Schools suggestions for Engineering major with Merit

<p>If her GPA is 3.6+ that ACT score would qualify for full-tuition at Utah State.</p>

<p>Krug - Your current list appears to be southern with one exception so I am wondering if climate will come into play??? I know when we were looking for my son, that was one of his major considerations, he didn’t want to end up in a place with too much snow. The only exception he was even willing to talk about was MIT (no explanation needed there). The problem is that many of the well known engineering chioces are in northern states.</p>

<p>Son’s stats are very similar to your daughter (just a bit better number wise) and he applied to a number of the southern schools that folks have suggested here. Word of warning, don’t think that those stats make your daughter a “lock” for any of the big name competitive scholarships. Most of the kids applying have that kind of stats, you have a have another hook or you have to have an essay and interview that just seperates you from the crowd. Of course the one thing she does have going for her is being a female who is interested in STEM. Hopefully that will go a long way in helping her make seperation from the others.</p>

<p>In the end DS chose Bama (BIO/Chem Engineering) for financial reasons, and he did love the school after we visited. Even with stats like you are talking about there was a $$ seperation from the other schools and with one or two more degrees to follow he realized getting his undergrad with no debt was the more important choice.</p>

<p>As you end up with questions on schools, their respective scholarship opportunities and other things be sure to come back to the boards with any and all questions. Many of us have been down the path that you are now entering and are more than willing to share any thoughts and experiences. If you aren’t comfortable putting a question on the boards you can always private message someone.</p>

<p>Good luck!!!</p>

<p>Alabama - Last year they offered my S2 full tuition, R&B and either a $2000 or $4000 stipend to spend as we saw fit. I have read great things about their Engineering and Honors programs. Also, the U of Minnesota loves high stat kids from out of state.</p>

<p>She appears likely for The Marquis Scholarship at Lafayette ($20,000/yr). At $52,000 COA, that still leaves a gap that could be filled with need based aid?
Yes, Lafayette has fencing!</p>

<p>Thanks so much for all the suggestions!</p>

<p>We will not be qualified for financial aid. We did not get much for the first 2 kids (we have assets in stocks from bonuses that we are hoping will help out for retirement) and luckily they both have full tuition merit. So we are hoping for at least half tuition, since all 3 will be in school at the same time. </p>

<p>RPI would be good except we are not crazy about Troy and it’s not easy to get flights in and out of there. We applied 2 years ago to Case, spoke to their financial aid office, and was told that they want to give less $$ per person but to more people. We respect that, but it looked like the max award a few years ago was $25K.</p>

<p>She is open to all geographical location and size of schools. I guess there are 2 points that will be a big plus, not being over an hour from a decent size airport and a Hillel.</p>

<p>I’m surprised this thread has been alive this long without anyone mentioning Franklin W. Olin. My D had very similar stats to yours and is headed there this fall. Every student who gets in gets a half-tuition ($20K) merit scholarship. We, too, were in a position where this made a big difference for us, but D chose it on its own merits (so to speak) over a number of other excellent schools to which she was admitted. She was initially put off by the small size, but an overnight visit won her over in a big way.</p>

<p>Olin is both highly selective and highly unique, with an innovative curriculum that emphasizes hands-on, project-based learning. Tony Wagner’s new book, Creating Innovators, devotes 23 pages to Olin. It’s on 13 (!) of Princeton Review’s top 20 lists, including:
Happiest Students
Best Quality of Life
Professors Get High Marks
Best Classroom Experience</p>

<p>They have a fencing club, and Wellesley (~3 mi away), with whom Olin has cross-registration privileges, also appears to have an excellent team (though I’m not sure if Olin students can join).</p>

<p>Check it out!</p>

<p>Being a girl in engineering, look at tech schools (RPI, WPI, etc) because they’re tech oriented they have a small female student body (like 25%) which means they might give more merit aid to a girl to get her to go there and help balance out the student body makeup.</p>

<p>Quick Olin addendum (just missed the edit timeout): Olin is also quite atypical amongst tech schools in that they maintain and near 50-50 gender balance, making it a particularly female-friendly engineering educational environment.</p>

<p>My DD attends University at Buffalo SUNY and received Pres Scholarship which covers tuition, R & B, books, a little left over for travel. She is going into her 3rd yr as Chem E and has had a very good experience thus far. She flies jet blue to/from NYC.</p>

<p>A good friend of mine has almost identical stats (I’m not sure about her SAT IIs, but the rest is the same) and applied to University of Maryland College Park’s Clark School of Engineering. She got into the Honors program, got a Banneker/Key Scholarship (full merit scholarship that covers tuition, fees, room, board, and books). In addition, she got an engineering departmental scholarship (which, frankly, are fairly easy for a girl in engineering to get) which she gets to put into her savings, seeing as she doesn’t need it for school. </p>

<p>Even if you daughter doesn’t get the Banneker/Key, there’s a good shot she’ll at least get nominated for it, which guarantees her a merit scholarship covering half of all costs, or a Presidential Scholarship, which goes up to $12,000 per year for OOS.</p>

<p>The Clark School is very well ranked and every major offered has a good reputation. If she’s interested in aerospace engineering, it’s definitely a great choice because the school is 5 minutes away from NASA Goddard and public transportation connects it to many opportunities in DC. Also, the school has awesome things like a huge wind tunnel, a cyclotron, and a zero-gravity pool… Which is just awesome!</p>

<p>She’d probably get a near full ride at UTD</p>

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<p>Half tuition at an in-state public would probably leave a remaining cost of attendance of around $15,000 to $25,000 per year (depending on which state).</p>

<p>Half tuition at an expensive private would probably leave a remaining cost of attendance of around $40,000 per year.</p>

<p>You need to think in terms of what you are able and willing to spend. A half tuition scholarship can sound impressive, but still leave the school unaffordable.</p>

<p>One last Olin note (and then I promise I’ll shut up unless prompted to do otherwise!)…</p>

<p>One of the things that many parents of high-stats kid grapple with is what value they (and their kid) place on being at a school where they’ll be surrounded by students of comparable ability. This question often gets woven into the quest for merit aid. There’s a good chance you’ll be presented with the full spectrum: from entirely free rides at less selective schools to no merit money at all at the most selective. Passions run high on this topic, and how much you care about selectivity (and hence the average caliber of the student body and perhaps prestige) is very much an individual thing.</p>

<p>Speaking for myself and my D, we cared. I think there’s real value in being surrounded by bright, interesting peers of comparable academic ability. I know there are those that will pooh pooh this attitude and offer assurances that there are plenty of bright kids at every school (true), but I do believe there’s a meaningful difference in the intellectual environment at a place like MIT or Stanford relative to the sorts of schools doling out free rides.</p>

<p>That’s one of the things I found really attractive about Olin. It presents a compelling (and rare) value proposition if you’re looking for the combination of a top notch learning environment and merit aid. </p>

<p>Okay, I’m done now. Good luck with your hunting!</p>

<p>Check out Michigan, as they are highly ranked, close to a major airport (Detroit Metro), and have a Hillel. No guarantee what scholarships she may get, but being a girl with high stats, who knows!</p>

<p>ROSE Hulman!!!</p>

<p>Rayrick, We are on board with your ways of thinking but it’s up to the kid and it’s hard to predict results since the merit/admission game is somewhat a matter of luck with so much talents. I did look into Olin and saw COA at around $40K, so it’s steep even though it’s half tuition.<br>
Hmmm… I thought Rose Hulman did not give out merit…</p>

<p>We tell them that there is X amount of dollars that we have set aside per child and they can decide whether or not to save it towards graduate/professional school or undergrad or a down payment on a house! The 2 older ones applied to some of the same OOS publics and privates and had different results even though they had the EXACT same SAT, ranks, gpa, with one point off on the ACT! The point is it’s hard to tell (one major in Chem and the other in Physics). They both had different criteria for choosing the schools they did and it seems to work for them.</p>

<p>Illinois’ flagship, UIUC, offered my son a $15,000/year scholarship plus two more worth $11,000 in total over 4 years (they are stackable). The people who got them generally had 35 or 36 ACTs. </p>

<p>Silverturtle got the same award combined with another big one in the $10-$15k/year range for being a National Merit Scholar, essentially giving him a free ride (my son never bothered to take the SAT so wasn’t eligible for that one).</p>

<p>UIUC has an outstanding engineering and computer science program. The school was too big for my younger son’s taste, but my older one plans to get his master’s/phD there.</p>

<p>Also UIUC has a big Hillel organization:
<a href=“http://www.illinihillel.org/[/url]”>http://www.illinihillel.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Rose Hulman does give out merit but even with that it was not affordable. If she does like Lafayette and gets the Marquis scholarship, if she qualifies for any need based aid it would be in the form of grant aid. If you would have more than one in college, it may be a possibility. </p>

<p>We found that while our D did get a priority in getting admitted, she did not get much of a jump in scholarships. I wish I could say different. The deal at some of the bigger Southern schools sounds good.</p>

<p>“She is open to all geographical location and size of schools. I guess there are 2 points that will be a big plus, not being over an hour from a decent size airport and a Hillel”</p>

<p>OP, your D should have USC on her list AND she needs to complete her application before the Dec 1 scholarship deadline in order to be considered for one of the 140 the Full tuition scholarships. scroll to the bottom of the following page and click on the link to see criteria used to determine scholarship eligibiity. Their Full tuition scholarships are awarded to tip top students who are likely to be accepted at HYPS, MIT, etc, etc.
[USC</a> Scholarships - USC Undergraduate Admission](<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/apply/scholarship.html]USC”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/apply/scholarship.html)</p>

<p>If she makes the NMF cutoff and is accepted at USC [ which is very likely with her stats, but she needs to show strong interest], she WOULD receive an automatic 1/2 tuition scholarship. USC enrolls more NMF’s than any college in the US except Harvard.
USC [ USNWR # 25 and climbing ] has all that she wants- a top Engineering program, and LAX, which is 30 min away.
[USC</a> Hillel](<a href=“http://www.uschillel.org/uschillel/]USC”>http://www.uschillel.org/uschillel/)</p>