My family has an EFC of about 0: its a little over 100. I don’t expect this amount to increase in the future. I’m going to UT Austin next year but they aren’t providing me with much financial aid, if at all. What are some great engineering colleges–for chemical or mechanical–(grad OR undergrad) that provides full or most need?
I’m not looking for colleges that provide merit scholarships: I think getting into a highly-ranked school for engineering is decent enough.
Cooper Union or Olin.
I’m kind of biased: I think the collegeboard would provide me with 100% true information. What colleges from this list are great for engineering? I know the tech colleges (cal tech, Georgia tech etc…) and ivy leagues are but what else? http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/professionals/colleges-and-universities-that-meet-100-percent-of-financial-need.pdf
Some highly selective schools like MIT and Stanford have good financial aid. Check their net price calculators. (But if your parents are divorced, be aware that they will consider both of their income and assets, so if one is wealthy but won’t pay, or uncooperative, you won’t get enough financial aid.)
Your other option is the merit-seeking strategy, where you look for automatic and competitive full tuition to full ride scholarships that you are eligible for with your stats. List of schools and scholarships is at http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html ; you need to check their engineering offerings.
You can certainly include both types of schools in your application list next year, assuming that you are a high school junior.
If you are a high school senior about to go to college, be aware that many of the schools with the best financial aid are even more difficult to get admitted to as a transfer student. Merit scholarships are also less available for transfer students.