Need help finalising list of safety colleges for electrical engineering for my son . 1580 SAT , IB Diploma( predicted score should be 43 or 44) studying outside US so basically OOS in every state. Will be attending SSP in astrophysics this summer at UNC chapel hill.
Soccer player and school sports captain. Has done volunteering in blind school and has quite a few online courses in technology (robotics) plus helps run the robotics club in school. We will apply to few of the ivies like MIT, Stanford and Cornell. Rest in the list are Purdue
UIUCH
UT Austin
UCLA
Georgia Tech
U of Wisconsin Madison
UC Berkeley
Virginia Tech
Rice
Safety so far in list is only ASU.
Looking for colleges where he can get merit aid as our budget is 20-25K for safety schools. We are low income but extremely high on assets so don’t qualify for much aid
Kindly suggest few colleges which will be safety for him considering he will be out of state student in all the 50 states 
Thanks
Despite your student’s excellent stats, the bulk of the state schools on your list are not going to be in budget and the Ivies don’t give merit awards.
Run the net price calculator for each school and see if you qualify for need based aid.
I’d add Alabama and Iowa State to the list. For privates, your student may see enough merit at RPI and Clarkson to make it close but again, run the NPC.
Thanks
I should correct myself and the post
The budget mentioned is a number I am willing to pay for safety School
We do qualify for some aid on net price calculator of some schools that I did.
I want recommendations on safety not necessarily has to be in that budget
Don’t want him to be without any options since there are so many rejections of kids with similar stats this year and past year.
I want to build a balanced list where we do have 3-4 safety schools that give merit
Thanks for your time
Manhattan College
Rowan University
SUNY Binghamton
I know you are asking about Safeties, but if you are low income, then remove UC Berkeley and UCLA since OOS students receive little to no FA. You would be expected to pay close to full costs at around $67K/year. Is he being recruited for soccer, then that would be a different story? Also the UC’s are test blind permanently so the excellent score SAT score would not be considered for the admission process.
You probably mean something like “blue bloods,” as neither MIT or Stanford are in the Ivy League.
As for safeties that are very good programs and likely to offer good merit aid, look at Iowa State, Missouri S&T and University of Utah.
In my opinion, it’s a mistake to make a budget that’s different for a safety. Make a budget and stick with it. A Chem E grad from Illinois and Iowa State will have the same opportunities and make the same money. Cheaper is nice, but I wouldn’t overpay for a name or shortchange the safety budget.
Thank you . I stand corrected regarding ivy 
Will surely check the colleges you mentioned
Thank you for the information on UC .
Will seriously consider not applying then.
One more question so if UC Berkeley and UCLA will most probably not give any aid , I assume that applies to all UC’s then. Right?
I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet, but U. of Alabama should be very generous with merit aid.
Mississippi State, U. of Louisiana - Lafayette, Louisiana Tech would all be very inexpensive. Good chance that Louisiana State (LSU) would also be quite inexpensive.
Yes, little to no FA for all the UC’s as an OOS student. There are some merit scholarships available which are highly competitive and just a drop in the bucket for the costs when you compare the overall tuition/room/board costs. Also as I stated, SAT scores would not be considered for admission or merit aid so you should expect to pay close to full fees.
UT Austin will be very expensive OOS. They give very little aid.
I suggested Alabama 
Does the student have a GPA on a 4.0 scale? That may make it easier to find automatic-for-stats merit scholarships, such as at University of Arizona, Prairie View A&M, etc.
There may be some colleges with list prices within your budget, like South Dakota State and South Dakota Mines.
SUNY Buffalo is the best engineering school in the NYS system and would be fairly safe. With total cost of about $40k… Wouldn’t be surprised with some merit aid (around 4k)…
Thanks for the info. I think we will have to up our budget for schools.
Also do you or others here mind sharing whether the public universities like UT Austin , UC’s and other large public ones are need aware . I mean, not all universities mention being need blind for admissions.
Some mention they give financial aid but nothing about being need blind or need aware . So does asking for aid (need based aid vĂa FAFSA) negatively impacts the admission chances?
Right.
The California UC’s are need blind.
My opinion…a school is NOT a true safety school unless it is absolutely affordable. Is $67,000 a year affordable? If not…any UC won’t be affordable.
@WayOutWestMom does University of New Mexico have electrical engineering? If so, I believe this student would receive guaranteed merit aid making it affordable…in the $25k range. And even as not a safety…if this cost is too high…it’s too high.
Here is what the parent wrote about the student:
. 1580 SAT , IB Diploma( predicted score should be 43 or 44) studying outside US so basically OOS in every state
I concur. A safety is a guaranteed admit that isguaranteed to be affordable without lucking into unknowable merit aid. There are some programs like Alabama and Utah State that give merit based on a matrix.
Union (NY) would give him merit. Agree that RPI and WPI are worth a look.
U Maine offers merit, but I don’t know much about who gets it. Several kids we’ve known have looked at and liked this one as something of a halfway house between a LAC and “big” school.
Many of the big flagships have excellent EE programs – Ohio State, NC State. Etc. You may need to look at each and see if they have scholarships. For many of those, you need to apply early.
You may know this already, but often, the merit at a private will bring it into the same price range as a public, so you will need to do this based on how much you can pay.