<p>Assuming your cousin, a resident of Seattle, WA is a top 3 senior (out of 300) graduating from a top 25 high school with near perfect SATs (1600/2390) and excellent ECs. He is entitled a deposit of $50,000 worth of 529 money from his parents and rich uncle but he determines not to rely on any other additional financial supports from them. In addition, he considers it would be a waste of talent if staying locally because most his classmates at his rank (top 5%) applied universities elsewhere.</p>
<p>Based on your experiences and what you heard/learned from friends and relatives, what are the most worth-attending universities for both money and education quality? Could you name several universities that impress you with their generous financial aid package and academic quality?</p>
<p>The very top schools have quite generous financial aid packages…Just look at endowment figures and/or which schools are full-need and need blind. That’s pretty much your list (except some state schools aren’t very generous with OOS students).</p>
<p>So, in other words, you are looking for the most bang for your buck?</p>
<p>As far as publics go, according to Kiplinger, that school is UNC-Chapel Hill. Rounding out the top three are the University of Florida and the University of Virginia.</p>
<p>If the family does qualify for need-based aid, or is on the borderline, then a high-stat student should consider tippy-top private schools (such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford). These have some of the most generous financial aid, as well as the highest income ceilings for determining aid eligibility. Other Ivies also are very generous with truly needy students, but have lower income ceilings for eligibility.</p>
<p>If the family does not qualify for need based aid, but he still wants to minimize their cost, a good strategy is to apply to well-endowed private schools that offer generous merit scholarships. Among universities, these include Johns Hopkins, Rice University, the University of Chicago, Vanderbilt, and Duke. If he wants a small liberal arts college, check out the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) schools, such as Grinnell College, or the U.S. military academies.</p>
<p>If he is interested in engineering, consider Cooper Union, which is tuition-free. Olin College of Engineering grants merit scholarships to every admitted student, worth about half the tuition cost. Cooper Union also is tuition-free for art and architecture students.</p>
<p>Hawkette , merit-based aid is preferred but financial aid should be also fine if not into a deep debt (<$75,000) upon graduation. We are looking for a cultural diversified environment.</p>
<p>Cuse, are UVA and UNC generous to OOS students?</p>
<p>Tk, areas of interests are engineering and business (double major).</p>
<p>“He is entitled a deposit of $50,000 worth of “529” money from his parents and rich uncle but he determines not to rely on any other additional financial supports from them.”</p>
<p>That changes the choices considerably. Eliminate Chicago (no engineering, no UG business major). Eliminate the MW LACs (for the same reason). Penn and Cornell do have undergraduate engineering and business majors. Possibly eliminate the other Ivies and Stanford (no UG business major) unless willing to substitute econ for business. Eliminate Cooper Union (no UG business or econ, AFAIK).</p>
<p>Among private universities, Rice might be one of the best choices, as long as the school allows you to combine business and engineering (they have both, but in separate “schools”). Or Hopkins. Or MIT. Or a major public flagship (especially if willing to reconsider in-state.)</p>
<p>UNC doesn’t have engineering, I’m pretty sure. UVa is expensive for out of state. He’d get an automatic no-tuition deal at U of Alabama, but that’s probably not exclusive enough for him.</p>
<p>Have undergrad business and engineering: Lehigh, Bucknell, Lafayette, Michigan, Virginia, Berkeley, MIT, Penn, Cornell, Wisconsin.Notre Dame, U of S. California, Georgia Tech, Illinois.</p>
<p>Possibly Purdue but the best scholarship they have is the Beering Scholarship in which only 2-6 are given each year. Getting this scholarship would obviously be tough. They have a great Engineering program and growing Business program.</p>
<p>MIT, Penn, Stanford & Duke are options to consider. The Univ. of Michigan should also be considered. It is, however, quite difficult to double major in engineering & business due to the requirements for an engineering degree which often takes 5 years if one does an internship.
Consider an undergraduate engineering degree with an internship, work for a few years & then enter an MBA program.
If focusing solely on an engineering degree for your undergraduate work, then the options expand considerably. Schools such as Carnegie Mellon, Univ. of Illinois, Georgia Tech & Northwestern University all offer outstanding courses of study that will challenge even the best qualfied student.
In my opinion, it would be best to surround yourself with other highly intelligent students if you do not have a very specific program in mind.</p>
<p>He would qualify for significant merit money (half or full tuition) at Santa Clara University which has business and engineering, would get to live in a great area and upon returning to the Pacific Northwest have attended a school that people who be familiar with.</p>
<p>Hmmm! Many of the ivies and top LACs do not have business programs yet their graduates still get amazing jobs. Many of the engineers interested in business major in operations research and/or information engineering.
Also, take a close look at that best value list. The key for me was the level of debt at graduation. Students graduating from some of the private colleges & universities had lower debt the graduates of state institutions. If you household income is <$100K Princeton, Swarthmore would be worth looking into.</p>
<p>I know this isn’t close to Tier one, but Iowa State University is an amazing engineering school. It is also cheap. I’m not sure the numbers for in/out state students, well I just looked it up and roughly 25000k out of state. But, with wonderful stats, you could expect nearly a full ride.</p>