Good Mechanical Engineering school with generous merit based scholarships

College Search & Selection
1

Hello Experts.

We are looking for colleges with a good mechanical engineering program. We’d really appreciate your input as many as you feel colleges that could match desired parameters.
My son unweighted 4.0 GPA, 790 math SAT, 34 ACT superscore, drum major, 13 AP classes…

We are located in Kentucky, and looking for a good engineering college that

** !!! generous with merit scholarships!!!*

  • no more than 6 hours from Kentucky
  • preferably mid to large size
  • preferably in or nearby metropolitan area
  • preferably reasonably well-known for engineering

Greatly appreciate your help! Thank you

2

Your target net price?

3 Likes
3

Case Western gave my similar stats son $100,000 ($25K/yr), but that was in 2014. That would still likely put it higher than KY or Louisville. Maybe Pitt.

What’s your total budget?

4

If the net price requirement is “full ride”, perhaps AAMU (Presidential Scholarship)?
https://www.aamu.edu/admissions-aid/financial-aid/scholarships/index.html

2 Likes
5

It’s a little far, but RPI has great mechanical engineering and gives good merit money.

1 Like
6

I would suggest starting with these:

  • UK and UofL (5-year Master’s at UofL), KEES money plus scholarship opportunities could make it very cost effective
  • University of Alabama
  • Missouri S&T
  • UT Knoxville
  • Ohio State (this will probably be toughest to get merit, thus most expensive, but top notch school that is relatively close and in a good city)
4 Likes
7

Agree - and add UAH for mid size. Miss State is only an hour from previously mentioned Bama. UTK is another to look at. Even TN Tech is fine. WVU bigmerit too. Michigan State offers merit.

All these give big merit. As long as they are ABET where you go matters less.

Outside of UK if you are just looking for cheap and within 6 hrs start with Bama and UAH. Both will be under $20k all in.

3 Likes
8

You might be able to get to Grand Valley State University in around six hours. He would only have $13,000 with all the automatic scholarships he qualifies for and then there are hundreds of scholarships to apply for in their scholarship portal, many which have to do with engineering. Grand Valley is in Allendale, MI, which is really close to Grand Rapids. In fact, the engineering school is in downtown Grand Rapids. The people I know who went for mechanical engineering really enjoyed their time there.

2 Likes
9

There is not a particular number. We just hope for maximum merit based out-of-state possible.

10

Thank you for the suggestions. No exact budget. Doing research for great schools with good merit aid.

1 Like
11

Thank you very much. Super helpful

1 Like
12

Be mindful of net cost regardless of the merit award. We were full pay and played the merit game. Our son ended up at a school though (Cal Poly) that didn’t give significant merit aid, but netted out to the same price as Case because it was just a great deal at the time.

4 Likes
13

Thank you very much for your notes.

14

A lot too depends where you are in KY. Are you in Hopkinsville. Paducah. Morehead. Bowling Green. Lex. 6 hrs goes many ways depending where you are in the state. Even an Ole Miss with great stats could work and be cheap. Even a Mizzou which gives big aid but isn’t as well thought of as science & Tech. Or Arkansas. Depends which part of the state. Or Bradley for private. Just fill out the NPC. It will give you the merit. A lot of smart kids by us go south is Nashville to WKU and MTSU. Those that are cost driven. The auto industry is big and griwimg in TN with Ford now building a plant. and UAH Is all about and defense and is in Rocket City and 2nd home of Nasa and those kids do well.

W. Michigan and So Illinois (no OOS tuition) also could work from KY. depending where in KY we start from.

1 Like
15

Maximum is full ride (e.g. AAMU noted above).

However, if there are other considerations besides lowest cost and ME major, such that different colleges at different prices may be considered, then doing the financial planning to know what price range is easily affordable, barely affordable, and not affordable should be done early.

4 Likes
16

Yep. Bcc z Purdue is wonderful and costs less many others.

1 Like
17

Thank you. We are in Louisville KY and were hoping for a decent engineering ranking as well. (Up to 100 top rated)

18

Honestly all that matters is ABET. Not top 100. My former boss son went to UK. Had some microscope he built at the space station. My son goes to Bama Meche. Spent two summers with a major auto. In all his job / intern apps the only requirement (for lots of companies) was ABET.

So outside the best of the best they’ll all be fine.

6 Likes
19

I’d take this one step further. There are plenty of “Top 100” schools that I wouldn’t recommend. Many have giant lectures. Some are known grinds. Some aren’t well rounded and for some students that is important.

I like the approach J.B. Speed is taking in Louisville. They are following in the footsteps of Cal Poly, Learn by Doing. That’s important in producing practicing engineers.

10 Likes
20

I’ll second this. S23 and spouse recently toured the Speed school at U of L and were very impressed. They have mandatory 3 semesters of paid co-op but you still graduate in 4 years. That’s a plus for our kid, who needs to do co-op for the $$. There’s excellent auto-merit aid, cheap tuition, and a great honors program (I know someone who did it recently and loved it).

It was our son’s safety, but after the tour it might end up being his first choice anyway. It’s definitely in the top 3.

Spouse is a physical science prof and had this to say after having done many tours. They were DOING stuff there. A lot of schools put on a show and have things curated to see while you’re on the tour to impress people. U of L didn’t take that approach, so while it was a good tour, an impressive thing was that people were bustling around and clearly getting stuff done in the background in a way that was not observed at other schools. And this was during the summer.

6 Likes