CPSLO Is showing $53,700 and that’s with understated transport cost.
If the student wanted to go out west, another strong and inexpensive with merit (mid 20s) would be U of Arizona. Raytheon has a big presence in Tucson.
This is great advice. Thank you!
Was going by the 4.0 unweighted GPA listed in the first post. If the student has all A grades, then it is hard to see not having a “4.0+” GPA as listed on the UAH scholarship page, regardless of weighting method.
I generally do not assume unless otherwise indicated whether an HBCU or HWCU* would be an automatic reject.
*which I mean as specifically a college designated for White students when there was enforced racial segregation in education.
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It’s not one flight as you mentioned, plus, that first flight is cancelled often. San Luis Obispo is frequently impacted by the marine layer. That said, there’s a great ride share FB page that gets students to SFO.
Cal Poly would be a stretch on budget without the scholarship, and it’s not easy to get to. It’s also the home of CubeSat, so, there’s a lot to like. It would be a fit choice based on the program and the location. As I’ve said previously, one can get similar job opportunities at Alabama Huntsville as they’d get at any other AE program, and it would be tuition free. There really are no bad AE choices.
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Florida (the state of) no longer includes OOS students for the Benacquito NMF full ride scholarship. UCF was giving 40 NMF scholarship out, but not sure it if is full COA, and I think it is based on application date. That’s subject to change, of course, since the state is no longer footing the bill.
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you may consider including Stanford, Cornell, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on your list.
Good luck for your journey.
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Unless OP confirms their NPC is under $50k at these schools, they won’t be affordable.
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Sorry about my ignorance of the financial aid system, thought these schools offered need blind financial aid to compensate. Defer to your information on that respect
Cornell and Stanford are need blind but RPI is not. It’s also unclear from the OP’s post if they qualify for need based financial aid. If they don’t but have a $50K/budget, Cornell and Stanford don’t give merit awards so there is no chance they will be affordable.
IMO, this student will see merit at RPI which will bring them into their budget.
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There is no such thing as need blind financial aid unless you are referring to some forms of merit aid at some schools. Financial aid is based on need for most highly selective colleges. This is different from merit aid which the OP could qualify for (at some colleges). The phrase need blind only refers to the admissions process (at some schools). That is, the admissions decision is not dependent on whether you can pay the tuition.
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I think the confusion might be:
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Need blind means they don’t look at your financials to make an admission decision.
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Meets need - means, if the student is short, they’ll fund the gap. But they don’t go by what the student feels they need. They go by what the school determines, through a full review of the student’s financials, to determine by their individual school formula, what that student needs.
This student says they have $200K in the 529 plan. But the schools listed might say, between income, assets, home equity - whatever it is - that the student has plenty of money to fund the school - even if it’s $360K for four years.
If that’s the case, at schools that have no merit aid and only need aid, this would be a full-pay student. That’s why it’s important to fill out the net price calculators. They will give you a preview of what to expect in regards to receiving aid.
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In addition to what other said, you understand that GaTech doesn’t provide FA to OOS in your financial situation. GaTech is a bit a challenge for OOS students. It has mandate to give preference to instate students by state of GA (different from UMD). So all OOS students compete for very few spots and geography plays big role (they want representation from all states).
Your child will be admited to UMD EA.
UMich will during EA defer your child, then waitlist, then accept without any FA. If you are not ready to pay $80k+ for UMich, do not bother. (I know 50+ kids with your child stat who experience this year after year including my own child.)
My suggestion is to revise your reach list, if you are indeed interested in any reaches. If you are ok with safeties and matches then you are good to go.
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Thank you for your comments. I didn’t know that about GaTech and great insight on UMich. Honestly, he really likes UMD and I do think he can get a merit scholarship there - even without the merit scholarship, it is a great price in-state, plus its 5 minutes away from NASA Goddard. And it would be nice to have him just 45 mins away.
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Thanks - we’ll look at RPI. Do you know by chance how Purdue is with merit? We visited there and loved it - especially the Honor’s College.
Purdue has focused on keeping the COA frozen for all students (12 years in a row) so they aren’t great with merit. But, OOS COA is roughly $42K/year depending on what dorm and meal plan a student chooses.
Honors college was a great experience for my D. If you have any Purdue specific questions, please feel free to PM. My D just graduated this May from the CoE.
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Thanks so much. Will do!
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@nivo, as an international family with little to no experience with US college admissions, either from a financial aid perspective or an athletic recruiting one, I would ask that you refrain from giving advice.
Of course, relating your experience will always be useful; I do not mean to deter you from posting generally.
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Take a look at WPI, very hands-on program with good merit – one of my my sons (also non-URM with an aerospace focus) received a $24.5K annual merit offer from there two admission cycles back although he ended up deciding to attend at Duke.
Since you mentioned your son was a member of a HS rocketry club: my son was at the Spaceport America Cup (an annual international collegiate rocketry competition held in New Mexico) about two weeks ago (more info here: 2023 SA Cup) and WPI did very well against teams from much larger schools. You can find a list of participant schools at that link. Great event with a lot of aerospace recruiters in attendance, so if your son wants to continue his rocketry interest you may want to look at some of the schools on the participant list and see if they are viable options financially.
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For Ohio State’s Stamps/Eminence:
"How to apply for Eminence
Three required steps:
- Apply for admission to Ohio State by the early action deadline of November 1.
- Apply for Honors on the Common Application.
- Complete the separate Eminence Application by November 14."
from Merit-based scholarships - The Ohio State University
For aerospace, note that
" Pre-major programs
Students interested in these programs must indicate one of the majors on the Common Application as pre-majors close once they reach capacity. Students will not have the ability to switch into one of the four pre-majors. Only students in these pre-majors may apply to their respective major. For example, only biomedical pre-majors are permitted to apply to the biomedical engineering major.
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Aerospace Engineering
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Biomedical Engineering
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Computer Science and Engineering (ENG) / Computer and Information Science (ASC)
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Mechanical Engineering"
from New Students | COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Because only students in these pre-major programs may apply to the major, it is expected that they will be accepted into their major. They will need to maintain a good gpa to move on into their major and submit an application, generally spring of freshman year. Acceptance into the major gives them priority scheduling for the upper division engineering classes they need to complete their major. You also need a good gpa to land internships, so gpa is important for a variety of reasons. CoE hasn’t seemed to be an environment of weeding, professors are supportive and available. At orientation they stressed acceptance into the CoE /programs was based on the belief that each student would succeed and the curriculum includes collaborative labs.
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I think PSU and VA Tech could be eked out:
If they already have $50k saved up, they can get the $5500 in loans (first year; additional after that) and a summer job and, pretty quickly, they’re at or around $60k. That is with no additional money from the parents.
However, if he gets into UMD, I don’t know why they would pay so much more for VT or PSU… or, frankly, any of the other schools, barring significant merit bringing costs closer to UMD or at least under the $50k free-and-clear budget.
I think Maryland is good enough that I would hesitate to pay a lot more for a different (OOS) state flagship.
Edit:
MIT, Princeton, and Cornell, as has been stated, do not offer merit aid. All come in with like $80-$90k price tags. So run the NPC for each to reasonably ensure affordability before applying.
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