Help from parents....

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hi, I posted a similar thread a few days ago but I am more open minded and free to any advices the awesome parents here have !! I have understood that applying only to the top notch schools is not a very good idea. Even though, I can afford the cost of a private school I would like to help my mother by getting a good merit aid.
OK, I wanted a little help on the schools where I can get a very good merit aid( like 20k ) with a very good engineering department. I would like any advice you all have........ :)</p>

<p>MY STATS:
ACT: 33 composite
SAT IIs: 790M II; 800P; 750C
9th: 95%
10th: 95%
11th: 93%
Rank: 1/324</p>

<p>ECs:
Table Tennis national sports meet- silver medal
State champianships: gold medal
Interschool champianships: winner
State table tennis team captain
School TT team captain
Selected for Youth leader program in 11th.
Science Conference at IIT Delhi, gave speech on New
Technologies and Youth Participation, Represented my school.</p>

<p>Community service:
Organized water harvesting awareness with help of
Municipal Co.
Tutored children for 2 yrs.
Organized Green clean campaign; recognized by CM of State
Spread awareness about polio</p>

<p>Awards:
NTSE Scholar ( Talent search exam, gives scholarship to 200 students in the country)
RMO State Rank 2( one of the toughest maths exams in country)
SOF IMO: All India Rank 4
NSTSE: State Rank 9 ( Science Olympiad)
Times Of India: Student of the Year ( Leading
Newspaper)
Met APJ Abdul Kalam ( Ex. President) at IIT Guwahati,
where I did my research.</p>

<p>Summer Programs:
Gave 'Technothlon' an exam conducted by IITG and
was selected to attend a 2 week,summer program at
IIT Guwahati. Got AIR 18.
Summer@Brown</p>

<p>Clubs:
Science Club President
Maths Club President
English Club Member
Olympiads Organizer
Entrepreneur's Club Member</p>

<p>Research:
Research on "Smart House and increasing town's
efficiency" at IIT( Indian Institute of Technology)
Guwahati. Showed a working model. Chief Guest was
A.P.J Abdul Kalam who congratulated me on my work!</p>

<p>I am an Indian. :)</p>

2

<p>What kind of engineering? What kind of campus (large, small, city, suburban, rural, etc)? Any preference to location?</p>

<p>Civil engineers around here tend to come from Penn State or Virginia Tech. I don’t believe Penn State offers much in merit aid. I’m not sure about VT. But there are all different types of engineering.</p>

<p>With regards to looking for merit aid and being international, have you posted this on the international forum?</p>

3

<p>Your “smart house” research caught my eye. If this is something you want to continue, look at the Solar Decathlon website. Look at the list of schools that have participated. The teams are made up of engineering students and architecture students. Lots of engineering disciplines are represented. </p>

<p>I know that seems a bit backward, but these schools have enough students and university support to pull off a pretty big undertaking. </p>

<p>Now regarding merit aid for schools with Engineering, I have not done much of that research. S was offered merit aid for engineering at U Minn-Twin Cities and Ohio State, but I got the impression they were trying to snag kids from other midwest states since they essentially gave the difference between out of state and in-state tuition. North Carolina State did not offer any merit aid, but the tuition there as an OOS student is lower than our own public in-state flagship for engineering majors. (or was 2 years ago).</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>