Prospective EE/CS Student valuing merit aid over all else. What schools?

College Search & Selection
1

So, I’m a junior and my family is fairly well off (Dad makes upwards of 150k), but my parents are very religious and as a result most of their earnings have gone into sending my younger siblings to expensive Christian private schools. Obviously, that excludes me from need based aid, yet my parents aren’t going to be able to help me pay beyond cosigning a loan. Considering this, I have decided not to apply to any top tier schools, since I won’t receive merit aid.This leads me to my question… What engineering schools are generous with merit-based scholarships?

Side note: I’m dead set on going to graduate school after getting my bachelors, if that changes things.

Don’t want to turn this into a chance me discussion but my basic specs are:

I’m an Asian Male
SAT: 1540
ACT: 34
Probable GPA (WIP obviously): 4.0 UW, 4.6 W
APs: Music Theory 5, Psych 5 and taking 3 (Bio, World, Lang) this year.
ECs: Basically average, haven’t gone through with documenting it all yet.

After getting my PSAT score yesterday, definitely not going to be NMSF, but I’ll be commended for sure.

If it means anything, I was in a tiny school of less than 300 students until last year, and switched to a public high school in order to save money. So far, no drop off in grades.

Schools I have already formed early opinions on:

Maryland (in-state): Great engineering program, cheap because I’m in-state but unlikely to get a scholarship so works out to 18,000 or so including housing and food. Seems like the perfect fit… but I would really like to escape this state, the church, and my family.

U of Alabama: Probably could get full ride or close to it. Disturbingly low amount of Asians, but my high school experienced has been similar so I’m not overly concerned about that. I also dislike the location; I prefer the North. Engineering program is ranked very low by USNews but most people seem to think it’s improved a lot in recent years. The new engineering building is very enticing, because I’m a huge fan of anything modern. Strongly considering going here, there’s just a lingering feeling that I can do better.

U of Minnesota-Twin Cities: Cheap OOS tuition. Strong Engineering college. Happy with the weather, location as far as finding a job leaves something to be desired. Overall, no real downsides. Hardest part will be actually getting a big scholarship.

Purdue U-West Lafayette: Top tier engineering program. Would need a massive scholarship to even consider it, so not worth doing much more research.

Stony Brook U: Cheap OOS tuition, high chance for scholarships. Absolutely perfect location weather and career wise. Infamous commuter school, so crappy student life + not a whole lot of people in general. Decent engineering program but nothing special.

Georgia Tech: My dream school… but I totally can’t afford it and no chance at scholarships lol

Texas A&M: Really good chance at getting in-state tuition + a small scholarship. Location is mediocre, crap weather but decent job opportunities. Asian diversity could be better. Impressive engineering rank. Getting a big scholarship will be a problem; 1,000 + instate tuition isn’t gonna cut it.

U of Washington: Great location. Great diversity (for me.) Solid engineering program. Again, unlikely to get a big scholarship, possible none at all. So… not very realistic.

And if you have the time to answer:

Any schools I’m missing? Do I have the wrong idea about some schools?

2

You probably need a full ride or full tuition plus some more to get the net price down to the point of not needing cosigned or parent loans (you can do federal direct loan of $5,500 plus part time work for a few thousand dollars per year):

http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/

Note: some scholarships have changed since the above lists were made. Check college web sites.

In the automatic list, take a look at the following for full ride or close to it:

University of Alabama Huntsville
Tuskegee
Howard
Prairie View A&M

For full tuition, may need more scholarships:

University of Alabama
Florida A&M
Louisiana Tech
University of Mississippi

Add schools from the competitive list as reach schools (for the scholarships).

3

Based on your stats, you would most likely receive a Purple and Gold Scholarship at Washington (up to $8,500 per year for four years).

https://admit.washington.edu/costs-and-financial-aid/scholarships/purple-and-gold

The Honors Program also awards the Honors Achievement Award to a select group of incoming nonresident freshmen applicants in the form of a nonresident tuition waiver.

http://depts.washington.edu/uwhonors/scholarships/freshman/
http://depts.washington.edu/uwhonors/apply/freshman/faq/

Congratulations on your academic achievements, and good luck!

4

Stevens Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, University of Delaware, and Pitt.

I’m applying to all this year in search of merit. All of these offer ABET-accredited engineering.

5

You really need to worry less about the scholarships $$ and more on an actual COA. How much can you actually spend on school? The “cheap” school like Uminn is still going to be about 20K a year OOS even if you got their best OOS scholarship, in CSE you are not even unusual, there are some very high stats kids.You might not get anything. Define how much you can spend first.

6

Yeah, I definitely agree that Uminn is competitive. I got the impression that they’re pretty welcoming and generous with OOS scholarships from a 2010 thread on here… Is that no longer true? My total budget would be about 20k total which translates to about 10k tuition. I also have a few more chances to improve my ACT, so hopefully I can score better the next time to get an extra boost.

7

UCF in Orlando is a public university that has good engineering programs and offers good merit scholarships for top students.

8

Your best bet at this point is Bama. I wouldn’t worry so much about the rankings.

However, your stats are very good (congrats) and so you have a shot at scholarships from other universities. If I were you I would apply to as many as possible because it’s hard to predict which ones will say yes or no. See the lists from @ucbalumnus.

Some good schools for engineering that have full tuition scholarships (highly competitive of course): WPI, BU, Clark, URochester, UBuffalo, Delaware, USC, UNC, OSU, Pitt, TAMU.

9

@Laerai Our kids face a similar situation except that we are willing to help the best we can which pretty much means lowest cost estimates for room and board. Anything beyond (or higher cost room and board) they are going to have to take out loans to meet the gap. Are your parents seriously going to offer $0? That means no transportation costs, no books, no $$ for incidentals or personal care items, etc. Will they help with your food plan? Your dorm room? Every single one of those things add up. Textbooks alone can be $1000.

Having gone through this process multiple times now (our current high school sr is our 5th child), I think you need to understand terminology and real costs. For example, I don’t see how you could easily get a full ride or close to it at Alabama. Your would qualify for full-tuition plus $2500. At Bama room and board alone with no books, etc can run $13,000. At UA-H, however, you would receive tuition plus room. http://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships Meeting that gap with a student loan to cover books, food, transportation, and spending $$ for personal items works. (Meal plans alone can cost ~$3000/yr.)

Don’t make assumptions that a 34/1520 automatically qualifies you for a near full-ride unless the school’s website clearly indicates that it does like UA-H. Merit $$ beyond the automatic is far more complicated and far from a guarantee. You need to find schools that you are willing to attend without needing anything beyond the guaranteed merit $$ as your primary application focus. Then, after you know that those are schools you would see yourself attending (I like my kids to have at least 2 so they feel like they have options in the spring), add in schools with competitive merit. Put a lot of effort into those applications bc competitive merit is exactly that, competitive. Don’t enter into any competitive merit application with the assumption that you have it in the bag.

Keep a sharp eye on deadlines. Merit scholarships typically have very early deadlines, some as early as Oct. 15. Some have Nov1-15, but the later the date heading toward Jan, the fewer the options out there.

Fwiw, I do have a son attending Alabama on full scholarship. His experience is atypical and definitely should not be anticipated as the norm. His additional scholarship money reflects the fact that he graduated from high school at an incredibly advanced level. He had completed 5 in-major physics courses (as in cal based university physics up) plus 3 post cal BC math classes in addition to classes like AP chem, etc. He is part of CBH which does award additional scholarship $$ (40 students per yr are accepted) and won a couple of really big physics scholarships. As an additional fwiw, he loves Bama. He has been part of research since freshman yr. He has been accepted to competitive REUs (this past summer at his REU the other students were from schools like MIT, UPenn, Rice, Case, ND, etc.) He took 2 grad level physics classes this past semester that were covered by his scholarship. (Students can earn their master’s simultaneously with their bachelors.) There is a lot to love about Bama.

My current sr’s search has been very different bc her interests are different. She loves languages, especially Russian. That is a filter that reduces out a lot of schools. Even with being a NMSF and having multiple high level awards (including representing the US in an international competition and winning a 3rd place in an event there), she is in pins and needles about competitive merit scholarships. She has applied bc the chances are 0 if she didn’t, but even with applying her chances may still may not be much above 0%. It all depends on what the scholarship committee is looking for. She has schools she is happy to attend if they don’t come through and that is the key. She knows she has some place to attend where she can reach her goals.

10

At GT, you have a shot at the Provost scholarship (OOS tuition waiver), but you may want to retake the SAT or ACT (GT does super-score both test). It’s much harder to get one of the Stamps scholarships, since you’ll need more than just grades for one of those…

Still, if it’s your dream school, you should apply. Make sure you apply EA, to be considered for both scholarships (and complete not only the FAFSA but the CSS profile).

Run the net price calculators for some of the “lottery” schools, like Cornel and Princeton. You may be surprised by how much aid they will offer, even considering your Dad’s income.

Some schools, like Princeton, do take into account private secondary school tuition for a sibling. It’s not considered in FAFSA, but those schools that require a CSS profile, may consider it. Try those price calculators!

Also, see if the secondary private school, attended by your siblings, will consider your cost when attending college. The private school may offer more in financial aid to your parents.

Good Luck!

EDIT: Keep in mind that many of these schools are reaches, you should apply to a few, but also make sure you apply to some “matches” (academic and financial) and “safeties”.

11

Uminn is in the process of raising OOS tuition over the next few years so the numbers may not work out as well as you expect. Make sure you do your research.

12

@Mom2aphysicsgeek

To clarify, my parents are willing and able to cover room, board, and transportation. I am only responsible for whatever the cost of tuition is. Rereading what I said it does sound like they would offer no help whatsoever so I apologize for being so unclear.

Thanks for curbing my arrogance a bit, haha. I plan to take the ACT at least one more time, so hopefully I can superscore and bump my score up to 35 and become a bit more competitive. As far as merit scholarships go, I’m definitely aware that I’m not a particularly exceptional candidate; but I figure that if I can narrow my search down to 8 colleges or so, my essays will be good enough to get at least one solid offer.

Your son sounds like the kind of person I would hope to see at Alabama. My main worry is that the overall culture is not as serious about school.

@Gator88NE

Was not aware of that scholarship at GT! Obviously I need to raise my ACT, but with superscoring I think I have a good shot at improving it. That would definitely be my first choice if they wave OOS.

I’ll also contact the school and ask about scholarships… I think it’s unlikely but worth a shot.

@beyondtx

The threads I read about UMinn were like 5 years old, and judging from all the responses on here it seems their preference for OOS students has changed. Probably not going to apply at this point.

13

Glad to hear your parents are willing to help with room and board! That really opens up a lot more options.

I honestly don’t think that higher test scores are going to make the difference in scholarships. It might for admissions at a handful of schools that fine-tooth admissions with minute differential in scores, but they are not representative of most schools. Most schools are going to be looking more holistically at scholarship applicants. They are looking for kids they know are going to do more than make good grades. They want kids they know are going to make real contributions to their campus culture and that takes more than a 35 or a 36. That was my point. You have to be able to sell yourself as someone who will make a difference.

My ds’s experience on Bama’s campus is that he is surrounded by serious students who have big goals. So, no, his experience has not been that others are not serious about school. I am sure that is a significant population on campus, but on a campus that size, they are not going to be your peer group unless that is who you seek. Majors are also a filter. Engineering and physics majors are not going to be non-serious students skipping class and not working.

14

@Laerai

Your numbers will / should / could get at least full tuition at:

Alabama
Alabama - Huntsville
University of Texas - Dallas
University of Utah
University of Nebraska
University of New Mexico
University of Miami - Ohio

You might also be a strong candidate to compete for big scholarships at:

Kentucky
Clemson
Michigan State
South Carolina
Tulsa
Houston


[QUOTE=""]
Your son sounds like the kind of person I would hope to see at Alabama. My main worry is that the overall culture is not as serious about school.<<

[/QUOTE]

Alabama is attracting many top-notch students with their Presidential Scholarship offer so I wouldn’t worry about the overall culture, just find a crew of smart kids to roll with and you’ll be fine.

And I would not overlook Maryland. Unless your parents are going to drop in on you several times a week, once you are in school you won’t be thinking, “Oh I’m stuck in Maryland and I can’t escape my family.”

15

Ok, in that case, a full tuition scholarship will make a college affordable, so you have more options than if you needed a full ride or close to full ride. Be sure to apply to at least one of the automatic ones for a safety (apply to several or all if you are undecided which one you like best). Remember that deadlines for scholarship applications are coming soon. Competitive full tuition or full ride scholarships should generally be seen as reach for the scholarship (even if admission to the school is match or safety level).

16

@Wien2NC

I’ll take a look at schools you mentioned.

Glad to hear more pros for Alabama; definitely planning to visit the campus at this point. And don’t worry, I’m not overlooking UMCP. Definitely possible I’ll end up going there in the end, but I want to seek out any scholarship opportunities I can so for now it’s a backup plan.

@ucbalumnus

I’m a junior this year, so I’m pretty sure I don’t need to deal with actually applying for at least 6 more months… right?

And I’ll take your advice in terms of classifying competitive merit schools as reaches. Seems like a good idea.

17

Yes, you have time since you are a junior. I thought you were a senior.

But note that scholarships may change next year.

18

Check out the University of Cincinnati, which has a well-respected engineering school. Maryland is a geographic target for UC, so my understanding is they give automatic money to graduates of Maryland high schools to offset out of state tuition. (I think they call that their National Outreach program.) You might also qualify for other merit aid there. And, UC has a top notch co-op program, so you can work in a career-related job to earn money for school. Plus the co-op usually gives you a foot in the door for post school employment and, if nothing else, a co-op looks great on your resume.

19

[QUOTE=""]

@Wien2NC Your numbers will / should / could get at least full tuition at:
University of Utah

[/QUOTE]

Where do you get that from? As a straight up solid? Presidential this year was quoted as an ACT of 35 for even instate kids. Do you mean Utah State?

20

@Sybylla

when i punched in my son’s numbers on their Net Price Calculator (4.0, new SAT 1550, ACT 33) it indicated he would get it. it was Utah not Utah State.