We'd like Assistance in Choosing Matches with Scholarships

College Search & Selection
1

Rising senior D2 is looking to finalize her college list. Her stats are: Unweighted GPA of 3.952, weighted around 5.3 (on a really odd scale), PSAT 211 (so she won’t be a NMSF), ACT 34, superscore of 36 (taken twice.) She’ll graduate with six or seven APs and has received a 5 on all she took this year. She attends a fairly rigorous school, is ranked 14th of 460, and should get excellent recommendations. She’s a good writer, with average ECs.

She wants to major in aerospace engineering, is chasing merit, and has full tuition remission available to any school in the Maryland system. She also has a high likelihood of being awarded a four-year scholarship from my husband’s employer worth between $3k and $8k per year.

We pulled up the list of ABET accredited schools and found those with her major, then cross-checked them with schools that offer a scholarship worth at least full tuition. She took a few off of the list, threw in MIT and Princeton, and we started further research.

These schools are still in the running:

UMBC – safety and financial safety – but she’d have to major in mech engineering
UAH – safety and financial safety
Bama – safety and affordable
UMD – match (?) and affordable
MIT – reach and barely affordable
Princeton – reach and affordable

These schools have been eliminated:

Tuskeegee – GPA requirement for scholarship too high
IIT – Only two scholarships are tuition +, and she prefers another tuition-free school
UVA – large OOS merit is too difficult

These schools we need help with. I could run the NPC, but it won’t tell me the likelihood of scholarships:

Georgia Tech – large merit is probably too hard?
Case Western
North Carolina State
Univ. of South Carolina
Ohio State University

I’d appreciate any information on how many tuition or tuition+ scholarships are available at these schools, along with recommendations on whether or not to apply with her stats, knowing that she’d only go with a large scholarship.

I feel like she’s going to end up with a lopsided list – safeties and reaches, but few matches. However, she would be happy to attend any of her financial safeties. Whew!

2

there are only 5 colleges on your list- Cant you look up the scholarship information on the colleges websites/ common data sets?

3

@menloparkmom – I did check the CDS, but I couldn’t figure out how to translate that information into the number of scholarships awarded.

4

Re #1

The main issue is that there is often little transparency on competitive merit scholarships, so it is difficult to figure out whether the student has a realistic chance of getting them.

5

Ohio State should at least offer the Morrill scholarship to your D. That could be anywhere from the in-state tuition value to full COA.

6

@ucbalumnus – Yep, that’s why I was hoping that someone might have experience and/or connections to one or more of those schools and could provide some information.

7

@“Erin’s Dad” – thanks for the info! From things I had read it sounded like Ohio State might be one of the better bets.

8

Definitely try UofSC. Good shot at honors if strong writer. Has stats for instate tuition plus some more. With strong essays could be considered for McNair. Essays very important. Brand new aerospace center.

9

@scmom12 – thanks! That’s one I really wasn’t sure about pursuing. She is a pretty strong writer, plus she has her English Lit/creative writing sister to review her essays.

10

Re: Ohio State

Be aware that it uses the first year pre-major system, where students must apply to their majors after completing prerequisite courses:
https://advising.engineering.osu.edu/current-students/applying-your-major

For this fall’s entrants, a 3.0 prerequisite GPA is needed for aerospace engineering, and a 3.4 prerequisite GPA is needed for mechanical engineering. Applicants with lower GPAs may be admitted competitively.
https://advising.engineering.osu.edu/sites/advising.engineering.osu.edu/files/uploads/Admission_To_Major/engineering_major_application_information_su2016-sp2017.pdf

11

@ucbalumnus – thanks again! I knew Purdue did that, but wasn’t aware that Ohio State did. I think she’d be fine with the GPA requirement, but it is a consideration.

12

Two quick comments.

  1. GaTech has a fairly low tuition to start with, even OOS. Great school, terrific in AEng. Certainly worth a visit. She will have an advantage due to gender;

  2. Take a close look at the employers scholarship. I suspect it is the same program that our S was fortunate enough to be awarded. I think you will find out it is $3K per year ($1500 per semester), and only goes up from $3K to $8K based on financial need. If you don’t qualify for need, your D would “only” get the $3K per year.

Good luck!

13

NCSU also has the first year pre-major followed by application to the major.
http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/academics/undergrad/firstyear/

It is not obvious how competitive each major is. Minimum prerequisite GPA is 2.0, but departments may be capacity limited and may admit competitively by prerequisite GPA and sometimes essays.
http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/academics/undergrad/coda/

14

<<<
lopsided list – safeties and reaches, but few matches. However, she would be happy to attend any of her financial safeties. Whew!
<<<<

That’s not that unusual…chasing merit can mean safeties…reaches can be super-aid.

Matches, to be affordable, can mean competitive merit.

Is that what you’re finding? Or…?

15

@mom2collegekids Yes, that’s exactly it! She’s satisfied with her safeties and reaches. She just wants to narrow down her matches – as do I – because she wants to focus on the best prospects for large competitive merit, instead of applying indiscriminately to colleges where her chances are low.

Ultimately, though, I think she’d be ok with just the safeties and reaches (although a couple of the comments above have encouraged her to apply to a couple of the match schools.)