In all fairness, few students from the Eastern seaboard would consider Mississippi State unless they really like the idea of living in rural Mississippi. I’d choose Ole Miss or U Southern Mississippi over Mississippi State any time.
But this is really off topic for the OP, who doesn’t want to be too far from home.
OP: apply to Temple scholarships and honors college with the Temple Option. Your essays will be scored and will replace your SAT score in addition to your GPA.
@MYOS1634, I was responding to the hypothetical that NASA2014 posed in #37 and LBad’s response. Everyone is entitled to his opinion, but not his own facts.
The OP is a senior; is there still time to apply to Temple’s Honors Program in search of scholarships?
Ok 
I haven’t checked the deadlines but hopefully OP will. If it’s too late… too bad. 
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I don’t understand this “better engineering program schools” does this mean if he gets accepted to UAF ( University of at Fairbanks) he won’t get a good job?
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Of course he can get a great job after attending UAF as an eng’g student. IF that were his only affordable choice, that would be fine. However, doubtful that UAF would be the most affordable choice since transportation alone would be costly.
There is value in attending an eng’g school with students who aren’t all weaker than you are. There are a number of group projects in eng’g. I could be frustrating working on projects with people who are either much weaker than you are.
Okay so I realize this post is over four months old and you most likely made your decision, but I just wanted to weigh in for people who see this post and who are in a similar situation as was the OP. I also had to choose between attending an in state university vs. a private university (SUNY Albany vs Syracuse). I eventually put everything into a realistic perspective, and the money that I’d have to pay to attend Syracuse was ridiculous considering SUNY Albany could give me an equal education (I’m an accounting major, btw). I am from Albany, so SUNY Albany is literally right up the road from my house so I HATED the thought of attending. Turns out, I absolutely love it here. You just have to give a university a chance. Rutgers is hugeee with so many opportunities. Funny story, I actually want to attend Rutgers really bad for grad school haha. I understand not wanting to attend your in state university because “everyone from X state goes there,” but you have to take money into consideration.
Rutgers.
Although Penn State is better overall, Rutgers isn’t far behind & is definitely a better value in this situation.
Penn State & UMD are too expensive