<p>My son in a current Jr. His ACT as it stands - if he doesn't take it again - is 32. He has a 4.0 GPA and is taking all the AP classes school offers. He is thinking about a future in engineering - aeronautical or biological but isn't entirely sure yet. He knows grad school would likely be in his future but isn't ready yet to think that far ahead.
We live in the Midwest and he would like to stay within that area. Cost is a huge issue for us. We make good money but have 2 young daughters with severe special needs so we have many medical expenses and debt and no savings.<br>
Son would like to attend a college with some "prestige" while parents would prefer a Christian college. His school is small, city is small, he is a quiet kid, and I don't know if a big school would suit him although we will certainly visit so he can see.<br>
What direction should we point him in? Where do we start looking for aid? Can we even get aid when our taxes show good income but do not reflect the expenses we have? Does a big name school make a true difference to hiring companies?<br>
I'd love advice. This is our oldest child and I am admittedly intimidated at this prospect. </p>
<p>First of all, Congrats on your son - he has really fantastic stats that are going to open a lot of doors for him. Most schools don’t tend to have an aeronautical (or biological) engineering program, so that’s going to limit your S a lot if he’s looking for schools with those majors. Here are a few colleges that roughly meet your criteria, though:</p>
<p>-Purdue University.
-Andrews University.
-Kent State University.
-Western Michigan University.</p>
<p>Your son is likely to get very good aid packages at all of these schools, since he exceed their normal scores by a lot. That being said, none of them are exactly high-up on the ‘prestige’ scale in a general sense, though Purdue’s aeronautical engineering program is fairly well-known. </p>
<p>There are a couple very reputable universities outside of the Midwest that offer ABET-accredited engineering programs. These might be a financial reach, though. Schools like Syracuse and Renssaelear polytechnic institute.</p>
<p>What state are you in? Likely for Engineering, lower cost, good education, decent job prospects, your state flagship is definately the best bet. You’ll save on tuition and transportation and the state universities have some of the very best engineering programs. With a higher income, you can’t expect much if any financial help from the school. I understand that that you don’t feel big is best but the best bang for the buck in engineering is usually this route. </p>
<p>Many of the large schools have programs like learning communities to make the school smaller for those students that are looking for that.</p>
<p>It sounds as if you will need to rely on merit aid more than need-based. When you say you’d prefer a “Christian” college, do you mean a conservative, fundamentalist one, or are you open to a variety of faith-based institutions because you like the idea of underlying values? You are likeliest to earn merit aid at a college where your son’s statistics surpass the middle 50%. He would probably qualify for Honors programs at your own state schools, also.</p>
<p>^ This. I know for a fact Purdue gives out little aid to out of state students. As long as the program is ABET accredited your S should be fine. Also, go to the Financial Aid forum and look at the Stickied threads there. I know Alabama would offer close to full tuition to your S.</p>
<p>He sounds really competitive. Lafayette, Lehigh, Carnegie Mellon, College of Wooster, Kenyon are all small places that have some prestige. Financially they are expensive but you should qualify for a ton of aid if you have no savings. Christian College wise, Boston college, Wheaton, Whitmore. </p>
<p>Whitman******* and add St. Olaf</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. We live in Michigan. We are open to a variety of faith-based institutions - just prefer good values, not much for a party scene, Christian beliefs are a bonus. Aid will be a huge deciding factor.<br>
He will not be a NMF as he scored a 201 on the PSAT.<br>
At what point to you request financial aid from the schools? At time of applying? How does early decision factor into any of this? Thanks again.</p>
<p>Purdue will not be affordable…I have no idea why that person suggested that you would get a great FA pkg. </p>
<p>Use the NPCs on the schools websites.</p>
<p><<<<</p>
<p>but you should qualify for a ton of aid if you have no savings
<<<<<</p>
<p>Oh good heavens…this person is just making things up.</p>
<p>the problem that I see is that even with some nice merit awards at some nice privates, you may still have an unaffordable net cost. </p>
<p>A nice Christian private with eng/g is likely $50k+ per year. If your son got a $20k per year merit, it doesnt sound like you could pay the rest.</p>
<p>HOW MUCH can you pay each year towards college? $10k per year? more? less? </p>
<p>look at it this way…if you can pay $10k per year, and your son takes out a $5500 loan, then that combined would pay for fees, room, board, books…so he would need a free tuition scholarship to cover the rest.</p>
<p>Most schools do NOT meet need. </p>
<p>Even if the schools give some adjustment for the younger D’s medical expenses that arent covered by insuranc, there is a formula based on income…and then the result is NOT a dollar for dollar adjustment.</p>
<p>for instance…if you make $100k, and the uncovered medical expenses are $15k per year. Then schools first assume that 10% of income is 10k,…then they subtract 10k from 15k…and get 5k. Of that remaining $5k, they may increase aid by a couple thousand (but only if they can afford to do so). </p>
<p>with an income of 100k, your EFC will be about $22k…so maybe the school would adjust your EFC to 20k. </p>
<p>However, that does not mean that the school will give you aid for all the difference since most schools do not meet need…</p>
<p>to get very large merit, look at schools where his stats are in the top 5% of the school. </p>
<p>again, just getting token merit is not going to do it for you.</p>
<p>Make sure he applies to at least 3 financial safeties…these are schools where you know for sure how much merit he’d get and you know for sure that you have the rest of the costs covered.</p>
<p>dont to Early Decision because you need to compare pkgs. </p>
<p>You really need to use the NPCs and figure out how much YOU can spend each year.</p>
<p><<<<<
We are open to a variety of faith-based institutions - just prefer good values, not much for a party scene, Christian beliefs are a bonus. Aid will be a huge deciding factor.
<<<<<<</p>
<p>Frankly, unless the school is a bible school, there will be partying even at christian schools. When you get 18-22 year olds together there will be parties and sex. no way around that. </p>
<p>However, those in engineering at most schools tend to party less and be more academically-focused so even at big schools, he would likely find a group of like-minded quiet engineering students. </p>
<p>":like-minded quiet engineering students." Didn’t describe either of my sons at all. Engineers are diverse like other groups-one of mine was in a fraternity, both did their fair share of partying, and both did sports at either the intramural or club level. And both graduated with honors so go figure.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p><<<
he would likely find a group of like-minded quiet engineering students.
<<<</p>
<p>@sevmom I wrote “a group of …”</p>
<pre><code> I come from an entire family of engineers, so I certainly know that they are not all alike. but within a college’s school of engineering, this student would be able to find a group of like-minded quiet engineers…because there are those types on every campus.
</code></pre>
<p>My own engineering son was not quiet, and did his share of partying…even had a beer-pong table and led two intramural sports. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 3.99 gpa (one A-) and is now in med school. so I would never say that they are all the same.</p>
<p>Kenyon and Wooster are not good choices for an engineering major. There are many colleges in MI with ABET accredited programs. <a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx”>http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx</a> I imagine some of those are not too large.</p>
<p>I would highly recommend Umich #1 and MSU #2. Obviously ABET accredited and they are large enough that you’ll find like minded faith based organizations that your child will have hundreds of people with similar interests. Many, many …many, did I say many?, students don’t party at either school. This avenue will not only save you $20,000/yr (when many Engineering grads can talk 4 1/2 or 5 yrs), but will give your S a top notch engineering education.</p>
<p>Though UM is a large school, engineering is on the North campus and it is it’s own smaller world with a different feel from the Central campus and students still have access to all the opportunities throughout the whole system. My S is in the school of music which is also on the North campus and he has loved the feeling of going to a smaller school within a larger school. Also, being on North Campus is somewhat removed from the frat party culture, though as someone else stated it is hard to completely avoid it anywhere.
Calvin College is a Christian school in Grand Rapids with engineering programs. Also look at Grand Valley State and Michigan Tech for smaller schools. It’s hard to beat in state tuition and Michigan has great schools. At GVSU and MTU his stats may be high enough to land him some merit scholarships. GVSU is a smaller state school, very pretty and outside of Grand Rapids which is a generally more conservative area of the state. Best of luck!</p>
<p>Hope College in Michigan is a Christian college with engineering:
<a href=“http://hope.edu/admissions/academic-programs/majors-and-minors/engineering”>http://hope.edu/admissions/academic-programs/majors-and-minors/engineering</a></p>
<p>As others have noted, partying is common even at Christian colleges. Also, it might be a little easier to avoid parties at bigger schools because it is easier to form your own group of friends with similar values.</p>
<p>Do you know which schools have the least partying? The military academies! And all of them offer engineering majors. Then again, your son would really need to be interested in the military.</p>
<p>If instate for Mich, then Umich and MSU would work if affordable. They would be full-pay at Umich, and maybe some merit at MSU…but dont know if the merit would be enough to bring down cost. instate COA is highish in that state.</p>
<p>the op hasn’t yet said what they can pay, but reading between the lines, I am suspecting that $20k+ per year would be too much. I am guessing that the family may need a full tuition scholarship so that the remaining costs of room, board, books, fees, misc (about $15k per year) can be covered by parents and (if needed) a $5k student loan. </p>
<p>Personally, for eng’g, I like the bigger publics because they often have fabulous extensive facilities - which they’ve been able to obtain/justify because of their size. and, since employers can be lazy, they often go to the bigger ponds to fish for employees. The smaller-lesser-known privates with engg wont likely have the funding to have fabulous facilities. </p>
<p>Many large campuses these days are surrounded by churches/temples with activity-filled student centers so that students have a faith-based-home-away-from-home. </p>
<p>GVSU has its fair share of partying, as I understand it. It’s a great school at an unbeatable price for in-state students, but the party scene is pretty big compared to other colleges in West Michigan. Same goes for WMU. Michigan Tech is also absolutely top-notch and very underrated in the rankings (though not by employers), but it might have slightly more partying than the OP and son are comfortable with. It doesn’t have a separate aerospace engineering program, but the biomed programs are good: <a href=“Biomedical Engineering | Michigan Tech”>http://www.mtu.edu/biomedical/</a></p>
<p>I second the recommendations of Calvin and Hope for the right kind of campus environment. Calvin does have engineering, although its programs are in ChemE, CivE, EE/CPE, and MechE. Anecdotally speaking, the people I know from Calvin have had great outcomes in the sciences and engineering, being accepted to outstanding graduate schools and getting good jobs right off the bat. Calvin’s scholarship calculator also suggests that your son would get a merit scholarship of about $10,000/year–it might even reach $15,000/year if he’s in the top 3% of students accepted by February 1. He’d probably get a comparable scholarship at Hope.</p>
<p>(Scholarship information: <a href=“Academic Scholarships - Types | Calvin University”>http://www.calvin.edu/finaid/scholarships/academic.html</a>, <a href=“http://www.hope.edu/admissions/costs-financial-aid-and-scholarships/merit-scholarships”>http://www.hope.edu/admissions/costs-financial-aid-and-scholarships/merit-scholarships</a>) </p>
<p>I suggest this a lot for engineers in the Midwest, but you might also want to look into Rose-Hulman. The cost is hefty, but he may well be in the running for merit scholarships, and the ROI is very good. It has a modest party scene, as my friends there tell me, but it’s easy to avoid. The campus culture is also fairly conservative and has quite a few active Christian groups. No aerospace engineering, but they do have a strong biomed program: <a href=“404 | Rose-Hulman”>404 | Rose-Hulman; </p>
<p>Case Western, Northwestern, Notre Dame and Bradley come to mind. Schools are very different from each other but they are smaller than many of the state universities in the Midwest.</p>
<p>Look st Harding in Arkansas. Good engineering programs, Christian school, good merit aid.</p>