The scores are all in! Now where to apply?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Looking for suggestions for son. He wants to study Engineering. Here are his stats:</p>

<p>UWGPA 3.75 W 4.15 (Big upward trend and all Bs were 89s, ugh!)</p>

<p>All honors and AP courses. Took 5 Aps so far, 4 more scheduled for next year.</p>

<p>AP Scores - Physics B 5, World History 5, Calc B 5, Chem 4, EngLang/Comp 4</p>

<p>SAT (10th grade) 1360</p>

<p>SAT Subjects- Math II 780, Physics 720, Chem 720</p>

<p>ACT- Super score 34, single sitting 32</p>

<p>ECs</p>

<p>Eagle Scout, several leadership positions in scouts as well as numerous volunteer hours.</p>

<p>FIRST Robotics- Involved for 4 years already. Held many leadership positions and spent extreme amount of hours on design, CAD, build of robot. Traveled country for numerous competitions where team was highly successful. Designs won several awards over multiple years.
Named team captain for next year of over 130 member team. </p>

<p>Pumpkin Chunkin/Pumpkin Sling- Designed and built trebuchet which won first place in NJ competitions and 3rd place in US.</p>

<p>NASA INSPIRE- Two years of online study through NASA interacting with scientists/Engineers.
-Studied nanotechnology at U of Puerto Rico NASA program summer 2011 and won awards for math and nanotech presentation.
-Studying Robotics through NASA summer program 2012</p>

<p>Questbridge Scholar</p>

<p>Swim Team- Varsity two years, also on seperate summer swim team</p>

2

<p>Is 1360 his CR + M score or his score out of all 3 sections?</p>

<p>EDIT: Nevermind, probably don’t want to send the SAT if its two sections but the ACT is pretty good :slight_smile: Try RIT and Drexel maybe</p>

3

<p>How about RPI?</p>

<p>Olin is a reach I’m guessing? but still worth it.</p>

<p>UMich is a place you should look at.</p>

4

<p>How much can you afford to pay a year? What size school? Location? Religious affiliation?</p>

5

<p>1360 is CR + M only.</p>

<p>Mid-size or so would work for him. Does not want huge public. Northeast, mid-atlantic, midwest, or Ca for location. We are in NJ. 0 EFC. No religious affiliation.</p>

6

<p>rice and vanderbilt (vanderbilt has a lot of frats)
rice would be my number one!</p>

7

<p>Is the 0 EFC from a single parent household? is there a non-custodial parent whose income/assets will get considered by many of the schools that “meet need”?</p>

<p>Most OOS publics and many privates wont’ work because they don’t “meet need.” UMich wouldn’t be affordable unless you’re instate.</p>

8

<p>In nearby Pennsylvania, you have Carnegie Mellon, Lehigh, and Villanova.</p>

9

<p>Also, Case Western Reserve might be a good fit. The engineering program is strong and the ACT and SAT seem to be in the school’s general range.</p>

10

<p>How about Purdue? It has great engineering, especially Aeronautical and they give good scholarships to students with your son’s test scores. He could also try Cornell – his GPA is a little on the low side, but they might find his robotics and other activities very attractive (and the financial aid is all need-based).</p>

11

<p>Both of us have been unemployed for awhile now. Keep getting the “overqualified line”. Also suspect age descrimination.</p>

<p>So far he has thought about:</p>

<p>MIT (a boy can dream)
Cornell
Carnegie Mellon
Lehigh
Case Western
RPI
WPI
U of M</p>

<p>Problem is that those that cover 100% of need are reaches. Can anyone suggest a school that is a fit and also a financial safety?</p>

12

<p>If you really want a financial safety, I think you/he should consider certain out-of-state publics like SUNY-Buffalo and U Alabama. It’s late in the process for ROTC, but if he has any interest in military service he could apply for Air Force and Navy ROTC scholarships. </p>

<p>Some other private schools, like Rose Hulman, Clarkson, Drexel, RIT, just looking to get lucky on the scholarships.</p>

13

<p>In addition to those already mentioned look into some of the other [Association</a> of Independent Technological Universities: AITU](<a href=“http://www.theaitu.org%5DAssociation”>http://www.theaitu.org) schools. Some of them have some full ride merit scholarships available and it can’t hurt to try for them.</p>

14

<p>Carnegie Mellon probably would not work due to its stringent FA policies. Unless you get a full ride from a peer college, then a miracle is needed to get good FA there.</p>

15

<p>

</p>

<p>Ask University of Alabama - Huntsville (a mid-size public university with aerospace, chemical, civil/environmental, computer, industrial/systems, electrical, mechanical, and optical engineering) if its scholarships use superscored ACT or single sitting ACT. 3.0 GPA and 34 ACT gives an automatic full ride, while 3.0 GPA and 31-33 ACT gives an automatic full tuition scholarship.</p>

<p>This thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt; lists full tuition and full ride scholarships. However, full tuition typically still leaves enough cost of attendance to be higher than Stafford loan limits. From that thread, there appear to be few automatic full rides or close to that at schools with engineering: University of Alabama - Huntsville (if he get a 34 ACT or they superscore), Howard, and Prairie View A&M.</p>

<p>There are some competitive reach level full rides, such as Park at NCSU, President’s at Georgia Tech, Robertson at Duke, and Drake at Berkeley (mechanical engineering majors only), but those should be considered extreme reaches.</p>

<p>Although he does not want a big public, the cost limitation may require considering them – particularly the in-state publics like Rutgers, Rowan, TCNJ, NJIT that may have a reasonable chance of offering enough need-based financial aid (check the net price calculators) and may also have merit scholarship chances. Note that Rowan, TCNJ, and NJIT are much smaller than Rutgers.</p>

16

<p>

</p>

<p>Also Louisiana Tech.</p>

17

<p>How about Purdue? It has great engineering, especially Aeronautical and they give good scholarships to students with your son’s test scores</p>

<p>An ACT 32 will not yield a large scholarship from Purdue. At most, he’d get about $10k per year, at a school that costs more than over $40k OOS. Purdue would only add fed aid to that, so the student would be gapped big time.</p>

18

<p>OP, Since you are in-state for NJ I hope Rutgers is on the list. Also consider Stevens Institute which has a (small) FIRST scholarship. [Tuition</a> and Fees | Stevens Institute of Technology](<a href=“http://www.stevens.edu/sit/admissions/finaid]Tuition”>http://www.stevens.edu/sit/admissions/finaid)</p>

19

<p>Have you looked into which second level of schools offer fullrides with questbridge?</p>

<p>I suspect there are several schools (UA birmingham as well as UA) that go pretty far with aid for a 34 ACT score. However, there may still be some loans involved.
Pitt is another school I would recommend for high score students.</p>

20

<p>32 ACT would give large scholarships at UA Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, and Huntsville, but all would leave remaining cost of attendance (probably around $10,000 to $12,000 per year) greater than the Stafford loan limit. They may be in reach with Stafford loans and decent summer job earnings, but the latter is not something that one can easily count on.</p>

<p>If UA Huntsville allows super scored ACT, then the superscored 34 would get a full ride there.</p>

<p>Otherwise, the other obvious full ride or close to it schools with engineering (as noted above) are Louisiana Tech, Howard, and Prairie View A&M.</p>

<p>But in-state publics (Rutgers, Rowan, NJIT, TCNJ) should be checked to see if their need-based financial aid is sufficient and if there are large merit scholarship opportunities for in-state students.</p>