I’m an in state resident with OSU as my primary option. I will not qualify for need based aid. I have a 32 on my ACT 5s on comp sci, bio, chem, APUSH. I have a 4.3 weighted gpa and a 3.7 unweighted with a 3.9 junior year. I was wondering what kinds of merit aid i may qualify for from within the school, and maybe some scholarships outside of the school as well. I work as a machinist part time that will qualify me for some “blue collar” scholarships if those are available.
Probably the Maximus Scholarship: $5,000/yr ($20,000 over 4 years). As OSU applicants continue to improve these awards may become less in future. The 2018 full list of university merit awards are here http://undergrad.osu.edu/cost-and-aid/merit-based-scholarships. You are close (ACT 34) to some other great full tuition and full cost of attendance scholarships as well. Here’s news on recent changes https://news.osu.edu/news/2017/07/07/tuition-guarantee/
Colleges also provide scholarship opportunities and the College of Engineering has more dollars available as students increase rank (to sophomore, junior, senior). Paid co-ops also helped make this school very affordable for my student.
Thanks guess it’s back to the grind stone with the act!
If you haven’t taken an SAT yet you might want to try that since OSU looks at your best score to figure out what awards you qualify for and I was surprised my student actually did much better on the SAT than her ACT. Khan Academy offers free personalized SAT prep https://www.khanacademy.org/sat and the SAT test no longer deducts points for wrong answers. As a machinist you are probably used to managing multiple steps which can be some of the toughest math questions on the SAT, so you may be well suited to the SAT.
"The “guessing penalty” that may have plagued your older siblings or parents is now a thing of the past; neither the ACT, SAT or PSAT deducts points for wrong answers. That means you literally have nothing to lose by bubbling in an answer for every question! " -from https://www.kaptest.com/blog/admission-possible/2016/09/22/should-you-guess-on-the-psat-sat-or-act/
Good Luck!
Thanks for the advice, i have a 1430 on my SAT and have actually been studying for that rather than the ACT because of similar advice I received. I think i can hit around a 1490 if i work at it. By best score do you mean compound score between multiple tests? Also I will be applying to computer science or mechancial engineering if that changes anything.
I don’t know if they super score, but I remember when we went to an event the speaker was encouraging students to retake the standardized tests as late as December and to request those scores be sent to OSU because even though the scores would be late for early admission decisions the scores would still be used and updated in student profiles for determining merit awards - so especially for students close to the next level it was usually worth it. By best score I meant for example if you have a 1350 SAT ($1,500 Trustee’s award) and a 30 ACT ($2,500 Provost award) then they’d award the higher value Provost and you’d get $2,500/yr if you fulfill the other requirements.
Be sure to apply for the Morrill Scholarship on your common app, your machinist experience and blue collar experience that puts you on a manufacturing floor gives you insight into how things work that a lot of your classmates (those good at math and science so why not engineering?) lack.
The Mech Engineering grad from OSU I know spends a third of his day on a computer programming PLCs for a chemical manufacturing company, a third with contractors or on the floor reviewing the physical environment of the process talking to workers and a third on paperwork/management/meetings/presentations. So if you have an interest in CSE you will have lots of opportunities to use those skills as a Mechanical Engineer without being tied to a monitor and keyboard. You can review the “bingo sheet” https://mae.osu.edu/sites/mae.osu.edu/files/uploads/UndergradForms/mech_curriculum_sheet_2017-2018_draft.pdf for Mechanical Engineering with the prerequisite classes highlighted that are used to compute your gpa (EPHR) when applying to the major (Mechanical is one of the harder majors to get into and the FEH bingo sheet is slightly different).
There are lots of different options for CSE within the university so you can seek out those bingo sheets for comparison. You probably won’t be able to apply to your major within engineering until spring of sophomore year so this is something to decide after you’ve taken some classes to see where you excel and what you like. If you can land an internship and put the decision off, it’s even better to have some exposure to more people to see what skills companies are looking for and what those jobs look like day to day.
The best advice my daughter got as she was deciding her path: Look at job postings or jobs people have you want to identify a dream job, then read through the requirements or talk to people with those jobs and work backward to figure out steps/skills/required degrees/experience to get there.
Update i have received 16,000 so far in merit aid.
Are the awards for the Maximus, Provost, and Trustee pretty cut and dry or do the amounts very if you have a higher class rank for example Top 3% and a 31 ACT.
The amounts are the same for each, but they’re selected for after a cut off, then your entire profile.
got into honors as well