be a financial burden on my parents, since I also have a sibling who will be heading to college in several years.

Could someone explain how merit aid/financial aid works?? I had previously thought you could “stack” the money received from merit/financial aid.

14

Look at UAlabama and UAlabama - Huntsville

15

You can run the Net Price Calculators on each school’s website to see how much financial aid you might qualify for. Each school is different if they stack scholarships.

16

If a college gives good financial aid to upper middle class students it is not a safety for anyone.

17

@FutureCadet

Not all universities have the same major options after admission. Somewhere a campus major may be offered, but that does not necessarily mean you will be able to transfer into it. If, for example, you are an engineering major, what are the rules and opportunities for you to fully participate in music or drama if they are only available to majors in those areas. Being at a wide ranging University does not automatically mean you have unfettered opportunity to participate in all those options.

On the flip side of the same problem is the depth of engineering options. The fact that a university has an engineering college does not necessarily mean they have a Robotics, Aerospace, Data Science or Biomedical Engineering program which is also Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accredited.

Make a carefully thought out list of possible major/minor subject and activity interests. Learn the details of how the rules actually operate after admission.

Brown University is known for a very flexible, university wide program. They are ABET accredited in many, but not all engineering areas. Both Brown and WPI have great flexibility within the ABET framework to minor in other areas of study… Brown has many majors outside of engineering while WPI has few. Brown has an incredible music program for majors. WPI has no music majors, but does have an remarkable performance minors program for all those engineering majors. Who gets to play in the respective University symphony orchestras? I don’t know the answer in Brown’s case, but I would ask if I wanted to play that piano. How about Jazz? How about a performance minor?

How about actual project studies in the Humanities or the Social Science areas for that engineering major?

Work on your majors/minors list. Do not assume the contents by the picture on the book’s cover.

MIT is also known for the very high quality of its Humanities and Social Science areas, but it is still an “Institute of Technology.”

On FA:
There is still some merit money available which exceeds the demonstrated financial need of applicants, but it keeps fading as STEM applicants keep growing in numbers at some highly competitive universities.

From the WPI Common Data Set (CDS) in 2018 (sec. H2A):
Thirty percent of the students with no demonstrated financial need received an average award of $16,236. This is a Division III.University so these were not for athletics. We call them “merit” awards. When the average student has an unweighted GPA of 3.89, they all deserve a “merit” award.

You should be able to find this data on the CDS reports from any of your candidate universities. It would be more reliable than many of these commonly available secondary reports.

18

Universities of Alabama, Hunstville & Tuscaloosa offer guaranteed merit based on stats alone. I believe you would qualify for full tuition bringing costs down significantly.

Worth looking at before you go chasing aid elsewhere. If nothing else, you could consider them safety schools.

19

@FutureCadet if your plan is to get the Park Scholarship at NCSU, you really better scratch that as a “plan”, there are 40 awarded out of 2400 applicants. that’s 1.66% if my math is right. (it’s great as a dream.) Also, your personal interview is very important and geographic distribution too. You’re odds are better getting into HYPMS. Also, besides academic merit there’s an interview as well. If you rub one current student interviewer wrong you won’t get it. They interview 110-120 for 40 slots. You didn’t mention your state? and just so you know there will be 10 applicants for each unhooked white/asian kid at your HYPMS list of schools. there are something like 38,000 kids with As and 99%tile test scores but only 25% of the seats at those schools about 400 are decided on grades, test scores, and volunteering. Hopefully you are from Alaska or Wyoming which are hooks.

20

@FutureCadet Look at your in state flagship program first, and visit that program to see what it offers.

Have you run net price calculators and do you qualify for any financial aid at Brown, MIT etc?
Most private east coast highly ranked schools offer zero merit. Many upper middle class families pay the full price
at both Brown and MIT if they have little debt, so a mortgage, and a combined income over $170K. Do the net price calculators, and as long as you family does not own a business, they should give you an idea. If your family own a business with variable income, its very very difficult to predict financial aid.

Case Western Reserve U offers solid merit, and open door policy to study humanities and social sciences and fine engineering education. The merit packages there offer about $125K over four years, and you can apply for additional merit scholarships for junior and senior year from the Case alumni group. The cost will still come in at $40K a year, with scholarships, unless you have financial need. Case will stack merit and financial aid, but middle income families with NO financial need, can still get a great deal.

Alabama, U of Oklahoma, U of Tulsa, and U of Texas Dallas all offer better merit and a lower sticker price than Case Western.

Purdue in Indiana offers $10K per year OOS scholarships.

U of Utah allows students to declare residency after one summer in Utah, after freshman year, and changing
your drivers license and voter registration to Utah. So you get in state tuition in year 2, 3 and 4.

Gatech offers absolutely NO financial aid to OOS and only about 20 merit awards, so you have to pay full price,
but that price is $80K less than MIT and Brown over four years.

So it all depends on your exact financial situation, how much debt your family carries, how expensive your primary residence is, how much your family owes on the mortgage, how much they saved for college for you, and how much salary they make annually. The net price calculators should help you decide if you qualify for financial aid.