My son is OOS and just got an acceptance letter with a sentence that says more information about scholarships to come later.
He has a 36 Act / 3.95 out of 4.0pt GPA, and wants Engineering. Based on what I am reading from other posts, it sounds like the highest merit he could possibly wish for is in the $12k range which still leaves quite a nut to pay for particularly when comparing with in state school.
Am I reading this correctly? Thanks!
Can’t answer your question but if he’s looking to go OOS, your best bets are going to be Alabama, Mississippi State, West Virginia, UAH, Arizona and others - if you’re looking at pure cost. Auburn wouldn’t be as cheap but maybe a more similar vibe to Clemson.
Bama tuition would be about $2K for you - $30.5K off ($28K auto merit and $2,500 for the ACT).
Not suggesting you go that way - just noting because you mentioned cheaper in-state options.
If you are looking at cost, there’s lots of “inexpensive” OOS options with strong engineering program. Mine chose Bama over Purdue (admittedly against my desire) but his outcome wise was likely just as good.
Best of luck at Clemson, your in-state, or any other school you take an interest in.
Congrats on your S’s acceptance! Unfortunately Clemson does not offer significant need based aid or merit aid for OOS students like some of its peer schools (some named in tsbna’s post above).
Their CDS shows an average non-need based award (for those with no financial need, regardless of in vs out of state) of $4,287 for Class of 2025. (CDS H2A-O Calc: Calculator - Net Price)
For students with demonstrated need, the average total FA package was around $13K (CDS H2-J).
Have you run Clemson’s NPC? It’s not very detailed, so not sure of its accuracy. I just put in income >99K, ACT 36, top 10% of class and results showed no need based or merit aid, so not quite sure how they award merit aid there. My guess is they offer modest merit to accepted students who they really want and hope to entice to attend with some merit $.
My daughter is at Clemson, I do think $12,000 is the max.
Yes unless something has changed the max merit OOS for Clemson is around $12,000. My 2019 grad got 20,000, but they have cut it significantly since then. My 2021 kid got 12,500. Both were the max auto out of state merit that year. The other complicating factor is the Clemson is roughly $10,000 more than other southern state schools like Georgia Tech, Georgia, Auburn, UNC, etc. So full merit brings you down to essentially full price at Auburn with no merit.
Yes, unfortunately Clemson is not known for large merit starting with the HS Class of 2020. D20 (4.0 uwgpa 35 ACT, Top 2-ish% rank) received the highest auto merit of $12k + some smaller individual and departmental awards. She applied as an OOS (NC) large, competitive Charlotte area HS. She had several cheaper options, but chose it for fit; she didn’t like UNC or NCSU. The known merit schools (UA, UofSC, AZ, etc) weren’t a good fit for her. She’s had a lot of opportunities so far, one advantage of being a big fish so to speak. We were planning on moving here to retire after she graduated college; we just moved that plan up by 4 years, so she started receiving in-state rates her sophomore year. If chasing merit, I don’t usually recommend Clemson, even though we obviously like it. It draws a big crowd from states in the northeast that have very expensive in-state tuitions. The merit offered is ultimately determined by the state’s budget; they’ve been trying to raise UofSC’s academic stats, so that’s where the funds are going. One of the other CC parents created this chart a few years ago; it will at least give you an idea of the merit award levels, although the award amounts have varied from year to year.
