My daughter is US/Canada dual citizen attending high school in a third country. She is interested in studying engineering (not computer science) or economics and more interested in engineering (or environmental science area). would be better if can do both engineering and economics (major and minor?).
Attend public school and no AP/IS etc offering, most science/math subject’s grades are excellent with one or two Merits (Not use GPA in the school). She is an average excellent student but not top ones. Expect to be top 5% out of 350 students.
SAT 1460 (690 reading and writing, 770 math), expect about 40 score increase in reading and writing session in Oct’s exam. Plan to take 3 SAT subjects in Dec and results should be on time for RD.
won a national engineering science competition as a team of 4 members. About 200 teams of secondary school entered the competition.
not impressive ECs such silver award of Duke of Edinburgh, Model UN, community service, no major leadership
Already won top scholarship in the best university of the country where we live and can cover first 3 year’s tuition. only pay for boarding and other expenses.
She wants to try USA and Canada universities, open to big universities or LACs. The important factor of school choice is financial aid. We can only afford around $20k p.a in total, so the strategy is to apply for universities meeting full financial needs at ED/EA stage. This is the list:
ED
high reach: Cornell Engineering or Vanderbilt Engineering. Prefer Cornell as female student seems to have higher acceptance rate than male.
EA:
University of Virginia,
University of Richmond,
Case Western Reserve University
can’t meet EA timeline of UNC Chapel Hill on 15 oct.
also think of early application in University of Washington Seattle and U of Texas Austin, but not sure if any aid can bring down out of state cost to below 20k.
RD
University of California: will choose 3 campus, not decided yet. one might be UC LA or UC Berkley
Smith College
Vanderbilt ED2 (if ED1 is not chosen, also depends on Oct’s SAT result)
Lehigh University
safety:
UMASS Amherst (alumni tie), might not apply as don’t expect much aid from it.
Ohio State U Columbus: but need to apply by Nov 1 to consider merit scholarship. Not sure if there is a chance for her statistics for merit aid.
will also apply for UBC, U of Toronto, McGill Univ as they are cheaper than US schools. how easy to change majors in Canada universities?
Last option to attend the best university where we live.
Look forward to recommendations on safe ED/EA/RD schools which can meet financial needs.
Thank you.
It’s fantastic that your daughter has an affordable option.
Have you run the Net Price Calculators for the US schools on your list? What you can afford to pay is not necessarily what the schools will say you can pay.
Generally speaking public flagships are not going to be great with aid for out of state applicants, and some of the schools you listed are going to be very high reaches.
Your daughter might want to consider the University of Rochester if she hasn’t done so already. She’d encounter more academic flexibility there compared to a university at which she would need to apply for the engineering college in order to study engineering.
Regarding her tentative list of schools, some do not appear to offer need-based financial aid to out-of-state residents, and the University of Richmond does not appear to offer a direct engineering program.
What your DD is doing is fine as reach applications. They are all reaches. As long as you and she understand this, and she has viable options not listed, all is good.
As asked by @momofsenior1 , did you run the NPCs on each of these schools’ websites? You should do so and make sure that the results at least come in at affordable ranges. I am leery about accuracy of these calculators when applying from a foreign country with atypical financial situations. However, if it appears to work out, that is a step in the right direction. Just keep in mind that additional info might well be requested.
Any of the state schools are not good bets for meeting full need since your DD will be applying as an OOSer. That should show up in the NPCs. UT Austin is a very high reach. I would substitute Rice as as another high reach but with a clearer path to a possibility UT Dallas is even more of a distinct possibility . UCs do not give much if any fin aid to OOSers.
Lehigh and Smith are need aware for admissions. That makes them reaches. Tulane has generous merit money
Though your DD’s stats are very good, getting close to free tuition is what she going to need to make it work financially which is going to be a tough go.
If she really wants to study in the US, she should add some schools that are more likely to accept her and pay, such as University of SC, university of Alabama, University of Mississippi, university of Kentucky., Illinois Institute of Tech, Getting a large amount of merit money is a huge challenge.
i believe Cornell, UVA, U Richmond and Case Western Reserve meet full-financial needs when I check from their websites and NPC ranges from 15-30K from my calculation. My older daughter already attends university which brings down NPC if calculation are reliable.
U of Rochester: we considered it and actually send one SAT score to it from CB. Might add it to RD list.
USC: will be very happy if accepted as west coast as it is close to go home. but not confident on acceptance. and home equity heavily affects NPC.
U of Alabama and U of Mississippi, U kentucky are public universities and are not better than home university and cost much more. So we don’t consider them.
it seems only private universities and LACs provide need based aid other than UNC and UVA.
if no chance to have significant aid from U Texas, u washington Seattle and Ohio State u based on her profile, we might not apply for them.
Rice is another high reach and NPC is very affordable, but acceptance rate is too low.
Regards.
Which universities/ LACs will have higher acceptance chance based on her profile?
Thanks.
I would think public LACS like St Mary’s College of Maryland, College of Charleston, New College of Florida.
Or unis like Arizona State.
But you’d be targetting merit, I believe, at those.
Or some on the list of Colleges That Change Lives ( some may have environmental science), but I don’t know if they’d meet need. Have you filled out the CSS PROFILE before for your older student- to get some idea?
Davidson is a great LAC that I’d recommend if Engineering is not a requirement.
University of Pittsburgh has merit possibilities. As do Maryland and Delaware. The only state schools that meet full need for OOSers are VA and UNC -CH. When you getting into substantial merit money, it appears that you prefer to stay local in your country.
The Claremont colleges, including Harvey Mudd have good financial aid. But admissions is highly selective I’d look at Lafayette, Bucknell and Wake Forest as possibilities. As mentioned earlier Tulane is a good possibility for merit.
Right now, the 690 is low for the reachiest reaches, Cornell, Vanderbilt and UVa.
OP, you said she’s a US citizen, but are you living in the US? If you aren’t CA residents, the UCs wont’ give fin aid to out of state kids.
If she’s a solid match for a school like Smith (and that’s more than just stats,) I don’t see a problem with needing aid. But some suggestions here, depending, can be looking for a broader pattern of ECs than the competition you mention. I wish we knew what country she attends school in, so we can guage EC availability. Make sure you understandhow “holistic” admissions works in the US. It boils down to not just stats and a few activities or awards.
And if this family can only pay 20k/year, she’d need a whole lot of merit aid from any college costing 65-75k.
California schools won’t work. You are only eligible for merit aid, and that won’t be large enough to bring the price down to $20k. I don’t think Texas will either.
Most of the state public schools won’t work. Most of the ones that might offer merit are deemed lower in quality than her local country’s option. The only ones that guarantee to meet financial need to OOSers are VA and UNC-CH. I agree UT-Austin is not going to meet need and is a super high reach anyways in admissions. I do not not know how UWash handles OOS need
.
UNC is tremendous school but only has biomedical engineering. Strong economics and business programs and putting a lot of funding into entrepreneurship. It will be big reach OOS as you know.
Wake Forest has new engineering program and they are good with need aid – run the NPC to see if it would work. Would be less of a reach than Cornell, Vandy
So public universities only UNC and UVA meet 100% financial need, both are high reach for OOSer. Other public universities won’t provide much aid to out of state students. I don’t expect my daughter’s profile can receive big merit grant.
leave financial alone, what is chance for Engineering program in Purdue Univ, Ohio State Univ, U of Maryland?
best option would be private (those meet 100% financial need). what schools would be match for stats? open to engineering, economics/finance program.
will check Wake Forest, Lafayette and Union. Thanks.
FYI. home school option would be Engineering in Univ of Auckland in New Zealand. But she strongly wishes to study in USA or Canada.
I think your D is competitive for Purdue, OSU and UMD. The question is getting them below the $20K/year mark. What do the NPC show for need based aid?
Purdue is stingy with merit for engineering. My D is in Honors College there but didn’t see a dime (higher tests scores than your D and 4.0 UW GPA). She got a small award from UMD but not even close to bringing the COA down to where you need it.
One enginering school that does offer good aid is Illinois Inst of Technology.
Embry-Riddle (in Daytona; don’t know about the campus in Arizona) actively look for women and have some merit awards just for women. It is difficult to get everything covered, but @CourtneyThurston did it with school aid and outside scholarships.
U of Wyoming has good aid and strong engineering, especially in hard rock specialties. Sure, it’s not in the top 10, but it is in the US and it can come in under budget. Montana, Utah, Idaho, NM also have public schools with good aid.
The top Canadian universities generally admit by major. Changing majors would be at the end of first year and is competitive but possible with high first year GPA.