Looking for help on where to apply. for Engineering (undecided or Mechanical) DS has unweighted GPA 3.98, SAT 1550 (800 English/ 750 Math), Eagle Scout. Lots of community service. In California- applying to UCs and Cal Poly but those schools are large for him would prefer 10,000 or less UG. Has applied to MIT and looking at Ivies but cost is so high as won’t get needs based aid. Any other good schools for engineering he should look t that likely to give good Merit Based aid?
Lots of schools had a 11/1 deadline for merit consideration. What is your budget?
RPI would probably come down to $40K/year for a student with your son’s stats.
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Others will add to the list, but I’d look at Case, WPI, RPI and Lehigh. They are small, but have good facilities and tend to offer good merit aid.
There are a few extra things to note about CA publics.
First, they’re not using standard tests, so the great SAT won’t help.
Second, for all but UCB and UCLA, both of which are holistic, EC quality isn’t that important. At Cal Poly for example Tenderfoot and Eagle are the same. It’s all about hours devoted and leadership positions, no matter how mundane.
Lastly, Cal Poly is indeed bigger than he might want, but he should know it comes with some small school advantages. Classes are small. Calc is capped at 32. Physics 40something. The largest lecture hall in the whole CENG seats 130. Lectures, labs and discussions are nearly all taught by instructors with terminal degrees. They don’t offer PhDs, so there’s no pool for TAs.
Good luck to your student!
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Maybe see scholarships offered by Lafayette College.
https://admissions.lafayette.edu/scholarships/
Maybe see Stamps Scholars, though these are large unis.
Virginia Tech early action 12/1.
https://vt.academicworks.com/opportunities/34150
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The WUE schools might be smaller and would give him merit aid too. At Wyoming he’d get the top merit amount (150% of instate tuition,so about $6000/yr) plus engineering usually gets $2500 extra merit. Not sure if eagle scouts get extra merit (they do at my daughter’s school, Florida Tech). I think Montana, Montana State and other WUE schools give good merit to engineers with those scores too.
If those schools are too cold, look in the hot and humid south. It seems if you want beautiful California weather, you are either going to pay for it (Cal tech, USC) or have to go to a big school.
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U of Alabama Huntsville?
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Thanks we are now looking into RPI. We could probably make $40-50k work as he does have a college savings account that will cover 20k per year . Above that (as the Ivies and MIT are) I’m not sure how we can cover it. There are quite a few places with Dec 1st cut offs for aid, so hoping we can get some in this week.
Thanks for the suggestions, we’ll look into Case, WPI, RPI and Lehigh. We know that UCs won’t look at SATs but think he has a good chance at UCs anyhow he has good extracurriculars, has taken every AP on offer at his school and has very good grades and recommendations. He is probably the top 1or 2 students in his school (they don’t officially rank)and is coming from a public charter school. That is good information to know about Cal Poly - we didn’t know the classes are that small and that does make it more attractive. (i was surprised on the CSU app that you didn’t even get to list ECs just hours and leadership, luckily he has lots of hours and senior leadership roles)… Thanks for all the advice definitely several worth looking at
Thanks we will check them out
Thanks. Weather isn’t a big issue, we live near San Fran in the fog belt so don’t get the typical hot California weather anyhow and he isn’t put off by the thought of snow. I’ll look into the ones you suggested
Thanks for the suggestion, I’m not familiar with U of A i’ll look into it. (I’m originally from Europe so many US schools are unfamiliar to me.)
While the schools are large, the engineering departments are much smaller. Depending on the school, the first year math/physics/chem classes may be large, but then as they get into the engineering classes they’ll be more like 80-100 students. They’ll often be seeing the same kids all the time too since they have such a structured curriculum for engineering, so it won’t be quite as impersonal. Lab classes will be much smaller and can be 20 students or less. The ME cohort varies between schools too - for example, I think UCSD has about twice as many ME students as UCLA. Several of the research labs at UCLA provide research opportunities for undergrads if that’s something he might be interested in. As mentioned by others, Cal Poly is also a great option for ME at a lower price than the UCs.
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If he’s applied to MIT and looking at Ivies, I’d guess Stanford is also on your list? They have pretty generous financial aid. Check their net price calculator if you haven’t already.
As far as the UCs, he seems like he has stats that would possibly be in the running for a Regents scholarship at some of them. UCSB and UC Davis have the most generous amounts, $6k/year and $7.5k+/year, respectively.
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Be sure that you look at the University of Alabama at Huntsville; this is very different from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
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You might also check out Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. They offer decent merit aid, here: Scholarships | Costs and Financial Aid | Miami University with tuition frozen for the four years of undergraduate study at the first-year level. The deadline for obtaining merit aid consideration is December 1 (the EA II deadline). There’s around 2000 students in the College of Engineering and Computing at Miami University.
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I know my comment is way too late for you but for next year parent you could consider:
-Olin (1/2 off tuition)
-USC (only 400+ engg students per year and 1/2 off tuition if NSF)
-Case (could get 1/2 off merit)
-Rose Hulman (generous merit)