You are unlikely to intern during the year and if you are lucky enough to get an internship (you have to get, they are not given), it will likely be in summer.
You need ABET accreditation. Ivy and top school kids also are on their own to find internships.
UAH is near $40k. With your current grades and SAT, there’s no merit. Can you afford that plus travel ? The city itself is a Mecca for aero and defense companies.
You need a # as noted. And yes Ivy (which aren’t necessarily tops for engineering) and other competitive admission schools are likely not in the cards with your profile. But you don’t need them.
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Oh i see, so going to an ABET accredited school will be better for getting my dream job? And also i do wanna try to get one I dont wanna give up even if its hard, since getting a internship has nothing to do with my current gpa or stats and depends on how I do in college itself. But yeah I need a budget my mom came home late so I forgot to ask…so after i get that, that would it possible to help find some options that are ABET and good for interships? Im fine with low standards for getting into college but i still do wanna aim high for my future career and stuff so I dont wanna give up on getting interships based on my highschool stats if yk what I mean.
NASA hires from many non selective schools - and not just aero. Schools like I”Oklahoma State and Wichita State and Florida Tech.
NASA isn’t relevant now. Finding an affordable school that will admit you is.
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Just as an FYI, many students don’t get career-related internships until the summer after their junior year in college, although some do get them earlier. This is just to help you plan appropriately.
Also, I agree that UAH could be a good option if you can afford it. Have your mom fill out their net price calculator and also see if you can raise your GPA and SAT or ACT scores to get some of their automatic merit money.
Good luck!
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If you want to be surrounded by aerospace engineering, like in Huntsville or on the Space Coast in Florida, I think you can do it. ERAU and Florida Tech are private schools so tuition is pretty high, but they do give a lot of merit aid. Some of the pubic schools (UCF, Alabama-Huntsville) might actually cost an OOS student more even if the tuition has a lower sticker price. In the end you should be comparing you NET, Out of Pocket price.
I will say you’ll get a lot more in merit money from Florida Tech if you can get your test scores up. They have a chart for GPA/Score/class rank that can tell you about how much you’d receive in merit, and the NPC will tell you approx. how much in need based aid. I think ERAU is similar.
If you think your mom’s salary is really between $40k and $70k, try running the NPCs yourself with those numbers. If the results come back that it will cost you $50k, it’s unlikely that your family can afford that (even with $15k in merit). If it says $10k will be your costs, then that’s a good school for you.
You should remember that your mother’s income is just a guess, and she might be making a lot more than that.
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Yeah and about affording it my mom said she doesn’t have a budget, so ik that a lot of people were telling me to get one so I just couldnt unfortunately. I kind of see why it makes her upset whenever I ask since my guidance counselor said she might have to only send me to state schools based on her earnings, so I guess i’ll just leave it at that for now and stop bothering her about it… I see someone talked specifically about how raising my gpa and testing scores can earn me money, so I’ll focus on trying to get scholarships based on merit if thats what its called since i dont have a budget to reference off of for these schools. And yeah I dont know her income either, so I’ll instead ask her to fill out specific college calculators for ones on my list instead of wasting my time asking for a budget, since the prices could lower a lot so that would maybe make her understand more about what she’s willing to pay? sorry for this, i tried getting one but I’ve honestly asked her too much and its getting annoying for the both of us. But yeah i’ll really watch out for those out-of-state schools and make sure the price is low enough before putting it on my list by doing what I stated before. My plan for the test prep (SAT and ACT) is to get started with the studying after I finish all my AP exams, so I can also do good on those and save money to skip courses and stuff.
Ive also opened up to her more about what i want in a college, taking note of the ABET accredited school tip and even small stuff like a nice campus or internships when i get to that point, so ill try and use all of your suggestions to help guide me and her in the process of searching!
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I definitely think a NJ school will be your best bet, but often a private school that gives merit will come out cheaper than a state school that only gives a little bit of need based aid. Just didn’t want you to rule out all out of state/private schools because you think they will be too expensive.
Way back in the olden days, my father said we wouldn’t qualify for any financial aid so I never applied. I (now) think we might have gotten a little, and that would have helped me.
I just suggest YOU fill out a npc to see what aid would look like with your best guess on salary. Do it for two schools just to see what the results are.
Another thing is to get your mother to go to a financial aid night at your high school. She’ll see that a LOT of parent have no idea what forms are needed, what info is needed, and that schools vary widely on the amount of aid they have.
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Is your mom someone who went to college herself or will you be the first generation in your family to go to college?
And do you have any contact with your father?
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No she actually got a bachelor’s degree at Berkeley College in NJ i think, and no ever since she divorced when i was like 2-4 we never had contact with him again, and I doubt we’d even have any connection since i dont even remember his name or how he looked—and he was really eager to split ways according to my grandma. And yeah I can try filling out an npc thing based on a guess, since its obviously <100k so thats good enough for now. And thanks for informing me on how important that merit stuff is since i really didnt know until now, including the financial aid night since i dont think my school has that but there was a meeting for college in like march that she attended for like commonapp tho but yeah. Imo, she’s really like this because she probably knows that I always think negatively all the time so she might just think me trying to get more info (like her budget) is just me giving up or smth, so ill make sure not to rule out any schools and try and maybe ask my guidance counselor to inform us more about the financial aid stuff since we dont have a night for that unfortunately. But about the financial aid, I didnt really consider it since this program im in is gonna help me get like financial aid and stuff from wherever im applying to, but it is always best to try and minimize the cost even more, just kinda confusing without knowing how much the program is able to get me… Thats probably why my list was so strange at the beginning since I never considered prices or even knew that the 20k was yearly and not for the whole 4 years lol
I’ve also been using something called collegevine but if theres anything better for college research I would appreciate knowing
We used The Fiske Guide to Colleges as a good resource about different colleges. You can borrow it from your local library (that’s what we did, also in NJ). When you look at a college, there’s a little section at the corner that will tell you what other colleges people that looked at THAT college also considered. You can kind of surf around the book looking at each college and what’s recommended. It can also give you some insight into not just the programs, but the vibe of each school.
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The reality is she has to be involved monetarily because you want to apply to affordable schools.
If all your acceptances are not affordable, then what ?
As hard as it is, that conversation needs to take place up front.
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That sounds way better than what im using! I also did wanna know the overall vibe of the college besides what it offers academically. I’ll try and see if i can find it, but then again, i guess it really is tough to choose these schools not knowing whether they are actually affordable. Do you, tsbna44, know how I could get the budget without getting her upset? She reallly hates when I try asking her about any budget, and i just end up getting no response and having to try again the next day.
Can you share more about this program that you’re a part of? Depending on the program, they may have access to additional financial resources that we’re not aware of that could make a difference.
I think this is a great idea. Getting information from a neutral, knowledgeable, and adult third-party can definitely help to get the process moving along. If possible, I would see if the counselor can meet with your mom and you before school gets out.
Also, you may want to identify two teachers that you’ve had this year or that you know you’ll have next year and ask them if they are willing to write you a positive letter of recommendation. At some schools teachers will only do so many letters, and the people who ask in the spring of junior year will find themselves ahead of the game.
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Vibe is tough. You need to visit, walk around, talk to kids. You can look at niche surveys. Google the school + niche. If you don’t have funds to visit, you could ask a school to set you up with a student ambassador that you can speak with. Ask questions.
Show mom this thread. She / you need help for college planning. You have literally zero chance based on the stats you’ve shown at what you consider top schools. And schools you do have a chance of, if she can’t afford where you get in, then you end up at home with a job or in community college - which is a reasonable choice.
Many do what she wants - apply and we’ll figure it out.
That is not a strategy.
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One school you may want to consider is York College of Pennsylvania. This school has an ABET-accredited Mechanical Engineering program (not aerospace). It is a private school with reasonable tuition and offers merit and need-based aid. Since it is private, your state of residence doesn’t matter for admission or financial aid.
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Oh, the program is called “SEEDS—Access Changes Everything”. I also do have a teacher in mind since i’ve asked him for other recommendation letters before so ill ask him (AP English teacher), but ur right idk who else im gonna ask and I should probably start thinking of one before summer comes. And i did use niche to see like virtual tours and looked at the reviews of students who go there, and I also got to visit Syracuse university so thats prob why i put it on my list… But also, my mom is someone who tries being very positive like for when I applied for Questbridge (rejected), and for some reason still wants me to apply to MIT so I honestly im starting to give up on trying to convince her. More on that, her seeing some of ur comments which are true but might be taken differently by her is just something I cant and wont probably risk doing. You obviously convinced me that I need to get the budget and stuff so its really just her who’s so indifferent towards the importance of budget when considering schools… It is kinda giving me a hard time considering all these schools without knowing any budget, but she really is like this because of the program for low-income students im in that claims they will get me there for a cheap price. So because of not having a budget, for now I just have to maybe apply to those private schools someone said dont change based of OOS, have faith in this program, and maybe go to a community college or try to find cheap options in state. Look, ill tell you if I can convince her but just understand that the program and her in general make it harder than it seems to get a budget
It’s unfortunate that having 2 in college no longer gets the FAFSA sibling discount. What schools is your twin looking at? Hopefully you can gently encourage your mom to do one estimator so you and your twin can explore reasonable options. I really like this college website. Easy to use and has lots of info EFC Calculator - Calculate Your Financial Aid | CollegeData
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She’s not really focusing on school research rn so I honestly dont know where she wants to go. It’s probably because she wants to do accounting, and that ones more popular imo. I think she wants to go to an ivy or a selective school since she has a 3.7 gpa and she will probably qualify for the merit aid or idk maybe be able to earn more aid bc of her grades and stuff. But yeah you reminded me, I was planning on taking the peoples advice about looking at the schools in a calculator to see how low it can get, so thats a start I guess even without a budget