SVMMom

Looking for suggestions for son. He wants to study Engineering. Here are his stats:

UWGPA 3.75 W 4.15 (Big upward trend and all Bs were 89s, ugh!)

All honors and AP courses. Took 5 Aps so far, 4 more scheduled for next year.

AP Scores - Physics B 5, World History 5, Calc B 5, Chem 4, EngLang/Comp 4

SAT (10th grade) 1360

SAT Subjects- Math II 780, Physics 720, Chem 720

ACT- Super score 34, single sitting 32

ECs

Eagle Scout, several leadership positions in scouts as well as numerous volunteer hours.

FIRST Robotics- Involved for 4 years already. Held many leadership positions and spent extreme amount of hours on design, CAD, build of robot. Traveled country for numerous competitions where team was highly successful. Designs won several awards over multiple years.
Named team captain for next year of over 130 member team.

Pumpkin Chunkin/Pumpkin Sling- Designed and built trebuchet which won first place in NJ competitions and 3rd place in US.

NASA INSPIRE- Two years of online study through NASA interacting with scientists/Engineers.
-Studied nanotechnology at U of Puerto Rico NASA program summer 2011 and won awards for math and nanotech presentation.
-Studying Robotics through NASA summer program 2012

Questbridge Scholar

Swim Team- Varsity two years, also on seperate summer swim team

risubu

Is 1360 his CR + M score or his score out of all 3 sections?

EDIT: Nevermind, probably don't want to send the SAT if its two sections but the ACT is pretty good Try RIT and Drexel maybe

Princeton2017

How about RPI?

Olin is a reach I'm guessing? but still worth it.

UMich is a place you should look at.

Lagging

How much can you afford to pay a year? What size school? Location? Religious affiliation?

SVMMom

1360 is CR + M only.

Mid-size or so would work for him. Does not want huge public. Northeast, mid-atlantic, midwest, or Ca for location. We are in NJ. 0 EFC. No religious affiliation.

zobroward

rice and vanderbilt (vanderbilt has a lot of frats)
rice would be my number one!

mom2collegekids

Is the 0 EFC from a single parent household? is there a non-custodial parent whose income/assets will get considered by many of the schools that "meet need"?

Most OOS publics and many privates wont' work because they don't "meet need." UMich wouldn't be affordable unless you're instate.

floridadad55

In nearby Pennsylvania, you have Carnegie Mellon, Lehigh, and Villanova.

earthdancer7

Also, Case Western Reserve might be a good fit. The engineering program is strong and the ACT and SAT seem to be in the school's general range.

kdmom

How about Purdue? It has great engineering, especially Aeronautical and they give good scholarships to students with your son's test scores. He could also try Cornell -- his GPA is a little on the low side, but they might find his robotics and other activities very attractive (and the financial aid is all need-based).

SVMMom

Both of us have been unemployed for awhile now. Keep getting the "overqualified line". Also suspect age descrimination.

So far he has thought about:

MIT (a boy can dream)
Cornell
Carnegie Mellon
Lehigh
Case Western
RPI
WPI
U of M

Problem is that those that cover 100% of need are reaches. Can anyone suggest a school that is a fit and also a financial safety?

whydoicare

If you really want a financial safety, I think you/he should consider certain out-of-state publics like SUNY-Buffalo and U Alabama. It's late in the process for ROTC, but if he has any interest in military service he could apply for Air Force and Navy ROTC scholarships.

Some other private schools, like Rose Hulman, Clarkson, Drexel, RIT, just looking to get lucky on the scholarships.

xraymancs

In addition to those already mentioned look into some of the other Association of Independent Technological Universities: AITU schools. Some of them have some full ride merit scholarships available and it can't hurt to try for them.

kissmeimnotirish

Carnegie Mellon probably would not work due to its stringent FA policies. Unless you get a full ride from a peer college, then a miracle is needed to get good FA there.

ucbalumnus

Ask University of Alabama - Huntsville (a mid-size public university with aerospace, chemical, civil/environmental, computer, industrial/systems, electrical, mechanical, and optical engineering) if its scholarships use superscored ACT or single sitting ACT. 3.0 GPA and 34 ACT gives an automatic full ride, while 3.0 GPA and 31-33 ACT gives an automatic full tuition scholarship.

This thread: Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships lists full tuition and full ride scholarships. However, full tuition typically still leaves enough cost of attendance to be higher than Stafford loan limits. From that thread, there appear to be few automatic full rides or close to that at schools with engineering: University of Alabama - Huntsville (if he get a 34 ACT or they superscore), Howard, and Prairie View A&M.

There are some competitive reach level full rides, such as Park at NCSU, President's at Georgia Tech, Robertson at Duke, and Drake at Berkeley (mechanical engineering majors only), but those should be considered extreme reaches.

Although he does not want a big public, the cost limitation may require considering them -- particularly the in-state publics like Rutgers, Rowan, TCNJ, NJIT that may have a reasonable chance of offering enough need-based financial aid (check the net price calculators) and may also have merit scholarship chances. Note that Rowan, TCNJ, and NJIT are much smaller than Rutgers.