Help a Junior Find Engineering Schools?

<p>Hola, amigos. As a Junior in high school, I have undergone the dauntless task that is the college search. I am blindly jumping into this, so some help from you guys would be great. I was wondering if you wonderful souls could recommend me some engineering school that meet this criteria. </p>

<p>1) First, price is one of the biggest factors. My parents are willing to spend <30k/year on my education. However, ideally, I would rather have my parents pay <25k/year. Private vs. Public doesn't really matter to me, as long as it has good scholarships/grants to be able to get the price around that 25k/year figure.</p>

<p>2) Next, the school must have good job recruitment. Pretty self-explanatory.</p>

<p>3) Lastly, it must be fairly close to Akron, OH. I'm talking about a 6 hour driving distance maximum.</p>

<p>Well, here are some of my stats to give you a general idea of the schools I would like to visit.
ACT: 31 (took w/o Alg. 2. Will definitely take again and probably get a 33-34)
GPA: 4.0/4.5 (most rigorous with a few exceptions)
Rank: Top 5% of class</p>

<p>Couple leadership positions. Other EC's pretty good.</p>

<p>Shoot. Forgot to add that prestige doesn’t really matter to me. As long as it has good job prospects and is in my price range after financial aid, that’s fine with me.</p>

<p>Has your family run the EFC calculator to see if they qualify for FA?
Case Western meets your other criteria and might come close if they want you enough to offer a merit scholarship if you don’t qualify for FA.
Here’s a good resource for finding schools who are generous with non-need based merit aid - look both at percentage of students receiving it AND the average amount…
[Kiplinger</a> - Interstitial](<a href=“http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php]Kiplinger”>http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php)</p>

<p>My nephew is an Engineering major at Northwestern. Awesome school and you can get aid…not sure of the details, but it doesn’t hurt to look.</p>

<p>The Ohio State University should be within your budget, assuming you are in-state.</p>

<p>Beyond that, try the net price calculators at each college’s web site to check need-based financial aid, then check their scholarships.</p>

<p>There are some automatic ones at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-12.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-12.html&lt;/a&gt; , although most are out of your range from Akron, OH. But one of them is Ohio University, with an automatic full tuition scholarship.</p>

<p>Wow. A CC student that actually realizes that costs matter. There’s hope!</p>

<p>Ohio State University (instate)
Case Western (AID)
Virgina Tech (a little bit further away)
NC State (even further…)
Purdue (may be a bit pricey. Depends on aid).
Michigan State (also a bit pricey. Depends on aid). </p>

<p>Top ~50 engineering schools and relatively close to home. I think most of the schools I mentioned are around 40k/year, but NC state may be like 30k and OSU 25k instate. Case Western is much more expensive (55k) but they give out a ton of aid. I bet their cost after aid would be similar to your other less expensive schools.</p>

<p>Ohio University would be a solid safety.</p>

<p>All of these schools will get you a solid job in engineering. They all recruit well and they’re known for being good engineering schools. I also think they’re all within reach for your stats.</p>

<p>Pitt is known to offer much merit in the early season (full rides).<br>
I think their application opens in July or August. Our neighbor loves it (senior year) and has found it very supportive. You need to be pro-active to get internships.</p>

<p>If later, you decide to expand the radius, look at Alabama (full tuition for you current stats +$2500/yr), Drexel in Philly (full tuition)</p>

<p>^ I think Alabama’s scholarship is for a 32 ACT, so I don’t think he’d qualify. But there is definitely time to improve one point on the ACT.</p>

<p>Alabama scholarships are better for engineering majors, though it is about twice as far as the stated range from Akron, OH.</p>

<p>[Scholarships</a> - Undergraduate Students - The College of Engineering - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholarships/]Scholarships”>Scholarships – College of Engineering | The University of Alabama)</p>

<p>You could go to Miami Ohio for basically nothing</p>

<p>What type of engineering? Look at Wright State and U Dayton. They both have good relationships with the Air Force Research Labs at Wright-Patterson AFB.</p>

<p>Ohio State
Case Western
Miami University (Not sure how good their engineering is)</p>

<p>As the previous member mentioned, have your parents run an estimate of your “Expected Family Contribution” (EFC).
<a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/paying-your-share/expected-family-contribution-calculator[/url]”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/paying-your-share/expected-family-contribution-calculator&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Earnings from internship/co-ops will lower your annual cost of attendance. Also you may want to consider universities that will prepare you well not only to gain employment after your BS in engineering, but also prep you for graduate school, should you decide to take that route. </p>

<p>Here are some of the choices, in order of preference (within 6 hours of driving distance), and assuming you are a resident of Ohio.</p>

<ol>
<li>The Ohio State (Don’t know if you can be admitted to the OSU Columbus campus, and take first year courses at Mansfield campus & transfer thereafter - (save some $$))</li>
<li>Univ. of Pittsburgh (early application for likely full/half tuition)</li>
<li>Dayton </li>
<li>Purdue (( listed in US News to be known for good co-op program): [Internships/Co-ops</a> | Rankings | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/internship-programs]Internships/Co-ops”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/internship-programs))</li>
<li>Cincinnati (co-op, US News)</li>
<li>Toledo (co-op)</li>
<li>Case Western (even with their tuition grants, can get pricey!) </li>
</ol>

<p>Don’t know much about Wright State Univ. </p>

<p>Visit the web sites of each of the university & run net price calculator to get an idea about the cost of attendance. Note many universities levy a higher tuition charge for upper level courses, typically after completing 55 – 60 credit (semester) hours.</p>

<p>Ok. Thank you guys so much! I plan on visiting OSU, Miami, and Akron in the next few months. Also, my brother goes to college in Pittsburgh, so I could visit Pitt then. With regards to FA. My parents earn an above average income, so I won’t be able to get any grants at public schools. Thus, this is why I’m looking for schools with good merit scholarship programs. However, I have run the net price calculators for private schools like Northwestern, Notre Dame, and Vanderbilt. They all seem to land around the 25-30k/year range. Thank you all for your suggestions.</p>

<p>Btw, the EFC for my brother is about 28k, I believe.</p>