Good engineering schools with good merit-based aid? 34 ACT & 4.62 weighted GPA.

College Search & Selection
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I am a senior at a private school in FL. Pretty good stats: 34 ACT (33 ENGL, 34 MATH, 33 READ, 35 SCI); on 4.0 scale I have a 4.62 WGPA & 3.84 UGPA; 5 on AP Chemistry; 4 on AP Calc AB & AP Macroeconomics; 3 on AP Biology, AP Physics 1, and AP US History; I am currently taking 5 AP’s: Calculus BC, Physics 2, Statistics, Computer Science A, Psychology; my one leadership position is the Engineering Activities Coordinator of my school’s Science Olympiad Club; have competed in the national level Chemistry Olympiad competition (I scored high in state level).

I plan on majoring in chemical engineering. So far I have applied to Purdue, U Michigan, U Minnesota, U Wisconsin, U Florida, Florida State, Ohio State, and Georgia Tech. I have been accepted to U MN, and I am expecting to be accepted to the rest of the schools except for U MI and GA Tech. Anyways, I was excited when I got accepted to U MN because, excluding financial aid, it has the lowest cost of attendance of the OOS schools I’ve applied to and also has one of the best ChemE programs in the nation (according to https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2017/engineering-chemical). I am considering applying in January to some of the schools in the aforementioned link, specifically private schools like Cornell, Northwestern, U Penn, Vanderbilt, Wash U STL, and some others.

Please let me know of any private schools that are less than or as selective as the previously mentioned schools, and that have good ChemE programs and good merit-based aid. Also, from my research, public schools seem prohibitively expensive for OOS, so if there are any with good ChemE programs and good merit-based aid, please let me know. At the schools I’ve applied to, most scholarships are ones you are automatically considered for, so please let me know of any good scholarships to apply for at these schools.

I am not sure what my household income is but I am pretty sure it is between 60K and 80K, so I probably won’t get much need-based aid. I will update you with my household income tomorrow when my father gets the tax information from his accountant.

2

Do you want top ranking or do you want merit? Because the top ranked schools don’t have to give big merit to entice kids to go there.

Schools for merit aid include Florida’s for in-state students. Also look at Mississippi State,Ole Miss, U New Mexico, NM State, NM Tech, Alabama, UAH, Texas Tech, Oklahoma.

If your family income is between 60 and 80 K you will get some need based aid at private schools. Run the net price calculators on all of those private schools to see your price before you waste your time applying, though.

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I want a good mix of both. My school’s tuition is 27K, so I am looking to keep college at 40K COA or less. I want good merit aid, or else I will not be able to afford it. At the same time I want a good program.

4

If your family income is $60k - $80k, are they really paying $27k a year for your current school tuition? I’m asking because your estimate of keeping college COA to $40k since it’s only a small increase over what they’re currently paying is reasonable, but it sound very doubtful that a family with an income of $60k - $80k pays $27k a year tuition, so you might want to get some clarification on that.

5

I am 100% sure we are paying in full, as every quarter my parents send me to the admissions/financing department of my school to drop off a 7K check. I am not 100% sure what our income is, but I will update it tomorrow.

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Also I’m in all the usual honors societies, NHS, SNHS, ENHS

7

You really don’t need a high ranking school to get a good undergraduate engineering degree.

If you need a merit aid school, you should focus on that, or stay in state where tuition is lower.

8

Both Embry-Riddle and Florida Tech would offer you good merit, plus you would be able to use other Florida awards like Bright Futures and the Florida Resident grant.

9

Look at the University of Cincinnati - not sure on merit, but they have a really good co-op program where the engineering students make bank…

10

Cal Poly SLO is an awesome school for engineering

11

Are your URM?

12

Since you are considering Florida State, you may want to look into Florida A&M for the same engineering education at a probably lower cost after scholarships.

13

You need to ask your parents how much they’'ll pay each year for college.

Do your parents have a business? Usually people who make 60-80k per year know that w/o having to ask their accountant. Something sounds odd.

You have a lot of expensive OOS schools on your list.

You need to know how much your parents will pay each year otherwise you may find out in the spring that none of your schools are affordable.

Why aren’t you applying to at least a couple of schools that will give you assured large merit as financial safety schools. My son graduated with chemical engineering from Alabama and his merit scholarships were so big that we hardly had to pay anything.

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Alabama’s scholarships are not as big (relative to its list price) as before, but still pretty big. The OP would get $27,500 per year based on https://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.php and http://eng.ua.edu/admissions/scholarships/ . Substracting it from the direct cost of $42,124 (tuition, room, board) and total cost of $48,634 (plus books, transportation, misc) as described at https://financialaid.ua.edu/cost/ gives a net direct cost of $14,624 and net total cost of $21,134 for the first year.

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Case-Western?

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[QUOTE=""]
Substracting it from the direct cost of $42,124 (tuition, room, board) and total cost of $48,634 (plus books, transportation, misc) as described at https://financialaid.ua.edu/cost/ gives a net direct cost of $14,624 and net total cost of $21,134 for the first year.

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@ucbalumnus
That would only be if he chose the expensive supersuites dorms. If he chose the standard doubles dorms, the cost would be about 3-4k cheaper.

And after the first year, that pricey meal plan is no longer required and that’s often an add’l savings.

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Ohio state has scholarships for many OOS students, and has a decent engineering rating.

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@talexr


[QUOTE=""]
private schools like Cornell, Northwestern, U Penn, Vanderbilt, Wash U STL <<

[/QUOTE]

I would add Rice.

For your public options I would just stick with Florida.

I would not bother with the FSU/FAMU engineering setup.

Minnesota is a great option that seems to fit your budget already. I would dig further into other UMN scholarship opportunities.

Delaware has a great chemical engineering program, might be worth a look. I would also look into Virginia Tech and maybe Clemson.


[QUOTE=""]
I have applied to Purdue, U Michigan, U Minnesota, U Wisconsin, U Florida, Florida State, Ohio State, and Georgia Tech. <<

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My son had similar stats and got Ohio State’s National Buckeye + Maximus scholarships, which would put OSU in your affordability ballpark if you got them as well.

He got great $ from Michigan State too but I do not know if you missed the automatic scholarship deadline.

You might want to look at Iowa State, Utah, and Nebraska. They would likely come in under your budget – perhaps way under budget.

Alabama-Huntsville will give you full tuition + free housing.

You would get big $$$ from Alabama, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and New Mexico.

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Tulane

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Make sure to apply before the scholarship dates. Some have Dec 1.

Some are very easy/quick on-line, like UA and UAH.