VT is one of those schools that admits to a first year pre-engineering program, from which students compete by GPA to enter their majors. However, it does auto-admit pre-engineering students to majors with a 3.0 GPA (lower GPA students are admitted to majors competitively by GPA), so it may not be as stressful as those schools where the GPA threshold is higher or competitively determined. Students in the upper range of the entering student stat range are probably more likely to succeed in getting into their majors than those in the lower range, but there are no guarantees for an individual student.
@Wien2NC Be sure to note that the best of those Utah scholarships require a cumulative 3.6 GPA to keep the scholarship.
Clemson is kind of lousy with merit because their OOS tuition is sooo high. They do give merit, but not a lot and once subtracted from their high OOS cost, it’s not any significant savings.
What does the family want their net cost to be?
Here’s info from the Clemson website regarding merit for OOS. The only way to know what would be offered for financial aid is to apply.
https://www.clemson.edu/financial-aid/types/scholarships/clemson-scholarship-recruiting.html
@968Mom All of the following is merely my personal opinion. If you want to go after an Ivy for engineering, Columbia and Princeton are the wrong choices. Cornell is the engineering Ivy (and top 10 engineering nationally), but as noted, may be out of reach. I would echo those that have mentioned Purdue. Ranked very high in most engineering disciplines but much easier to get into than other engineering peer institutions (not easy, just easier). I also like the Michigan and Illinois mentions - top flight engineering programs, but they will be harder than Purdue to gain admission (especially Michigan). I note the Vanderbilt mentions, amazing school but nearly as hard to get into as some Ivies and the engineering program is not on the same level as many of these other names. Finally, I will mention Minnesota and Iowa State, both with good engineering programs that I believe are not reach schools for your daughter. Note, some schools will require SAT II exams, usually Math 2 plus a science for engineering students. Your D has great credentials and an attentive parent, so she will undoubtedly land someplace great. Try and enjoy the search. PS: Some of these mentioned schools may have undesirable weather for a Floridian!!!
However, Purdue admits to first year pre-engineering, where students must pass another competitive admission process to get into their desired majors. Minnesota does this as well.
Someone mentioned Cornell is easier to get into - that may be true generally but not for engineering (just for comparison, my D scored 2300 and was waitlisted at Cornell for engineering but not admitted). They also require SAT II tests for engineering if I recall correctly.
I stepped away for a few days and didn’t realize all the responses on this thread so a big thank you to everyone who responded and for your honesty. I really appreciate it. We are painfully aware that her SAT is on the low side for the large majority of her schools. She is taking the Chemistry and Math 2 SAT Subject tests in October and then taking the new SAT in early November so fingers crossed, hopefully she’ll pull those scores up. Her dream schools are Duke and Princeton but I’m going to have to research a few mentioned.