Louisville’s program will 1000% meet budget and is supposedly designed after CPSLO. The Speed school.
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I don’t know how much of a fit U Miami is for her socially. Miami itself is a lot.
I’m not sure I’d rely on College Vine predictions…for admission or costs.
Does your school use Naviance or similar? That would be a way to see how similar students did in terms of acceptance in the past from her school.
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According to this merit aid aggregator (which you can verify by looking at section H2 of a section’s Common Data Set), 43% of Baylor’s students without financial need received a scholarship, averaging $17,909.
One data point is this student who received $24k in merit aid at Baylor last year: Can more graduated seniors do "actual results" threads? - #2669 by sky23
In her thread she mentioned getting an additional $5k for honors and $5k for the Bic program (not sure what that is), but perhaps @sky23 might have more info? I believe that the $24k in merit in the results thread was inclusive of these additional amounts.
Ok. All my cost calculations are coming directly from the colleges.
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As another data point, my D23 received 20k in merit from Baylor in 2023. Her gpa was lower, about 3.7 and she was test optional. But, their net price calculator was wildly inaccurate, had us at 40k and actual price was 55k.
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Thanks, I will read up on those. I know Invitation to Excellence is another scholarship opportunity for those with a 32+ ACT.
Another aspect of Baylor that works well for us is the general anti-alcohol policy. Yes I know students will still drink. Alcohol can literally kill her, so I appreciate the attempt to be alcohol free. BYU is another one that does this, but IDK if she can give up coffee. 
Perhaps wherever she is, a substance free dorm would be a good fit for her.
They have these at CU Boulder I think, assuming OP is correct about the NPC.
These two lists might be interesting for you. They were assembled based upon students’ responses to surveys, so take them for what you will:
These are some of the schools from those lists that have ABET-accredited engineering:
- Calvin
- College of the Ozarks
- Taylor
- Grove City - CS, electrical, and mechanical
- Princeton - multiple areas
- Baylor
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I can’t recall which thread it was on, but several people commented that substance free dorms were often filled with recovering students, many of whom had relapses (it was not always the student’s choice to live in these dorms but their parents had required it). In contrast, it was mentioned that wellness dorms might be a better fit for people who are actively pursuing that as a goal rather than in trying to stay away from substances.
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This is very insightful. I knew about substance free floors/dorms but not about wellness dorms. Thank you. (I know a 17 year old senior in high school fighting alcohol addiction; it is a real problem.)
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You’re welcome!
I actually went to grad school there (recently) in a program that shared space with the food science program. DM me if you have any questions and I can try to answer them z
BIC is the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core, which is an opt-in program where students take a prescribed series of classes designed to provide a well-rounded liberal arts foundation. The normal Baylor degree plan has distribution requirements, but BIC is for those who want a more focused, Columbia-style core curriculum that combines different academic disciplines. I actually didn’t realize that they were offering merit money for BIC participation these days, but clearly that is the case.
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Hi! After acceptance, which came in early October, different programs became available that I could apply for.
I was offered a chance for the interviews for money ranging from $1000+. The dates filled up very fast and with school and sports I couldn’t make it work. I was able to send separate applications for Honors and BIC of which I got accepted to both. Both can come with an additional $5000 but it is not a guarantee. You do have to submit both the CSS and FASFA in order to get your final award package. The additional potential money from BIC and Honors can come after the May 1 deadline. Because I didn’t hear definitively that I would be receiving that additional money, Baylor was not as financially affordable as Stetson where I am currently.
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My daughter received her first acceptance—from The University of Arizona. That was her safety, but one she is really excited about.
She also applied EA to the 5 other schools on her list. (Clemson, Baylor, U Miami, Colorado Mines and CU Boulder.)
If anyone has any other suggestions for RD schools she should consider, we would appreciate it.
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Congrats !! Great reason to be excited about it!! Beautiful campus, fine school, especially for engineering.
And many a student would choose it over the others you mentioned. You don’t need more per se - just an fyi.
Is she going for engineering - you listed Mines so I’m assuming. ?
What is her gpa and sat? What is the budget ?
Thank you! Yes,she was accepted into the Engineering College with an unspecified engineering major. She is considering Optical Engineering with a minor in photography. (Which sounds really hard to me, but it interests her.) She was invited to apply for the Presidential Scholarship as well, but they don’t give out many of those.
Stats are 3.94 UW/4.24W GPA, 32 ACT (not super scored)—ECs are mostly band as a percussionist, but she also was the photographer for a summer camp last year—and she graduated in 3 years. I know that is a negative for a lot of colleges.
Budget—trying to keep it at $45K max for each year. I know that’s tight.
OP- congrats on the acceptance. Your D sounds fantastic.
I’d run the numbers on a couple of the schools that she hasn’t applied to yet and see what a 9th semester would do to your budget.
Engineering of any discipline is going to be drinking from a fire hose. Many kids slog through it with the “sleep, schoolwork, social life, pick 2” philosophy. Many kids slog through it with the barest minimum of sleep, not much social life, but huge commitment to schoolwork. And some kids need that extra semester.
You don’t want to bet against your own kid, but leaving a financial cushion for the backend might be a wise strategy for your family. First semester sophomore year if she hits a wall- just not enough hours in the day- she drops the most problematic class, takes something less demanding and fun, and picks up the required course next semester. Because so many of the engineering required courses are delicately sequenced, it’s not always possible to drop the course that’s not allowing you any sleep time without adding an extra semester. But if you’ve budgeted for it ahead of time…
Just a thought. I remember my freshman anthropology class-- it was filled with sophomore and junior engineers. They were mostly in it because the course requirements were-
Show up for lectures
Do the reading
Pass the midterm
Pass the final
They needed it for the balance since their other courses were weekly problem sets, constant labs, team projects, all this time consuming stuff. Calculating the dimensions of primate skulls and drawing conclusions from dentition was VERY straightforward, and with basic math and reading skills you could pass without stress. Other classes- literature, history, political science- had hundreds of pages of reading, research papers, very intense workloads. But somehow anthropology saved those engineers!
Your D’s college will have several courses like this, and she’ll have the freedom to extend out another semester if you’ve budgeted for it.
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Well unless you have need, Miami will be a waste. Clemson too - with or without. I assume you are in state Colorado. If not it’d be a waste.
If you are looking at cheaper cost, here’s three - UMN $40k, U of Kansas sub $30k Alabama/UAH/Ms State sub $20k.
But provided you are ok with Arizona’s cost, you can be done.
As for the major, there’s only five accredited schools in the country with Arizona being one.
The others - UCF - safety and cheaper. Rose Hulmam - small, rural, safety, top outcomes but it’s very smal and rural and likely won’t hit cost.
The other two are Norfolk State, a regional HBCU and Rochester - fine school, like Miami unless you have need, it won’t make cost.
Given her interests, I’d be done now. That’s me !! Even if she changes disciplines, AZ is still strong.
Enjoy her senior year I say. Good luck.