<p>Hi. This is my first post. I've been reading and researching many threads and other online resources, but I am still not totally clear. </p>
<p>I have a junior who is fairly bright, but not way up there. He is a 4.28 W, 31 ACT, 1980 SAT, 199 PSAT, he is in the top 5% of his class with 4 APs so far. He has average EC's and no community service. He wants aero space engineering, but will consider mechanical if aero is not available. We are unable to assist him financially (not PLUS eligible) and are lower/middle income. We are also not eligible to co-sign on private loans.</p>
<p>He has 8 schools on his list, but is willing to look further. His dream is Vandy or MIT, but he knows those are just that, dream schools. My understanding is that our flagship UIUC has little to no need based aid. He loved Purdue (Nov. visit) and Iowa State is on our list for a spring visit. UMich, Northeastern & Ga Tech round out his list. </p>
<p>When I complete the net price calculator for the above schools only UMich and Northeastern look like we can swing the balance after his $5,500 loan and some work study. I'm pretty sure those are both reach for him. UIUC, Purdue and Iowa are over $15K which are insurmountable numbers for him. </p>
<p>I know $15K is nothing compared to others, but we are still rebuilding from a financial issue and it is killing me how much this affects him. I realize a 2 yr CC is an option, but my daughters boyfriend went that route (electrical engineering) and is 2 years behind after his transfer this year. It seems most engineering programs must be taken at the same institution as they start right into the major.</p>
<p>I guess my question is this...Does he have any hope of getting enough merit and need based aid to go to a 4 year? Am I missing something important? Do I need to look into anything else? We can't afford the prep classes for raising his test scores, but we have found some online resources (Khan SAT) and purchased a few prep books for him. </p>
<p>I thank you in advance for your insight and advice!</p>
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UIUC, Purdue and Iowa are over $15K which are insurmountable numbers for him.</p>
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<p>I bet they’re a LOT higher than $15k. Purdue would be at least $30k after aid. An ACT 31 would get little/no merit at Purdue or UIUC.</p>
<p>If Alabama doesn’t change its merit awards, he’d get free tuition plus $2500 per year. With a $5500 student loan, the remaining amount would range be about $5k. If he works/saves over the summer, he could reduce that by $2k.</p>
<p>How much can your family contribute?</p>
<p>There are 1000 Illinois students at Bama simply because of these generous scholarships, particularly for eng’g majors. Many of them carpool up and down I-65 for holiday breaks</p>
<p>He shouldn’t start at a CC…he’d lose his merit options.</p>
<p>What is your EFC? Is it low enough for Pell?</p>
<p>Hi,
I don’t know details on most of the schools you listed, but the general ‘rule’ for merit aid is to aim for schools where your stats put you in that top 25% of their accepted freshman class. Your S has impressive numbers, and he can still retake the ACT to bump it up even more (though 31 is great).
U of Alabama is well known to be very generous with merit aid for high stat kids and they have aerospace engineering. 
Another one to look at might be Florida Institute of technology. I have a BIL who graduated there and has had a good career in the field. </p>
<p>Hello, @aeromom98. I am a senior planning to go into aerospace engineering. When I was picking colleges, I decided to be stubborn and not be open to doing mechanical, so it opens a lot of options for your son for him to be open to either. But assuming that he really wants aero, one thing you can do to survey your options is look up the wikipedia list of all schools in the country that offer aerospace engineering degrees. Well, then begin the long process of going to each school’s website and searching for admission, scholarship, and other information. (You can do the same thing with mechanical, and probably many schools will be the same.) </p>
<p>Some schools (not top 20 ones) have good aid for SAT CR+M scores above a certain benchmark with a high GPA. I am home schooled so I don’t know much about weighted GPAs - what is his GPA unweighted? Also, what is his score breakdown by section on the SAT?</p>
<p>The ACT is quite good, so like others are saying on here, you might want to rely on that as your test score. </p>
<p>She gave his PSAT, 199. So probably not NMF. What is his unweighted GPA? Any chance of him studying and hiking up his ACT further? It would improve his chances of acceptance to some of the schools on his list.</p>
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<p>How much can you pay to “swing the balance”</p>
<p>Thank you all. </p>
<p>His school brings in a test prep program this spring for ACT . He is hoping to bring up his scores, in particular in math (current 27). His SAT breakdown is CR 720, M 560, W 670. He went into the SAT with no prep. He is much stronger on the English/writing side, but he is in PLTW engineering and has done very well there, hence his love and desire for engineering. He is currently working independently on raising test scores too.</p>
<p>I believe his unweighted is 3.8.</p>
<p>I will have him look at Alabama. </p>
<p>When I say swing I mean very little. I think 3K to 5K at best. UMich showed 2K and Northeastern showed 3K after all aid/loans. I understand these calculators are not always (if at all) reliable.</p>
<p>Again thank you!!</p>
<p>He really should look at the smaller schools, even private. Someone mentioned Florida Tech above. My daughter attends, and while she was helped by her athletic scholarship and some Florida state awards, the merit scholarship your son would get is more than half tuition. There are a lot of private engineering scholarships available too. On one of the threads here recently there were postings of the DOD and contractors scholarships that pay for everything, and I noticed there had been 11 students working under those at Fla Tech in the last 8 years.</p>
<p>There is also Emery-Riddle in Daytona (and Prescott, AZ), several schools in Oklahoma, the western engineering schools that mostly excel in petroleum and mining but sometimes have decent mechanical engineering too. Some schools have big sticker shock when you first look at them, but there are ways to bring the costs down. We almost didn’t look at Florida Tech because of the $50k+ COA (and it’s gone up since then) but really there are ways to bring it down. Florida Tech is a yellow ribbon school if your son has military benefits and it has a big ROTC program too. </p>
<p>Also, UAH has aerospace engineering, right?</p>
<p>It looks like he could get a full-tuition scholarship there as well:
<a href=“http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/”>http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/</a></p>
<p>If he somehow manages to bump that ACT score up to 34 (or CR+M SAT of 1490), that becomes a full-ride scholarship.</p>
<p>He is only a junior. If he gets his ACT up 1 point he can attend Louisiana Tech for free, assuming UW GPA of at least 3.0. No aerospace though, only mechanical.</p>
<p>I’m surprised to hear that UMichigan is affordable. We were told at info sessions that they do not meet need for OOS students. Perhaps this has changed? If they are affordable, go for it. Try to get the ACT up for them. What is the UW GPA? Need it pretty high for UM. Their engineering school is more competitive than some other schools there.</p>
<p>Alabama is a great option if you can swing the remainder of costs. Very generous scholarships. But I thought you needed a 32 ACT for the full tuition? Am I wrong?</p>
<p>You do know that in general if you are looking at both merit and need-based aid, that merit will first reduce need-based aid awards and only significantly reduces family contribution if the merit is MORE than the need-based award? Except that merit at many schools may first be used to reduce loans/work-study requirements before it starts reducing grants. Which is a good thing, as far as it goes. </p>
<p>Both UA and UAH have Aerospace. UA is better for an OOS student, though. </p>
<p>The state is home to Cummings Research Park so lots of high tech companies.</p>
<p>I do think that MechE would be more marketable, though. He could always look into maybe majoring in one and minoring in the other. If he comes in with some AP credits, that becomes more do-able. </p>
<p>If the mom wants to join The University of Alabama Parents Facebook page, she’d meet lots of prospective and current parents from Illinois. LOTS. Just PM me to get added.</p>
<p>I have heard that Michigan has recently changed their policy on OOS students and they are giving more aid. Although I honestly think this student would need to raise his ACT to get into CoE there from OOS.</p>
<p>I can tell you from 2 years’ experience, you will get little to no FA at Michigan from OOS. We have sliced and diced this every which way possible, talked to anyone who would listen, and he got $2500. He is well above the 50% percentile but not near enough to the top to be considered. His SAT/ACT/GPA was well above what you state. I agree, go to a smaller private school or public safety school. Those are the ones that literally threw money at us, although much to my financial dismay, he had his heart set on UM. Good luck! </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids I have spoken to my son about Alabama and he is going to spend some time looking through their information. </p>
<p>@PurpleTitan thank you for that link. I have started looking at some of those schools too.</p>
<p>@intparent My S is aware UMich is a reach, especially OOS with his current scores. He is hoping to raise them given that he is still a junior and has an extensive ACT test prep program through school this coming spring semester. The figure I got came from UMich’s net calculator after putting in all relevant info (including scores, financials and OOS status). Again, I know this is not always correct and I know CoE is even more competitive. Honestly, we’ve yet to even visit there so S may have a different feeling after we do. </p>
<p>All of your responses and info is greatly appreciated. I am very happy to have found CC. </p>
<p>@Osserpusser Thanks for the reply. I wish our state school would throw money at us, but they have a rep of little to no aid. I obviously won’t know until we get closer and I spend a bit more time researching UIUC. I know several IL kids who are at Iowa and Iowa State as opposed to UIUC as they got more FA there.</p>
<p>As much as UMich is claiming that it wants to give more OOS aid, it still uses CSS Profile and can define need however it wants. </p>
<p>I’m not sure what the poster’s situation is…It sounds like income may be ok, but maybe they’re recuperating from a bad recent few years? </p>
<p>There have been instate parents who’ve posted here that their aid pkgs from UMich have been pathetic…and UMich has promised to meet need to instate students for awhile now. </p>
<p>Plus, when a public decides to give money to OOS students, it typically has a merit-component to it. For instance, UVA and UNC promise to meet demonstrated need to OOS students, but we also know that it is very hard for OOS students to get accepted…so any aid given would be given to an OOS student who has the high stats to get in.</p>
<p>@Aeromom98 We have a friend on a full ride at Embry Riddle who is thriving. I had never heard of it before she went this year. It’s supposedly outstanding. Be sure to check it out. Also, Kansas, Purdue and Indiana literally threw money at us (different major). I think they all have engineering if not AE. Those are close to home for you, no? </p>
<p>@Osserpusser we ‘looked’ at Embry (both campuses) and it did not look promising for FA, but I was still learning so I shall check again He loved Purdue and the co-op program is fantastic. If we could get him through his freshman year financially the co-op would help offset his future expenses. Kansas just contacted him this week and we’ll have to look at Indiana too. Yes we are in IL so fairly close.</p>
<p>Great news! I’ll ask my friend how her daughter’s scholarship adds up at Embry. It could be a mix of funding, but I can verify it’s 100%. </p>
<p>@Osserpusser Thank you! I just want him to be able to go to a four year. I know that there are many fine local CC’s , but his program is not really do-able without adding more time (more $) catching up from a CC start. I hate that our issues are taking a toll on his dreams, but the good part is he has learned so much about fiscal responsibility as a result. He won’t take out loans (not that he could on his own) other than the $5500 he is eligible for. He really does not want to do that either. I need to get over the mommy guilt, but I hope at least doing some due diligence will help in the long run. I really appreciate the heads up on UM, it is highly ranked for AE (as is Purdue) and he was starting to get excited and thinking about a spring break visit Luckily, he is less excited now that I told him what I had learned. </p>