My son is attending community college, and working hard to transfer to a “good” four year school to major in chemical engineering. We are in-state for Berkeley, and so that is his top choice (and he’ll apply to some other in-state publics), but we’re wanting to know which of these (“top rated”) schools are known for any generosity for transfer and/or out of state students with a high EFC.
We’d love to hear anything you have on any of these schools in regards to this. (If you just wanna share something about any of these schools for an engineering major, chime in with that too.)
MIT
Cal Tech
U of Penn
Rice
Vanderbilt
Johns Hopkins
Northwestern
Notre Dam
Georgia Tech
U Michigan Ann Arbor
U of Virginia
University Wisconsin - Madison
UT Austin
Purdue
U Minn - Twin Cities
Texas A & M
U of Delaware
U of Houston
FL State
U of Arizona
Thank you.
Dang it, couldn’t figure out how to edit…I should add, any of these known for being generous or notorious for not having much to offer in this regard. I should also add my son is a very good student for now, and intends to stay that way.
“Generous” in terms of admission, FA/scholarships, or transfer credit?
Merit scholarships tend to be less common for transfer students than frosh. Most out-of-state public schools offer little or no FA.
Michigan engineering is reportedly stingy with transfer credit, though it does have a transfer credit listing that you can look up.
If you are in-state in California, you will have the most predictable admissions (see https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/transfers-major for UCs), FA (see net price calculators), and transfer credit (see http://www.assist.org ) at UCs and CSUs.
Few schools are generous with financial aid to students with a high EFC.
The state schools you list, with the exception of UVA, will mostly rely on merit-based scholarships for an incoming academically qualified student. UVA has quite a generous financial aid program, the “meet full demonstrated need” kind, along with UNC Chapel Hill. But since you’re out-of-state the acceptance rate would be significantly low. You’ll have to look at their offerings individually to see if their merit scholarships are attainable/worth it.
As for the other universities, the private ones, they all have a meet-full need policy and are all need-blind in their admissions. It’s important to always mention that their financial aid packages may differ from one to another, so check out their individual NPC’s for a solid metric. Additionally, these are very competitive schools (you hear this a lot, I know, but it cannot be understated), so definitely have in-state “back-ups”. Berkeley and the other UCs love their CCC transfer students, so be sure to apply to a lot of others in the system.
Since your son is attending a community college, consider the Jack Kent Cooke undergraduate scholarship, which is up to 40k a year towards the desired institution. If your total household income is above 100k, it might be a little out of reach, otherwise go for it.
Community colleges host a different dynamic than traditional 4-years, so make sure your son makes the most of his time there. A strong challenging schedule, good professor relationships(and eventually recommendations), and meaningful extracurricular involvement, will all be the spearhead to his future application.
If he’s looking at chemical engineering, Texas is where the jobs are at. UT and Texas A&M are big schools they recruit from. That also includes U of Houston. The only downside is the out of state tuition. That would probably make it affordable since he went to community college for 2 years.
Great info and things to keep in mind from all of you! Thank you. UCBalumnus, yes I mean financial aid. (I meant to post in the Financial Aid section, where it would’ve been clear what I meant, but I guess I decided on the transfer student section.) But you remind me that transfer credit will ultimately affect cost. Thanks.
He plans to apply mostly to in-state schools (including "tag"ing UC Davis), but I’d like him to have a couple out-of-state options, and trying to pick them so we can be looking at their pre-reqs.
I’m open to more info if you think of anything to add, or if anyone else would like to chime in.
Thanks again.
Hi from another parent of a CCC student who had the same questions a couple months ago.
Sadly, financial aid is pretty lackluster for most transfers, especially if you are “middle class,” and more so if you want to stay in Calif.
Apparently, this is partly due to the college rankings issue: one of the factors in many of the rankings is how much financial aid the school gives to incoming freshmen. Transfers are not factored into that part of the equation, so the colleges do not have the same incentive to give transfers financial aid. 
If someone knows differently, please correct me! But that’s been our wake-up call to figure out asap how we’re going to swing this thing financially. Good luck!
Your best bet for transfer financial aid would be private universities and specifically smaller ones. If you are looking for engineering, try some of the smaller AITU schools (http://theaitu.org).
Your best bet for transfer financial aid would be private universities and specifically smaller ones. If you are looking for engineering, try some of the less highly selective AITU schools (http://theaitu.org). They all offer an excellent engineering education.
Hey, thanks, @xraymancs. I’ve heard of most all of those schools. Do you happen to know if any of them are known for offering decent merit-based aid to transfer students? Or, I guess even to freshman, because that could be indicative of what else they may do.
I’m back. So, @xraymancs, because I like this sort of thing, I just went through all of the AITU schools, and gleaned a lot of helpful information, none especially encouraging. I’ll share some highlights.
Some schools offer NO merit-based aid. That includes MIT, CalTech, and Carnegie Melon.
Some schools seemed to really welcome transfer students. Clarkson, Illinois Tech, and Kettering are some.
A few of the schools stood out as ones worth looking into further for my son (who would want Chemical Engineering, and a traditional-ish college experience). They include Case Western, Clarkson, Illinois Tech., Rochester, RPI, and maybe Stevens.
Thanks again.
@JeanJeanie , where you at in the process?
You have listed the ones that are most willing to provide merit aid. These are all good engineering programs and only the ones which are most selective are in a position to award no merit aid. I think Drexel might be another that is reasonable.
Personally, I am a faculty member at Illinois Tech and would be happy to answer any questions about it if you have them.