OK, here I see that KU has an $11,000 range for housing and meals listed! I think when I did it I picked something midway which is why I got 29,000 for the total cost. But I also see how that isn’t comparing apples to apples if other schools only list their cheapest plan in the cost estimate. 
Did you have UAH as a suggestion or on your list? If you’re looking South - it’s 10K kids in a prosperous and growing city, labeled by some as the best place for new grads - and NASA and defense are huge here.
It’s $23702 + $1758 in fees, $7690 in housing, and $3850 in food or $37000. Merit = $20,500.
Two others - not to add - but Florida Tech, one poster’s kid goes there, gave my son 50% off as did Embry Riddle. Both are more aero focused but Florida Tech has most majors. That was 2019 so I don’t know about merit for the upcoming year.
Hopefully you can get him out to some schools - both big and small - and some medium - because hitting a price is one thing but your son still has to fit.
UAH - Admission & Aid - Freshman Out-of-State Academic Scholarships
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Has he considered SUNY Buffalo? It’s almost as big as UMass Amherst, but the Honors College could be within reach About the University Honors College (buffalo.edu). (Honors admissions are rolling, though, so apply early!) The campus is more suburban than urban, and they have pretty much everything, major-wise, including a robust Industrial Engineering department with multiple minors (including Human Factors) in addition to the major Undergraduate Education - Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering - University at Buffalo The university also has CogSci and linguistics. Not sure where costs would land - they don’t have an official Flagship Match deal like Oswego and UMaine have, but I think there’s merit to be had.
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Yes, you’ve misunderstood. There are a fairly large number of Amigo Schoiarships available; however, they are awarded on a first-come-first-served basis. (IOW, don’t apply in January and expect to get one. )
And there’s another scholarship, the Lobo Undergraduate Exchange (regular LUE and LUE+) that are basically guaranteed to anyone who qualifies and applies for it.
https://go.unm.edu/scholarships/lue.html
LUE Plus
LUE Plus recipients pay the New Mexico resident tuition rate.
Academic Criteria for Consideration:
- 3.0 cumulative GPA
OR- 20 ACT (1030 SAT)
The biggest difference between the Amigo and the LUE+ is that LUE+ students don’t get the $200/year stipend Amigo recipients get.
Both Amigo and LUE+ get in-state tuition prices.
Neither the LUE/LUE+ or Amigo require a separate application. Your UNM application will enter you into consideration for the scholarships.
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Looking back through my notes, I had looked into this earlier because of all the great programs you mention. I got frustrated because I felt like I couldn’t get a good idea of the cost, though, and took it off the list. I think it might be worth putting an application in anyway, though. If the cost is low enough, it would definitely be one of the very few schools that hit all of the (many) majors he has expressed interest in.
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its been 3 years; but texas tech was quite cheap for my kid (didnt end up there). I think i’d look again at your estimate. from what we saw, if your kid got a scholarship, then your kid would end up with instate-tuition, plus that scholarship. SO for my kiddo (34 act/ but higher gpa) tuition was around 3K; and then room and board. It was very reasonable! i’d double check that one.
now it’s sort of hard to get to; but . . . not pressurized like other schools . . . and good engineering.
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My son’s stats were pretty similar to yours, so I’m hoping yours will get similar merit aid offers. Regarding Pitt: their merit offers vary widely by major. Engineering seems to be one of the better ones. They offered $22K in merit and $4K in need which got us to a cost of ~$30K. Apply early for the best offer. But I suspect the campus will be too urban for your son’s preferences.
And yes, there are additional scholarships at some schools – I didn’t include any of those. For example, he was invited to apply for Stamps at Mizzou.
I think that it’s not a huge deal to switch majors at a lot of these schools. Switching OUT of engineering is generally easier than switching INTO engineering. Plenty of students start out in engineering and then change their minds. The key, as you have expressed, is making sure there’s other majors available for him should he do that.
I think you’re compiling some nice options here. You’ll get a good list, and I predict he’ll get some great offers.
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I agree, it’s frustratingly hard to tell. But I keep hearing people talk about Binghamton coming in fairly affordable for OOS kids, and I don’t know why Buffalo would be worse… so as you say, maybe worth an app to see how it prices out!
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i’ve flown into Lubbock numerous times for work on Southwest - not hard at all.
This one is subjective but if you win, yep a great rate.
TTU is under $40K full cost if looking at tuition ($26,204), housing ($7,032) and meals ($4280). In state is $13,604 and even if you don’t get half…it’s a home run.
My fear of all these big schools is - and I’ve not been around a home school kid - can they adapt?
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They generally do put in more for travel for out-of-state than in-state, but the number isn’t specific at all. My son is at Alabama, so that is what I know best. They estimate about $3000 for travel and we spent about half of that living in Michigan. If you include my travel for move-in and move-out, we came closer to the full $3000. But someone living in California might pay much more and someone in Georgia will pay less since they can just drive. I did look up travel to get a feel for the expense and difficulty of it. Some places are definitely harder to get to!
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If looking at towns/cities, you may want to look at how easy it is to move around without a car since he’ll be flying in (ie., bus system, lightrail, metro/subway…)
Wrt TTU, Lubbock is an acquired taste apparently but TX residents may chime in.
He’ll get Honors at UMass Lowell.
You/he could email Olin to ask what happens to their students if it turns out Engineering is not their thing and they want to major in sth else. Or do they only admit students whom they are sure (through the on campus weekend of team activities) will stick it out? Olin is very team and people based - hence their selection process. It sounds like it’d fit your son well in terms of vibe, but they only offer Engineering.
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A big question I have when reading this thread is what DOESN’T he like about University of Maine and others which you mentioned were on his list and not thrilled about. From his likes it sound like he wants a small school so these even bigger universities aren’t going to thrill him if University of Maine at under 10K students isn’t interesting (unless it’s not size that he doesn’t like). FYI my son with less strong stats ended up with total cost of attendance of $13.5K for University of Maine - all merit. He chose a different school, but it’s incredibly affordable. There are a TON of schools, so really delving into what he’s looking for will make the process more manageable, if it’s straight cheapest - I doubt he’s going to find much cheaper than ones already on his list especially when you start factoring in travel expenses out of state.
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According to College Navigator 96% of students at ONU are awarded institutional aid with the average amount being $22,670 and an average net price (for incomes in the above $110k bracket) of $29,598 for the latest year listed (21-22).
https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=ohio+northern&s=all&id=204635#finaid
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This is a really good point. We’ve done so much discussing, and researching, and comparing this week…
He actually really likes UMaine’s size and the setting. The main thing keeping S24 from being excited about it is it doesn’t have any of the (half dozen 
) “non-standard” majors that he wonders if he would like to do. What it has going for it (besides size & setting) is that it is cheap and close-ish to home.
One of the trade-offs that we are thinking about is that a bigger school is more likely to have more variety in majors, and possibly more opportunities for doing niche things. So he is considering bigger schools, but we are trying find a big schools that seems to have smooth administration, adequate housing, and clear opportunities for finding smaller community within the very large school. Those are the type of factors that we will have to really dig in to research more deeply.
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So I think we have a list now.
In our discussions this week with S24 of these schools and what it might be like to go there and what he could major in and how he wanted to proceed, he came to the conclusion that his priorities are:
(Priority 1) (a) wants a school that has some “interesting“ engineering majors (industrial, systems, human factors, engineering psychology, etc). He says he might decide to major in computer or electrical engineering, but he would like to go to a school that has at least one of these other things as a choice that he could explore.
(b) also wants a school with a … I guess it doesn’t have to be strong, but it had to at least be existent … cognitive psychology major. Pretty much every school has a psychology major, but when you look into the classes that are offered many of them really focus on educational psychology or counseling psychology, and what he is interested in is cognitive psychology. So he wants a school that offers a good focus area on cognitive psychology, or even better a cognitive science major but those are pretty rare.
(c) and, he also wants a school where he can at a minimum take business classes, or even better transfer into the business school if he decides neither engineering nor psychology are what he wants to do. And bonus if they have a focus on some thing like organizational psychology or a joint engineering/management major.
(d) schools that have study areas that focus on computational linguistics, or technology policy, or specialty technology business area stuff would be attractive to him, and make him more interested in the possibilities at a school. But they are sort of a fourth or fifth area of interest rather than a top three, and he says those aren’t must-have, just a bonus.
I know this is all very scattered and a lot of different things and may be impossible to find in one school! But I am glad he is articulating what he would like, so at least he knows what trade-offs he has to make
(Priority 2) Cost. If he could find everything in priority 1 in a single school, and that school was affordable (which would probably mean $45,000 a year 
– that is $35,000/year from us and the rest from his loans & savings) he would be willing to pay that much. But if he is going to have to make compromises, he would rather pay less. And, the more the compromise, the less he’d like to pay.
(Priority 3) Location. If everything else is equal, he would rather be close to home than far away. But he’s willing to go far away to meet priority 1 or priority 2.
And his 4th priority, which isn’t exactly the bottom, but isn’t the top either is that he has to feel like the living situation is “acceptable.” Even he isn’t entirely sure what he means by this, so I think it’s more a case by case basis, and maybe something that would help him decide between two options in the end. Schools that are known for crowded dorms or terrible freshman dorms are going to be less attractive to him.
With this all in mind, we looked at whether the schools here have industrial or systems engineering and also have priorities 1b and 1c. And we also looked at other schools that meet those preferences, that might be more expensive but could possibly come in under $45,000 a year & have programs that seem exciting to S24.
The “cheap” schools that made the cut on the programs, location, & cost balancing are Kansas State and Mississippi State, and (sort of) SUNY Oswego, which doesn’t have quite all the programs but he likes the location enough to consider it.
Then there are some mid-price schools (in the $30,000s) that have similar programs to the “cheap” schools but are close – Binghamton, URI, and maybe Buffalo (not sure the actual cost but think it might end up in the 30,000s somewhere). He is also going to go ahead and apply to UMass Amherst (even though we have reservations about whether he would be happy there).
Finally there are some schools that are reaches financially (in the $40,000s according to NPCs) and are reaches for admission too, but have programs he is really excited about and would feel okay using all his savings for. Those are CWRU, Georgia Tech, Northeastern, & RPI (all of which he loves the programs but isn’t enthusiastic about the setting); also Lehigh, Tufts, and RIT. This set of 7 reaches probably won’t work out, but they have the best set of the programs he is interested in, and he wants to apply, so that’s what he’ll do. (If he asks my opinion, I’ll probably recommend dropping RPI & Tufts, but he hasn’t so far.)
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What are the majors? Often you find them buried in other departments or you can make a major - a criminology in sociology, a data science in CS or Stats… Neuro is similar.
If you dig deep, there might be a way to cover his interests - if the school overall works.
Those you listed - I’m guessing he can find them or some aspect of them in existing programs.
Plus and I don’t love these kind - you also have this.
Self-Designed Track - Bachelor of University Studies - University of Maine (umaine.edu)
btw - Kansas State gets raves on here (but not easy to get to) and MS State is excellent for engineering - easier but not easy to get to - but will your son be ok not being to come home on holidays, etc. given your cost concerns?
Before you finalize your list, consider looking at schools that have “ischools” or “information schools.” Those programs often combine many of your son’s interests — focusing on user experience and mixing some elements of computer science, library science, user experience, psychology, and marketing/business.
The one I am most familiar with is University of Washington but I wouldn’t recommend that one for you because of cost, distance, and difficulty of admission to the major and to the Honors College. But I believe University of Pittsburg and University of Missouri have them, among others.
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@CMA22’s post made me think about schools with informatics or information/science schools. Of the 246 schools that College Navigator indicates that offers those majors, these are the ones that rang some bells for me (either via familiarity because they’ve been mentioned already, or wondering if the school’s been considered). Also, all blue linked words (outside of university names) lead to the associated resource I found for that info.
Bradley (IL): About 4100 undergrads. ABET-accredited for industrial engineering, among other areas. Within the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and Technology department there’s also an engineering management concentration and a process engineering concentration. Its psychology courses include cognitive psychology, analysis of behavior, human factors psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, etc. Now, how often those classes are offered is a different question, but they’re at least there. Also, it has a Center for Collaborative Brain Research, if that aligns with his interests. There’s a major in User Experience Design (BA/BS) that seems like it might interest him as well. (It also seems as though Bradley could have some work done on its website with respect to user experience design…it’s definitely not very intuitive!) Within the Computer Science & Information Systems department there’s a concentration in Data Science and the Computer Information Systems major includes business communication and project management classes. Within the Entrepreneurship, Technology and Law department there are majors in Business Analytics as well as Management Information Systems. And there’s an honors program. I believe you indicated the COA was about $31k, and that probably included the “extra” expenses that are inconsistent across colleges. Peoria does have its own airport (9m from Bradley), but one layover would be needed to get to Boston.
Slippery Rock: (PA ) About 6800 undergrads. ABET-accredited for Industrial & Systems Engineering. There’s a major in Cognitive Science as well. Its major in Information Systems includes management, accounting and business topics as well as tech topics. Through CS there’s also a concentration in Computing Analytics. It’s about half the size of UMass-Lowell and with a sticker price of about $25k, it would be well within budget. And there’s an honors college. So although this school is closer than some others, I suspect your son would likely still prefer SUNY Oswego, but at least wanted to make you aware of this one. There are 3-6 nonstop flights per day to Pittsburgh from Boston, and then a 50m drive from there (alternatively, it’s a 9h drive from Wheaton College in MA).
U. of Minnesota – Twin Cities: About 39k undergrads. According to the NPC, when I indicated an intended major of Industrial & Systems Engineering and an EFC of $300k (i.e. no need-based aid), it included $15k in merit aid, which would mean that costs would be about $32k (tuition, room & board, no books, transportation, etc). According to Google Maps, there are 7-9 nonstop flights per day between Boston and Minneapolis (flight time of 3-hours), which could be easier transportation-wise than Kansas State or Mississippi State. (The university is a 20m drive from the airport.)
It offers an ABET-accredited major in Industrial and Systems Engineering, among others. There appear to be a number of cognitive science related courses within the psychology department as well (and since it offers an MS and a PhD in cog sci, the related coursework in the undergrad program is almost certainly offered with some frequency). The Sustainable Systems Management degree seems as though it might interest your son as well as it includes foundation courses in math and science, business and economics, and history and policy. Within the business school, there are majors in Management Information Systems and Finance & Risk Management Insurance, which both seem more quantitatively based. There’s also a Data Science major within the College of Science and Engineering. There’s a major in linguistics and a BA in Statistical Practice and a BS in Statistical Science. There’s a minor is User Experience Design and a Bachelor of Individualized Studies that allows students to form their own major across three areas, one of which may be outside the College of Liberal Arts (i.e. business or engineering) and two fields within (i.e. psychology, math, CS, linguistics). The Honors Program has holistic review for entrance, so I don’t know how competitive it is (especially in comparison with UMass’s), but I certainly think it’s worth a shot, and there is no additional fee for participation in honors.
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Thank you! I will look at these more. We actually had put Slippery Rock on his list, but then it looked like it requires a separate, non-common app application, and that seemed overwhelming. And not being on the common app made me wonder if it was a legit school or not.
I admit, part of the reason Bradley fell off the list was because we found their website so terrible to navigate and get the information that he wanted.
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Slippery Rock is one of the better PASSHE universities. PASSHE applications are very simple; many don’t even ask for a personal statement.
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