I’m hoping he’ll be awarded this scholarship with his stats. At the very least it gives in-state tuition, which helps!
This is where a Murray State - has a table so you’ll see up front, a Michigan Tech (maybe not great merit), a Missouri S&T (believe estimates scholarships online) and a UAH are good. UAH is “suburban” at best…but little hustle and bustle but lots of aerospace. Tennessee Tech will be another.
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Is Murray State what you were referring to upstream? I will check those out. I forgot about Missouri S&T. Thank you.
Do any of you have leads on mid to larger schools that will provide a smaller classroom? Or is that not a thing with these research universities. He wants to go somewhere the focus is on undergrad teaching; not sure if that’s wise if you are majoring in engineering.
Miami University (OH) may have a chance of getting you to the $25k price point. You may want to recalculate his GPA using the formula in the footnote to see if he is in the top group. Of course, he would still have to get the top end of the range.
ETA: I don’t think that I have seen a merit only award at Grinnell for more than $25k/year.
NMTech (small town/rural area) with WUE might come in within your budget.
Tech isn’t a LAC, but it’s not all science all the time either. Has some pretty good liberal arts options. Lots of outdoor activities, including world class climbing nearby. Campus owns its own championship level golf course.
Tech offers all kinds of internship opportunities with the two National Laboratories (Los Almost and Sandia), AF Research Lab on Kirtland AFB in ABQ, White Sands Missle Range, Intel and several other companies along the I-25 corridor in NM
Here are two smaller, private schools to consider. They are both ABET-accredited, which is really important if your son decides to be an engineer, as many employers won’t hire someone without a degree from an ABET-accredited school:
- Grove City (PA ): About 2200 students at this private college in rural Pennsylvania; ABET-accredited, residential campus. Sticker price is $31k and your son would be likely to get merit (possibly even one of its full rides).
- Ohio Northern: About 2000 students at this private school on a residential campus in Ohio. It has many ABET-accredited programs. Its Net Price Calculator also includes what kind of academic scholarships your son might expect.
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Michigan State offers some full ride scholarships. Of note is that not all scholarships are listed. My d got a full ride scholarship that was a surprise because we had not heard of that scholarship. It sounds like your son would do well on the ADS competition, which involves taking a test and is run as a recruitment day, with much information presented and tours and meals. The un
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Another option to consider would be U. of Idaho. It’s part of the WUE exchange. It only has 6900 students, is ABET-accredited, and has D1 sports, should that be appealing to your son. WUE tuition is $9300, and I wouldn’t be surprised if your son got a better deal.
Montana State: This one’s a bit larger with about 14,000 students and a gorgeous area for those who love the outdoors. About $8500 for WUE tuition.
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College Navigator - Search Results is a search list of colleges with under 10,000 undergraduates in rural or town areas and which have at least one major in “Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services” and at least one major in “Engineering” (of course, some majors in these categories may not be what the student is looking for, so details need to be looked at).
(Note that the list gets larger if the size limit is increased, or suburban as well as rural or town is selected.)
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No. The great thing about engineering/cs students is that there are a lot of them just like that!
Be careful then: you may be limiting the options artificially. Most colleges are NOT in the ‘hustle and bustle’ of a city! most are suburban or smaller towns. And, even the exceptions (such as Vanderbilt) do not necessarily feel like being in a city when on campus. Maybe just say ‘not urban, with good access to outdoor activities’.
And, about size: places such as Miami of Ohio are big- but the engineering/cs cohort is a smaller cohort. At bigger schools focus on the size of the engineering/cs groups within the university. Again, as above: engineers tend to stick together!
Finally, remember that for engineering if it is ABET accredited he will be fine- have him spend time on the department websites to ID the ones whose program emphases are most interesting to him.
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I would also pay attention to whether the college admits by major. Computer science in particular is a heavily impacted major with far more students who want to major in it than there are spots available. So:
- See if students have to apply to the major (and then get direct entry into the major from high school)
- If it’s a secondary admission (meaning that a student is accepted to the college, but then once in college needs to apply to be a CS or engineering major), what are the secondary requirements? If your son meets the requirements is he automatically in, or is there some kind of selection process that happens? If the latter, what percentage of students are accepted to their major?
- Check and see how easy it is to change majors, especially among the higher-demand majors (i.e. CS and engineering).
Some colleges admit students and allow them to change majors into any major. Other colleges, students may not get the major they want or need to transfer to a different college to get the desired major. Pay attention to the various options as you look at your college list.
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One college I would recommend is Grand Valley State University. It is in Allendale, Michigan in a rural area right outside of Grand Rapids. With your son’s stats, you could get in state tuition plus $8000 a year. If he got into the honors college, because he is first generation, he could qualify for a full tuition scholarship. In addition to all of this, they have a huge scholarship database. Some of the scholarship are for middle class families who do not qualify for aid. They have a good engineering and computer science program. COA for instate, which your son would qualify for, is about $24,000 a year.
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