Mine went to Florida Tech and while it is not an LAC and doesn’t look or feel like one, it is smaller (about 3500 on campus) and she was in the smallest department (civil) so knew all her professors well. Most students either live on campus or very close (daughter’s off campus house was next door to the freshmen dorms).
Other smaller tech schools are Embry-Riddle, Colorado school of Mines (but if she wants NASA like subjects, CU Boulder is better) Rolla in Missouri.
Mercer or Rose Hulman are two that pop into my mind.
Colorado School of Mines and CU Boulder will be $40k a year after merit, so I wouldn’t bother with those two.
I was in a similar spot as you last year. I’d give your D a project this week to come up with a list of schools that she has a decent chance of getting merit that brings the cost under $20k. Once you have the list, verify the cost and then visit them. I bet she falls in love with one or two of them or she realizes she can’t afford a fancy school and needs to love GT.
i had sort of forgotten about this school during my son’s search; but think about tulsa university. They are smaller, D1; offer engineering, and have scholarships. I saw a chart once of crossover schools that people applied as well as Tulsa; those schools included vandy, Wash U, Miami of Ohio . . . (just from memory from maybe two years ago!). My son had pretty good stats (not quite your level; and tuition ended up <10K).
PS: i didnt mean to reply to @alwaysmoving, but to the thread in general. sorry!
I can’t remember if you looked at or considered Vanderbilt? Of course the big scholarships are very hard to get, but the size and residential college system fit what you are looking for.
The University of Kentucky usually gives full tuition for NMF. All of the housing is new and very nice, so they don’t give away much for housing.
UK is similar to Mississippi State in a lot of respects. A little more urban and midwestern than MSU, though. But students from Georgia make up 2.4% of enrollment, third behind Illinois (7%) and Ohio (6%).
Honors College is somewhat new and still defining itself, but generally slanted toward liberal arts and community service.
There is also a LLP for engineering.
Fordham and Richmond (3+2 and 4+2) don’t have engineering.
My daughter has submitted her applications to UGA and GT. She is currently working on her MIT application as well as the honors college applications at several of the schools to which she has already applied. For the time being, ND has been removed from her list. Also, a small liberal arts college visited her high school last week, and it threw her for a loop. She interviewed with that school this past weekend and is really reconsidering a few things.
Not sure if you are still looking for ideas, but BU offers a full tuition scholarship (plus fees) - the Trustee scholarship. It’s only 20 kids a year, but you can apply with Common Ap plus a special essay. Total COA would be about $18k with that.
We are still open to ideas as there will definitely be some additions to my daughter’s list. Between Alabama and MSU, I think that she has two very solid safeties. We are now looking for some stretch schools - either academically or financially. Thank you.
Quick update: My daughter was admitted to Alabama last night. She saw the decision on her portal, but I have heard that we should be expecting a letter in the mail. She’s excited!
Another quick update - applications to UCF and MIT have been submitted. I think she’s going to apply to TCU and SMU as well. She may add ND, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, or UT - Dallas, but the college essays are beginning to take a toll. We are hoping to have a finalized list by the end of the weekend.
You’re in GA, right? so, any GA schools?
good luck to your D! stay strong!
Yes. She has already applied to UGA and GT.
So far she has applied to:
GT
UGA
Alabama - Accepted
Mississippi State - Accepted into MSU as well as the honors college
Clemson
UCF
MIT
And I think that she is done submitting applications. She submitted applications to TCU, SMU, and Notre Dame this week. Notre Dame is a sentimental favorite, and we could not leave it off the list. She has also applied to one other small liberal arts college that she has asked me not to mention by name.
She will be applying to the honors colleges at several of the above mentioned schools so she is gearing up for that. She is beginning to suffer application fatigue.
She almost applied to Texas A&M, but there were too many essays.
Congratulations! Ten applications in by October 1st. That is impressive.
Congrats to her! Make sure she is checking the email she used for the applications and saves the logins for all of the portals.
For Clemson, there may be steps to complete in the portal for the honors college option. Have her remember to check for things like that.
My sense for MIT is if turned in early like this you have a better shot at an interview (if doing them this year, some have dropped them completely). For interviewers, sometimes they call to set up a time for the actual interview, so have voice mail turned on any phone numbers provided in the common app.
Thank you so much.
She is on top of all of her portals and has a list of deadlines for all all of the honors colleges. She took a break from essay writing this weekend, and that was a great decision. She needs some time to recharge.
MIT is doing virtual interviews this year. They said that they will contact you if they have an available interviewer (interviews will be in November). I take that to mean that they will reach out to applicants who they want to learn more about.
Side note - my daughter received her initial scholarship offer from MSU. It covers tuition and fees for all four years. Housing is covered for year 1 but will be extended to all 4 years if she is named a NMF. She was so excited to see the scholarship appear in her portal!
That is fabulous news about the scholarship!!! Congrats to her! It really helps them to get some positive news early on.
Thank you. There is definitely something to be said for early acceptance and scholarship awards. My daughter is definitely appreciating it!
Last year, we were following Clemson admission and financial aid awards very closely. When the financial aid release date kept getting pushed back, I recall how many parents said that their kids had already moved on from Clemson. Now that we are going through the process ourselves, I completely understand the sentiment. Hopefully, by applying early everywhere, she should have replies by Christmas from all of her schools. I do know that we will have to wait until March to hear on some of the bigger scholarships. I can sense that she is eager to find out where she will be landing.
Yes, Clemson and NC State were both painfully slow in pushing out the final financial aid packages last year. Understood on some level with Covid, but it went beyond that timeline.