@NerdMom88 Oops, full tuition not a full ride. Yeah, scholarships are good and I’m considering applying to the schools that offer full tuition. I meant to say that I probably don’t need my entire tuition to be covered. My family is upper middle class, but I don’t know exactly what they’d be able to afford. They don’t know anything about college tuition either. $35k/year was just an estimate.
@ucbalumnus I used the EFC calc and it estimated around $60k so you’re probably right. Berkeley wasn’t my top choice anyway and none of the alumni from my school chose to attend.
@betaeridani, the first thing you need to do is set down with your parents for a frank talk about the amount they can afford each year for your undergraduate education. They may not know anything about college tuition, but they know how much money they can spend. Without that figure, any financial advice you get from other posters will be pure speculation.
I’ve seen too many students base their applications on assumed numbers and end up with no affordable options at the end of their senior year. Please, please have that discussion ASAP!
@nerdMom88 I think I will be fine, I’m not just applying to very selective, private universities. We’ve tried to discuss this and full, in-state UW tuition is definitely in our range. They just don’t know about schools like CMU.
If you show them the net price calculator result for CMU, what is their reaction to the price it shows?
Ifbpur fafsa efc is 60k it means
Show them the NPC results for cmu, Harvey mudd, Olin, Case Western, Cooper Union, would, rit, rpi. Can they pay for any of them? Are they willing to?
(don’t assume. Ask. Especially if you’re not exaggerating your father being sexist. He might oppose your living on campus or studying engineering…)
Then show them results for uWash (top tier university), wwu, wsu. Any of them possible?
Add Waterloo (as good as cmu in some respects).
@ucbalumnus I don’t know what you’re trying to prove here, but obviously they say it’s too high. My mom said there’s no way she’s paying over 50k/year ( 45k-50k for a top university). Berkeley is less likely to give me anything. And the high tuition doesn’t mean I can’t apply. Just not ED at this point. If I don’t get in, I could try to apply there for grad school I guess.
Argh…#46 “If your EFC is 60K it means that’s the minimum colleges will expect. Therefore, you need a lot of merit aid.”
You’re totally right, cross out any UC.
(Anyway their large class problem is much, much worse than the one at UW’s. It really is a better learning experience for grad students than for undergrads.)
Run the NPCs on different universities and bring the results to your parents.
CMU classes are not necessarily small. Although https://enr-apps.as.cmu.edu/open/SOC/SOCServlet/search does not list sizes, it can be inferred that a lecture with several attached discussion and/or lab sections is a fairly large class.
If I’m reading this correctly, CMU offers the Carnegie scholarship for families that qualify for “little to no need-based aid”:
https://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/grants-scholarships
Scroll down for the description. You still have to submit FAFSA/CSS profile. But this might be an option.
You may want to look at other schools that are like CMU by using the supermatch tool on this site or by checking reviews/Naviance/Princeton guide for “students that applied here also considered…”
@ucbalumnus I don’t know why you’re clinging to the fact I mentioned class sizes. The size of the school is smaller overall (compared to UW). My HS is a super nerdy and fairly small (selective STEM school), CMU feels like it would have a similar environment. I’ve always wanted to live on the east coast. It seems cold, which is good. I hate warm weather. It’s near the city too. Basically it’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a college.
^ I went to a super nerdy small selective STEM HS as well. As someone who went to an Ivy-equivalent about the same size as CMU, I can tell you that CMU would feel nothing like your HS (which makes sense, considering that it has 6K+ undergrads).
In any case, Stevens and Webb are near a major city. Cooper Union is in that major city. Olin is near a city. CWRU is in a city. All are in cold-weather climes. All would be nerdy and techy. All of them besides CWRU actually are small (some are tiny) and even CWRU isn’t that big.
Take a look at University of Rochester and Case Western, both of which are pretty decent on merit aid and are in cities (although not necessarily the best cities around). I’m not sure what your major is, but you could also apply to Cooper Union in NYC and Georgia Tech (which has an EA option) if you’re set on engineering or computers.
@midatlmom Georgia Tech EA is what I’m looking at right now. Not really into computers, but mechanical, biomedical, and electrical engineering are high up on the list for me. I’m looking at interning and working at an aerospace/biotech company in the future. I’m just not sure how much aid I would get with Georgia Tech.
@PurpleTitan How so? I’ve heard that CMU is relatively nerdy. 2/3 of my HS is also male, so that factor sounds similar (at least in engineering). I don’t know about size, but 6k undergrads sounds pretty darn small. Then again, I don’t want to go to a school so tiny that I see the same exact people everyday. I don’t think I would like Stevens and Webb. Location wise and since Webb has an enrollment of 80!?!? I don’t know if either would be good for me anyway in opportunities. I’m planning on doing a paid internship every single year of college at a major tech company including the summer before my freshman year. Cooper Union is a school I’m considering, but NYC makes me sad. 
I don’t know what Pittsburgh is like at all, but I love Andy Warhol lol (I know, that’s so dumb, I’m actually pretty artistic though).
You might also take a look at Lafayette College. Despite having just 2500 students, they offer quite a few engineering options including mechanical. While it isn’t any less expensive than CMU, they do offer a small number of applicants quite a bit of merit aid averaging $26,000 per year.
You won’t get any aid from Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech doesn’t give any aid beyond the Pell Grant which you don’t qualify for. Also it highly unlikely you will get any merit aid either because they give most of their merit aid to in-state students.If you can’t afford to be full pay you should take GA Tech off the list.
If you like nerdy schools I agree with the suggestions of RPI, WPI, and RIT.
@sensation723 My parents can afford it, but it doesn’t seem worth it. Applying can’t hurt though.
The total out of state cost of attendance at GT is approximately $48,000. Since the OP mentioned that her parents might be willing to pay between 40,000-50,000, I think Georgia Tech should stay on the list.
Cal Poly seems pretty reasonable, would it be a good idea to apply ED?