NYU gives poor FA. You should run the net price calculators on each school website to see what your cost might be.
As poster #5 pointed out, demonstrated interest is not considered by USC. Since you already know that USC is your top choice, there is no reason to spend the money on a pre-admission visit (or even on post-admission visit for that matter). Your parents are being smart about this.
Are your parents worried you won’t get in or the cost of attendance is too high if you do get in? It’s an important distinction.
You need to sit down with them and have a heart to heart with them. Communication with your parents is critical in the college admission process.
Viterbi acceptance rates are well below the 13% btw, they are actually under 10%. It is also very small number of students that get in to Viterbi - it is not a huge school by any means. USC as a dream school for anyone is too risky (and if you haven’t seen it, why the “dream” status anyway?) At this point, don’t travel unless accepted. And even then, USC is one of the priciest schools out there.
EC’s are something everyone brings to the table…the kid that had his pilot’s license applying to aeronautical engineering or designed a special water system etc are example of stand outs. Engineering type ECs are actually good and not to be under rated. Most other EC’s are pretty comparable - whether art, or a committed volunteer, or active in theater, Speech and Debate - they are all gonna be viewed pretty even. It’s more how everything comes together overall to make an applicant interesting and if it fits the piece of the puzzle they are looking for.
Try to get better understanding about what is possible financial wise so you aren’t disappointed when results come out. Deal with that now (even better before applying, but that ship sailed). Boulder, if affordable, is a gorgeous school, their OOS scholarship is like 9k if I remember correctly. You have a great attitude of making it work wherever. If you feel you haven’t applied to enough schools, you may want to start a post with “Engineering schools still taking applications?” to get more suggestions. It’s a super helpful crowd on CC.
thanks for the advice
it’s at the ‘dream’ status mostly due to its great combination of location, education, and social scene
LA and west coast has always felt like a dream to me, never really have felt right in TX
i realize my unique EC will be a hit or miss for admissions, some may prefer diversity some may just want the average eng. type kid.
I posted a discussion with that title, thank u so much!
I filled out USC’s cost estimator
Estimated net price is 14k, with 54k estimated gift aid .
Are these numbers deceiving in any way?
I will admit, my low efc and such is much in part due to my mom filing me under her 2017 taxes, and with a upper middle class dad paying for schools won’t be too tough if I am gifted aid and/or scholarships to get me around the 20k mark, I am financially suited to go
Are your parents divorced? If so, the net price calculators probably won’t be accurate. You would get less aid than they show. Be sure you meet all the financial aid deadlines for paperwork at the schools.
Can you even afford full pay at A&M (I assume you are not in eng for UT)? How much can you afford? Have you got some safeties with merit? TT? UTD? UH? As you cite your parents finances separately, it seems to me you won’t get much FA. They expect your dad to cough up, whatever the living arrangements.
Don’t pay for OOS to a school inferior to A&M. Your parents sound on the ball.
University of Alabama at Huntsville has rolling admissions. And no essay or teacher recommendation needed.
OOS students with high stats can qualify for free tuition.
UAH is situated in a Research park area, plus Space and Rocket center. Lots of internship and co-op jobs for students. Very good engineering reputation.
Huntsville is not a typical southern town due to influx of military from around the world coming to Redstone Arsenal for many decades.
He’s got safeties already in ASU and CU, so presumably he’s looking for schools “better” than those 2 that he can still apply to.
USC has an accepted students day, don’t visit until you get in. Good luck!
Way better than CU in aerospace? Okay then.
But how are you going to pay for these schools? Arizona State has much better FA than Colorado, but both are expensive.
Leaning toward CS, in which boulder is good, not great. I understand CU’s prestige in aerospace, but the USC Astro dept interests me much more since they hired Garrett Reisman, director of space operations at SpaceX (if i choose aero/astro), but right now currently leaning toward CS.
Combination of merit/FA to pay for azst/cu.
Parents are willing to pay around 20k/yr and can negotiate if its really worth it, like USC, though through their financial aid calculator, if im admitted supposedly ill pay 15k/year.
Honestly got really lucky with parents financial status. As previously mentioned, my EFC is 10k though my parents could easily make that 20-25 range.
Your original posted made it sound like your parents couldn’t afford a $300 trip to USC, so assumed money was an issue. Very unlikely you could go to CU for $25k as an OOS student.
Correction to earlier post, the OOS scholarship at Boulder is $6,250 per year (I was thinking of Oregon). OOS fees are about 55k, so that $6250 doesn’t make much of a dent. You are still paying close to $50k a year, less any FA.
OP, just asking, how much do you know about USC, itself, location, campus activities, and more? It’s a great school, but you seem to speak of the location, Los Angeles, the west coast and I’m not sure what you know about all that. I love CA, but I know it. And I know what’s challenging there, too. Don’t make this so much about “California Dreamin’” that you forget the week to week college part.
Plus, Reisman will teach undergrads, but right now, who knows what access that will be? He may work with a small handful of select seniors, for all we know, those capable of working alongside grad students. His schedule could be such (true of many famous names with “faculty” titles,) where his presence is minimal.
And if your parents are divorced, you do need to look into how your father’s income and assets will be assessed. You make it seem your mother has custody, but USC will count his income, as well, via the CSS profile.
While USC was my older daughter’s dream school, I did not let her travel there from Florida until after admission. She got in, visited and then committed immediately. There is no real reason to waste money on travel before admission. Financial Aid was also a critical factor for our family, and it thankfully worked out with USC… so much so that both of my daughters enrolled at USC. We even were able to deal with one overlap year with both girls attending simultaneously. In our case, USC was the third most generous in terms of financial aid, behind only Princeton and Emory and on par with Rice. Of course, every family’s financial situation is different.
Good luck getting in…
thanks!!
Anticipation is killing me aha. but yea I should definitely wait until admission, as student interest is not considered at all in application.
Did your family complete the net price/financial aid calculator for USC?
If so, are the numbers you received similar, also did you aid you get consist of any loans?
Thanks for the advice.
Again, are your parents going to fill in the FA applications as a married couple? With a single household?
Please answer the question about your parents. It completely drives your FA situation. Since you said your mom claimed you on her taxes, it sounds like they may not be married.