<p>TieneHopes – if you are already accepted into Purdue and they can offer you a full ride then consider it very seriously. Indiana is cold, but not that bad. I checked out their website and they do have a complete Aerospace program that I was unaware of. Here is the link: <a href=“https://engineering.purdue.edu/AAE[/url]”>https://engineering.purdue.edu/AAE</a></p>
<p>Thank you Waverly, happymomof1 and born2dance94. Good advice. TieneHopes, if Purdue does not work out financially or if you just don’t like the school then go to a CC for a year, get some GE’s out of the way and transfer to a Cal Poly. Cal Poly SLO is more selective and has a better reputation, but Cal Poly Pomona is literally on the way to Las Vegas from Los Angeles and will keep you closer to family. You will qualify for Cal Poly Pomona right now and it is located in Southern California which is a huge Aerospace development hub. Here are the kinds of places that recruit directly from Cal Poly Pomona: the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Raytheon, Northrup Grumman, etc., etc. You are very, very young and have PLENTY of time.</p>
<p>There is no way the OP is getting any merit money from Purdue with those scores and class rank. Taking a gap year to mature and improve the scores is a good idea. If the OP decides to go that way he MUST NOT take any classes during that gap year or it may make him a transfer which reduces his chances of getting any merit aid.</p>
<p>Well Purdue is an awesome place and I really love it…I just have to wait for their financial aid statement and I will be able to see. If they have some sort of need-based program, I am sure to get almost a full ride…</p>
<p>Again, PLEASE, PLEASE stop giving the OP schools he won’t be able to afford! No CA state school gives much aid to OOS students!! Cal Polystyrene will cost $30K with no aid.</p>
<p>And I agree with Erin’s Dad, Perdue is not going to offer anywhere near enough money. They do not meet need and the OP does not have the stats for big merit.</p>
<p>Tiena, it’s time to do your homework. Have you read the financial policies of the schools you’re applying to? It doesn’t sound like it or you’d know what Purdue’s need based aid policy was. If you’re old enough to go to college you’re old enough to do serious research and understand financial aid. It likely with your list you will end up at a Nevada State school. That’s not the worst thing, but if it isn’t what you want your list will need to be much better considered.</p>
<p>Have you thoroughly investigated your in-state options? Given your financial limitations, these may be your best options. UNLV offers “aerospace studies” within the College of Engineering. That might work for you. UNReno has a number of engineering programs, but nothing that looks like aerospace to me.</p>
<p>Take a long hard look at the community colleges in Nevada as well. They should have formal articulation agreements with the public universities so after finishing your AA at a community college you would be guaranteed transfer into the last two years of your program there.</p>
<p>TieneHopes, don’t count on out of state public colleges. Their first and foremost responsibility is to their state residents, academically, financially and otherwise. That means they are not, and cannot be, generous with you, or their state lawmakers are up in arm against them! Some of them do offer highly competitive scholarships to woo other students – those are the top of their class. You are just not in that stack. Sorry to say it so bluntly. Also, from an immigrant’s experience, I went to a directional school in Oklahoma as an undergrad. The school was doing so poorly that they almost had their accreditation revoked. But I ended up in one of the best graduate programs in the country. So, if you have to go to college in NV, go to college in NV. I am sure NV is whole lot more exciting than southern Oklahoma ;). We used to joke that the biggest benefit of living in OK is you get exciting to travel to any other places on earth, Alabama included LOL (A side note, I just don’t get the GA Tech fad these days. I was in Georgia for a longest time, and it’s just one of the schools, you know).</p>
<p>Here is Purdue’s NPC for an OOS student with a 3.9. It shows you can expect a $5500 Institutional grant. They will also give you an institutional loan of $2000. With Pell grant, Stafford loans, work study and some other minor Fed grants, it will leave your family to pay about $20,000, it’s entire income, of the $41,000 total COA.</p>