Hey guys, recently I have been looking a lot into what college I should attend and would like some advice. First off, I plan on majoring in aerospace engineering, and am looking to spend no more than about 35,000 per year including room and board. My grades are pretty good with a heavy course load full of honors and AP tests. Our school uses weighted GPA so that kind of throws things off a bit though. Additionally I am really involved in extracurriculars and volunteering. So, I have been thinking about schools like University of Illinois at Urbana champagne, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, Purdue, Minnesota Twin cities, and some other ones. Any suggestions that meet my criteria and that I have a decent chance of getting into would be greatly appreciated.
$35k per year is a good amount, but most of those OOS publics you listed charge more than that.
Is $35k the budget your parents gave you? Is it the amount that they said that they will spend?
what are your test scores? What is your GPA?
What is your home state?
Yeah, I know mot of those are a bit out of that range. My home state is Illinois, so I could go to University of Illinois for about that price and I know Virginia Tech is around that. As for gpa, on my schools weighted scale it is about 4.3, but if i converted it to straight unweighted, it would be somewhere around 3.6 or 3.7, I’m not 100% sure. And yeah, 35k is about my budget give or take a bit. Since those schools are a bit out of price range, do you have any suggestions. Maybe I could go to those schools with enough scholarship money, only time will tell.
Also, I don’t have test scores yet, but from practice Act’s, I can expect around 28-30ish.
UMinnesota will be within range but you should work on your ACT; 30-31 would be better considering that Engineering is much more competitive than other fields, with all applicants at least good if not excellent in STEM fields, and most decent in other subjects as well. However you may well qualify for a scholarship there which would make it well within budget with money to spare.
If you score 30 on your ACT with Engineering as your major, UAlabama will guarantee you Honors College, Honors Dorm, Full tuition scholarship, and a $2,500 stipend, plus possibility to compete for the STEM MBA program or a research program. A really nice program and Mom2k above can tell you more precisely about engineering there.
How far below EFC is 35K?
Run the Net Price Calculator on UIUC, UMN-Twin Cities, Tulane, Cal Poly SLO, Rose Hulman.
Wow, thanks for all of the advice, I should really look into UAlabama, because getting a 30 on the act is definitely possible for me, it will just take some work. I didn’t even know there were really opportunities as big as that for high academic based scholarships. Also not sure about the efc, and I’ll try running the net price calculator on those schools.
Also, I understand the basics of honors college such as the program you mentioned, but could you explain the premise in a little detail, because I’m still a little foggy on it.
Essentially, the Honors College tries to make the big university less anonymous for students, more personalized, with interactive smaller classes filled with driven students (if you’ve ever been in a class where fewer than half the students have done the reading, you understand why intellectually curious/driven students are important). Some classes or seminars are designed especially for honors students. You get perks: beside the classes being smaller, they’re typically taught by professors, not TAs; you never have to go to class at 8 or 9 am again, nor be forced into a class with a bad professor, nor are shut out from a required class, because you have priority registration so you can take all your classes after 10 o’clock, choose the class everyone’s raving about but can’t get into, etc. Often, Honors students’ dorms are upperclass students’ level in comfort (at UAlabama, for example, they’re suite-style, not dorm-style). You get a special adviser who can not only help you schedule classes, but also keep you updated on opportunities, can review a grant proposal, can help you with competitive fellowships instead of leaving you on your own. Obviously your professors know you, which is very useful when you need recommendation letters. You have priority for research projects and in many cases your research experience leads you to writing a thesis during your senior year (something that’s very important if you plan on going to grad school). At some universities, you get to meet important people (CEOs, writers…), go on trips, get special scholarships to study abroad, get special games tickets/movie theater ticket discounts… The best part is that typical Honors Students tend to have better grades in their Honors Classes than in their non Honors classes (because they like interactive classes better), so that you actually get a better GPA from being in Honors!
Wow, that sounds amazing, and very useful, I’ll make sure I have a good chance of getting into honors programs at the schools I apply at. I should work on my act scores even more if I want to get to that point. Thanks for everything!