<p>My little brother is just starting to assemble a list of possible colleges for next year's applications. He is focused on math/physics and has been fixated on MIT for some time. He needs a broader range of schools, though, so I'm posting here for advice.</p>
<p>His main criteria are that the university be well regarded for this subject and as affordable as possible. Are there certain universities known for either having low base tuition or extending generous aid (either merit- or income-based) to students with strong math backgrounds?</p>
<p>As secondary factors, it's a bonus if the university has a safe campus, academically-engaged student body, liberal atmosphere, tradition of individual attention from instructors, and is located in an affordable city. I'm leery of public universities because I've heard that they don't have much scholarship money for out-of-state applicants - but if you've heard of one that does, that's the kind of information we're looking for.</p>
<p>I know people who went to Caltech on full merit scholarships. Those scholarships were so generous that they actually MADE money by going to college. I would argue that Caltech is "pretty decent" at math and scienece. </p>
<p>Cooper Union is an elite technical school (basically, it's an engineering LAC) that costs zero in tuition. Yeah, that's right, zero. You still have to pay for room & board though.</p>
<p>I recommend that you broaden your search to pubic universities in less costly regions of the country. Largely, that means the south and the great plains. And don't think that you absolutely won't get generous aid as a non-resident. Admittedly, you'll need to have distinguished yourself academically in high school to get money. But more than a few "low cost" state schools in the south and midwest will entice you if you show great interest in attending. That being said, for the sciences I would recommend:</p>
<p>Kansas State University
U of Alabama-Birmingham
U of Nebraska</p>
<p>and these low cost privates:
Creighton University (NE)
U of Tulsa (OK)</p>
<p>If your little brother can afford about 25K US a year (all expenses included) and is willing to go north of the border, I would believe McGill and possibly Waterloo (not sure about the costs there) would match practically all his criteria (except maybe individual attention because of the size of classes in the first 1-2 years, though the size of Honours classes afterwards is usually low).</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions. Math isn't my field so I have little personal knowledge to work with, and am grateful for this advice. I had never even heard of Cooper Union or Creighton, and will be sure to suggest them to him now.</p>
<p>Blobof: he was hoping to keep costs under what you predict for the Canadian universities, though I realize this may not be realistic. I will mention these options to him as well.</p>
<p>collegehelp: he will have lived in Montana for two years by the time he applies to college. Before that he lived in Wisconsin, but he has lost his resident status here. He is unwilling to stay at the University of Montana, I think partly because he wants to get out and live on his own, and partly because as a high school sophomore he has already completed a good chunk of the upper-division math courses the university offers. His family would love to send him to a state school under in-state rates, but I'm not sure that he would be happy hanging around Missoula for another four years. I'm curious about the three state schools LakeWashington mentions (Kansas, Nebraska, Alabama-Birmingham) - do those three have a particularly strong math/physics reputation? </p>
<p>Thanks for all the comments so far, and for any further ideas...</p>
<p>Northwestern
U of Chicago
Caltech
MIT
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Johns Hopkins
U of Rochester
Duke
Rice (low tuition)
Tufts
Lehigh
NYU (safe campus??? depends)</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd is very expensive, but it does give out scholarship money. Some of my friends almost got full rides because of their income levels. And it is very highly regarded in math.</p>
<p>MaryC, Williams has excellent math and physics departments. They don't give merit aid, but if accepted, students can receive generous need based aid. Being from Montana would be considered a plus as most LACs look for geographic diversity. </p>
<p>As far as the other points on his wish list:</p>
<p>"safe campus, academically-engaged student body, liberal atmosphere, tradition of individual attention from instructors, and is located in an affordable city." Well, it's definitely not a city but Williamstown is certainly safe and cheap. The students are bright and engaged and the faculty accessible and accomplished.</p>
<p>Okay, great. It's going to be a project to look at each of these many schools, but they sound like a great starting list. He'll probably post questions about his choice schools in a month or so after he's pared the list down a bit.</p>