<p>I have a 2300-SAT, 800 Math II, 800 Physics, 35 ACT record with a 4.0 GPA. Pretty good stats.</p>
<p>What would be some good engineering safeties?</p>
<p>I want to take into consideration
1. Ease of acceptance
2. Quality of ENGINEERING program (prestige)
3. Closeness to home (Long Island, New York)
4. Financial aid package or merit-based scholarship award. For example, UC-Berkeley is notorious for not giving much financial aid, and almost no merit based aid to OOS. I would most likely be paying full 50-60k ticket price (but Berkeley is not a safety, anyways, I was just giving an example)</p>
<p>How well is Northeastern rated for engineering? I think it would be a safety school, but I do not know how good their program is? Would I get a full ride? Would it be better than Stony Brook University engineering program?</p>
<p>Any other east coast colleges? I know UMich is pretty good but it is pretty big...</p>
<p>UMich will not meet need for OOS students. They have a few full tuition merit opportunities but they are highly competitive. How about Alabama? If you are NMF Oklahoma. And prestige matters very little in engineering. Look for ABET accreditation.</p>
<p>How much will your family pay for a safety? A safety HAS to be affordable.</p>
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<p>this country has over 200 quality engineering programs. Look for ABET accreditation. Don’t worry about “prestige” for engineering…there are many, many programs that will qualify you for an excellent career.</p>
<p>Is Stony Brook affordable? It seems to meet your desired criteria. It does not appear to have any auto-admit criteria to make it a 100% sure thing, but it seems unlikely that an applicant with your stats will be rejected.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids
I think my family would pay no more than 30k/yr total (including room and board).
And yes, I am a NMSF.
Would you be able to recommend some safeties in which I would get a lot of merit-based aid?</p>
<p>My kid from Philly area used Alabama as a safety due to ease of applications and guaranteed scholarships. With your current stats it would be merit of full tuition plus $2500 year. If NMF then the merit increases. I believe 12/01 is the deadline to apply and get scholarship. I realize the distance is further than desired, but it was a very easy application. </p>
<p>Yes, Stony Brook is very affordable. I would be paying no more than 25000 even without any aid or merit-based scholarship. It is about 40 min car ride, and an hour train ride, so very close to home.</p>
<p>I just don’t know how good their engineering program is. I do believe that Stony Brook is considered better than Binghamton (the other top SUNY) for engineering, but I don’t know if I really want to go to SBU/how good their program is.</p>
<p>How good is Penn State University’s engineering? They are a humongous school, however. Would they give some merit-based aid? </p>
<p>As a general note, publics usually give less financial aid and merit based aid than privates. Northeastern for example, gives $30000 to NMSF like me, so it is like I will be paying about 24-25k at Northeastern. Plus, I have a higher chance of financial aid. They also have a University Scholars Program (but I doubt I will get that, only top 1-2% of applicants get it). Does anyone know how NEU stacks up in engineering rankings?</p>
<p>Stony Brook is actually a well respected school for engineering, CS, math, and physics. Being close to home for you and close to NYC for employers’ recruiting convenience puts it in a good location. According to <a href=“Cost | Financial Aid”>http://www.stonybrook.edu/finaid/cost/undergraduate.shtml</a> , it will cost only $23,018 (of which $20,250 is in billed costs) if you live there – likely somewhat less if you live at home and commute (food and utilities at home and commuting costs from home are probably lower than room and board on or near campus).</p>
<p>Penn State gives poor financial aid even to in-state students, and does not have that many merit scholarships (although it has some). Do not expect it to be inexpensive.</p>
<p>Wow, your advice is great! Are you actually a University of California Berkeley alumnus?</p>
<p>Would you agree that I would most likely be paying 55k at UCB (if i got aid, I would actually ignore closeness to home and go to UCB because it is in California near Silicon Valley, AND the best public school in the country + public school for engineering) I <3 Berkeley, and all of its opportunities for double majoring, simultaneously majoring, whatever you want…</p>
<p>How much merit-based aid can I expect? 0? Haha, I am pretty sure I will be getting $0 financial aid.</p>
<p>Berkeley does not have much in the way of big merit scholarships. There exists the full ride Drake scholarship for mechanical engineering majors only, but it is very competitive, so it should be considered a super-reach. Other than that, need-based financial aid will not cover the $23,000 out-of-state additional tuition, and if you won’t get need-based aid anyway, you will be paying full out-of-state price – see the net price calculator.</p>
<p>Most of the engineering majors have lots of requirements, so having a second major may be difficult to get all of the courses into an eight semester program without overloading, or bringing in lots of applicable AP or college credit completed in high school.</p>
<p>The thing about picking a safety is that, I don’t really want to paying much for a safety school. I wouldn’t be thrilled paying 55k at MIT, but I would be much more willing to do it because it is just so good. However, for safety schools, I would definitely prefer to stay close (minimizing travel costs + maximizing time spent with family), and not pay a lot. Which is why SBU immediately makes sense to me. I was just wondering if there are any BETTER engineering safeties (most likely OOS) that would give me merit based aid. </p>
<p>My friend is also applying to Ohio State University (OSU). Accoridng to USNWR (which means pretty much nothing, but still, it is ranked 30). It has some decent merit-based aid opportunities, is it worth it?</p>
<p>Have you looked at Lafayette, Tulane, Northeastern, Rochester and RPI? None of these (other than NEU’s $30K for NMF) have automatic scholarships, but I believe you could receive a generous merit award based on your stats.</p>
<p>You would definitely be in the mix for one of the full ride scholarships at Illinois Tech and our graduates are well regarded in engineering circles.</p>
<p>Depends on what you mean by better. There are low cost safeties through merit scholarships available (Temple, Howard, Alabama, etc.), but since you prefer to stay close to home, they may not be “better” than Stony Brook with all things considered.</p>
<p>Remember, you may find that some schools with non-automatic large merit scholarships may be attractive, but you should consider them reaches or matches depending on the difficulty of getting the non-automatic merit scholarships, if such scholarships are necessary for you to attend. I.e. they are not safeties. An example would be Rutgers in nearby New Jersey, where a competitive $25,000 merit scholarship would leave a residual cost of $14,391 for you as an out-of-state student.</p>