Another vote for OSU. A 33 could do pretty well there, even OOS.
Also, Iowa State has an excellent engineering program, decent OOS tuition, probable scholarships for a 33, and a fun college town.
Purdue might offer you a Presidential Scholarship. You will be required to apply early action to be considered and you won’t find out if you are offered a scholarship until later February.
4.0+ weighted is no big deal in these schools (And I think >4.0 UW is mathematically impossible) To even get into UCLA will require a very high UC GPA which for OOS means basically AP courses with all As (honors, GT do not count for OOS).
You have to be top 0.1% to get merit scholarships from a top 30 school on your list, aka high Harvard applicant.
Rank 30-60 may have some opportunities. Private colleges are very expensive, so merit amounts may still leave a lot of family contribution. Full need financial aid is also not a given.
Most OOS schools are not great bargains, especially the top flagships (UMich, UVa, UC-anything, etc)… Some like GTech, UWisc, can start in the upper 30s including room and board. UNC-CH is reasonable, maybe, but hard to get into for OOS.
If you drop into the 61-90s, you can pick up substantial merit aid at many public flagships or 2nd rung and some very good honors programs. There are also some good private schools in there with merit aid.
Net Price Calculators may give you merit aid in addition to financial aid info. Some ask for GPA, SAT scores etc, and will give you good estimates … I think if it is in the NPC that means it’s not a scholarship only for future Nobel Prize winners.
@NorthernMom61 Last year, the threshold for Presidential Scholarships at Purdue was around ACT 35. Many students at that level still did not get it although they offer that to around 1100 admitted students. The amount is only $5k to $10k per year if one does get it.
Purdue has frozen its tuition for the past couple of years, but the tradeoff seems to be that nobody is getting merit aid anymore (or, that is, very few are). I have been hearing of top students getting nothing. So, if you are OK with the OOS tuition (which isn’t terrible as OOS tuition goes), and if you are looking for some stability (no tuition increase for the next year or two I believe), it’s an excellent engineering school. Just don’t count on a dime of merit aid.
Well, they still show a lot of Trustees and Presidential Scholarships etc at Purdue’s website. The numbers did decrease by around 20% this year though. The Presidential Scholarships was 1100 per year and now it said 830 per year. Last year, they offered $10k/yr presidential scholarship plus another $10k/yr merit aid with need to my D. So I don’t think that is that “rare”, but it is certainly competitive. Anyway, it seems to be more available than most other colleges.
http://www.admissions.purdue.edu/costsandfinaid/freshman.php
@billcsho thanks for that link, it is helpful.
Purdue used to offer automatic merit aid (like Alabama) that reached far more students but ditched it in favor of a “holistic” approach. This had the effect of greatly reducing its merit aid offers, and it made the process, of course, unpredictable.
A caution about Purdue merit aid is the requirement that a 3.0 gpa must be maintained. Depending on one’s major, this can be difficult at Purdue (which perpetually makes the top ten list of hardest schools to get an A). I believe (not certain) that the campus-wide average gpa is below 3.0 across all majors…and the engineering college has notoriously difficult grading policies. That said, the degree is highly valued and respected, perhaps for that very reason.
Certainly not automatic, but if one is offered a scholarship it certainly is a decent discount. Purdue did offer my daughter a Presidential scholarship this year, which brought the CA within striking distance of what we budgeted. My daughter has accepted a higher offer, but it was hard for her to close the door to Purdue.