What are some colleges with great merit scholarships?
I would prefer less than 4 hour drive from NYC with good engineering programs.
I was thinking maybe UCONN or URI because I hear some state schools give good aid, but I really have no idea.
Stats:
GPA: 94.6 unweighted 95.8 weighted
ACT: 34 (36 Reading, 35 English, 31 Math, and 35 Science) Probably going to send this.
SAT (New): 1450 (710 Reading + Writing, 740 Math)
Maybe in the top 10% of my class, if not then definitely top 15%
I already know I would get good money at Stony Brook.
Can you afford the OOS tuition, room and board? Have you run the Net Price Calculators on the school’s web sites? Most state school do NOT give good aid to out of state students. Some notable exceptions not far from NY are Alabama, Ohio State, Temple.
My daughter is at UCONN. She also wanted to stay under a 4 hour drive. When she applied 2 years ago, with the old SAT, you had to be in top 10% of your HS class and have a certain SAT score…I believe it was 1350 or higher. You can call or search their website for an up to date answer. Not sure what the $ amount would have been…as she was in top 12%…but I do not believe UCONN gives as much as many other schools. She got merit $ from Penn State, nothing from UCONN. Kids in her school that did get merit from UCONN got much more from other schools and so they picked the other schools. One boy ended up at Maryland and one girl is at Kentucky.
From http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ , perhaps Howard and Temple, though they may be changing their scholarship programs from what this list says (check their own web sites).
University of Scranton has accredited engineering programs and would likely give good merit money based on your stats.
A good place to start looking is by going through the list of schools with ABET accredited programs. If you’re serious about engineering an accredited program is essential.
It allows you to search by state/region, so you can formulate a list from there and then dig deeper into the schools to see what their admissions stats are and what type of aid they offer.
State schools, with the exception of UVA and UNC, do not give good need-based aid - however, some give good merit money. So how much can your family afford, and what’s your EFC?
With your stats you should not limit yourself to just state schools, but should also explore private options that maybe don’t have super-high name recognition but have solid programs and are willing to offer merit aid to high-stat students. To really see good merit aid, you should target schools where you are in the top 15% or so of admitted applicants. Others will tell you you could get admitted to “better” schools, and while it’s true your stats could get you into schools with higher name recognition, remember the goal is to get the best education you can that is affordable to you and your family.