<p>For OOS students, top tech schools like Georgia Tech, UIUC, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, University of Texas at Austin, Purdue are pretty expensive. Can anyone who goes to those schools (OOS) and is not low income tell me how the financial aid is there? Anyone know any good tech schools where I can get really good financial aid?</p>
<p>Need based aid for OOS students is practically non-existant at those publics. They charge high OOS tuition for a REASON. It wouldn’t make sense for them to charge the high OOS rates and then to give need-based aid to pay for those high costs. Why would they bother to charge the high rates then? </p>
<p>these are state schools who must reserve their very limited need-based aid to instate students whose costs are much lower since they are charged the instate rates.</p>
<p>How much are your parents willing to pay each year?</p>
<p>There are two types of money sources for college…need-based financial aid and merit scholarships. If you want need-based, then you need to look at the privates who are good with aid…but aid will be based on family income/assets, and they may expect your parents to pay more than your parents will pay.</p>
<p>If you want merit based aid, then there are schools that give good amounts, but they’re not schools like UIUC. Purdue gives small merit scholarships, but your family would still need to pay most of the costs.</p>
<p>just a comfortable upper middle class girl.</p>
<p>If you’re an “upper middle class” student, then you may not even qualify for financial aid. Do you know what your family income is? Your EFC will likely be about 33% of your parents income BEFORE taxes.</p>
<p>Run the NPCs of various engineering universities.</p>
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<p>The schools themselves will tell you – put “net price calculator” in the search boxes of their web sites. Be prepared to be disappointed as an out-of-state student, except at the University of Virginia.</p>
<p>However, some schools’ list prices are not that expensive, even for out-of-state students. Examples include NCSU, Virginia Tech, Stony Brook, Minnesota, Cal Poly SLO. Depending on what you mean by “upper middle class”*, these may be affordable even with no financial aid.</p>
<ul>
<li>Many here use “upper middle class” to describe income levels beyond financial aid eligibility anywhere, meaning over $230,000 per year.</li>
</ul>
<p>oh i’m not that rich…i would say middle class then 
thanks guys! still does anyone know how hard it is to get merit aid as an OOS?</p>
<p>Petra…you need to tell us your stats.</p>
<p>Obviously, it’s easy for a student with super high stats to find schools that will give merit. Conversely, it’s hard for a student with modest stats to find schools that will give merit.</p>
<p>To answer your question in any usable fashion, we need your stats…include SAT breakdown.</p>
<p>Approx family income? $50k? 100k? $125k? more? less? </p>
<p>and how much will your family pay each year?</p>
<p>At those schools it is extremely hard to get FA. Public Us reserve most of their FA for in-state students (since their parents help to pay for that indirectly through state taxes).</p>
<p>Take a look at these lists for merit scholarships:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-4.html#post16224918[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-4.html#post16224918</a></p>
<p>mom2college kids: sorry, but i can’t give away too much info online, especially income and stuff. i guess i really didn’t know what i was asking.</p>
<p>THank you everyone for the tips especially about the net price calc. Does anyone know any great scholarships from the college I can aim for that will significantly reduce the cost? Eg. there is the Provost Scholarship in Georgia Tech. Any other good colleges that offer scholarships like that. THanks!</p>
<p>MANY schools have good competitive scholarships (mostly the ones that don’t solely rely on financial aid). Look on their web sites. Also look into the Financial Aid forum on this site. There are some threads with listings.</p>
<p>Find an engineering school where you would be in demand, so to speak.</p>
<p>For example, if you’re a female, many STEM schools are aggressively seeking to balance the gender ratio in their respective students bodies. They do with with merit aid. Such a list would include…</p>
<p>Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MA)
Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute (NY)
Rose Hulman
Missouri U of Science & Technolog</p>
<p>Toss in other places such as U of Rochester, Illinois Institute of Technology. Also, U of Alabama Tuscaloosa.</p>
<p>Finally, there are two very well regarded public engineering schools that are an absolute tuition bargain, even for non-residents; 1) South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. 2) SUNY Maritime College.</p>
<p>Both are relatively dirt cheap and do a very good job finding employment for their graduates. SUNY is clearly a “self-selection” school and it’s not for everyone, particularly the Cadet Corp option (the majority of the students). But it’s a great program at a tidy little campus tucked away on the waterfront in a far part of New York City.</p>
<p>SD School of Mines & Technology is going full steam ahead to attract additional female students. The school has a strong reputation among employers, including Boeing, Dow Chemical, etc. The school is situated among the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore, a beautiful part of America.</p>
<p>By the way, I know more than a few folks who believe that RPI is superior to Georgia Tech. The engineering education at both schools is excellent.</p>
<p>Use the schools’ net price calculators to figure out where you stand financial aid wise.
For example try out:
<a href=“https://rice.studentaidcalculator.com/survey.aspx[/url]”>Unknown Address; Rice gives very good aid so if you don’t qualify for much here you most likely won’t qualify for most schools.</p>
<p>Thanks Erin’s dad, LakeWashington, and barrk123. I will definitely remember the advice.</p>