I’m an Arizona resident and I would prefer to go to college out of state, but my parents won’t be willing to pay any more than 10k a year. Some schools I’ve been looking at are Georgia tech, Northeastern, Penn state, University of Oregon, Boston University, and some schools in the university of colorado, university of california, and UMass systems. I’m assuming I can’t get need based aid because my parents are in the upper-middle class bracket and I’m out of state, so which of these schools give good merit aid?
If stats are helpful, here are mine:
4.0 GPA (4.33 weighted)
1450 on PSAT (counselor predicts it will make NMSF cutoff)
SAT subject tests: 720 on bio, will take chem and math 2 next month
APs: 4 biology, 5 human geography- waiting on scores for micro, world, and chem, not sure which ones I’ll take in the future
ECs: math club, veterans heritage project, piano, and volunteering at animal shelter. I have a few leadership positions/awards, but nothing major. I want to do science olympiad or intel if I can.
I will be a junior next year, but my parents and GCs are encouraging me to look into colleges at this point. Sorry about the lack of info. Thanks!
Well, forget the UC system; starting this year, no more FA for OOS students. You’re obviously a very bright and academically gifted student. You shouldn’t have trouble with the “getting in” part!
As a general rule of thumb to get good merit aid, a student is usually in the top 25th percentile in terms of their stats. You may want to look at the Common Data Set for the schools that your interested in to determine how you compare to recent accepted students . Some schools like Alabama and Kentucky offer guaranteed merit based on specific stats. Typically public universities do not offer as generous merit as private schools. It may be difficult to find enough merit aid OOS to bring you COA to $10,000 or below a year.
In order to qualify for NMF you have to
take the PSAT as a junior , so that score will not qualify you as a semifinalist . You will need to retake the PSAT next year to qualify .
@carolinamom2boys yeah that is true, but my counselor’s logic was that my score next year probably won’t decrease, I guess?
Your score may not decrease , but the cutoff for NMF may change. Just wanted you to be prepared .
Forget Penn State too. Not even cheap for in-state students.
Why not PRIVATE colleges? Try out their net price calculators to see if they’re financially feasible. They are often cheaper than OOS publics
@GMTplus7 I tried out a couple(MIT and Stanford) and my EFC was 45k, which is more than the sticker price for most public schools. They don’t even offer merit aid. Do you have any other private schools that I should check out? I’m going to go for an engineering degree so I don’t think an LAC would be worth it.
Michigan, UVA, UNC. But as an OOS student, you probably won’t get any better deal than Stanford is showing you. OOS is over $50K per year, too, at the colleges that give good aid. Your best best is NMF and Alabama.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://nmfscholarships.yolasite.com/
You can look at WUE schools. Not sure any are better in quality than the Arizona schools but there’s some bargains if you really want to leave. Wyoming is one.
NMF would open some good options, but even without that you’ll find some affordable schools. Check out the links @ucbalumnus posted.
If you have a high EFC, then nix the non-merit aid private schools. You should be looking at schools w engineering, that are known for generous money, like:
WPI
Case Western
SMU
U Rochester
Northeastern
Not a definitive list:
Tulane offers a limited number of full tuition scholarships (maybe 50?) and a couple full rides.
Temple offers generous merit aid but revamping for 2016/2017 so have to wait and see.
Baylor offers full tuition plus for NMF combined with ACT/SAT score.
Boston Univ does offer NMF I believe but doubt you’ll get it below $30k/year
On a whole different level, a few schools like Vandy and Duke offer a couple substantially merit awards but competition is fierce so these should be considered reaches. I would expect that the annual recipients were also accepted into one of the top 10 schools.
For engineering, Tulane offers only biomedical and chemical.
This raises an important point: for any school you consider, make sure it has engineering and has the specialty you want. We were floored to discover that some public flagship universities don’t have engineering at all
Thanks all
Why the UMass schools? UMass Amherst is the only good one of those.
@LBad96 I have family in Massachusetts that I could board with
@LBad96 and I don’t see what’s bad about the other three. I’m not looking for a super prestigious school.