<p>First, my parents make a good amount of money, and needless to say I won't be getting much need-based aid. </p>
<p>So that said, how much do you think I could get with these credentials:
4.0 UW GPA
33 ACT (taking it this week, hoping for at least a 35)
1540 ACT (out of 1600) (with the writing it's 2240/2400)</p>
<h1>1 ranked in my class</h1>
<p>President of Mathletes, NHS, and Captain of the Soccer team
Boys State school representative</p>
<p>at these schools:
U of Chicago
Wash U
U of Illinois
U of Wisconsin
Purdue
MIT (definitely a reach but whatever)
Stanford (see above)
Cal Tech (again)
Cal-Berkeley </p>
<p>I'm looking to study engineering. Also, am I missing any other good engineering schools? I'm looking for bigger schools, as you can see on my list.</p>
<p>Wash U does have quite a few merit scholarships to apply for, but those are suuuupppppeeeerr competitive. Top schools like MIT often only give out grant money solely on financial need.</p>
<p>Wash U does have quite a few merit scholarships to apply for, but those are suuuupppppeeeerr competitive.</p>
<p>Yes…and they seem to be very targeted awards…to URMs, hooked students, and/or students from unusual regions of the country. WashU uses their targetted merit to get certain students on campus to “fill” certain needs of their own. That’s not a criticism…schools do give merit to help the school fill it’s diversity needs, desire to have kids from every state, etc.</p>
<p>I know you said you like big schools, but if good merit aid is an important consideration, you might want to look at the following:</p>
<p>Case Western Reserve University: Reasonably good merit aid
Rose-Hulman: Small engineering school in Indiana (if you’re already thinking Purdue, maybe you’ve already considered and discarded because it’s so small)
Union College in Schenectady, NY: Liberal arts college with engineering focus (not super on merit aid, but your stats put you at top of the heap; again, it’s small, I get it, but you might want to consider if aid is a major consideration)</p>
<p>You might also want to look at some of the state schools that have automatic scholarships based on stats. The link happymomof1 provided should help, but you can find out a lot by looking at websites for various state Us.</p>
<p>Don’t expect very selective schools to shower you with merit aid. Many of them don’t even offer it (they attract top students without it). Chicago offers a few merit scholarships (10K or full tuition); near-perfect stats would be necessary but not sufficient to get it. However, Chicago does not offer engineering. Johns Hopkins offers a few merit scholarships and does have engineering programs.</p>
<p>Cooper Union and Olin are two schools with strong engineering programs that offer free or reduced tuition for all students.</p>
<p>When you put together your list, start with the schools that are certainly going to take you and that you can afford. Cherry picking like you are doing is easy. The former is much more difficult and is the crux of college selection. Once you have a list of schools that your family can afford and that will take you, then you can add schools to your heart’s desire as reaches, and bear in mind that reaches they are in terms of admissions and getting money from that list you have shown. Not a problem, but those schools should be added LAST as lottery tickets because that is what they are in terms of getting any money.</p>
<p>Also get rid of the schools like UCH with no engineering programs and those like MIT that have absolutely no merit money. Stanford does not give merit money either. Don’t know about CIT; if they do very difficult, harder than getting into HPY, all 3 to get any out of them, I’m sure. High reaches are one thing but you are wasting your time applying to schools when you need merit money and the schools give out zero as a matter of policy . Run your parents financials through an estimator and get some idea what you can expect in aid, and if it is indeed a big fat zero, then forget about schools that give only need based money, because your chances of getting money from them via merit is NONE and you are just wasting time and money pursing entry to them. Focus on those schools where you have a realistic chance of both entry and getting money since you need both. </p>
<p>Every year these boards are filled with sad students who can’t go to their schools because they got no money for them. It is is ludicrous when it is clear up front that even if the kid got in, he wasn’t going to get a dime from the school because the family doesn’t qualify for need and the parents can’t or won’t pay what the school says they should according to formula. Find out what your family is willing to shell out and fill out some estimators and see if you are eligible for any financial aid from these schools. </p>
<p>Bear in mind that OOS publics tend to be stingy with financial aid to kids not from their own states so if you aren’t way up there in stats in the engineering dept, you are not likely to get much from them. My son’ good friend is going to Purdue for engineering with stats similar to yours, and he only get about $5K or so in merit money (no fin need) which his parents found astounding considering the average stats of the school. He didn’t get into his first choice schools of which MIT, Cornell, Villanova, Harvey Mudd were some, to name a few. So you gotta do some research. Pitt, for example is a good choice, as you would be in the running for a full ride Chancellor’s Scholarship with your stats, whereas in the same state, Penn State is unlikely to give you more than toke merit because they have very little in that area, and the costs for those two school is close to the same.</p>
<p>Rice University offers a fair number of partial merit scholarships that you might be in range for with the 1540 SAT and a 4.0 UW gpa IF your course schedule is rigorous. Unlike UChicago, there is an engineering track. </p>
<p>Just stating your gpa doesn’t give a lot of information, particularly for prospective engineering students. Students collecting merit awards from schools that don’t use simple formulas have taken a lot of advanced math and a full slate of rigorous science courses. Those I have known have also competed in a lot of math and science competitions–not necessarily big national contests, but they have shown a long-term interest in engineering-related activities.</p>
<p>I agree with the above assessments about big merit awards at WashU–they seem to use them to expand their geographical diversity. I don’t know where you live, so that might not work against you, but they are both hard to get and unpredictable, at least compared with other privates with a similar reputation.</p>