<p>So our son is really bright. But wife is not very realistic in our terms. I actually showed the wife and son our budget. We're trying to figure ways to cut down and not go into too much debt. But we've recently gone to CalDay at Berkeley and an Engineering Open house at Berkeley, wife was smitten. I keep explaining getting into Berkeley is a crap shoot.</p>
<p>So sons stats. 3.89 unweighed he will finish junior year with 5 AP I think he wants to take another 5 senior year. His weighed GPA should be somewhere near 4.5. He scored a 33 on the ACT last summer and a 2080 on the SAT. He plan on retaking it this June. For ECs, he recently created this club at this school Tech Club (president), took the club to a Engineering robotics competition for the first time (captain) and won it at Berkeley along with other awards. So at the engineering open house everyone knew him it was a little weird. He leads praise at our church, freshman year he taught guitar to elementary schools kids at a local public school. He ran cross country for the last 3 yrs and will most likely do it his senior year. SAT 2 he's done chemistry got a 740 his sophomore year and a 5 on the AP exam. He's taking a couple this year too (it was expensive). Hopefully some more 5s.</p>
<p>Sorry its long winded and if I missed any important details. So over weekend we do the CalDay and hit the only college fair in SF. It's pretty slim pickings wife doesn't know majority of the schools.</p>
<p>But wife wants to apply to all these schools even if they are reaches. And our son loves Nuclear Engineering which isn't offered at many schools as a bachelors.</p>
<p>She wants to apply to</p>
<p>Stanford
Princeton
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
Alabama</p>
<p>Our son wants to add
Pittsburgh
Reed (which we could never afford)
Drexel
Northeastern(looks expensive as well)</p>
<p>I want to add
Oregon State (which does have Nuclear Engineering)
Rose Hulman (lady was nice and gave us the email to someone that is a nuclear engineer at the school)
North Carolina State
Cal Poly SLO
San Jose State (definite safety)
Michigan State (???)</p>
<p>So we're all over the place. I hear Davis rejects lots of people because they don't think they are genuinely interested.</p>
<p>Run each school’s net price calculator to get the baseline net cost after non-loan financial aid. Then check each school for merit money. Eliminate all schools which do not have any chance of affordability.</p>
<p>For nuclear engineering, there are only 20 universities in the US that offer it, according to [Accredited</a> Program Search](<a href=“http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx]Accredited”>http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx) . However, nuclear may be a subarea under a different department, which may be a reason why the Wikipedia list is larger than that (and some of the schools listed in the Wikipedia list offer it only at the graduate level).</p>
<p>NCSU Park Scholarship pays full ride – room, board, tuition. Whether pme can get it is another matter. If your son really interests in nuclear engineering, I’d go with the cheapest option, regardless of school. Utilities industry needs to replace aging nuclear engineers and the supply is pretty short. Schools like NCSU has some sort of partnership with utilities whereby students can get internship, co-op and full time job. But, I am not an engineer and I don’t know anyone who is nuclear. So my info is second handed.</p>
<p>m2k, I know for a fact that Reed doesn’t have an engineering department. He’d probably do physics there. They do however have a nuclear reactor run by the kids there. We’re figuring out that circle flights this coming winter spring. Saving money too to pay for it. NC State does have a BS, MS and PhD as far as I know there is small merit aid and one super big one that is a wish the Park Scholar. It turns out this year 4 of the nuclear engineers were park scholars. Princeton actually sent him all this stuff, and the income level if he did get accepted would actually help us out quite a bit. But they aren’t that great at engineering. Oregon state the recruiter said theres aid specific to engineering, never know till we apply. Berkeley we’d be borrowing quite a bit, but wife said she’d cut the budget at home and try to make the borrowed amount very low. Plus there is one or two scholarships that he could potentially get that barely dent the COA. Well originally I was aiming for $10k but that seems to be very limited, $20k would be doable with lots of help and being very frugal, cutting back on some retirement contributions etc. But from our visit, I’m not too sure that my son likes the hands on approach at SLO vs theory base at Berkeley. Santa Clara sounds like a good suggestion. Our original plan was too have him dorm it for the first year if its instate locally. Then figure out cheaper options the following year or even move back home depending on situation.</p>
<p>ucbalumnus, yeah theres very few schools with the bachelor. From what I understand most schools offer mechanical engineering degrees with emphasis on nuclear engineering. Every school had someone we should talk too at the fair. I run the number through quite a few net price calculators, varys from $21k-25k.</p>
<p>jctdad, Park scholars sounds amazing. But I’ve been trying to contact them. Our sons school happens to be a non-endorsed school. So figuring out how to go as self endorsed in the application process. </p>
<p>Thank you for the advise. But do you think wife is just throwing money away with some of her suggestions. It’s not cheap applying for all these schools. What you think I should tell her.</p>
<p>Any other college suggestions would be awesome and appreciated as well. I notice on the list there were schools like Kansas State and Idaho State, am I dumb to not give those a second look?</p>
<p>Every school on the list should be a place your SON would be happy to attend. Right now Mom is excited, but she’s not the one going to college. Hard as it is for her, she needs to kick back and let your son take the lead. He may surprise you both.</p>
<p>IF the Robotic/Tech club is FIRST Robotics, Harvey Mudd College has a $40K scholarship…this is a fantastic engineering focused LAC in Claremont, CA - worthy of a look-see…</p>
<p>as far as son taking the lead - he has done a great job preparing himself for great education options. Him taking the lead in this arena is also a worthwhile venture…</p>
<p>Rice in Houston, TX?</p>
<p>plenty of great choices available…good ;luck and enjoy!</p>
<p>Is it crazy to apply to the following schools (perhaps taking 3 or four off and making sure your son has chosen the schools):</p>
<p>Princeton
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
Alabama
Pittsburgh
Reed
Drexel
Northeastern
Oregon State
Rose Hulman
North Carolina State
Cal Poly SLO
San Jose State
Michigan State </p>
<p>Then, comparing the financial aid packages with the admittances. </p>
<p>This sounds like a California kid. I understand Alabama because of their amazing merit aid, but most of the other out of state publics seem like a waste of time in this case.</p>
<p>Princeton - super aid
UC Berkeley - no aid
UC Davis - maybe merit???
Alabama - free tuition plus 2500/yr Engineering (is he also a likely NMSF?)
Pittsburgh - possibly large merit.
Reed -
Drexel - maybe merit?
Northeastern - do they give much if you’re not a NMF?
Oregon State - maybe eng’g merit.
Rose Hulman - maybe up to half tuition
North Carolina State - small merit and maybe Park
Cal Poly SLO - ??
San Jose State - ??
Michigan State - what’s their merit policy?</p>
<p>If he can raise his SAT to 2200+ and get a stellar SAT2 math/phy score, he may have a better chance to get to Berkeley Engg. </p>
<p>Definitely add Santa Clara and Cal Poly. And add in UCSD, UCLA, with UCD,UCB.
Not sure why I see so many OOS options for a CA kid. It might help if you tell us of specific other states he is interested in.</p>
<p>Berkeley has a joint major of mechanical and nuclear engineering, if he has interest in both subjects. You may also want to check if the joint major is eligible for the full ride Drake Scholarship for mechanical engineering students (it is very competitive, though).</p>
<p>The problem is that the most obvious safeties (SJSU, Alabama with the big scholarships) do not have nuclear engineering.</p>
<p>If he makes National Merit Finalist and designates Texas A&M as his first choice, he will get some decent scholarships ($34,000 total over four years and waiver of out of state surcharge). Because Texas A&M in state cost of attendance is $21,000 per year, or $84,000 total (probably somewhat more due to increases over the next three years, though), the net cost to you will probably be around $50,000 to $60,000 ($12,000 to $15,000 per year) if he makes National Merit Finalist and designates Texas A&M as his first choice. Best of all, Texas A&M has an ABET accredited nuclear engineering bachelor’s degree program.</p>
<p>Georgia Tech also has a very competitive President’s Scholarship. It has a potential for a full ride for out of state students, though there are also three lesser levels ($120,000, $100,000, and $50,000 – for comparison, out of state cost of attendance is about $39,000 per year or $156,000 for four years, so the second and third levels are likely to be within your net cost range). Georgia Tech has an ABET accredited nuclear engineering bachelor’s degree program.</p>
<p>University of New Mexico has an ABET accredited nuclear engineering bachelor’s degree program; it is in the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE), so your tuition cost would be 1.5 times the in-state rate, resulting in a cost of attendance of probably around $24,000 per year. However, there are some large merit scholarships of up to $15,000 per year.</p>
<p>Idaho State has an ABET accredited nuclear engineering bachelor’s degree program and is also in the WUE. WUE tuition of $8,694 plus health insurance of about $1,300 plus room and board of about $7,200 comes out to about $17,194. Of course, books, travel, and miscellaneous expenses add a few thousand more. However, there do not seem to be the huge scholarships that some other schools offer.</p>
<p>If nothing comes up without enough grants and/or scholarships, there is always community college to save some money for the first two years in order to increase the budget limit for the last two years. For example, [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) says that College of San Mateo has coverage of all of the lower division prerequisites needed to transfer to Berkeley nuclear engineering:</p>
<p>If nuclear engineering is necessary, only Berkeley should stay on the list. If other types of engineering are of interest to your son, then most of this list can stay (Stanford and Berkeley are commutable if necessary to save money; Alabama should be about $12,000 per year after the big scholarships).</p>
<p>Have you discussed with your son about the cost limits involved and shown him the net price calculators at the various schools?</p>
<p>But consider adding the following schools with nuclear engineering to the list:</p>
<ul>
<li>NCSU, try for Park scholarship (reach)</li>
<li>Georgia Tech, try for the three higher levels of President’s Scholarship (reach)</li>
<li>Texas A&M, if National Merit Finalist, or try for other scholarships that come with non-resident tuition waivers (?)</li>
<li>University of New Mexico, should be affordable with WUE tuition and scholarships (safety)</li>
<li>Community college followed by transfer to Berkeley or other school with nuclear engineering (safety)</li>
</ul>
<p>The OP is concerned about cost. None of those schools would be affordable. He’s looking at schools that would either award large merit or give large FA (Princeton).</p>
<p>*
Georgia Tech, try for the three higher levels of President’s Scholarship (reach)*</p>
<p>I suspect he’d need a higher ACT for that. Unless you’re a URM, an ACT 33 is not high enough. An ACT 33 is at the 25% mark. For non-URMs, you really have to be an ACT 35+ to have a chance.</p>
<p>m2k and ucb yups narrowing down that list. Taking off school that would be very useless and a waste of sending scores and fees to apply. Along with the time intensive statements and essays. He is aiming for a higher ACT/SAT this summer. We are not a URM in CA for sure being mixed asian/caucasian. I doubt he got NMF, he got a 217 in CA and the past couple years its been 220. We did get notification to send our scores to two schools.</p>
<p>I have no idea about his fixation on nuclear engineering. I’m sure it has to do with his passion in physics etc. But he lights up when we were on tour. He’s always stated he’s had an interest since middle school. No idea I constantly ask him if he’s changed his mind and he says nopes.</p>
<p>I have say down with him and talked finances. I even shared our family budget so he knew the concrete numbers and how much debt we’d be taking etc.</p>
<p>I do sometimes think alot of the out of state publics may be a waste. I have read the GTech site on scholarships and sometimes think its impossible for my son to compete. So few scholarships and I’m sure hundreds apply to all of them.</p>
<p>ucb, we did look into our local CC which is Skyline College. It would work to a certain degree and is always a fall back option.</p>
<p>Wife is korean fyi. They are so into education and prestige etc. It’s nuts. Anyways I keep telling her applying to certain schools is a waste of time and money. sigh hard to convince her. =(</p>