<p>Just a couple thoughts - reiterating that if your son is at all interested, to look into NROTC. We went through this a couple years ago as my older son was also looking for Nuclear Engineering and not a lot of colleges offered it. He was also interested in Subs/Navy. He received the full NROTC scholarship and is currently attending MIT. I know the NROTC folks there had a lot of pull in getting him in, and the opportunities/resources there are incredible. He got a 60 day intership this summer out in Las Vegas working for the NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration) having only completed his freshman year at MIT. </p>
<p>I would encourage you to have your son apply to both MIT and Caltech in any case if he’s interested - my son’s stats weren’t any better so it’s worth a shot (3.89 GPA, 32 ACT, never even took the SAT1, Subject tests were 800 math and 750 Chem). </p>
<p>Finally, I’d back someone else and apply for Purdue as well. He’ll almost 100% certainly get in, but their scholarships seem to be a bit arbitrary. My younger son got nearly a full ride (we’re out of state), while others on FB and the forums with similar stats got nothing. Hard to gauge what they’re looking for but it’s a definite acceptance safety so you don’t have much to lose to see how the financials play out. Oh, and going back to MIT, they do offer great FA. My older son didn’t get any since ROTC covered most of the cost, but my younger son received FA for far more than we were expecting, so we’re only paying about what the cost of an IS school would be. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Disclaimer - my son is extremely happy as a CS major at Mudd, and also considered Case Western, Caltech, Rose Hulman, WUStL, Rice, and a few others. I think they’re all excellent choices. Case Western and Rose Hulman offered good Merit aid, and Rice, Caltech, and Mudd offered good need-based aid, so that all schools essentially cost the same. Our financial situation isn’t too different from yours either - please PM if you want more info.</p>
<p>
They barely offer merit aid, and I think most of it is slated for minorities & women.</p>
<p>
Sounds like our financial situation and a school that “meets need”, like Caltech or Mudd, will probably not ask you for much more than that. However, a lot of the aid they offer will be in the form of loans for your son (very roughly, $5000 per year).</p>
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Make that EXCELLENT aid for your income bracket.</p>
<p>
“doesn’t have a chance” statistically, but by the stats you posted (especially if he can improve the SAT I just a wee bit), definitely admissible for Caltech, Olin, Mudd, Stanford, and the Ivies. MIT, like the Ivies, also gives killer aid at your bracket.</p>
<p>
I have a young friend, a NMF, who’s very happy at Case, and another similarly well-prepared student who will start there this fall.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>wavy, I was thinking that Alabama does fall into stats get your aid so probably is a safety.</p>
<p>ucb - yups I did the net price calculator at Olin says we’d still have to come up with $28-29k. Drakes would be fantastic for UCB but not going to hold our breath. It’s a bit of a stretch but after the first year we’d save on housing and what not. Never really considered A&M hmmmm. NC State has Park’s we can dream and does have nuclear engineering. Iowa St is good all around and does have scholarships which we have a potential to get.</p>
<p>marc - hmmm I have no problem suggesting NROTC. But damn the son falls far from my tree, he’s very liberal no idea if he’s down with anything related to ROTC. unfortunately.</p>
<p>CMU you think it would be worth adding to our list? We decided we’re taking a vacation in July and visiting CalTech, hehehe probably visit USC for the heck of it. Then back home to check out the CTCL fair they have up here.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all your input!</p>
<p>Reach
UC Berkeley
Stanford
Olin
Princeton (wife and son want this, no idea why)
CMU (maybe)</p>
<p>Match
Cal Poly SLO
Pittsburgh
Iowa State
North Carolina State
Purdue (maybe)</p>
<p>Safety
San Jose State
Alabama
Alabama Birmingham</p>
<p>Note that if he is unsure of nuclear engineering in terms of the relatively narrow career choices there, he may want to major in a different type of engineering of interest (e.g. mechanical or electrical) but take some nuclear engineering courses as electives, if at a school that offers nuclear engineering.</p>
<p>On the Alabama schools, Huntsville also offers full tuition for an ACT of 31, and a full ride for an ACT of 34, and offers various engineering majors (but not nuclear).</p>
<p>As far as Princeton goes, it is one of the two Ivy League schools that has a strong reputation in engineering (the other is Cornell).</p>
<p>You have run the net price calculators on Pittsburgh, Iowa State, NCSU, and Purdue? If the result is too high just on need-based aid, it would be merit scholarships, not just admission, that is the target (adjust reach/match appropriately). Virginia Tech may be another school along these lines; although it does not seem to have any obvious huge scholarships, it has some medium sized ones that may bring it to your affordability range starting from its relatively low OOS list price.</p>
<p>ucb - thats what I was thinking, taking into account the merit potential. I thought teh general rule is that your trying to push yourself to the top of their applicant pool. Especially at the state run schools. Hmmm that makes lots of state schools reaches =(</p>
<p>So list wise should I add NCSU, Pitt, and Iowa State as reaches?</p>
<p>They are reaches if the large-enough merit scholarships that you need for affordability are reaches (if those scholarships are matches, then the schools are matches). Note that NCSU and Iowa State are low cost enough at list price that you may not necessarily need the huge scholarships like Park @ NCSU to make them affordable, even though you may need some scholarships to make them affordable. Pittsburgh is considerably more expensive at list price, so you need bigger scholarships there. (But check the net price calculators to see if you can get any need-based aid – probably little or none, but might as well check.)</p>
<p>You can also split your list into academic and financial lists as far as safety, match and reach.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>But the overall is the more difficult of the two. For example:</p>
<p>Stanford: academic reach, financial safety? => reach
Olin: academic reach, financial probably out of reach => probably out of reach
Pittsburgh: academic match?/safety?, financial reach => reach
Alabama: academic safety, financial safety => safety</p>
<p>Aaah this will take a lot more research then. Hmm only one that is a financial safety and admission safety is Alabama, UAB, UAH, Cal Poly SLO & Pomona, SJ State.</p>
<p>sigh to make matters worse son got back his SATI he only got 10 pts higher than his last SATI sigh still didn’t break 2100. sigh hope his ACT is better =(</p>
<p>My D has already been accepted for fall of 2013 at Iowa State. We are out of state (Texas) and they already offered $10,000 off the price. This is before we know for sure whether she will be National Merit Finalist. I am hoping for a Women in Science and Engineering and NMF scholarships to be added to this offer.</p>
<p>We visited several school this summer and we were very impressed with Iowa State’s engineering school.</p>
<p>Robert512 - I actually knew a kid from church, that got free tuition at Iowa State or Iowa U one or the other. But grades and scores were high, no financial need, but Asian. From what I understand sort of a URM there. No idea if it would pan out for us. Seems like the economy has definitely hurt the scholarship and merit based aid pretty serverely.</p>
<p>We visited CalTech and CalPoly SLO. Wife now things CalPoly would be a better school than Berkeley. The decision would be super tough if he got into both. CalTech is sons dream school. But thats like winning the lottery, his stats actually would work. But he’s not at the top. So we’ll apply and just pray.</p>
<p>Also went to CTCL fair. Very interesting. Seems like LACs are good at sciences, but not many are great at Physics. Looked at Physics as a precursor to getting a masters in engineering. LAC still education really appeal to me. Wife thought other wise.</p>
<p>Still having a super hard time making a list. We have however applied to his first safety Alabama.</p>
<p>ucb - The if its financially feasable thing makes me sad. But I keep hearing specials on NPR about these people with insane college debt. In reality our pocketbook would fit CC best. But we’ll stretch and make it work. My wife made a decent bit of change over her summer break going to personal developments and creating some math materials for the school district. Hopefully you know this money comes in next summer as well. It helps tons!</p>
<p>Thanks again for everyones suggestions!</p>