Help with final high merit aid college selection list for engineering

Parents Forum
1

I need help with suggestions or deletions for the college list and my situation is as follows:
My son is interested in electrical and computer engineering. Our EFC on the FAFSA4Caster is 50,000, mostly due to salary increase with job change over the past two years so only modest amount in college savings from prior years. We need colleges with substantial non-competitive merit aid. I have been through the Bob Wallace list on this forum for merit aid for schools that offer the required major but it is also kind of important to me that the school is competitive enough/or has honors college and has a decent graduation rate.
My son’s stats are: GPA unweighted 3.66;GPA weighted 3.99;ACT 33.
He is not particularly strong with extracurriculars, community service and leadershp, in part due to recent moves for job, high school change and because he is very much an introvert and not into many of the activities out here in rural North Carolina. I am hoping not to pay more that $20-25K per year given that I have two younger children closely spaced who will start college as soon as my first son graduates.The list my son and I have compiled thus far based on the above are:

NC State University
University of Alabama
University of Alabama- Huntsville
Temple
Miami University,Ohio
Tulane
Arizona State University
Milwaukee school of engineering
Howard University

Other schools that my son likes but that are a high reach both academically and financially are: Harvey Mudd,Duke,Georgia Tech,Rose Hulman.

I did run the Net Price Calculator for the schools but I am doubtful of its accuracy because it is giving me some low numbers for the financial reach schools.
We are minorities - don’t know if that helps, for example, adding to school diversity.

I appreciate any recommendations.Thanks

2

As an addendum to my initial post, my son is not interested in the 3/2 options for engineering at some of the liberal arts colleges. Thanks again

3

@vandog sent you a message :slight_smile:

4

Apply to Ohio State and see what they will give if he is a minority.
http://undergrad.osu.edu/money-matters/scholarships.html

App and all materials need to be in by Nov 1

There are also special eligibility scholarships and departmental scholarships https://ece.osu.edu/futurestudents/undergrad/aid with a separate application due by Feb15

U Toledo also has engineering and gives merit. https://www.utoledo.edu/admission/freshman/scholarships/index.html

http://www.eng.utoledo.edu/coe/admissions/scholarships/

5

http://provost.wisc.edu/prospective-csp-applicants.htm

Consider applying for UW-Madison Chancellor’s Scholarship if you are one of the listed minorities.

6

Also just because you EFC number is 50,000 which was calculated based on your income and non retirement assets, doesn’t mean that you will pay that. Unless a school’s cost exceeds that amount.

You will pay to the school the tuition, fees, room and board (if living on campus) minus any merit scholarship received.
The student can also take out a federal student loan of $5,500 to $7,500 lessening the burden on the parents (must file FAFSA).

So for example if U Toledo costs $28,000 for tuition and room and board and student got a $10,000 scholarship you would pay $18,000 and if student takes the loan the parents might only have to pay $13,000.

But the exact award would not be known in advance possibly because there might be extra minority, engineering scholarships offered in addition to an academic scholarship. So I would apply widely and early to schools he might be interested in that offer his major and enough merit to make it affordable.

7

Also see if you would qualify income wise for AOTC http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/AOTC

8

I second the Ohio State recommendation. Make sure he applies to the Morrill scholarships, honors college and scholars program. My DD graduated from there, loved it and they gave him a full merit ride. We are hispanic so the Morrill Scholarship was his biggest source of scholarship money. Make sure your son gets strong recommendations from teachers or his EC’s for that scholarship. Also look at Missouri Science and Tech and New Mexico Tech. Both have good engineering programs, have a lot of students moving ahead in graduate school for engineering and have good scholarships.

I would take Harvey Mudd and Duke off the list. His stats are not high enough for their competitive scholarships and if accepted you will not get enough money. If the NPC calcuator is the federal one and doesn’t ask enough questions then that may explain why you are getting lower numbers for those schools than the other ones.

My DD is at Georgia Tech and loves it. To make it affordable for us, my DD applies to a lot of private scholarship and gets the $10K she needs to make tech affordable for us. She also is co-oping so the money she earns goes towards her tuition. She also did study abroad which saved us a ton of money. Think about those options as a way of making GT affordable. The private scholarships she applies for are engineering or diversity based. I also recommend that your son touch base with the admission staff at GT responsible for diversity students (Kevin Gonzalez for Hispanics). I don’t know who is the person for AA students. He was very helpful. GT has been a wonderful experience for my DD and she receives lots of support through the OMED programs.

Make sure your son applies EA as much as possible because the best money is through EA as well as the best admission chances.

Good luck.

9

U Toledo has a Co-op program http://www.eng.utoledo.edu/eecs/current_students/coop_program.html

10

Ohio State doesn’t require Co-op, but encourages students to participate in co-op/internship
https://ecs.osu.edu/ecip

11

Thanks! will call Georgia Tech today.

12

Thanks to all for your suggestions. Will be adding Georgia Tech to the list and plan to check into the recommendations for Ohio State, UW-Madison and Toledo. We will be doing early action to NC State especially after advice from NCmom14. Plan to have my final list in another two days after I thoroughly look into all the additional recommendations. Thanks.

13

Does your child qualify for National Achievement?

Be aware that many private scholarships are for frosh year only. It can be much harder to get them for the later school years.

14

Clemson University has good merit aid for high stats OOS students and also diversity scholarships, and has excellent engineering programs, might be worth a look for your child.

here is the link for scholarship info. check out the links for “academic recruiting” and “diversity” http://www.clemson.edu/financial-aid/types/scholarships/cu-schol-index.html

Here is the link for the engineering programs: http://www.clemson.edu/ces/
They also have a nice honors program: http://www.clemson.edu/cuhonors/

15

No, he doesn’t qualify for National Achievement.So far, since my original post, I’ve checked out UW, Ohio State and UT as recommended but in some cases the scholarship is either insufficient or competitive. The diversity scholarship at Ohio State is competitive in that it needs a lot of diversity related community service which my son does not have. Georgia Tech has ‘creative payment options’ that I plan to look into further. Clemson is offering OOS merit to 7500 or more(based on ACT above 28) which is worth looking into. Clemson was originally on the list but fell off but I will look at it again. Can’t thank you all enough.

16

Your son should qualify for Buckeye scholarship at OSU. And possibly an engineering scholarship.

17

You said NCSU, UAH, UA and Temple should be affordable, correct?

So I think it’s ok to send some apps non guaranteed merit schools.

18

If the kids are closely spaced, re-run the calculators for 2 in colleg… It’s possible that it will show $25K-ish per student for “overlap years” . (Forumulas vary by school).

19

The other thing to consider is whether the subsequent kids will have the school selection criteria and stats that lead to good financial aid and/or good merit, or if those constraints could lead to costlier schools.

20

Your son will find smart students in any engineering program, particularly after the first year. You have to be motivated and bright to achieve in these engineering programs.