I’m looking for some “match” schools with Engineering, ideally Chem E, for my pre-med son. Please help! Thanks!!
He’s politically and socially liberal and not religious, so he’d like to avoid super conservative or religious schools. Diverse is great. He likes the outdoors, not big cities. A funky college town near ski slopes would be a perfect match to him, lol.
He’ll be applying to U Alabama (where our eldest is attending very happily on a National Merit package), WVU (our local uni that also offers generous merit aid) and also U KY (another strong NM school). Those should all be financial safeties and have lots of good things to offer.
I think he’ll apply to one or two Ivies for fun-sies, but it is unlikely we’ll actually be able to afford it if he gets in to one. (Yes, I know they offer generous neeed-based aid, but we will be unlikely to qualify. We have a high income, but we’re busily repaying our student and business acquisition debts, let alone funding our rapidly approaching retirements, so, no, paying 60k++/yr is not actually in our realm of possibilities, particularly since we have an older daughter already in college and a younger one in the pipeline. Anyway, our son knows all this, and he knows that unless we get a surprising financial aid letter, it’s a nonstarter as we simply can’t afford the full price tag at any of those schools.)
So, now, my question to y’all is where should he look at for “match” type schools that might offer some generous (competitive) merit aid that he might qualify for?
Our budget is ideally under 25k/yr family contribution, maybe 30k if it’s an incredible perfect whatever . . . so I’m thinking that means we need competitive merit scholarships of close to full tuition to comfortably stay under 25k/yr for room/board/books/etc. Honestly, the less we spend on undergrad, the more we can help with med school, and since we’ll be paying my husband’s loans off until all these kids are past college . . . I’m pretty averse to school debt. So, any schools that might offer big merit aid would be at the top of my list.
So, his details:
Class of 2017. 
Homeschooled throughout. 4.0 (unweighted) GPA – not terribly meaningful since he’s homeschooled. Academically rigorous studies. Fluent in Spanish, 4 years of math, music, science, English, history, Spanish, etc.
Anticipated NMF (based on PSAT score of 212 and living in WV which has pretty much the lowest of any state cutoff historically. Only took SAT once in 10th grade with no prep, and got a 1960. Will be retaking it in October and also the ACT in September. I predict substantially higher scores, since he will be prepping and obviously is older/further along. Most likely should be in the top 1-2% of national scores based on his other testing, etc.
APs - MicroEcon (3) in 9th grade, Env. Sci (4) in 10th; Chem, AB Calc, English Comp (all waiting on scores until next week – fingers crossed for lots of 5s or maybe 4s, but I have no idea) This coming year, he’ll likely take BC
Calc and maybe one or both of the C Physics for APs. And of course a rigorous overall schedule.
Main Extracurriculars:
- He's a very accomplished classical guitarist (has studied with world class performers and had various prestigious competition wins, awards, festivals, etc.) but he won't be pursuing that career wise or in college.
- Strong history (300-500 hrs++) of serious involvement with 2 local nonprofit environmental groups. Lots of mentoring/leadership/etc.
- FIRST Robotics 10th-12th grade -- awesome team, tons of wins, 100s of hours involvement.
- Boy Scout Life Scout (1 level below Eagle) -- ended participation in 10th grade
Thank you in advance for brainstorming with me!