<p>Hello fellow members-</p>
<p>I will be applying to Austin (theoretically) this year, but ran into a problem. I am an out-of-state student (Misery... I mean Missouri). Here are a quick rundown of my qualifications:
GPA: 3.86ish, unweighted (my school is too cool to weight grades... sigh)
College Credits: 38, will graduate senior year with 78.
College Course GPA: 4.0 across all credits acquired thus far.
College attended: Northwest Missouri State University
ACT: Only taken it once so far. Had virtually no preperation, the night before the test I thought it was an essay-based exam, lol. Got a 29. Retaking it this September for the first time in two years, expecting 34-36. I am expecting that based off of practice test results and the confidence I have in my own abilities.
Will be applying to engineering or natural science department, cant decide between engineer field, math, or physics.
Only significant office held would be vice-president of the FIRST robotics club at my school.</p>
<p>Ok, that should be good enough. Here are my questions:
1) Think I can make it? What is the minimum ACT score you think can get me in?</p>
<p>I am in a family with little financial assets. I will be paying for everything myself, no one in my family has the room to help me out. I dont know if the numbers will say that on the financial aid forms, but I know my real-life situation makes it quite clear; my parents would love to help, but they cannot. Even if I get accepted, the cost will be the determing factor. So...</p>
<p>2) How gracious is the out-of-state aid? Yeah, I know, something about tuition waivers, $1k merit = tuition help, etc. All that is well and good, but it is also a crap-shoot and quite competitive. So can someone just give me a rough idea, excluding all the crazy unlikely free tuition waiver or something, just a ballpark as to how much financial aid OOSers usually get. I have looked online, at data sheets, etc. All I can find, however, is ACT or qualifications for admission for OOS. I cannot find any figures regarding OOS financial aid help. </p>
<p>Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>I thought collegeboard has info on their site about colleges’ financial aid stuff. Can’t remember though. But if not, check the office of student financial services webpage and if still nothing, try calling them. </p>
<p>Just curious, how exactly will you have 78 hours by the time you graduate senior year in high school?</p>
<p>My son had strong stats, and he received only a $1k annual scholarship from the school of Engineering. But he has to maintain a 3.5 GPA to get even the second $500 payment this year, so it will be tough to keep it. </p>
<p>You’re right, it’s VERY hard to get an OOS tuition waiver. The lady DS talked to actually laughed when he asked her about it!</p>
<p>You can pretty much kiss OOS financial aid goodbye. Need-based aid will be minimal. If you have an exceptional application, you may be able to get a tuition waiver (but usually they’re only given out by Cockrell).</p>
<p>@onspeed:
Well, college board does say average cost per year and average percent of financial need met. In the 90’s is considered good, the best schools hit 100%. UT gets up to 85%, so it’s good, but not great. The catch is that UT gives out far more money to in-state students, and 92% of their students are in-state, so that value is skewed for out-of-state students.
As for my credits; I was accepted to an academic-acceleration program following my sophomore year. I will graduate my senior year and receive a high school diploma from my sending school along with an Associates of Science degree. </p>
<p>@MaineLonghorn:
Two words: Oh crap. This is not encouraging. Claims seem to be that Cockrell does have the best offers, and your son was in Cockrell, but he did not receive anywhere near what I would need to attend there… $1k seems borderline useless compared to the total cost. Please do not think I am insulting your son’s package, of course. </p>
<p>Well, are they stingy with the need-based aid as well? If they are, it sounds like I’m just wasting my time, energy, and application fee.
I feel I can be accepted there, and I know I can handle the challenges presented to me. However, I also do not want to finish my undergrad with a crap-ton of debt, especially since I completely intend to pursue a graduate degree after college.
Should I probably just be looking elsewhere?</p>
<p>Get that 34-36 on your ACT (w/ writing make sure) and I think you have good chances for a multi-year engineering scholarship including an OOS tuition waiver. Amounts are usually 3000/year or 4500/year and some others, but things are especially tight in Engineering this year (i.e. having to pay for microcontroller for class that used to be free, having to pay to print)</p>
<p>I don’t know if I would count on that much. Like I said, my son had good stats (1470/2220 on SAT, Eagle Scout, one of the top distance runners in our state, church volunteer work) and didn’t get nearly that much. To be honest, even $4500 a year doesn’t put a dent into a total cost of over $40,000 for OOS students. He didn’t even get any need-based aid, although he qualified to get at least a little. He is taking out an unsubsidized Stafford loan each year to make this possible.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to be discouraging, but it helps to know upfront. You can still shoot for it and see what happens!</p>
<p>I had 34 ACT (35 M 34 R = 1560 SAT CR+M for engineering scholarship purposes) and a 4.0 GPA with little extracurriculars and I got the $3000/year + OOS waiver = total value of $98,000 over 4 years. So the $4500 a year in our example is in addition to the OOS tuition waiver which is valued at much more so UT becomes a very affordable choice.</p>