Just like you did for Reed, you should do the same for your reaches.
If Reed is mid 50s, what if Stanford or Northwestern are too ? They don’t do merit can you afford them ? Figure that out prior to applying. Save yourself effort.
Best of luck.
Ps you can only go to one and I know there’s a few you hopefully can afford and will 99% get into. The rest are gravy.
True but the diff is I would definitely be able to find support from other family and friends if I got into a T20 lol theyd be so happy and help me financially, for reed or other expensive private schools that arent that good… prolly not
They’re all good - and chase your major over school. You want to be able to do what you want for a living.
Good luck.
Can stress it enough anymore but thank you sm for your help today
You are going to do great. I know this is a stressful time, but it will all work out. Remember that for engineering, all ABET-accredited programs lead to excellent job opportunities. It does not need to be a “famous name” school.
You should be very proud of your excellent accomplishments so far. We are all rooting for you!
I’m a bit confused. Your title says <$250,000, which I assumed was your 4-year college budget. But now your dad is saying that they have about $7k/year to spend on your college education. Is that correct?
Right now you need to do the Net Price Calculator at your reach schools to find out if they’re affordable. If your family income is in the $250k range, I’m doubtful that they will get down to about $7k, but you won’t know until you run the NPC.
Are you within commuting distance of Oregon State or Portland State? With a $7k budget, you may need to live at home and commute to school.
With a $7k budget, I would definitely eliminate UW Seattle as it offers extremely minimal merit aid (will end up costing about $60k/year). Georgia Tech would be about $46k. Since it would already be a big reach school, I think it’s highly unlikely that you would get the Stamps scholarship there, which would be the only path to affordability. CU-Denver, even with WUE, is going to run about $30k. You may want to investigate to see if they have additional scholarships to stack with WUE.
Additionally/alternatively, you may need to disregard some of your college preferences to find an affordable school.
Louisiana Tech is ABET-accredited for biomedical engineering and with your current stats you would receive an $8500/year scholarship and a Bulldog scholarship (elimination of out-of-state tuition). That would leave you with about $1700 in tuition/fees and $9500 for room & board, for costs of a little over $11k. If you are able to increase your SAT score to a 1450 or above, you’d get an additional $1k in scholarships. So between your parents’ $7k and a federal loan ($5500 first year), this could be an option. Louisiana Tech, however is definitely not in an urban location, and I am not optimistic about the size of its Muslim community (I don’t know though, so be sure to investigate). But this would be an option to get you out of state.
Florida A&M/Florida State are both in Tallahassee and have a joint engineering program which includes ABET-accredited biomedical engineering. FAMU is an HBCU that has historically been generous with merit aid for top students. This application is URGENT. According to its website you need to be accepted to both the school and the honors program by October 15 (i.e., in a week) to be considered for a scholarship. I’m not sure if it’s for their full ride or just any of their scholarships, but I think this is definitely an opportunity worth considering. FAMU Scholarship Program
Looking at this chart (source) it appears that you would receive at least $20k in scholarships (George W. Gore), and if you boost your SAT to a 1490 or above and depending on whether you would get a 4.0 after they recalculate your GPA, you would get a full scholarship. So as a worst case scenario, you’d be paying about $10k/year here after getting $20k in scholarships. I also suspect that FAMU would be a better fit for you than Louisiana Tech.
I’m going to post this now, because the FAMU app is really urgent for you to complete and I think it’s a very good option for you to consider.
I don’t have time to look into all of the scholarship particulars, but some additional ABET-accredited schools for biomedical engineering you may want to investigate include:
Florida Gulf Coast U.
Florida International
Grand Valley State (MI)
U. of Hartford (CT)
Indiana Institute of Technology: I think you might be competitive for the full tuition presidential scholarship here (source)
Marshall (WV)
Mississippi State
U. of Mississippi
U. of Mount Union
U. of North Texas
Northern Illinois (you’d probably get $6k/year in merit but would be eligible to compete for the full ride Presidential Scholars award, which I think you’d be competitive for)
South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
U. of South Florida
Stevenson U. (MD)
U. of Texas – Arlington
U. of Texas – San Antonio
U. of Toledo
Trine (IN)
Valparaiso (IN)
West Chester (PA )
Western New England (PA )
Wichita State (KS)
Widener (PA )
Wright State (OH)
(I did check U. of Akron, U. of Memphis, and Michigan Tech, but did not see a path to affordability in my quick checks).
Essentially, your best bet is to find a full ride, which is not easy to do, and to see if there are schools that will give you very generous merit aid which would at least bring you down to $12k/year (i.e. what your family can contribute and what you can take out in loans).
I actually ironically forgot I have legacy at FAMU as my mother attended and I grew up in Tallahassee for 11 years so Im not sure Id want to go back tbh…
Yes thank you
nvm disregard this comment
I think its too late, it says FAMU takes 6 weeks…
nvm disregard this comment
as for the the income yes GROSS income for my house is around 250k but the net/take home is not the best after loans. I asked my dad and he straight up told me 7k/year 
Also I am not within reasonable commuting range to my state schools unfortunately
You may want to try anyway.
There are other full rides for your stats (e.g. Tuskegee, PVAMU), but they do not have biomedical or bioengineering (those two do have other kinds of engineering as well as biology).
Was the school you took the college courses at a community college or a university that does not have your desired major?
a community college
im pretty set in doing biomed or bioengineering. the only acceptance is me doing mechanical engineering at PSU bc i know the program and oppurtunities
I appreciate the attempt to help but I im starting to feel hella stressed out again and will just settle with where I am at and put the rest in Gods hands lol
Unfortunately they don’t take debt into account, just income.
I am sorry to hear that you’re feeling extremely stressed. Take some big breaths and, if it gives you comfort, engage with God how you feel comfortable.
Not everyone worships or believes in God the same way, so I’m just going to share a little bit of how my family has related to God, and you may see if it holds true for you.
We believe that God works miracles and does blessings, but there can still be steps that humans need to take in order to secure those blessings. My father used to say that he would buy a lottery ticket in order to give God the opportunity to bless him with a lottery win; if my dad didn’t buy a ticket, then God couldn’t bless him that way.
None of us know how God will work in your life. But there are steps that you can take that might end up being avenues that God chooses to work in.
For instance, completing FAMU’s application quickly. Perhaps it will be processed much faster than they normally are, or perhaps they will change the language so that an individual only needs to have applied by the 15th rather than be accepted, or perhaps they will make an exception in your case, or, or, or…
It may be that FAMU is not the route that God will choose to pave a way for you, but it might be different opportunities. Perhaps by submitting your application to a school like Indiana Tech or Northern Illinois where you might be competitive for the full ride, and that might be the path God paves for you.
Since nobody knows how God will work, it is your role to take what steps you can (i.e. applying to schools that could end up being affordable) and then to relax, step away, and see what ends up happening.
This, of course, is how my faith works, which is not necessarily the same as how your faith works. But in case the framework for my faith was helpful, I wanted to share it with you.
I understand that these are your preferences, but don’t forget, college is four years of your life. Nothing says that where you go to college is where you will be for the rest of your life. Right now, the primary goal is to find an affordable school that is ABET-accredited in your areas of interest. Once you get that degree, you will have many more options to choose a location that is a better fit for you.
