<p>I just finished junior year, and I'm planning to apply to Rice, Notre Dame, U Penn, USC, and Northwestern this fall. I need some safety schools that have a pretty decent engineering program but is also pretty generous with financial aid......
Do you have any suggestions?</p>
<p>Some basic stats:
GPA: 3.92
SAT: 2150</p>
<p>Maybe you should look at Alabama or Clemson.</p>
<p>Try Drexel in Philly- right next to UPenn. They havea good program and gave my D the most merit aid of any school that she was accepted.</p>
<p>If money is a serious issue for you, and you don’t qualify for any of these, <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html</a> then make an appointment with the counselors at your local community college to discuss their articulation agreements for engineering majors. Many community colleges offer the first two years of general engineering courses, and have agreements with the public universities in that state so that students can head directly into the third year of engineering courses when they transfer. I know several working engineers who followed that route because of family finances.</p>
<p>slumom: the engineering programs in alabama and clemson don’t seem to be very good…</p>
<p>would you consider lehigh university to be a safety?</p>
<p>I need some safety schools that have a pretty decent engineering program</p>
<p>Both Bama and Clemson fit that description. They both have good engineering programs. Bama has a brand new mega-sized Engineering Complex. It has internship, co-op, and research opps. Clemson probably won’t be affordable because the merit money won’t be a lot. However, Bama would give you free tuition plus 2500 per year.</p>
<p>When you say that you need FA…do you mean that your family is lowish income? Or do you mean that your family has a good income, but they can’t afford much for college? Big difference!!</p>
<p>Purdue
Iowa
Case-Western</p>
<p>as academic safeties, but I can’t directly speak to their financial aid policies.</p>
<p>Your state flagship is usually a good safety. Most have a pretty decent engineering program and some are outstanding.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids: my parents have low income
happymomof1: i don’t plan on going to community college
hornetdad: i’m not a resident of any state b/c i’m a us citizen living in hong kong…</p>
<p>woah woah woah! Clemson is definitely a great choice for engineering. It is the most popular and best major on campus and if it was terrible, I’m sure we wouldn’t be the #23 best public college in America. In addition, if you’re in the top 10% of your high school class and have a critical reading + math score of at least 1350, you can qualify to get in-state tuition. The honors college at Clemson is fantastic, lots of opportunity to do research, study abroad etc…</p>
<p>A few other rankings I’ll throw at ya:</p>
<p>17: Ranking Clemson’s engineering program received in a 2010 Wall Street Journal poll of recruiters at 500 large companies.</p>
<p>8: Ranking in terms of students’ return on investment, as rated by SmartMoney.</p>
<p>91: Percentage of seniors who would choose Clemson if they could start their college career over again, according to 2009 National Survey of Student Engagement.</p>
<p>9: Ranking Clemson received in U.S.News & World Report’s 2011 Up-and-Comers category for institutions that have made the most promising and innovative changes in the areas of academics, faculty, student life, campus or facilities.</p>
<p>12: Ranking Clemson received in a 2011 U.S.News & World Report survey of college presidents, provosts and admissions deans who were asked to identify schools where faculty has an unusual commitment to undergraduate teaching.</p>
<p>Princeton Review rankings:</p>
<h1>5 Everyone Plays Intramural Sports</h1>
<h1>5 Happiest Students</h1>
<h1>1 Jock Schools</h1>
<h1>1 Town-Gown Relations are Great</h1>
<p>Let me know if you have any questions about Clemson! I’d definitely encourage you to research a little bit more about it instead of just trashing it immediately haha, I’m a civil engineering major there and it really is a great engineering school 
I was accepted to Clemson, Purdue, Virginia Tech, Northeastern, Pittsburgh, UMass-Amherst and decided to go to Clemson and I haven’t regretted my decision!</p>
<p>PS: I’m a US and Hong Kong citizen as well! haha</p>
<p>pierre: i’ll pm you! :)</p>
<p>*mom2collegekids: my parents have low income
happymomof1: i don’t plan on going to community college
hornetdad: i’m not a resident of any state b/c i’m a us citizen living in hong kong… *</p>
<p>OK…so does that mean that your family can’t contribute anything? Or can they contribute some money? Can they pay for your int’l travel?</p>
<p>If they can’t contribute much and your EFC is 0, then your safety choices are going to be VERY few…since safeties don’t give much “need-based aid” so you would need HUGE merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Pierre is right, you would get instate tuition at Clemson because of your stats…however, the instate COA is $25k per year…so a Pell grant and a student loan (combined up to $11k) are not going to come close to covering your costs.</p>
<p>For you…A financial safety merit scholarship has to cover - at least - full tuition plus more. that way your remaining costs can be covered with Pell and a student loan and any EFC that you might have. </p>
<p>Since you are a US citizen, you can work part-time to earn pocket money. :)</p>
<p>I have two other siblings in college if that helps. I think my EFC will be close to 0… would that affect my chances even at safeties??</p>
<p>*I have two other siblings in college if that helps. I think my EFC will be close to 0… would that affect my chances even at safeties?? *</p>
<p>It won’t affect ADMISSIONS…however, safeties don’t give much need-based aid …so you’d get accepted to various safeties, but then not be given enough money to attend those schools.</p>
<p>So, your problem isn’t “acceptance”…your problem is finding safeties that will give you a very large amount of MERIT money, so that federal aid (up to $11k in grants/loans) can cover most of the balance.</p>
<p>Do you know how much your family can contribute??? </p>
<p>Can they pay for int’l travel? If not, how will you pay for that?</p>
<p>illinois, michigan, purdue, maryland</p>
<p>Illinois & Michigan Engineering are not safeties. Furthermore Michigan has a reputation of being stingy with OOS financial aid</p>
<p>Almost all publics are stingy with OOS need-based aid…hence the need for this student to apply to safeties that will give her ASSURED very large scholarships for her stats.</p>
<p>For safeties…I’m estimating that she would need merit scholarships that - at the MINIMUM - cover full tuition…so that fed grants, loans, and family funds can pay for room, board, books, etc.</p>
<p>Financial aid and merit aid aside, your grades should get you into Georgia Tech or Illinois, top engineering schools. Visit if you can, they are better in engineering than your targets. You don’t mention which area of engineering, but some of the programs at Clemson are excellent (maybe not known on this forum), and it would be a safety for you. Also good: Case Western, Purdue and Va Tech.</p>
<p>BTW, none of these schools are safeties for everyone. But you appear to have the grades.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen much advice in this thread that I agree with. </p>
<p>Can you break down that 2150 on the SAT and do you have any subject test scores back yet? Also, if you are female (I’m guessing from your user name), you have a competitive advantage at a school with a skewed ratio (Harvey Mudd, RPI, etc). </p>
<p>You have decent stats, but the schools on your list are very competitive. Since money is an issue, you might not actually have any financial safeties unless you apply to a school that you can afford to pay list price. </p>
<p>Some of the best deals in engineering if you have to pay list price are:</p>
<p>New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
SUNY Stony Brook
SUNY Buffalo</p>
<p>If you can’t afford them anyway though, then you can skip them. How much can you afford if you had no aid?</p>
<p>The good news is that you are likely to get in, with financial aid, to a number of good private schools:</p>
<p>Case Western (Very high quality engineering and very generous - this is a must look at for you!). I think this is a safety, but I’m not sure. They have early action which you should definitely use. If you get in EA, you have an admissions safety.</p>
<p>RPI
University of Rochester</p>
<p>Admissions safeties:
WPI
RHIT
Most state schools </p>
<p>I think Clemson is a pretty decent engineering school. My peers don’t view Alabama in the same light. </p>
<p>I do like the schools that you already have on your list. I don’t think Lehigh is a safety.</p>
<p>You should look into the qualifications for merit scholarships at public schools. If your math SAT is above 700, you should really look for highly ranked engineering schools. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>RIT can be another admission safety. </p>
<p>OP, have you checked out Trinity University, Texas? They are very generous with financial aid.</p>