Looking for engineering merit money

Parents Forum
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<p>* My son is a junior in a Long Island public high school and is looking for a tier I engineering school. Being from Long Island, we make a good amount of money but are poor (property taxes, among other things) and cannot afford to send him to anything other than a SUNY without a good amount of merit money. Suffice it to say he has a 98 average and a 730 on the math SAT II, with several APs and a full honors program. He is also on the volleyball and fencing teams. He wants to stay in the cold weather and we are looking at schools like RPI, Syracuse and SUNY Binghamton. Does anyone know how much merit money the private schools offer and are there any other engineering programs that offer substantial merit money (50+%)? We will also be looking at the nano-engineering program at Albany - Albany as a school doesn’t thrill me, but does anyone know anything about the reputation of this program? Thanks. *</p>

<p>I know that as a parent, we tend to focus on two things when thinking about college choices…the child’s major and the family finances …</p>

<p>But, for the child who will be going to the school and living there for 4 years, they will have other factors that they will consider.</p>

<p>Seriously, when I took my Val/NMF/brainy child around looking at schools, he paid attention to the academics, BUT he really wanted to see the dorms, see the food venues, see the off-campus hangouts, and see the rec center. </p>

<p>So, my point is…you need to take your child on a few nearby campus visits just to see what he likes in terms of size, culture of schools (studious? nerdy? preppy?), recreation offerings, housing styles, big sports to watch, co-ed campus, etc.</p>

<p>After that, you’ll know more of what type of schools he wants to apply to. :)</p>

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<p>Rowan University in New Jersey has a nationally ranked engineering program and offers very good merit aid based on SAT and class rank. If your child qualifies for the top tier, the total cost will be about $10K a year for tuition, all fees and R&B, after scholarship. Not bad for a top ranked program. </p>

<p>[url=<a href=“The Division of Academic Affairs”>The Division of Academic Affairs]Link[/url</a>]</p>

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<p>Wolfarkas:
LI parent here.
Freshman son is an engineering major at UBuffalo. Great program. If you look at the undergrad engineering rankings, it’s ranked along with Delaware and RIT. Don’t remember where Syracuse was in the mix. Son was accepted at all engineering schools he applied to. RIT and Syracuse interviewers raved to my husband about my son after the interview and said schools would fight to have him and he’s sure to get money. Well, he did- about $7000 a year which at those schools is nothing. If your EFC is high, I guess they don’t offer much. SUNY Bing offered no merit (and had offered my valedictorian son $500 2 years earlier). Buffalo’s engineering program is highly regarded, lots of UB grads in the area in many professions. Bing has a weak engineering program (and even though my son loved the school over all the state OOS and privates he applied to he chose not to attend.) He also applied to schools for comp sci (that did not have engineering) and go t lots of money from those!!)</p>

<p>I agree your son should consider Clemson (although I did not feel it was a good fit for my Jewish son.) We crossed NC State off the list for the same reason after reading someones “visit” summary but can’t remember if they had engineering or not. Son did not apply to WPI or RPI- both great schools due to lack of women and from what we read, lots of time playing on computers and not socializing. Great schools though. Penn State- great. </p>

<p>Also- have your son take the ACT’s. Was an easier test for my kids (and they didn’t study for it!)</p>

<p>Good luck.
PM me if you want any more specific info I may be able to provide.</p>

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<p>Wolf:
Tier One overall ranking and Tier One Engineering are not the same.
I can’t find it on google for this year. I think USNWR wants you to pay for access at this time. I may have last years list around somewhere.</p>

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<p>Look at Alfred University, some of their engineering programs are through NYS, some are private. There are merit scholarships at Alfred. Electrical Engineering is a program they are considering eliminating, however. Thought I would point that out to you. </p>

<p>[Alfred</a> University : Financial Aid : Undergraduate Freshmen Scholarships](<a href=“http://www.alfred.edu/finaid/freshmen/scholarships.cfm]Alfred”>http://www.alfred.edu/finaid/freshmen/scholarships.cfm)</p>

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<p>Thank you all for your detailed and generous responses. My son has taken several pre-SAT tests, both for practice and for National Merit recognition. His CR on the PSAT was only 54 and his math was only a 63, but he has been improving dramatically with both AP English and pre-calculus honors, plus he will be receiving private tutoring for math and English before he takes the SAT in March. Also, let’s not forget the 730 on the Math I SATII. He also has a weighted average of about a 98, and is on both the school volleyball and fencing teams (if this helps). </p>

<p>As for money, we are not at the stage to have filled out the FAFSA form yet, so we do not yet know what our expected contribution will be. However, it is my understanding from friends of ours who are in similar financial situations as we are that we will not be eligible for any FAFSA funds. Further, we had planned to try to pay for SUNY Binghamton (our best state school that has an engineering program) out of pocket, which would be approx. $27,000. So you can figure our contribution would be that much.</p>

<p>Judging from some of the posts based on my thread, if a private school costs 30,000 in tuition and we can get half, that would put us much closer to the 27,000 we were looking to pay. Of course, if we could reduce that amount, it would go a long way toward helping pay for our second child’s college!</p>

<p>By the way, I figured out what most of the abbreviations stand for, except OOS. What does that one stand for?</p>

<p>thanks!</p>

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<p>Thank you soooo much! I have immediately emailed his guidance counselor and asked if he can be considered. I have also just instructed my son to ask about this award.</p>

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<p>What is USNWR? Is there any other way to find out what engineering schools are considered Tier 1?</p>

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<p>Cool - thanks~!~ </p>

<p>Was looking at the ratios of women/men and was not thrilled. My son is very good looking and in great shape, but he is shy with girls and I want him to have the opportunity to come out of his shell. I’m surprised that Bing’s engineering program is not rated as highly as Buffalo’s. My son is Jewish too. I will look at Clemson because I really want to retire to NC (Wilmington area), but I’m not sure that would be a good fit for him either. Will PM, thanks!</p>

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<p>Oline (mentioned in post #3) is a wonderful school for engineering. very competitive though. Most students get full scholarship. It’s a new school, not big but extremely good. If you look at their faculty profiles,… wow!</p>

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<p>*As for money, we are not at the stage to have filled out the FAFSA form yet, so we do not yet know what our expected contribution will be. However, it is my understanding from friends of ours who are in similar financial situations as we are that we will not be eligible for any FAFSA funds. Further, we had planned to try to pay for SUNY Binghamton (our best state school that has an engineering program) out of pocket, which would be approx. $27,000. So you can figure our contribution would be that much.</p>

<p>Judging from some of the posts based on my thread, if a private school costs 30,000 in tuition and we can get half, that would put us much closer to the 27,000 we were looking to pay. Of course, if we could reduce that amount, it would go a long way toward helping pay for our second child’s college!
*</p>

<p>COA = Cost of Attendance (tuition, room, board, books, fees, transportation, misc.)</p>

<p>UNNWR = US News & World Report (rankings)</p>

<p>Even though you won’t be doing a FAFSA anytime soon, you can **quickly **get an estimate as to what your EFC will be by using [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml]FinAid”>http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml)</p>

<p>As for looking for Tier 1 Engineering and 50% tuition scholarships from privates…</p>

<p>You seem to have two goals that might conflict. Most of the top schools don’t give merit scholarships. The few schools that do, only give them to a **few **targeted kids with exceptional scores - like perfect SATs or near perfect (like 2300+). </p>

<p>Most of the privates that you’ll be considering have COA’s of about $50k-55k/yr. </p>

<p>So, if you’re trying to keep your out-of-pocket costs to about $27k, you’ll need SERIOUS merit money…scholarships that will cover about 3/4 of tuition.</p>

<p>So, if you’re looking for merit scholarships that will knock of $23k+ off the cost, you need to be open to looking at mid-tier schools. :)</p>

<p>As for top tier Engineering schools…</p>

<p>MIT
Stanford
UC-B
Cal Tech
Georgia Tech
UIUC
UMich
Cornell</p>

<p>As you can see, these aren’t schools that will give the merit $$ you’ll need…</p>

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<p>Okay! I’ve looked at Olin - too small; looked at Clemson - too far south; looked at Rowan - no skiing! You can tell my son has his priorities straight! Maybe as it gets closer, he’ll be more flexible.</p>

<p>Does anybody have any info about Carnegie Mellon?</p>

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<p>I’ve been reading about Rowan, which is less than a two hour ride away from us and from the link toblin posted, I was able to get a very good idea of what he might be expected to receive re: merit $$. How come I’ve lived in this area all my life and I’ve never heard of this school?</p>

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<p>mom2collegekids: thanks for helping so much. I see what you mean about the conflicting goals. I don’t think he is interested in any of the top tier engineering schools that you identified simply because he is not that motivated (and we can’t afford them!). </p>

<p>We took a little college exploration trip last summer and he fell in love with Cornell, but we can’t afford it and he was very disappointed. We also saw Bing. and he was very excited about that school as a second choice. We drove over to Geneseo, only because we had made the arrangements before he started talking about engineering, and he said he felt like he was back at his high school.</p>

<p>That trip was great for the simple reason that he realized he wanted engineering, wanted a mid-sized school, wanted to stay in colder weather and wanted some social life. One of my friends who has already been through this suggested that he should consider a hallway dorm rather than a suite for this reason.</p>

<p>I am now excited about Rowan - I just can’t believe I’ve never heard of it! I checked it out on USNWR and it is very highly rated as a Tier 1 school. Of course, from what I’ve been learning from this thread, it is not necessarily a Tier 1 engineering school, so I’ll have to do some research about that, but so far it merits a visit (no pun intended). Of course, all will be dependent upon his SAT scores.</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>:)</p>

<p>At this point, money is an issue and you don’t know your son’s scores (altho you could probably guess a range of 1350-1460 SAT (M+Cr) after practice/tutoring.).</p>

<p>Either way…even if your son scores in the 99th percentile (1420/1600 SAT), you still have to come up a list of schools that includes reaches, matches, and financial safeties - since excellent students get rejected all the time from their top schools. </p>

<p>Two or three financial safeties are necessary because needed scholarships at reach/match schools may not materialize. You may think SUNY-Bing is the financial safety, but your son may not like that school a year from now. Or, something may happen in your family, where it becomes difficult for you to pay the $27k the SUNY-B costs. </p>

<p>*His CR on the PSAT was only 54 and his math was only a 63, but he has been improving dramatically with both AP English and pre-calculus honors, plus he will be receiving private tutoring for math and English before he takes the SAT in March. Also, let’s not forget the 730 on the Math I SATII. He also has a weighted average of about a 98, and is on both the school volleyball and fencing teams (if this helps). *</p>

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<p>CMU does give merit to kids with very high stats. I’d say minimum 2150 on SATs, but I doubt it would be $20K plus without off the charts stats. </p>

<p>I would have your son really focus on scores. While a 730 mathll is indeed a nice score, it falls at the 72nd percentile–for significant merit aid at top engineering schools, that would not be competitive.</p>

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<p>hmom5,</p>

<p>good to know!</p>

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<p>OOS= Out of state public school (IS= Instate SUNY for us)</p>

<p>Son never skied but rented equipment and is all ready. Joined the ski club (schussmeisters if you google) and they have trips set up daily. (N
ot that they’ll have the time.)</p>

<p>Also, we just paid the spring semester bill - $6700. (Has the $1500 per semester scholarship) Still only about $17000 a year!!! your son will likely be awarded good money and if he does well on the SAT or ACT he can apply for the Presidents (I think that is the name) scholarship and get free tuition and more. Google that too!</p>

<p>Get or borrow an ACT practice test book. There are great hints on taking the test and since your son is good in Math and Science, it should be easy for him and a better test than the SAT.</p>

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<p>I have never heard of Rowan before until recently. When I did look into the engineering program they have, it piqued my interest. Small class, no lecture hall, math class attendance is mandatory( don’t know about other classes). They have the engineering classes called “clinic,” worth looking into. It seems like very hand-on kind of teaching method. You can learn a lot from their website before you make a visit. Good luck for your college searching.</p>

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<p>Have you looked at University of Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology, Clarkson University? All have some merit money available.</p>