<p>Hi, I am looking to round out my kids list, he is looking at chem eng, he has ACT 33 (10 w), gpa 3.9 (UW) IBDC, APs in most of the IB subjects to total about 10 maybe at the end of senior (5 so far). HL's inc Physics and Chem (eng and hist), SL math (and spanish) but BC calc this year hoping for a 5. Public school. Plenty of service stuff, variable ECs but no special overarching theme LOL. Did a 6 week engineering company internship over the summer. Mature and would do great in an interview if that makes any difference. </p>
<p>So far;
Georgia tech trying EA. Would love a crack at scholarship (15 Oct deadline)
UT Austin
Wisconsin Madison
Twin cities
A&M
His dream school is Berkeley, but that tops the $$ as we are OOS and will NOT qualify for FA (NPC 56K). He has yet to come up with any scholarship info there. UCSB is a good fit other than the $$. Do UC schools really offer any merit to this kind of kid? I am assuming not so much but I could really be off base. </p>
<p>What I want to round out is with schools that have a great chem eng course that would keep us in less than 30K tuition or about there per year, schools that might offer merit especially. </p>
<p>I have on my list
U delaware.
Col School of Mines with merit
? Carnegie Mellon</p>
<p>He is a US citizen but neither I, nor his dad went to uni in the USA and he is our first kid in the system. No URM or hook. We are a bit of a disadvantage guiding him, our school counselor has a huge workload and really focuses on in state but is as helpful as she can be. </p>
<p>Our state is Utah so home safety is U of U but my preference is OOS. WUE doesn't seem to have a whole lot on the list that would fit, I know there are a great deal of schools that he could reach for but we have disregarded schools whose NPCs were too brutal to consider.
Thanks!</p>
<p>Your list is “public” university heavy. A better approach is to look primarily at private universities one notch below the most selective. Some (like Northeastern, which is not meant as a recommendation but rather as an example) offer merit to strong applicants which your son appear to be. Generally your son will get more attention at private universities. Also most public universities are inherently regional, which may not be ideal when it comes time to look for intern opportunities and jobs. You may want to consult with a professional college counselor. Perhaps your high school counselor, bust as he is, may suggest one.</p>
<p>U Alabama might be slightly better for Chem Eng than Utah. Check the out-of-state scholarships. I believe for a 32+ACT and 3.50 GPA you’re looking at a full tuition award. Net cost might be around $20K, similar to Utah but it’s another (lower cost) option.</p>
<p>Utah and Alabama don’t have the stature that other programs have, but if you can save $60K+ on undergrad, a master’s degree – possibly at a much higher ranked school – could shore up the credentials and maybe even put him in an advantageous position with employers.</p>
<p>UPitt fits your needs quite well. COA is 43K this year and it offers merit awards from 2K to full tuition to full ride. It is not a safety since it can spend more money on kids it wants for reasons that are known only to pitt. There’s no reason to think your son would not have a chance at 10K in merit, probably more like 15K or tuition.</p>
<p>UMDCP is excellent for chemE, but is tougher in giving out merit. Still, he’s possible for 10K and likely for 5K, I should think. Again, nothing is certain about predicting merit awards. The UMD COA is similar to Pitt’s.</p>
<p>UMNTC is a great chemE program, too, and the costs should be approximate.</p>
<p>The UCs are hopeless for FA for your son. I wouldn’t count on UDelaware either, but there might be some money there for chemE’s since it is Dupaware.</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions, I will check them out. UCs are just a bummer.
Fogcity, do you have any particular privates to look at? I think I did have Northeastern (I know just your example) but the NPCs put me off. I think Case and Ren poly came up but I have to do a bit more digging.
For sure the U will be on the list, it is ABET accredited and would probably be almost free, I suppose I would like him to have some options.</p>
<p>Can anyone recommend any particular safety schools to consider that would be good for chem eng that have yet to be mentioned in this thread? I suppose I mean a safety that is affordable and that would be a pretty concrete safety other than UofU? He should have at least a couple of safeties, right? I thought that CSM might fit that bill but only with merit, the safety be both financially and academically safe? He will choose free or close to free local U over similar rated uni that cost $$, so it needs to be in a lower cost end. I think the U is about $8k in state and he is a guaranteed presidential scholarship/honors assuming nothing terrible happens. He would live at home unless he got a full ride. He is thinking of at least a masters at some point.
Thanks. I think I got the willies after reading safety rejection threads. </p>
<p>My D2 had a list of schools similar to yours for ChemE. So would commend you on that. UCB was her dream school as well but we opted for Gtech due to the additional cost and the difficulty to change stream/school (from College of Chemistry at UCB ) if necessary. D2 had UMass Amherst and RPI as her safety schools. Both gave her tons of merit aid as well. Check out Ohio State as well. They are very generous with merit scholarships. D2 did not appy to CMU, though I would have liked her to do so, as D1 attends Pitt ;)) </p>
<p>Can’t get any more safe than that. Students from California are going to 'Bama on these scholarships and loving it. December 1st is the deadline. So apply soon and then visit after getting admitted. You could visit Georgia Tech on the same trip; only about three hours between the two universities.</p>
<p>You definitely are too heavy on public universities, so I recommend looking into Case Western Reserve, University of Rochester and Tulane. All have strong ChemE programs and will offer significant merit aid. Carnegie Mellon is definitely a great engineering school, in a great city. I know nothing about its merit aid.</p>
<p>Be aware that Tulane does not look kindly on being a backup school. They want you to love it. In my opinion it is worthy of such love. :x </p>
<p>Thanks, I think we have an invite (LOL) to a bama night here in November so we can check that out. I will check out Rochester and I know I have looked at Case, so I will get him to add that as an option, He gets a lot of Tulane mail I think so I will have him look up what they are offering. Would Rensselaer poly be more of a match than a safety? </p>
<p>@NoVADad99 is correct, RPI is a match not a safety. Also it is very much a “nerd” school, and has more than a 2 to 1 ratio of men to women. I suspect the social life is not robust. </p>
<p>RPI is highly skewed toward technology. Take a look at what they consider to be “humanities.” Even there technology is prominent; kind of embarrassing. Studying most foreign languages even requires cross enrollment at nearby colleges.</p>
<p>Check out University of Kansas. With your child’s stats, there are good OOS scholarships available; however need to apply before Nov 1 for those OOS scholarships</p>
<p>Thanks for RPI info, I will drop that then as even the merit doesn’t sounds great for the $$ cost and I don’t think he needs any more reach or $$ matches.
I will check out Kansas too, thanks!
He is looking at UMDCP, he did go to UM (not sure what campus) for history fair a few years back so that at least rings a bell for him.
Fogcity, one of his friends is using a private counsellor, so I will get a card and maybe see what she has to say, I don’t know how the consultants work though. </p>
<p>I think we are done with applications, but I wondered if you have any opinions.
UMTC (offered a place in CSE)
GT (EA)
UT Austin
A&M
Case
Tulane
Northeastern
Mad Wis (almost submitted not quite) not sure whether to actually submit
Tulane
Col school mines
UofU (home)</p>
<p>I told kid I wouldn’t pay for the UCB application unless he showed me where he might get some money (I think it would be heartbreaking to get accepted LOL) . Mea culpa in that we totally effed up the NPCs for the UT schools so they are only an option based on scholarship offer. As I see it he already has an offer at a terrific school for chem eng, that is affordable but still might yield merit, do we just not apply to any others? He did resit his ACT and his supercore for GTech would be a 34 now. His comp score was unchanged but math went from 30 to 34. I don’t want to be misguided or naive at this point?
Thanks!</p>