Western Michigan just reduced its OOS tuition by a lot and is a solid school. And has engineering. I don’t think you can get to $10k though. And GRR airport has Southwest flights from BWI.
Did you check out the Ohio schools which several people recommended in your August thread? The University of Toledo would give your son a $14,000 per year scholarship, making total tuition/fees/room/board costs about $15,000. However, it may be that an instate school (UMBC) would accept more of his dual enrollment credits. You’d have to check with each individual school about that.
To add to the above (too late to edit), if your son takes the maximum freshman Direct student loan ($5,500), remaining direct-billed costs would be under $10,000. He should be able to earn enough money next summer to pay for books and personal expenses.
University of Toledo is really good at accepting dual/transfer credits. You can figure how most credits transfer in if your current institution is on Transferology with the online resources listed on their transfer information page.
Part of their OOS merit discounting is because many of their students are from Michigan, so this has helped them grow their regional presence. It is the no. 1 choice of college bound Michigan hs students going out of state. http://www.freep.com/story/news/2017/08/23/michigan-colleges-enrollment/566673001/
kidzncatz, I’m not seeing how you are getting $14,000 scholarship for Univ of Toledo. I ran the NPC and it comes out to $24,000 but maybe that’s because the scholarship doesn’t show up on the NPC. Is this scholarship automatic or competitive? I see an OOS scholarship for $9000 per year… but not $14,000. Maybe I’m not looking in the right place.
I did check out all the schools on my other thread, but now since his SAT went up, I am rechecking everything. I’m in the process of all of it now.
Also, I’m checking the suggestions on this thread. I REALLY appreciate all of the suggestions of other schools. I feel like I’m looking for a needle in a haystack. I’ve used the big college search engines but so often the schools don’t match up to the criteria I inputted so it is frustrating. Personal suggestions have gotten us way farther than the search engines!
We know UMBC is our best in-state option. It is already on the list. All his CC classes will transfer. We are merely compiling a list of his other options.
http://www.utoledo.edu/admission/freshman/scholarships/2018/out-of-state.html
It appears that the scholarships are automatic.
Ahhhh! Thank you! I was NOT seeing that…
Do you all have any input as far as whether a commuter campus is a good thing or not? Does that mean there won’t be many activities to get involved in? I’m noticing that BigFutures lists several of the colleges on our list as commuter… My son’t doesn’t have any interest in Greek life or partying, but he will want to join some clubs and hang out with friends…
Well, you could ask admissions officers questions about weekend activities and/or ask them to put you in touch with a current resident student. After my daughter was accepted to Toledo last year, a student called several times to ask if she had any questions about the school. Even if many students commute, I’m pretty sure a large school like Toledo will have a good number of resident students who will be on campus during weekends.
I would not send my kid to an “away” college that was a commuter campus since he would be stuck there, alone in the dorms with nothing to do. Also, some of your schools are significantly inferior to UMBC. If he can get into UMBC, it is really an outstanding college with great resources in your own backyard. He can dorm there if you find you have the money. And if funds run low, he can commute without transferring. If he switches from engineering, you have other math/science options at UMBC. I have met many super impressive professionals that graduated from UMBC. Good luck!
I think you have to be careful about how a college becomes defined as a commuter. I think of that as a small community college with two or three classroom buildings, no dorms, no athletic facilities, no sports teams and no school spirit.
But, the schools I see listed as commuter basically get that designation if more than a certain percentage of the student body lives off campus. That would have been Ohio State in the 1980’s when just about the only folks crammed into dorms were freshman and everyone else was living in falling apart Victorians splitting $200/mo rent 4 ways.
A state school (University of Toledo) with 20,000 students, world class amenities and 20% of the undergraduates (20%x16,000=3,200) in dorms is going to feel bigger than many LACs.
Correction: As you can see on the grid, I was incorrect about the amount of scholarship aid your son would be eligible for at Toledo. He would need to increase his SAT score by 20 points to be eligible for $14,000, unless they are looking at weighted GPA and that is 3.8 or higher. $12,500 is still pretty good, though.
It may depend on whether the student is also a commuter, or a resident student at a school with mostly commuter students.
UMBC is probably less commuter than you think. According to http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg05_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1052 , 72% of frosh live in the dorms. This is usually a reasonable proxy for resident (non-commuter) students. Like many schools, the percentage of all undergraduates living on campus at UMBC is smaller at 35%, but that can reflect resident students living in nearby off-campus housing. For comparison, UMCP has 93% of frosh and 42% of all undergraduates living on campus, according to http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg05_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1526 . Toledo has 56% of frosh and 19% of all students living on campus, according to http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg05_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1733 .
Figure out what you can afford per year total (Tuition, room and board, travellign back and forth, books, fees).
Let him know that this is his budget.
Have you tried net price calculators for potential schools and see what they say you have to pay?
Make sure to include travel costs…it is lovely that he wants to go away but if he wants to come home for Thanksgiving etc you have to pay for it.