In addition to the sound advice that ED will not be useful for you, your son will likely have to complete many applications to get a range of merit/FA. He will need to start early. Also, make sure that you know important dates. Especially for merit consideration.
University of Pittsburgh has also been a traditional source of excellent merit aid. These are competitive, but some folks get a full ride including housing.
These are good stats, but I am not sure they will garner significant merit aid at Pitt.
Is he retaking the SAT…hoping to improved that 680 score?
Will he or did he take the ACT?
Another vote for Rowan. You won’t get the “prestige” factor, but you will get brand new, state of the art facilities at a growing school and they throw a lot of merit money at kids with good stats to entice them away from bigger name schools. You would be out of state, but total cost with no merit I think would come in under $40k. They also have an honors college you could apply to for perks with housing and early registration.
@thumper1 …yes he will retake the SAT and take the ACT.
UMass Lowell. You could be eligible for a full tuition scholarship. Are you close enough to commute if you had to. Lowell is a great choice for engineering. You need to be realistic about where you are going. It is doubtful anything in NE will be cheaper. You’re not getting a full ride from privates. @Skippy00
@Skippy00 Oh he’s aeronautical. They are great with aerospace but he needs to seriously consider going to UAH. That is where NASA is and they are ranked high for aeronautical and they are the best value for engineering.
Here are their competitive scholarships, lots of them. Even ones for kids who have been to space camp.
https://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/find-a-scholarship
Automatic merit scholarships.
https://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships
H would get a full tuition scholarship. Would cost about 12-13k the first year. He can work in the summer starting this one for school money. The upperclassmen years could be less expensive if he lives off campus. He should try to be earning 2k a summer. With his Stafford loans ($5500, $6500, $7500, $7500) and his summer job, your total cost as a parent is about 5 or 6 k and he might win a competitive scholarship to decrease that.
Huntsville.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsville,_Alabama
This is probably going to be the only one in your budget except for commuting to UMass Lowell which could be almost free (less than 5k).
Well, not the “only” one – if willing to travel south (as would be needed to attend UAH), there are other schools with full rides and engineering majors:
https://www.tuskegee.edu/programs-courses/scholarships/freshman-scholarships (3.50 HS GPA, 1390 SAT = full ride)
https://www.pvamu.edu/faid/types-of-aid/scholarships/university-scholarships/ (3.50 HS GPA, 1260 SAT = full ride)
The following scholarship is not entirely clear whether it is automatic or competitive:
http://www.aamu.edu/admissions/fincialaid/documents/academicscholarshipbrochure1819x.pdf (3.75 HS GPA, 1310 SAT = full ride)
https://galileo.aamu.edu/scholarship/ (separate application for scholarships)
Awesome thank you!
Is your son a URM?
@thumper1 what is a URM?
An underrepresented minority. Probably because HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) were listed in Post #47 Anyone can go to an HBCU though. There are still some that are offering good scholarships. Used to be more.
@Skippy00 Do not have your DS apply to Georgia Tech, they are really bad when it comes to financial aid for OOS and they don’t give a lot of merit to OOS. Look at Lafayette, they have given my students great financial aid in the past and Ed Dennis who runs out of state admissions is a really nice, approachable guy.
Since you are new to this, read the book “The College Solution” and the website by the same name. The author is an expert in the financial aspects of college admission. We read everything by her and our kids got great merit aid and have no loans. There is a website the author talks about called DIY 50 that we used to find good merit.
Understand that you don’t really get great financial aid at out of state universities with the exception of U of Michigan and UVA so if your son wants to attend an out of state university then it is the amount of merit scholarships. that will matter. With respect to private colleges, what will matter is the percentage of financial need a school will meet. Although all colleges offer financial aid, they do not all meet “need” at the same rate. One reasons low-income students apply to the ivies and Stanford is because those schools are good at meeting 100% of financial need. Look at the College Solution and she will teach you via an article and an example how to find the 100% meets need schools and how to interpret the kind of aid given on a website like collegedata.com One thing to be aware are schools who say they meet need 100% but the aid given are huge loans (like Georgia Tech) so they don’t really meet need if they give you $40K in loans.
Remember you want an ABET accredited engineering school, try for direct admit to the engineering program and if possible, the flexibility of changing majors if your son decided a particular type of engineering is not for them. Alabama is a school recommended but also look at University of Tulsa (they have some good merit and engineering), Bucknell, Clarkson and Santa Clara are some that come to mind. I know it is not his geographic area, but New Mexico has generous merit and it could fall within your budget.
Get a copy of “Paying for College Without Going Broke”. It might not solve your financial issues, but it will give you some pointers…and it’s a good read!
Hi everyone…I know some of you recommended UA but it is not an affordable option for us. Yes I know the NPC isn’t accurate but it can only be more expensive than cheaper right? Well with our income and the UA Scholar merit and the Pell Grant we are at $26k.
did you look at this page on the UAH website?
https://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/costs
You should realize that your son expect take out the Stafford student loans available to him to cut down on your out of pocket expenses.
@menloparkmom yes I did. UAH is a better bargain but like someone mentioned maintaining a minimum GPA in engineering is tough so the merit aid may not last which could create an issue.
If you qualify for a Pell grant, then it is possible that Northeastern’s Expected Family Contribution would be as low as $9K (as you mention in #36). Some private schools are even better than NEU with need-based aid.
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2017-09-21/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need
However, many of these “full need” schools either are super selective or don’t have engineering programs.
Is there an in-state public college with engineering programs that is within commuting distance from home (or from a relative’s home)? A combination of “self help” and grants might drive the cost for in-state tuition & fees well below $10K.
“UAH is a better bargain but like someone mentioned maintaining a minimum GPA in engineering is tough so the merit aid may not last which could create an issue.”
skippy00, that is not a good enough reason NOT to apply there.
your son is smart. if he really works at it he can maintain a 3.0 GPA. 3.5 is much harder to maintain.