Assuming that you are now in 12th grade, that is a more understandable reason for not having calculus in high school, compared to completing precalculus in 11th grade and then choosing not to take calculus in 12th grade (that seemed implied earlier).
Don’t try to take calculus before you complete precalculus.
I should have clarified- math courses are only semester-long at my school (except AP calc). I’ll finish precalc in January, and could potentially take honors calc in the spring.
Well, if you are applying now with a deadline of January 1 or 15, then colleges won’t have anything to evaluate you on it. It won’t even be on your transcript when you apply, so they’d only have your word that you are taking it. This isn’t a deal breaker, but it’s less strong than other applicants they will consider it.
However, I did see that you answered the question of why you haven’t taken calculus so far… it’s been the normal progression of your studies and not because you took a break from math.
Mainly schools will want to see that you’ve taken the most rigorous courses offered at your school. If you did this, then it is not a knock against you. In some school districts they start algebra earlier so kids get through AP Calculus BC by senior year (or even earlier)… but if that is not what your school district does then colleges will not hold that against you.
This is even more helpful for me to understand… in that case if you want to do engineering, you’d probably be best off taking calculus in the Spring and let colleges know you are doing it so they can see you are committed to it. But based on your school, I’d say it’s not a deal breaker either way.
This is worrisome. I’d say if you don’t enjoy’math then engineering is likely not for you. You will need to love math.
I just ordered my 19 year old an I 
Statistics tshirt, her bff’s mom got her an I Calculus tshirt (actuarial science/engineering), they both really love math. I hate math.
Right now, the only affordable options I see are community college and U. Mass - Lowell. Alabama appears to be the closest to target price ($16-18k, per @tsbna44), but that’s still over budget, unless they stack financial aid on top.
I’m going to give you two different ABET-accredited options that should better align with your budget:
Louisiana Tech: Depending on whether a 94 translates to a 3.75+, you would get a $9000 or $9500 Presidential scholarship. Additionally, you’re practically guaranteed to receive the Bulldog scholarship, which waives out-of-state tuition. Louisiana Tech is on a quarter system, so when you look at the financial details, remember to multiply times 3 when you’re looking at tuition & room and board. For convenience, I’m using the feds’ data (College Navigator). In-state tuition is $10,065 (remember, that Bulldog waiver). Subtract $9k or $9500 and your left paying between $500-$1000 for tuition. Room & board is $9210. So, for between $9710-$10,210, you’ve got tuition, room & board covered at an ABET-accredited school.
You want an even better offer? Look at:
U. of Louisiana - Lafayette: You would qualify for the Live Oak scholarship which includes $11k for room & board (i.e. free room & board), $1300/semester, and an on-campus job. Your stats also qualify for the out-of-state fee waiver. In-state tuition & fees is $11,248. Take $2600 away (from the $1300/semester) and you’re left with $8648 for your family to cover.
They’ve spoken to my counselor… didn’t really go anywhere. I don’t think they talked money with her, or are ever willing to.
It looks as if in-state publics are going to be your best bet, financially. Hopefully UMass Lowell hits the sweet spot - competitive enough to satisfy your parents, but not so competitive that you can’t get merit aid. If you get into Lowell and can afford it, this could be a hard option to beat.
There are a lot of out-of-state options that would match the in-state “sticker price,” but your price point is well below that, and getting the additional aid you need is likely to be tough. It’s fortunate that you live in a state with reasonably good in-state financial aid; a lot of states are much worse than MA in this regard.
As others have asked, have you run NPC’s for your reach schools? Those results would help to calibrate additional suggestions.
Have you considered Mass Maritime? Like your high school education, it has a more practical bent, but its Energy Systems Engineering major is ABET accredited, and there’s also a Marine Engineering major. The Academy has small classes and a lot of hands-on education, including time on a training vessel. It has some military-like aspects, but no military service obligation unless you elect one of the ROTC options.
Back to your original question. Your reach of Northeastern is definitely a reach, it seems like they attract the 3.9 GPA and 1480 SAT… you could get in, but it’s a reach.
Syracuse seems likely though or at least a Target.
Your safeties look like true safeties, which is good.
Carnegie Mellon and Johns Hopkins is a very hard reach (they are in the 3.9+ UW GPA and 1500 SAT range, and they get tons of applicants with those stats or higher).
The $10K family contribution (and assume $7k per year in loans - I would not go any higher than that for any school) is the main limiter. There are some good schools that you could get into but they won’t give enough merit or need based aid to make it affordable.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute would be a good target for you, RPI as well. But I’m not sure what the NPC would be for you (WPI’s NPC is apparently useless).
ASU would be a safety with merit aid.
University of Colorado Boulder would be probable. Not sure about cost though.
I think Purdue’s Polytechnic school would be worth looking into. This is not their engineering school but their engineering technology school. It would be a target for you (their engineering program would be a reach and I think it’s closed for new applicants anyway now).
I want to add, that you shouldn’t necessarily be discouraged from applying to any of those schools. You have good grades and good scores, so it would not be impossible to get into some of these schools. If you can create a compelling story of who you are and how you would enrich their school, they could take you. You could consider highlighting your vocational skills and how it shaped you and how you will take that experience forward. It’s unique and could be something admissions officers will take favorably.
I think everyone here is saying to widen your search a bit and go into it open eyed – those “prestigious” schools are very hard to get into, even for the absolute best students.
It sounds like you’re a very good student, and you have an amazing future in front of you. You can get a great education and have an amazing college career at a number of places.
Wouldn’t it be great if your future self could come back in time and give you some advice? If you don’t especially enjoy math, your future self would, if it could, definitely come back in time and advise you to pick another major rather than Engineering.
I have a few engineers in my family, and I’ve talked to them about this- they say you don’t have to love math, you just have to be prepared to do tons of it. It’s not like I hate math or anything, it’s just that I don’t find it interesting for its own sake.
I get this, and it is a concern I have for my own kids too. However, I do want to say that I didn’t particularly enjoy math through precalc. It was fine; I was good at it. However, as I got into more advanced math I enjoyed it more, and as I found the ways math could be a tool to solve problems I wanted to solve, I was more excited about it. I did end up dropping out of electrical engineering my sophomore year because I didn’t love engineering, but ended up in another math heavy discipline (economics). Maybe I didn’t love EE because I didn’t love math, but I did love Econ and it was basically all math. 
I will say I also didn’t LOVE math until calculus and especially when I got to use it with physics… everything just started making so much more sense, and it became beautiful to me. So OP might be like that…
One of my 2 Bachelors degrees is in Economics. I took an Econometrics course with some funky statistical regressions. I would go to friends that were Engineering majors for help on some of the trickier problems. For them it was like tying their shoes.
OP- you are getting some great advice.
But I will take a slight detour and reassure you that there are millions and millions of happy college graduates out there with great jobs and solid careers and nice paychecks who are not engineers.
If the “finger on the scale” you are getting from parents and the engineers in your family is “engineering or bust”, I just want to reassure you- hundreds of careers out there that will take the math you’ve already completed and perhaps with a skootch of statistics thrown in (everyone should study statistics) you’ll be off to the races.
So sure- stay the course for now. But if you don’t love math, doubling down on a career as an engineer might not be the best strategy for a happy life. I get the whole “You don’t have to love math, you just have to do a lot of it” message- but I want to remind you that in engineering, you will be surrounded by (and competing with) kids who LOVE math. They eat, breathe, sleep math. They went to math camp in the fourth grade. They do math club after school for fun. They compete in math challenges online- not for a grade, not for schoolwork, but for the love of math.
You’ll need to hold your own with these folks!
Good luck to you. There are lots and lots of satisfying careers that might be better suited to the way you are wired…
Looking at your original list of schools you have a very, very strong preference for the northeast. Have you considered any of these?
U. of Akron (northeast Ohio): Sticker price is $22k, and you’d get the Akron Advantage scholarship of $3k, and some degree of Presidential Scholarship ($1-7k). So you might end up with Akron around $12k.
Cedarville (OH): This is a Baptist-affiliated institution which appears to place a heavy emphasis on its Christian beliefs. Thus, this is not a school for everyone. If it interests you, the price may get down to about $19k which is over budget, but the academic performance/reputation of your peers might make your family more accepting.
Cleveland State (OH): If you’re accepted into their honors program, you get free tuition & fees, leaving you with room & board to cover (about $14k). If you don’t get into the honors program, there appears to be other scholarships that would max out around $10k/year.
Mount Union (OH): It looks like you can still apply for the full tuition scholarship. If you received it, that would leave your family to pay about $11k for room & board.
You might run the NPCs at U. of New Haven (CT), New Jersey Institute of Technology, Ohio Northern, Ohio U. (which also has a well-respected honors program), Toledo (OH), Western New England (MA), Widener (PA ), Youngstown (OH), and York (PA ).
Cedarville is extremely, extremely religious. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is casually Christian, but only to those who want religion at the forefront of their educational and social life.
Also, Cleveland State is primarily a commuter school. I am not sure it even has campus housing. The lack of campus housing is certainly something to consider for someone from several states away. Youngstown State used to be similar, but they have more dorms now.
I am not trying to pick apart your suggestions, but trying to tease out if some of these affordable choices are really do-able for the poster.
@zxlkmc1 , your EFC is going to make it tough for many schools to meet your actual Financial Need. Your best and most assured options for affordability will be one (or several) in-state public universities.
Shooting for the prestigious unis for the great Financial Aid sounds good, until we account for the fact that even with your very good grades and outstanding test score, you are unlikely to be admitted. For certain, try for a few, but realize it’s a long shot.
I think you need to widen your scope to some of the schools others have mentioned. Try the NPC at these. Apply to 2 or 3 or 5 of the lowest NPC results, even if they are a bit higher than what you need.
I agree with @Bill_Marsh that Manhattan College is one to investigate. Also try University of Dayton and U of Scranton. Scranton doesn’t really have engineering, but that leads me to the next suggestion…
Widen your scope from Engineering only, to “Engineering and …”. You’re young. It’s common for 17-18 year olds to either not know what they want to do, or to think they know and change their minds, or to feel pressured to choose a specific major by other people or circumstances. There are other majors for students who can handle math well, who may not want engineering, but want a job with good salary and good outcomes.
Economics is a good major. So is Data Analysis/Analytics. Business Finance. And there are others. Investigate some of these. These are majors found at many many schools, and one/several may suit you better than you suspect.