Stats:
My son has a 1590 (800 math/790 english) on SAT and 800 on Math 2 and 800 on SAT Chem
He has a 3.9 UW Average. 4.25 weighted - highest weighting in his school would be 4.5 but you can’t take all honors and AP so it’s lower than that.
He plays the baritone sax, is an Eagle Scout, and has science-related clubs.
He is an AP Scholar with 6 APs so far (incluidng a 5 on BC Calc) and taking 5 more currently (including Physics C.)
He is a TA in AP Chem this year.
He’s applying for Chemical Engineering.
The schools that might give him Merit on his list are below…
Bucknell
Lafayette
RPI
WPI
Case Western
UConn
Lehigh
Northeastern
URoch
We do not qualify for need. He is applying to Cornell, UPenn, and MIT (although chances for getting in seem slim.)
What are his chances for merit if he gets in and what might he expect to receive?
@cfscollege My D17 had similar credentials as your DS. And she is a ChemE major!
She has 2 schools from your DS’ list. She got $29,500/yr from Case but waitlisted at Lehigh. She was very upset with her result with Lehigh as she was hoping for their full tuition scholarship. She visited; talked to the admission lady when they visited her school; email-communicated with them during application cycle. I think she has the most demonstrated interest with Lehigh than all her other schools. She emailed the admission lady and asked why she was waitlisted. The lady emailed her back saying she was in deed at the top of their applicants pool, but they can’t admit everyone from the top. She basically told my D they practice yield protection. So be aware since your DS will be at the top of their pool as well!
I know that MIT and ivies do not give aid if he gets in we will make it work. i just might never retire! I’d like to knock 20-25000 off the ticket at the schools in the middle list.
U of Delaware has a highly tanked ChemE program and they offer merit $ to OOS students. The campus is in a large suburban town with lots of rgreat shops/restaurants/activities within walking distance - Main St. in the town center runs right through the middle of the UD campus, making very integrated campus/town community.
Those are great stats! By any chance has he also just been names a National Merit Semi-finalist? If so, I know that Northeastern gives $30K to NMFs. The other schools that I have looked into on your list with some good merit (although competitive it seems) are WPI, Lafayette, URochester.
As previously mentioned, the reach schools on the list don’t do merit scholarships, just need based.
My daughter, also a chem E, was accepted to Lehigh but $0 merit money. She saw a good deal of money from RPI. Those were the only two schools from your list that overlapped with hers so hopefully more folks will chime in.
My younger son graduated with a Chemical Engineering degree and also had high stats. He went to UAlabama for almost free. Our net annual cost was maybe $6k per year, at most.
Alabama has amazing facilities with its newly built 1,000,000 square feet of additional STEM academic space. The goal was to have STEM facilities that rivaled MIT. The federal gov’t and state poured millions and millions into the complex. The complex is amazing.
@cfscollege He would most likely get something like $30,000 from Case.
FWIW, my dh and oldest ds are both chemEs. They both have fantastic careers and their careers have not been controlled by their UG schools. My ds attended a small state tech U, graduated in the middle of the recession (2011), and had a greater starting salary than the avg top school grads today. He had a strong resume (he co-oped for 12 months, did UG research, and graduated with honors}. Now, 7 yrs later, he has had multiple promotions and is beyond yrs of experience-level expectations.
Our kids have very small college budgets. Our current college grad (majored in physics and math) attended UAlabama for UG on full scholarship. He actually lived very frugally and spent his summers doing UG research and REUs, so he graduated from college with $$ in the bank. ) Bama did not hold him back at all. He is doing exactly what he dreamed of back in high school.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t want to be more than 5 hours away from home (Connecticut.) He’s also more interested in the smaller schools on the list. Thanks for all of the input. I will look at that ChemE thread for sure!
If he doesn’t want to be more than five hours from home…then Case Western needs to come off the list. It’s an 8 1/2 hour drive to Cleveland…and that’s when there is no construction.
And unless you are in far western CT, Rochester is more than five hours too.
