<p>Hi, I think I want to apply to one private school just to see how the cost ends up stacking against to the other schools I'm applying to. So, I was wondering which schools you would recommend for mechanical engineering that preferably give a lot of aid. (Schools I'm applying to: UCSB, UC Davis, Cal Poly Pomona, Berkeley, UCLA, and CSULB or SDSU or Cal Poly Pomona for my safety.)</p>
<p>My GPA is 4.11 W cumulative 9-11, 4.00 UW. SAT: 690 CR, 650 M, 710 W. Average EC's. </p>
<p>Open to any state, just has to be private please. Thank you. </p>
<p>Rose-Hulman? Tops in undergrad engineering overall. But horrible male-female ratio (80/20). Bucknell or Lafayette might be better bets if you’re willing to go to a LAC with engineering. Bigger, but not too big (and known to give good merit), would be University of Rochester.</p>
<p>Private schools vary a lot in terms of how much financial aid they give.</p>
<p>Even without leaving California, you can find a number of private schools with mechanical engineering. You can run the net price calculators on their web sites to get financial aid estimates.</p>
<p>California Baptist University
California Institute of Technology
Loyola Marymount University
Santa Clara University
Stanford University
University of San Diego
University of Southern California
University of the Pacific</p>
<p>If you get into a master’s or Ph.D. program, you can usually get that funded through a TA or RA. I know that is not where your head is now, but look from this perspective. With higher writing than Math, I would look at Claremont colleges (to stay in CA) since you can take classes at any when you are enrolled in one-Harvey Mudd is the most direct choice but you will want to look them over, or Reed (with the great 3+2 program with CalTech), and plan on getting an MS after undergraduate. You are likely to want to go beyond the BS anyway. If you need a lot of aid (household AGI below around $75k), private schools may be a better solution for you than public. Otherwise, I would look at Drexel and maybe CMU or RPI. Take the ACT. I would guess you will be accepted to at least 4 of the schools on your list, as it sits, including UC’s. UChicago is a great school and has a great need-based financial aid policy.</p>