@carolinamom2boys can you tell OP about merit/honors at College of Charleston?
@Nojotennis Weighing in on your SC options. My son had very similar stats as yours. 32 ACT, 4.95 WGPA, ranked in the top 1% of his class, 8 APs, NHS, Beta Club, Eagle Scout , Science Club and team president, academic team captain. He received provisional acceptance to Clemson as a junior based on his stats. He was a Wofford Scholar and was supposed to be nominated for Furman Scholar but GC did not complete paperwork ( stay on you GC) . He applied to Clemson including Calhoun Honors , Furman, Wofford , CofC Honors and Winthrop. He was accepted at every school and was offered substantial merit at every school. He was one of 48 students invited for Scholarship weekend at at Furman out of 1200 applicants . He was not awarded one of the more lucrative Hollingsworth ( 35,000 scholarships) He attends CofC as a William Aiken Fellow. He is a CS/ Data Science double major on close to a full ride. For his major , the opportunities far outweighed the other schools. They have a great relationship with MUSC and many of their undergrads do research with them as early as freshman . They also have a strong math program . Data Science may be a strong option as well. I’ve included several links about The Honors College. Feel free to PM with specific questions.http://today.cofc.edu/2016/08/22/cofc-class-of-2020-profile/
http://honors.cofc.edu/our-academics/william-aiken-fellows-society.php
@Chardo Yeah, I’ve heard that. That’s why I am considering LACs in the South with good math and bio programs rather than research universities with BME for right now.
@botcom Huh, I didn’t see that. I’ll have to research that. Thank you for your help!
@carolinamom2boys Thanks for sharing your experiences with me. Your son and I do have a lot in common, don’t we? I will have to look a bit further into CofC. You’ve been a big help ever since I’ve joined, so thank you!
You’re welcome @Nojotennis . Do you happen to live in Greenville County? Furman offers the Max Heller scholarship to a student at every public HS in Greenville County. It is worth 20,000 and you can turn it down if you are offered a higher merit award.
@carolinamom2boys I’m afraid I don’t…
@nojotennis Just an FYI My sons friend at Rowan is on the club tennis team. http://rowantennis.■■■■■■■■■■■/rowantennis/tournament-information
Maybe I’m missing what type of extracurricular Tennis you’re interested in.
Good luck in your college search.
@Lehighmother I didn’t really look too hard at club tennis, so thank you for clearing that up. At the athletic level that Rowan is at, however, I was disappointed to find that they don’t have an NCAA team because it is actually possible for me to play at that athletic level.
@Nojotennis Rowan is a school rising in academics very quickly. They have an Engineering school that is becoming, highly regarded. It will probably take sometime for their athletics to catch up. You’re stats are smililar to my daughters and there are some great engineering schools in this area (NJ, PA) You wouldn’t qualify for merit at the private ones but might actually receive great financial aid. Your family can be middle or upper middle and still get great money so don’t rule them out. Lehigh, Lafayette, and Villanova are just a few to look into.
@Lehighmother Thank you for the suggestions, but I would prefer to stay in the South for my undergrad at least. I am still interested in Rowan, but I hadn’t heard about it until I started this thread, so thanks for giving me that info!
I did some research last night, and I found a school that accommodates many of my preferences: UTD. It has what seems like a good engineering program, is in a suburb of a great city in Dallas, and has VERY generous NMF (which I will probably be) scholarships. Can anyone confirm or reject any of the information I have here? Thanks in advance!
Duke
JHU
Rice
Vanderbilt
Georgia Tech
UVa
William & Mary
UT-Austin
TAMU
UM-CP
Virginia Tech
UFlorida
Alabama *
New Mexico Tech
Hendrix (AK)
Trinity U (TX)
Florida A&M *
New College of Florida **
Louisiana Tech *
Prairie View A&M*
USNA
Citadel
VMI
- Offers automatic full tuition (/ full ride) merit scholarships for qualifying stats ** Offers scholarships to OOS freshmen (https://www.ncf.edu/admissions/cost-and-aid/scholarships/out-of-state-freshmen/)
For BME in the south, I’m surprised GA Tech and Duke haven’t been mentioned more often. Duke is a top level private, so finances - if you qualify - won’t be that big a problem. Vanderbilt is another great BME program with great FA.
@tk21769 Nice! Thank you for this list! Not familiar with Hendrix, NM Tech, or Trinity. Some more info on those schools would be appreciated!
@IsaacTheFuture I have been thinking a lot about those three schools in my top 5 choices (others being Clemson and Davidson), but my issue is that someone in a middle income bracket would not get much financial help and the scholarships for OOS students like me are scarce. I realize they have great BME, and that why they are in my list, but my money is not unlimited.
I just want to thank everyone for giving such good answers!!! I look forward to more just like these!
Hello, I’m in a similar boat as OP. I was thinking about applying to Vanderbilt for a STEM major (possibly engineering). How good is it for that?
Hendrix is a small liberal arts college in Arkansas, and one of the the so-called “Colleges that Change Lives” (http://ctcl.org/).
It’s less selective than most of the schools higher up on the list.
According to one study, it’s also one of the top 50 colleges for alumni-earned STEM PhDs per capita (https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf13323/).
Hendrix apparently generated more alumni STEM PhDs per capita than Dartmouth, Berkeley, or Columbia in the cited years. According to Kiplinger’s, in a recent entering class at Hendrix, 93% of students without need were awarded merit grants averaging over $25K each (which are very big numbers compared to other Kiplinger “best value” colleges).
@tk21769 Thank you for that. I’ll definitely consider Hendrix!
Any other suggestions, guys?
I always (or at least often) think of Emory for anything related to bio-* programs.
@simba9 OK thank you!
Could anyone give me some info on Davidson? It’s one of my top choices, and I want to make sure I’m well informed.
Also, I am confused about financial aid at private U’s. I’m sort of skeptical that they give so much money in grants. Could anyone clarify?
I second Georgia Tech.