Need guidance! What highly rated engineering (mechanical or computer science) offer generous merit scholarships? My son is Hispanic with a 1530 SAT and 4.22/4.33. His only extracurricular is varsity soccer.
Or is it worth going into dept to go to a top engineering school such as Carnegie Mellon or MIT? TIA
What is his unweighted GPA?
If it is high then maybe Pitt, Ohio State, USC, Duke, Vanderbilt, Wash U, or Case Western.
CM and MIT give little or no merit aid only need based aid.
Have you run the net price calculators at top schools? Taking out his federal loans does not seem unreasonable for an engineering major ($28K total). He should run the calculators at MIT, CMU, Harvey Mudd, and your state flagship.
If he applies to a top engineering school, he will be going to a school where everyone else is a top candidate. There will be extreme competition for the few dollars they may have. (Been there, done that)
My “Hispanic” son was also a top SAT scorer and won National Merit. He was one of many. Many top schools give scholarships based on need. If you don’t have a significant need, then expect not to be funded. Merit scholars applying to top schools is very common.
When you apply to those schools, you need to expect to be one of hundreds of similar candidates.
I agree with aunt bea - the top schools (including TAMU) give very little merit based aid as most applicants are high achieving students.
I hope your son was awarded the National Hispanic Merit Scholar award. That was the best award my daughter received in terms of automatic merit aid. Her stats were nearly identical to your son’s - 1520 SAT, 4th in her class of 570, 10 AP exams (9 fives, 1 four), varsity soccer player. A&M (her first choice) offered her a total of $24K ($14K National Hispanic Scholar and $10K Lechner). We tried to request more merit aid but were essentially told to be happy with what was offered as most students get much less. After visiting TAMU we felt she would just be number in their engineering school - 13,000 undergrads in just the engineering school seems like a ridiculous number and they are trying to increase that number.
She decided to attend the University of Kentucky. We visited primarily because of the full scholarship they offer to Hispanic Merit Scholars (full tuition and room and board for 4 years) but were surprised and impressed by the programs they offered. She was accepted into their Scholars in Engineering and Management (SEAM) honors program which has about 60 freshman engineering and business majors. She was chosen to participate in their mentoring and research program at the UK Center for Applied Energy Research (about 50 undergrad minority students in the program). They also have a 5 year MBA program for engineering majors (not offered at TAMU). She knows it is not a “top” ranked engineering program but she has many more opportunities and is able to shine in their program instead of being a part of the “very deep bench” TAMU was so proud of telling us about on our visit.
She also received a very generous package from the University of Oklahoma ( 4 years tuition and first year room and board). There are several good schools that offer full tuition to National Hispanic Scholars. Look at the posts in the Hispanic Student forum for more information.