Help with College List - female engineering with high stats looking for merit aid

College Search & Selection
1

Been a lurking parent on CC for months now and decided it’s time to ask for help :slight_smile:

Student stats:
UW GPA: 4.0
W GPA: 4.7 (or something like that)
RANK: in the top - probably top 3
SAT: 1540
MAJOR: Engineering - probably mechanical (but wants a school for studio art minor or double major - loves art)
White, female
AP classes: Lots of APs 4s and 5s (physics 1 and 2 5s, calc AB and BC w 5s, Lit and Lang, several history apush, world, euro, etc.)
NMSF, likely NMF
ECs: not off the charts, she is regular kid that has fun. Violin since 6 yo., general volunteering, job, tennis team, but not off the charts with the “leadership” stuff.
Money is an issue. First child of 3, will have 2 in college at same time for 3 years, upper middle class income so expect minimal financial aid. Can afford 20 to 25k at most, but looking for less :slight_smile:

General likes/dislikes:
We are in the west (Arizona). She wants to NOT be in state but knows that is a possibility due to financial constraints.
Not interested in tech schools without other options - art specifically
Has not articulated well what is best for fit - small vs. big, rural vs. urban, public vs. private, region, etc.
Generally not interested in the south (AL, OK, etc) or mid-west rural areas. But is open to suggestions for good schools.
Does have expressed interest in a “progressive” or “innovative” engineering education. Really likes the look of the Stanford design oriented school because of her interest in creativity and art focus.

Safeties:
U of A - accepted with 15k scholarship
ASU – just applied - expect similar scholarship as u of a
University of Utah - just applied using special invitation
University of Florida - I recommended this one for the NMF scholarship, not so sure about FL though?

Reaches:
Stanford and Columbia- will apply reg decision, unlikely admit and probably not affordable, but she wants to try
USC, Boston University, WUSTL - reach because really need full merit to attend
University of Portland - invited to apply for free, probably will, need merit to attend

My question is - what are we missing? Do her stats LIKELY qualify her for other merit scholarships? I know there are SO many super qualified amazing students out there. I know she is amazing, but want to be realistic and I can’t figure out really where she stands or what we should be aiming for. Thank you for any input!

2

The NMF is going to get her full ride at the Florida schools, and UF, UCF, and FSU are all very good in engineering. People seem to really love UCF.

Any of the big universities that give full rides to NMF are going to have art programs. Studio art is very time consuming. Engineering is very time consuming. She may have to pick.

3

I would second the recommendation for the Florida schools, particularly UCF as Orlando is going to be more attractive I think than Gainesville or Tallahassee for someone from out of state.

UCF’s reputation has been rising rapidly, and I hear nothing but superlatives about the honors college there, so you might really want to look into it. With all the money you will save if she is eligible for the Benacquisto scholarship, your daughter could have a very large entertainment budget, and there is no shortage of fun things to do in Florida!

4

@twoinanddone Thank you. I will also look at UCF. I agree about studio are and think that double major is unlikely - a minor could be possible though. She is one of those stem kids that loves art and needs it for a release from math and science work.

5

NMF will get her a full ride at UNM or tuition+fees+11K annual stipend at UT-Dallas. Both have decent honors programs.

She sounds like a hard-working, accomplished young woman, congrats!

6

@mamaedefamilia Thank you! We will definitely apply to at least one NMF full ride option. FL, UCF and UT-Dallas have been on our radar. It’s hard to picture her in Texas given her political leanings, but getting out of our liberal bubble could be a okay.

I am wondering about viable options (beyond NMF scholarships) that are competitive that she could be in the running for. What are we missing? That information seems hard to find.

7

Here is a list of schools that give full or half tuition discounts for NMF status: http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/

What about Washington State University? NMF will get a full tuition merit scholarship: https://financialaid.wsu.edu/us-residents/

8

Utah should give her decent merit aid, I’d expect at least the full tuition (Academic Excellence) scholarship, possibly the full tuition plus (Presidential) scholarship. Remaining COA is then about $19K p.a. with the Academic Excellence scholarship (you still pay fees, just no tuition) or ~$10K with the Presidential scholarship (it includes a housing allowance). She should also apply for the Eccles full ride scholarship (you do this in February after admission to the Honors College), which is a great cohort experience (30 students per year). My D18 loves it there so far, the honors college dorms are amazing and the campus is really nice - self contained, but right next to the city with excellent public transit. Let me know if you need more info.

In terms of far reaches, there are a handful of full ride options at places like UVA and Duke that she might apply for. But competition is extreme for these.

9

@jilywily Duke. Yes, it is in in the south, but it is need blind and the engineering is great. Duke also has very deep roots in the arts and humanities.

10

@Twoin18 We are definitely intrigued by Utah and hoping for merit. I am concerned about the high 3.6 GPA requirement for an engineering student and worry that is a set up for losing the scholarship and the stress that could create. Do you have any input into that?

@twinmom - Thank you! We will take a look at Duke.

11

Look at Olin college of engineering outside Boston, MA. It is a project based engineering college. Run their NPC to see if it is affordable. They also offer cross-registration with Babson and Wellesley.

12

How about Case Western Reserve University?

They are known for merit aid and her stats would be in the ballpark.

For innovation, they have the “think[box]”

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/case-western-reserve-university/2047181-think-box-at-case-is-more-than-maker-space-its-innovation-space.html#latest

CWRU is in an urban/suburban area.

They have Mech E and also affiliation with Cleveland Institute of Art. Also Case was founded by combining a liberal arts school with a technology school so there is definitely a variety of majors.

13

Utah has a very generous grading policy - you can see the percentiles by major here: https://www.obia.utah.edu/data/student-data/gpa-percentile/

So compared to most other schools, a 3.6 is not too hard to achieve (its about the 85th percentile in mechanical engineering) for a student that should be in the top 5% or less of the class (to get a full tuition scholarship) or even the top 1% (for an Eccles scholarship). Looked at another way, cum laude (top 8%) has a minimum GPA of 3.88 in Engineering (https://registrar.utah.edu/handbook/honors.php). We were concerned about this too initially, but were told they had never had a situation where an Eccles scholar had lost the scholarship due to GPA.

14

When my Ds were in the hunt for big merit, they looked at USouth Carolina, Miami of Ohio, UNC Chapel Hill/Duke (very much of a long shot at those for merit), and Vandy. I have no idea what type of engineering programs those schools have, though. BC has a tiny amount of big merit scholarships I believe - 15 maybe? Northeastern might be worth a look as well. And I’m not sure what Fordham is doing these days on merit but they used to offer money for National Merit Finalists I think.

15

@suzy100: UNC-CH does not offer any engineering programs, except for biomedical engineering which is joint with NC State.

16

@jilywily: You may already be aware of this point, but some universities that you are looking at offer large merit scholarships for which your daughter must be nominated by her school (I think that the Danforth at WashU in St. Louis is one). If your daughter’s high school hasn’t brought the nominated scholarship issue up to you, it might be worth a talk with the guidance counselor.

17

@gandalf78 WashU website says Danforth is not longer nomination only and open to anyone to apply. Are there other on our list that you think require nomination? We have considered RPI but removed because of the nomination requirement. It seems like a good mix of tech/art but the scholarship potential appears limited.
@Twoin18 Thank you! That makes me feel better about UofU.
@bopper We will take a look at CWRU - looks interesting!
@swimmom1922 Thank you - Olin is too small for her - she is at a small AZ charter school and is definitely looking to expand her horizons.

18

Tufts is a very “artsy” engineering school with a Studio Art program affiliated with the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
It has a very female-friendly culture in engineering, which is not typical. It also has a Human Factors Design/Engineering Psychology degree option within Mechanical Engineering which is popular.

The acceptance rate for engineering is about 10%, but higher for women.

It meets full need, but that may only help you when you have two children in school.

As a general matter you should talk to someone to understand how “meets full need” works when there are multiple children in school, because your need will change from year to year as will the amount of aid. It gets tricky with the first child because you will not know ahead of time where the later children will end up

Olin (mentioned above) is also female friendly (the provost was at Tufts when it was pioneering a female friendly curriculum and culture back in the late 80’s and 90’s), but it is an Engineering School…

It offers half tuition merit scholarships to everyone and meets full need.

It is very selective as well with an acceptance rate around 10% as well.

Unfortunately, it is quite small, with no real Studio Art program, unless you could do something at Wellesley, which has cross enrollment and is about 1.5 miles away.

19

It has been our experience (based on my son’s classmates) that Rochester Institute of Technology is very generous with high stat females. I know that RIT has other majors besides technology. When my husband was there photography was very popular. They also have a very well known program for the hearing impaired which brings non techy kids on campus.

I also think Case Western (mentioned above) is a good bet. My oldest graduated from CWRU and his degrees are both liberal arts (math/economics). There are plenty of non tech majors on campus and the males do not dominate the social scene.

20

@jilywily: It looks like fewer universities are requiring nominations since the time that my kids went through the process. Of the ones that might be relevant or of interest to your daughter, the Jefferson Scholarship to the University of Virginia is still a nominated merit scholarship, and covers the entire COA: https://www.jeffersonscholars.org/scholarship. If your daughter’s high school is not one of the participating schools, there is a process for “at large” nominations. UVA does have a very good school of engineering, plus studio art; and, as one of the “public Ivies,” is an excellent university overall.