<p>If your parents are only willing to pay $30K, then you’re either going to need substantial need-based aid or substantial merit aid. Have you run FA calculators to get a general ballpark estimate of your EFC?</p>
<p>Keep in mind that many of the schools being tossed around here don’t meet 100% of need. That would include RPI (average 84% of need met) and Lehigh (average 96% of need met) as well as most or all of the public universities for OOS students. </p>
<p>But cost-of-attendance (COA) varies widely. At Minnesota—a top-25 engineering school where you’re virtually 100% certain of gaining admission—total COA for OOS students in 2010-2011 was $27,358. It will be a little higher for 2011-12 (they haven’t announced the new tuition rates yet) but it should be right in the $30K ballpark. There’s also the possibility of a small merit award to bring the cost down even further. So it seems to me that’s your safety, both on the admissions side and on the financial side (and a much better engineering school than Oregon State).</p>
<p>Doesn’t meet the “warm weather” criterion, though.</p>