Did you possibly say you were a Maryland resident? If you Google the UMCP out of state costs, you will see the costs for an OOS student is not $25K.
I did it again and made the information as accurate as possible and the npc told me it would be $33,200 and I made sure to click out of state. I don’t know how I got 25,000 before
Maryland has merit aid for OOS students. Go to their admissions page on their website for more information.
State universities generally do not give very generous need-based aid to OOS students.
A low-income student with good stats generally would do better to focus on schools that grant automatic merit scholarships for high stats, or on schools that claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need (or close to it).
A combination of 32-36 ACT and >= 3.5 UW GPA would qualify you for a full tuition merit scholarship at the University of Alabama (http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.html).
Other automatic merit scholarships are listed here:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
A CC thread on this topic is here:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-p1.html
~60 schools that claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need are listed here:
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2014/09/15/colleges-and-universities-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need
Most of these are very selective schools. Many would be out of reach if you are not ranked in your high school’s top 10%. You might have a shot at Bates, Holy Cross, Colorado College, Connecticut College, Franklin & Marshall, Occidental, or Trinity. These are all small liberal arts colleges (LACs).
LACs that meet 90%-99% of demonstrated need, on average, would tend to be a bit less selective than the “full need” schools. Examples in the mid-Atlantic area include Dickinson College and Gettysburg College. If these schools have any appeal, be sure to run the online Net Price Calculators on them.
Add U Rochester to your list. Your stats make you competitive and they can be very good with need-based aid. They are a private research U in Rochester, NY (if you hadn’t heard of them). I believe their latest ranking is in the 30s with USN if that matters to you. It’s a very worthwhile school to consider. My middle son is a senior there.
Pitt stinks with need-based aid and your stats aren’t high enough for merit aid. You might want to drop them.
I second Rochester. Excellent research school. Add WPI to the list. They can be generous. Also consider University of Richmond. They have a number of full tuition scholarships they give out and you could be a contender. You don’t apply. They select from application pool but you must apply by dec 1st I think. Tulane has full tuition scholarships that require extra essays. Early deadline again. I wouldnt rule out Pitt. I seem to recall reading about a lot of generous awards from them on CC threads. Make a call to the school or local adcom rep and ask. Good luck.
What do you plan on doing with a BioE or BiomedE degree? Both are limiting majors, job-wise.
With your stats, Alabama would give you free tuition. As an E major, you’d also get 2500 per year. You’d also get a Pell Grant. If necessary, you’d get a small loan. Run Alabama’s NPC. The results won’t mention the E scholarship, so take that into account. Also, at Bama, you can reduce your cost further by choosing a “standard double” dorm…rather than the expensive “private room” dorm cost that is included in the cost estimate.
This could be your safety.
Alabama doesn’t have BioMedE…but it does have Chemical and Biological Engineering and it does offer some BioMedE classes. Chem&BioE as well as MechE are fine substitutes for BioMedE majors. Any BiomedE grad school would certainly accept ChemE, Chem&BioE, and MechE applicants as well.
Ask your brother what his FAFSA EFC is.
Do your parents have assets? Do they own a business?
Do you have a non-custodial parent?
Thank you, I added U Rochester to my list. Is WPI as good as RPI? It doesn’t seem as highly regarded. Also, should I take off CMU, RPI, or Bucknell from my list? I’m talking to a UPitt admissions officer tomorrow, so I’ll figure that out then.
They’re happily married, but have no assets or business. He says it was around $300-400. And I do not really want to attend college in the South, I prefer the Northeast area, but thank you for the info.
WPI has a very good reputation. Many who applt to RPI also applyapply there. Look into it further. They can be generous.
c0llegegirl: as a student with an EFC 0, you simply can’t afford to say “I don’t want to attend this or that type of college”. It’s unfair but it’s the reality you have to live with.
You’re an excellent student so you have lots of choices.
Make sure to use your fee waivers for subject tests and apply widely (Nacac fee waiver, signed and stamped by guidance counselor and sent to non commonapp universities; gc should check “fee waiver” on the commonapp.)
Why Biomed/Bioengineering? It’s the only engineering degree that doesn’t allow you to find a job right away and requires a graduate degree.
Look into Smith (Engineering), Wellesley (Engineering certificate with Olin to allow for an Engineering Master’s), Bryn Mawr (4+1 program with UPenn) - those would have excellent financial aid. Agnes Scott has an excellent partnership with GeorgiaTech but I don’t know how it’d work out for an EFC0 student, if GTech would offer sufficient financial aid. Scripps is also very good for science with possible classes taken at HarveyMudd and excellent support for young women who want to work in the sciences.
WPI, RPI, Rose Hulman, Olin are all excellent engineering options that would be interested in a female applicant which should result in preferential packaging (ie., better financial aid). Don’t discount really famous schools such as Yale (which pledged to enroll more first gen students) or Colby.
At UMD, you may have a shot at a merit scholarship, but otherwise it’d be too expensive.
Pitt is unlikely to give you sufficient merit aid for a 32, alas. 
All others will offer some need-based aid as well as merit aid, but run the NPCs and cross out the most expensive ones.
Add URochester, Case Western Reserve, Olin, WPI.
Biomedical engineering is something that I feel I would be the most interested in because I want to help advance the medical field and save lives.
I was considering Olin, but I feel like my stats are not good enough to even get in
And I would prefer to be in a coed school, thank you for all the help. Also I thought biomed was actually growing and more biomedical engineers were in demand these days.
Apply to Olin. They want 50% girls 50% boys, so if a girl has a good profile she has better odds (because there are more male applicants). You never know! Keep in mind that first gen applicants are given a little leeway by the most selective colleges, provided they’re exceptional in every respect. So, your 32 would be excellent even at schools where that’s average, for instance.
Even if you’re not interested in women’s colleges, the colleges I listed (except for Smith but it is strong in engineering) aren’t isolated (Agnes Scott/GTech, Bryn Mawr/Haverford, Scripps/HarveyMudd).
Biomedical engineers are in demand after the Master’s level.
JHU - one of the best BME programs in the country- specifies that its master’s applicants can have any engineering degree with preferably 3.7 GPA (NOT easy) and research experience. So a BME degree is not necessary for a BME master’s. That would keep your options open.
You can also look into MD/PHD programs (post-degree) since they’re about medical research.
I’m not first gen. But I’ll keep everything you said in mind. Before signing up for this site yesterday I never realized how bad my stats were lol, I actually thought I was above average. So you think applying to Olin is worth a shot even though it would be a reach? I’m not sure if I would be able to visit it.
Do you think I have a shot at city colleg of NY with the macualay honors program?
Are you in-state? Because Macalay NO LONGER covers tuition for OOS applicants.
Otherwise, yes you definitely have a shot.
First gen = neither parent has a 4-year college degree.
You ARE above average - your ACT is top 2%. Colleges ALWAYS look at the school record in context. Kids on this website tend to come from families where 200K income is considered “middle class” (the “real” middle class income in the US is 55 to 65K - most questbridge candidates get a full ride for up to that income, or a bit higher if they’re 5 or 6 in the family.) For first gen or lower income kids, even universities where the average is 32 will no mind a 28, especially if the school’s average is 16-19…
Unless I missed something, you’re a very strong applicant and frankly you’d be a strong Questbridge contender.
The deadline for Questbridge is in a little over a week 0.0 I won’t be able to fill all that out on time.