Im the parent of a high school senior, live in Louisiana and the only state school he is considering is La. Tech. He has a 4.3 gpa, will finish with 11 AP classes and scored a 35 on ACT. The problem we are are facing is cost to go oos. He will not qualify for very much aid from privates and it seems the best to hope for with public schools is oos waiver. He does plan on going to graduate school.
If the school is ABET accredited for engineering, I would stay instate unless he gets an incredible deal from an OOS school (I’m a structural engineer).
Have you looked at the automatic scholarships for U of Alabama, looks like he would qualify for $28,000 a year and is 1 point away from full tuition, one year of housing and some other benefits. Also take a look at UAH esp. if interested in aerospace engineering.
Thank you. Yes we have looked at Alabama. Still leaves a considerable amount. I believe the total for oos is around 51 per. We need to look more at UAH.
Thanks again
Louisiana Tech in-state has a list price cost of attendance of around $19-21k (however, does not include travel and miscellaneous/personal costs). Subtracting a $9k scholarship gives a net price of around $10-12k. Is that the price limit?
Louisiana has TOPS scholarship program to encourage students to stay in state. He would get about $6300 per year, so the total cost would be in the 4-5k range. Which is fine. Just trying to find the best fit where he will be among like kids in terms of ACT etc.
A student who gets big enough merit scholarships to bring the cost down to $4-5k at a private or out-of-state public university will be among the top few percent of students by previous academic/admission credentials (HS GPA, ACT/SAT, etc.).
ABET accredited programs are going to be hard anywhere. He will find his peers in-state. Hard if not impossible to beat that price.
Thanks again for the comments. I think La Tech has roughly a 50% attrition rate for engineering as Im sure most schools have similar stats.
looking for the best bang for the buck and not get wrapped up in rankings.
we have done a good bit a research and it’s easy to get lost in the weeds. Currently have about 15 schools he’s interested in applying to and even with good scholarships it will leave 20, 30, 40k per yr to cover.
Attrition rate out of engineering tends to be inversely correlated to the admission selectivity of the school (or its engineering division). Strong students are more likely to stay in engineering majors and graduate. Money also matters; many students drop out of college because they ran out of money.
Have you determined what the maximum net price without going into debt can be?
I don’t have a good answer for you. It will most likely be case by case. I think there’s an acceptable amount of student loan debt to take on depending on the school. for example, if he gets into Rice we will try to make that happen. but if we are talking 75 to 6 figures of debt then no way.
Remember that the student can only take $5.5k, $6.5k, $7.5k, $7.5k loans each year without a cosigner (total $27k over four years).
It would be helpful to the student if you could tell him that you could contribute $X over four years, but anything more would have to come from student loans (tell him the numbers above) and/or work earnings from him.
LA Tech is an excellent option…
In Florida, you can look at USF and UCF. Both offer generous OOS scholarships and excellent engineering programs.
Here’s the link to USF’s scholarships. Consider that OOS tuition is $17K a year, when reviewing these scholarships, and that several scholarships will stack.
https://www.usf.edu/admissions/freshmen/admissions-scholarships/nonflorida.aspx
I do think there’s value in discovering another State or region of the country, and with these academic achievements he can. Louisiana Tech is his clear safety so there’s no risk in trying other colleges.
It’d be at least worth it to try and apply to
We have two friends going to La Tech. One is in engineering. he is a senior, graduating and going straight into the military. He has really liked it. The other is a senior but not sure what she is going into. I do know the house she and her roommate rented was destroyed during Hurricane Laura when a tree fell right in the middle of it.
Agree with the above that ASU has some great scholarships. We have a friend who just started there as a freshman in engineering and absolutely loves it!!
We are in a similar boat - living in Louisiana looking for engineering programs for our high achieving senior. Take a look at U of Arkansas at Fayetteville - we know several kids who have done great there and have received good merit scholarships.
@programmer765, We toured the engineering building last weekend. My son was very impressed. They actually spoke to the higher achieving students separately. They acknowledged these kids have many options but wanted them at La. Tech. Also, I was told by faculty there are plenty of engineering students that scored in the 30s for ACT. One of the things I want to make sure of is for my son to find similar students so that was good to know.
We haven’t looked at Arkansas yet, thanks for the info.
His list is at 10 schools, mainly going for best ranked(taken with a grain of salt) that give merit. So far he’s been accepted into Texas A&M, UT Dallas, U of Alabama and of course La Tech.
Hello @Ladadof3 , Just giving a shout out.
I have 1590 SAT, 36 ACT, (but NOT NMF), top 1% rank, future engineer major. She has applied to University of Alabama, Mississippi State and Texas Tech (our local school). All ABET programs and all have kids that get jobs that D is targeting. We are chasing $$$. I have always heard good things about LA Tech. We are in Texas but D is not applying to UT Austin or TAMU as they don’t give the merit money we need. Best of luck to your child as well as @programmer765 's child.
@TVBingeWatcher2. Thank you
Most likely the best to hope for with A&M is out of state tuition waiver which will not be enough.
Mississippi state gives out a lot of money but my son did not apply, didn’t see the difference over La Tech or LSU.
Knowing he’s going to grad school The best bet for us is La. Tech. Then pick a big name school for grad school.
We are in Texas (near Dallas area) and toured La Tech last week with my son and his two friends. All GT, all high achieving. All three really enjoyed the program and the options available. The honors classes within engineering sound good but also the quarter system and the way the classes fit into it. I love the first year program “Living in the Lab.” My brother went to a top-ranked school for EE and it wasn’t until Junior year until he got to do anything “hands on.” He graduated with his degree and never worked a day in his life as an Electrical Engineer. Burned out from 3’ish years of classroom learning. Hands on from day one? The labs and equipment they have for prototyping and discovery? My son and his friends were very excited.
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