Thoughts on these schools for engineering....

Hi everyone, as I’ll be going into my senior year of high school now, I’m putting together my final list of Scholls to apply to. For the most part, all of the schools I’ll list are decent bit not as well known so at to get the most merit aid which is necessary for me. So I’m considering southern Illinois university, Cleveland state university, university of louisiana at lafayette, and two better known ones being university of alabama, and maybe univeristy of iowa. That’s a tentative list and my parents said I could apply to about five schools. High merit aid is essential on top of thw school being nice in general. I’d like at least in state tuition or better at my chosen college so as to pay as little as possible. Also any other schools you can suggest are welcome. I have a 29 act, a good gpa (not sure what it is exactly but good enough for pretty much all scholarships), and I’m heavily involved in extracurriculars such as NHS (secretary), NEHS, Civitas, Kiwanis club (president), Theater tech, chess club, student council, freshman mentoring, and probably something else I’m forgetting. So overall, please give any advice and input on my current list, and suggest any others. My intended major is mechanical engineering.
Thanks!

University at Buffalo is at least as strong for engineering as any school on your list and would likely be affordable for you.

Iowa State should be considered along with UIowa.

What is your price limit?

http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ indicates the following full rides at schools with engineering:

Tuskegee – 3.7 GPA, 29 ACT
Florida A&M – 3.5 GPA, 29 ACT
Prairie View A&M – 3.5 GPA, 26 ACT

What is your home state? You have a bunch of OOS schools on that list and no one will know if you can afford them. Since you need merit have you run their Net Price Calculators?

A couple of Florida Schools…

If you can get your ACT up to a 30, you can get the OOS tuition wavier at FSU (in-state tuition is about $6,300 a year), as well as improve your scholarship at Alabama.

With a 29 ACT, you can still look at two other Florida schools with solid engineering programs:

You’re likely get the Knight’s Achievement (OOS) Award at UCF, which was $11,000 a year ($44K total) in 2016. UCF’s OOS tuition is $22K a year, so that would bring it down to $11K. UCF has a strong engineering program (including very good Aerospace engineering program).

USF also has a strong engineering program. You qualify for the USF Green & Gold Presidential Award which is $12K a year. USF’s OOS tuition is $17.3K a year, so that would bring it down to $5.3K a year.

http://www.usf.edu/admissions/freshman/admissions-scholarships/nonflorida.aspx

Thanks for the help everyone, I forgot to mention that my home state is Illinois if that’s is of any help.

Also, I apologize for the spelling mistakes, I typed this out on a small phone which apparently did not work out well.