<p>It somewhat depends on the school and its policies, your qualifications (how much they want you), exactly what flavor of merit aid we’re talking about (school grants or outside scholarships), and the stars. I believe my son’s school has had a policy of not reducing need-based aid by the amount of any merit aid. </p>
<p>(The whole thing is complicated and mysterious, like the income tax system. The country likes all this voodoo because we want to maintain the illusion that everyone has equal opportunity, so suburban soccer moms don’t start rioting, but without becoming one of those free tuition free love socialist countries where motivation dies and everyone just lies around having sex and watching TV all day while robots make the Volvos.)</p>
<p>One school you might have overlooked is Cooper Union. Excellent engineering with free tuition for all students. However, admission is very tough and you are still left with all the expenses of life in NYC. That might be $20K/year, which you’d have to make up by some combo of loans, employment, and family help.</p>
<p>Here’s an example of a clear policy statement by a selective school that usually does not reduce need-based aid by the amount of outside merit scholarships:
<p>^^^^**
You are talking about OUTSIDE scholarships…different animal.<a href=“Although%20many%20schools%20will%20also%20reduce%20aid%20when%20private%20scholarships%20are%20awarded%20as%20well.”>/B</a></p>
<p>The OP was applying to schools that he hoped would give him institutional scholarships that he could use towards his EFC.</p>
<p>Schools reduce aid when they give merit scholarships because those dollars are coming from a different account (maybe an endowed acct), which then “frees up” FA dollars to be given to other kids.</p>
<p>Outside scholarships are iffy anyway…hard to get, usually for small amounts, often have a “need” component, and are usually only for one year. **So, a student can’t pick a college and think it’s now affordable based on cobbling together some “one year only” private scholarships. ** Otherwise, he’ll end up having to leave his school after one year because those private scholarships are going to go away.</p>
<p>Back to institutional scholarships…they are applied to “need”…and only reduce EFC when they are so big that they cover all of need and “cut into” EFC. As in my example in an earlier post.</p>
<p>You are lucky, you have a good GPA, good test scores, and you plan on an STEM major where money is available. Change any one of those factors and it is a completely different ball, er admissions, game.</p>
<p>Pancaked, are you not interested in UT-Austin? It’s a good engineering school.</p>
<p>34 ACT, 2270 SAT, varsity athlete, plenty of ECs: isn’t that worth some merit aid to UT?
Enough to bring the COA down to where you can make up the difference in work-study and loans?</p>
<p>You could also shoot for a couple of super-selective schools (Stanford, Harvard) that have raised the ceiling on need-based aid so high that your EFC (as they interpret it) might be significantly less than $20K.</p>
<p>UT-A may still have merit scholarships, but I don’t think any are assured. And, UT has been moving away from merit so as to increase need-based aid. </p>
<p>To bring his costs down to about $7k-8k (which would be loans for him), he’d need to get at least a $14k scholarship…I don’t know how possible that would be.</p>
<p>UT-A doesn’t report its merit based aid on Collegeboard.</p>
<h1>Average non-need based aid: Not reported</h1>
<h1>Average indebtedness at graduation: $22,102</h1>
<p>In-state tuition and fees: … $9,418<br>
Room and board: … $10,112<br>
Books and supplies: … $860<br>
Estimated personal expenses: … $2,472 </p>
<h2>Transportation expense: … $1,010 </h2>
<p>COA…about $26k per year (of course, costs go up every year).</p>
<p>mom2collegkids makes a great suggestion in Post #6. Your ACT/ SAT would also qualify you for automatic admissions to the honors college, if I am reading correctly. </p>
<p>You will likely have to look for schools that will give you guaranteed merit for your stats and look the the honors colleges at these universities.</p>
<p>Another option – do you live commuting distance to UT-Austin?</p>
<p>^^ Pancaked, how did you determine your EFC? Did you use an online EFC calculator? We’ve been focusing on merit aid but perhaps you are eligible for more need-based aid than you originally thought.</p>
<p>*Bottomline, where can I even apply that might pay for me and will be an intellectual fit? *</p>
<p>*Your ACT/ SAT would also qualify you for automatic admissions to the honors college, if I am reading correctly.</p>
<p>You will likely have to look for schools that will give you guaranteed merit for your stats and look the the honors colleges at these universities.*</p>
<p>This can be confusing to high stats kids. They often (wrongly) assume that schools that aren’t highly ranked will not be academically challenging for them.</p>
<p>My kids’ stats are similar to yours. They were Val and Sal at their private school. One was NMF and the other one just missed the cut-off, but was named to the NM special awards because of his SAT score.) They are both VERY challenged in their majors (Applied Math and Chemical Engineering) at a Flagship U. </p>
<p>Pancaked…do NOT wrongly assume that high stats kids won’t be found in your major. You’re majoring in engineering. That’s where high stats kids are largely concentrated. Many people forget that high stats kids are NOT equally spread out amongst all majors. High stats kids are largely concentrated within about 7 majors…engineering, math, bio, chem, physics and maybe a couple of others. </p>
<p>So…schools that offer huge ASSURED merit scholarships for high stats are going to have a lot of high stats kids in YOUR major.</p>
<p>For instance, at my kids’ school, there are over 500 National Scholars (near full ride) and 1500 Presidential Scholars (full tuition). Those 2000 kids are largely found within about 7 majors.</p>
<p>And, YES, belonging to an Honors College is another PERK!!!</p>
<p>Honors classes and honors housing are awesome!</p>
<p>I think this is a major difference between public and private schools. At the most selective private schools, virtually all students are high stats kids, but they are distibuted among many majors (with more than half likely to be in social sciences and humanities). If your interest is in science, math, or engineering, you will find many brainy, hard-working students at all kinds of colleges (with wide course selection and abundant research activity at the larger public universities). Of the 20 universities that Washington Monthly ranks highest in the “research” category, 9 are state schools (including UT-Austin).</p>
<p>Pancaked: I would apply to Alabama. A couple of years ago there was a person who posted on here in a situation close to yours. I don’t remember the EFC, but her family would contribute max $3K/year. She was disgruntled and wrote from a negative standpoint most of the time. I write this because I often wondered how she must have come across in interviews. If you want me to find her posting name so you can read, let me know and I will send it to you. Bottom line: Almost full ride complete with new laptop from University of Alabama Honors program and I’m nearly certain engineering. </p>
<p>Also, in Texas, would you consider a Liberal Arts college with engineering? If so, Southwestern under merit aid lists their matrix dependent upon class rank and ACT score plus there are additional scholarships from $3K to $9K/year. They give out 4 complete full rides a year. The application has to be in by December 1st.</p>
<p>Pancaked: Plus, after you have applied to schools with scholarships like UofA, then you can see if you qualify for scholarships like the Robert C. Byrd Scholarship, Toyota, Coca-Cola, etc., In other words, outside scholarships. If you get one or two for $1,000, it will cover some of the book costs for a year.</p>
<p>I think this is a major difference between public and private schools. At the most selective private schools, virtually all students are high stats kids, but they are distibuted among many majors</p>
<p>I would change that to say…I think this is a major difference between “selective public/private schools” and the “most selective public/private schools”. It’s not the difference between just “public and private schools.” </p>
<p>Yes…at the most selective schools, you’re going to find high stats kids in more majors…maybe not uniformly distributed. However, I doubt the Fine Arts majors have the same test scores as the engineering majors…even at the most selective schools. and…I’ve noticed that NYU accepts some pretty lowish test scores for Tisch.</p>
<p>*If your interest is in science, math, or engineering, you will find many brainy, hard-working students at all kinds of colleges *</p>
<p>Random and somewhat-unrelated quibble with the above post: for Fine Arts, the most important thing is your portfolio. Test scores and GPA- not so much. You should look at some other discipline to give you the sample of SATs you want.</p>
<p>^ I just think comparing the test scores of Fine Arts to Engineering isn’t really something you should do. Too different- the results aren’t valid.</p>