My son is interetsed in CA schools (WA resident) He is a white, smart, good student (not elite)3.96/4.27 weighted. 1400 SAT. His only B ever was in college calculus he took as a Junior. He is quiet gentle soul. I would think he would do best in a small to mid size institution, small classes. I think he might like to be anonymous, but I would like for him to be engaged in smaller class sizes, where a professor could draw him out. I would rather he be in a supportive environment than a dog eat dog weed out environment. He is undecided and still has a wide range of interests from Aeronautical Engineering to Behavioral Neuroscience (at this time).
2 household combined income of $150k. Custodial parent ~$30K.
Are there any small private instutions that would provide attractive financial packages that might approach the level of a WA state school?
Might there be a UC School that would have merit based scholarships?
Should we be looking taking a big frog in a small pond approach, that is applying to less prestigious (but good) colleges where he ranks in the top 10 percent?
Many small schools don’t have engineering, esp. aeronautical. I think you’d do better to stay in Washington or look at the WUE schools that have mechanical or even aeronautical - Montana, Montana State, the Arizona schools, Wyoming, Utah.
The UC’s offer little merit aid and only to the top 1-2% of applicants. With costs $65K/year to attend a UC, the Regents and Chancellor scholarships are a drop in the bucket for most out of state applicants. UCB’s Regents and Chancellor scholarships do have a need component but with your income, your son would not qualify.
UC Regents Scholarships and the amounts/year:
Amount: Awards vary by campus and are not transferable if you transfer to another UC campus.
For engineering (but not aerospace), run the Net Price Calculator at SCU. Mid-size, 5-6k undergrad students. Not sure they meet full need, but worth a look if the net price is in your range.
Run the NPC’s on the following private universities:
Santa Clara (mentioned in post #4)
University of San Francisco
University of San Diego (do not confuse with UCSD)
Occidental
Loyola Marymount
Chapman University
Need to check if Engineering is a a major option at these schools.
UW is one of his “safe” schools and he has applied and likes the amazing beutiful campus. I wouldn’t put too much stock in the aeronautical engineering piece at this time. My concern with the UW is the size. I was a first gen commuter student there and I always envied those who had an actual “college experience”, but I have fond memories. I was also unimpressed with the lower level weed out classes often taught by grad students.
What about a schools such as LMU, Pepperdine, or USD? Will a net price calculator factor in whether they might have Merit money available for him?
We visited SCU and Cal Poly SLO. He didn’t much like the SCU vibe. He loved Cal Poly, but the applying directly to a major seems premature (that is where he selected aerospace engineering).
Will both parents be cooperative about financial aid forms and paying?
If not, then the colleges that require the non-custodial parent finances will not be affordable. This includes most of the private colleges with good financial aid.
If they will be cooperative, net price calculator use at colleges that require non-custodial parent finances must include both parents’ finances. (Note that USC, USF, and Occidental are in this category.)
UCB Regents’ scholarship could give him a need-based full ride (based on FAFSA using custodial parent finances only), but that is such a high reach that it is probably not worth the effort (there is otherwise no need-based financial aid for out-of-state students). Also, the UC deadline has passed anyway.
We the parents are very cooperative.
He applied at UCSD and UCSC (loved the campus and location), and Cal Poly SLO. I just can’t imagine being able to afford any of them. For an undecided student, I just don’t think any undergraduate degree is worth a mountain of debt.
I talked with a friend who said his son (good stat student) got a good package from LMU which made it close in price to attending the UW. I am wondering whether there may be some good hidden value schools worth looking into.
Seems like you should have told him what the price limit was before he made the application list and applied to unaffordable schools (basically wasted applications). CPSLO is about $43k for non-residents, while UCSD is $62k and UCSC is $64k.
The Flagship is the biggest public university. Some states it is easy to figure out as there is just one big public university - Colorado, Utah, Washington, Oregon (although Colo State, Washington State, Utah State and Oregon State are all pretty big competition for the Flagship). Some states are so big they really have two, like Cal and UCLA, Arizona and ASU. Some states don’t have one standout but several public universities that may have different strengths, like the SUNY system.
A private school (Gonzaga, Whitman, PSU) would never be referred to as the flagship.
It really doesn’t matter what other people call the flagship. Pick the school that is best for him. Personally, I’d go for WWU since you don’t want UW, and it is in such a lovely place. Why California? You said you don’t want him in a big university, yet all he applied to are pretty big California schools. Big and expensive. Even the travel to UCSB is pretty expensive. Why California?
If he wants to leave WA, you could look at schools in Wyoming, Montana, for example. What about CO School of Mines? Maybe he could get merit there? I don’t know.
CA colleges are costly, merit is scarce except for very high stats kids, and as noted, the schools he likes there are large.
For the poster above, SCU does not meet full need. They have upped their need based aid awards, but don’t meet full need. The school is costly.
USD is a possibility, but they also don’t meet full need, and the school is expensive.
It’s going to be hard to find aeronautical engineering anywhere but the big schools. My son is coming from a very small private HS and looking at HUGE universities, so I was worried about that too, but after talking to students at the schools many of which came from the same background, we’re finding that after the first year or so that students tend to associate just with their department and have a tighter knit group and smaller classes. How about the honors programs within the college? They can sometimes give you the best of both worlds. Living learning communities are big around here too where you dorm with students of similar interests or academic pursuits which can make a big school seem smaller.
Some big schools do an awesome job of supporting students despite their size.
Make sure he lines up his instate options, I assumed UW eng to be very competitive vs a safety? He just doesn’t have the stats for really big merit, and leaving UW to take merit at lesser options would be foolish. What is your actual budget?
The state flagship is usually one of the most selective or prestigious state schools, but is not necessarily the largest. For example, in Florida, UCF and FIU are larger than UF.
U of San Diego has engineering and good merit money. As does University of the Pacific. As a bonus, both are FAFSA only schools, so non-custodial parent won’t matter as much. Outside of California, but still west, U of Denver has good merit money, but also requires the CSS.