$25k after aid is purely need based (at Cornell).
Do you have need or are full pay ? Hard to understand from your email above with all the #s - are they merit or not ? You can see at their NPC how you’d do. Cornell is strong in engineering - not easy to get to. If you have extra apps - there’s 20 on common, you can try Pitt. Merit unlikely but you never know. The other year they gave an app waiver if you did an online info session. Not sure if they still do.
Only UVA and UNC meet need at publics but others have big merit. So UConn etc not sure if what you saw was merit aid or not.
I think a 4 on a 4.33 might still be a 4. It just means straight A but no A+.
Have you looked at U Maine or UNH ?
If you are NMSF, Tulsa will be free. If NMF, check out U Maine, RIT, NJIT, and not really far - U of Kentucky.
It’s the golden ticket to savings, even in the Northeast - especially Maine and NJIT.
As for smaller classes, someone mentioned Clarkson.
Don’t mistake Honors for smaller classes overall. Some classes will be Honors but not most. My kid has smaller non honors classes than honors but she’s in a smaller school and smaller major. A large public with large engineering school will likely have mainly large classes even if in honors because honors is few classes. That was my son at Bama. But check the honors curriculum, they are different everywhere and not all kids like them. But if you want small classes all around, go to a smaller school - like a Maine vs uMass etc or a Clarkson as someone mentioned upthread.
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It sounds like you’ll have excellent options in your geographical area. You have a strong student and will qualify for need based aid. If you don’t want to send your daughter far, there’s no reason to. I would be shocked if RPI doesn’t send significant merit aid in addition to need based aid - we’ve seem some extremely generous packages to attract strong female engineers. Case also offered sufficient merit only aid to my daughter to meet your budget. You might consider University of Rochester as well - they offer both need and merit and strong in engineering and is actually in your geographic preference. If you’re interested in chasing big merit awards, especially if she’s NMSF you’ll find no shortage of threads talking about all the southern schools that are options. If you’re comfortable spending your budget and want to stay in your stated geographic preference she’ll have options.
I forgot to add Maine - it was only $13K - that’s total COA for out of state after merit only awards for my son who did not have your daughter’s stats. It will be incredibly affordable.
Does your daughter have a preference on size, rural/city etc?
Unless not possible due to some restrictions, it is generally better to apply non binding early action wherever possible, and apply as early as possible to rolling admission schools. Some colleges or popular majors fill up early.
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Missed the comment but to expand on this - there’s certain schools - like Purdue since it was mentioned and Maryland…if you don’t do EA, you’re not going. They’re near impossibilities to get in.
Then there’s other schools - like an Emory (not for engineering) but they have ED and RD - but they’ll set up an earlier deadline (used to be Nov 1) for merit consideration - so even if RD, you had to apply early.
And then there’s Pitt - you can get in later but near impossible to snake merit if you don’t apply ASAP.
So @ucbalumnus is 100% spot on - not only is it worth applying EA if they offer it, but you should do so 100% of the time.
The only exception I can think of might be if you’re borderline grade wise and want to wait for first semester - but that’s not your case with such strong grades.
My DS had similar stats/classes/ecs when applying to college two years ago. He was going for Electrical Eng, and ended up picking up a CS minor. We are from NJ. Here are the schools he got into, and the Cost of Attendance after merit aid. Maybe it’ll give you some idea of what to expect!
Maine 0rono (honors college) $15,184.00
Case Western $42,126.00
Colorado School of Mines $40,482.00
Rowan (honors college, in state) $7,952.00
Rutgers (honors college, in state) $21,834.00
NJIT (honors college, in state) $4,560.00
Pitt (honors college) $28,250.00
Rose Hulman $41,690.00
Clarkson $30,998.00
Georgia Tech (honors program) $44,710.00
Northeastern (honors college) $43,362.00
RPI $44,904.00
Stevens $48,520.00
Michigan $56,506.00
Cornell $47,682.00 (this COA was after financial aid - no merit here)
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If she’d like to attend the university that graduated the first female engineer in America she could go to Ohio State.
ECE is a direct admit major and a very supportive department. If she applies then in addition to the university merit scholarships, she should also apply to their special scholarships once that application opens since the CoE and ECE department have additional merit to award.
EA is important to maximize merit (and required for Eminence/Stamps a competitive full ride that requires meeting the EA deadline, indication of interest in honors program and a separate application).
CMU is not good for merit. Its FA is questionable too. DD got laughable 5k in FA.
“The average non-need-based scholarship or grant awarded to first-year students at Carnegie Mellon University – excluding any athletic scholarships, if applicable – was $9,471.
Carnegie Mellon University met 97% of its students’ financial aid need. Read below to learn more about the types of aid available.”
Source US News.
Based on this average your daughter was on the low end so may not be appropriate to extrapolate her experience as universal.
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To be accurate: CMU does not provide merit aid at all.
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Perhaps USNews hasn’t updated their information. CMU did use to provide merit scholarships in the past, but they no longer do.
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Of course, how CMU defines “need” may vary from that of other colleges…
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Hi All, Thanks to the useful feedback on CMU. We visited CMU last week and their slide on aid said the following: " CMU is
NEED-BLIND & NEED-BASED
your ability to pay will not affect Financial aid* is based only on your
you admission chances demonstrated ability to pay
*Financial aid is only offered to U.S. Citizens,permanent residents
and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) students
next slide:
CMU offers need-based aid only
What you’ll submit to apply for financial aid:
. FAFSA
. CSS Profile
. Tax Documents
Deadlines to apply for financial aid:
Early Decision 1
Dec 2023
Early Decision 2
Jan 2 2024
Regular Decision
Feb 15 2024
That being said, I agee with ucbalumnus - how they define “need” is up to them. The college is great (so is U.Pitt nearby) and there is many reddits on how intense the ECE program at CMU is.
Ohio State wasnt on our radar but we will look into it. thanks
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Very useful feedback. thank you. We did visit many colleges in the past few weeks and DD has gotten a better understanding of size,rural/city etc.
Got few feedback here about U Maine. Looking at it now. Case campus is very nice(so is Rochester). RPI has great history, campus is OK but keep hearing stories of big aid. UConn campus was nice too. Cornell gave a glimpse of rural. UPitt and CMU gave idea of what urban campuses are like.
Thank you! We visited UPitt (based on feedback on this forum) and DD and family liked the campus. Visiting UPitt on gold day gave a code that waived the app fee.
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after visiting few colleges and reviewing the undergraduate college experience, we are really trying to find a good school(with research opportunities and opportunities to maybe switch across engineering options or minor) for half of $50k. This is 4 years of undergraduate engg education (1-1.5 years is just basic courses at that)
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Well if looking at Ohio State and Purdue then look at Michigan State honors program. For engineering it’s a great program with many advantages but your daughter might get also half tuition.
Also look at Rose Hulman. Women love this very small nerdy engineering school. I know a few that got into MIT but choose this over it. Half merit will be up for grabs and possibly more.
UDel is a great target and likely to get a lot of merit aid as well. Would add that to the list!
Early action is a non-binding application. IOW, you don’t have to accept the offer of admission until May when you also would have other offers. I would suggest applying early admission to EVERY college on your kid’s application list that has regular early action. NOTE…not early decision just early action. If any school has SCEA or REA, you will need to read the guidelines on where else you can apply if you choose this option at a college. It varies.
As noted…if you are applying to UMD CP you really need to do early action. The vast majority of their incoming class is accepted in the early round.
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