Engineering School Suggestions? 660 Math SAT :/

College Search & Lists
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If you want safety-match-reach schools with strong engineering and relatively low net costs in the mid-Atlantic region, then consider adding UMBC, Johns Hopkins, and Cornell. UMBC can be a good, somewhat less selective alternative to UMCP for Maryland residents who are prospective STEM majors. Your scores would place you in the bottom quartile for Johns Hopkins and Cornell, but may be high enough to give a URM valedictorian (and female engineering prospect) a shot. Run the online net price calculators for these schools. Based only on need-based aid (without bringing merit scholarships into the picture), they may offer lower net prices than out-of-state public universities like Georgia Tech. Using College Abacus and the online net price calculators, assuming a family income of $30K, below are the net prices I get for some of the colleges recommended so far in this thread (plus a few of my own additions):

$33960 Howard
$31288 Georgia Tech
$26031 University of Alabama (1310 SAT, without merit scholarship)
$22619 Case Western
$16730 University of Virginia (-$5775 Pell Grant = $11000 net)
$15868 University of Rochester
$14753 UMBC
$13583 Johns Hopkins (-$5775 Pell Grant = $7808 net)
$13555 University of Alabama (1400 SAT, with merit scholarship)
$10300 Tufts (-$5775 Pell Grant = $4525 net)
$8475 UNC Chapel Hill (-$5775 Pell Grant = $2700 net)
$5200 Cornell
$4888 UMCP

YMMV. Do run the online net price calculators using your own details.

It isn’t 100% clear whether Pell Grants have or have not been factored into all the above costs (but I’ve shown the several cases where they are explicitly listed.)

It may be the case that additional scholarships (possibly including merit scholarships) would bring down the costs at some of these (or other) schools. Work-study and subsidized loans also would reduce the above net costs.
However, I think your current SAT scores are not quite high enough to qualify for big (full tuition / full ride) merit scholarships at very many schools with engineering programs in the Mid-Atlantic region. Therefore, you may want to focus mostly on reachable schools that offer the best need-based aid, in addition to in-state public schools with relatively low sticker prices. If you do want to pursue big merit scholarships, check this thread:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-p20.html

UMCP seems to be the school to beat (with strong engineering programs, a nearby location, in-state prices, apparently decent aid, and selective but not impossible admission standards.) UNC-CH and UVa are the only state universities that claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need, apparently for all admitted students (not just in-state students). However, they are more selective than UMCP, they may not be cheaper even after aid, and they probably won’t be better for engineering.

If you could commute to UMBC, that might be a good admission and financial safety. If you were my kid, I’d rather see you commuting to UMBC than trekking, say, 1500 mi to Prairie View A&M on a full scholarship (where the residual COA, even after a full scholarship, apparently is over $5300/year).

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@tk21769 How do you get that for Howard when she is in the running for free tuition, free room and having her fees paid. Shouldn’t her net be around 6k which just includes board, books, misc

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^ gearmom, as I indicated above, I reached the above estimates “based only on need-based aid (without bringing merit scholarships into the picture)…” and “It may be the case that additional scholarships (possibly including merit scholarships) would bring down the costs at some of these (or other) schools.”

As for Howard University in particular, according to the CC thread on merit scholarships that I linked above, the OP would need an SAT CR+M of 1400 or above to qualify for a full-ride merit scholarship. With her current stats, the OP apparently would qualify for a full tuition scholarship, with a residual COA of $15,754/year (as of October 2013). That is more than the net COA estimated (based only on n-b aid) for UMBC, JHU, Tufts, UNC, Cornell, and UMCP. If Howard allows merit aid to “stack” atop need-based aid, that would change the picture considerably (although as far as I can tell, private universities typically don’t allow that; instead, merit simply offsets the demonstrated need.)

Howard U on average meets only 12% of demonstrated need, according to its USNWR entry.

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Thank you all for your advice! I actually ran some net price calculators myself and Georgia Tech was the most expensive, so I will probably remove that from my list. During the next few days I will research the schools you guys recommended and try to compile a better list. I will also try not to be discouraged as some of you mentioned for I know everything will work out in the end :smile:

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Take a look at Smith. It is unusual in that it has an engineering program within an LAC. And of course it is a women’s college.

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^ Smith has very good need-based aid, too.

Estimated net price after college grant aid (assuming $30K income):
$13325 (-$5775 Pell Grant = $7550 net)

After subtracting another $5900 in “self help” (student loan and work study), your remaining cost would be $1850/year (assuming no other outside scholarships.)

The middle 50 percent of Smith’s SAT scores fall between 1830 and 2150.
With combined best scores of 1940 and a 4.0 GPA, a URM valedictorian should have a pretty good shot at Smith, which is an excellent small college in a very attractive New England town.

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No @tk21769 She qualifies for the Capstone scholarship right now since she has 1310 SAT. She would receive free tuition, free room and fees paid. This is going to be one of her cheapest, closest options. The other work you did was very good. BUT she would not have a residual of 15k.

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OP mentioned a non custodial parent who is uncooperative. This will limit her choices of good need based financial aid schools.

Howard’s tuition + room scholarship is on its web site and is in between the tuition scholarship and the full ride one in terms of qualifications.

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OP, my kid was also having difficulty in finishing within time for the SAT. What she did for the Math SAT was during a mock test, try taking them in reverse order (harder to easier). For some reason that speeded her up. She did the same on her retake of her actual Math SAT and scored much much better.

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@gearmom
OK, I see that on the Howard site. Good catch.
The information on the CC page I linked
(http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-p20.html)
apparently only was citing the “Legacy” level of merit scholarship, which covers tuition & fees. The next level of merit scholarship, the “Capstone”, covers tuition, fees, and room costs for students entering with a 1300 SAT CR+M+W and 3.25 GPA.

A 19 meal per week plan is $4140/year (http://auxiliary.howard.edu/bison-one-card—meal-plans.html).
So if that is the right number to compare with the estimates I cited above, Howard would be a bit cheaper even than UMCP (assuming only n-b aid from UMCP, as estimated).

Also, my calculations above assumed a $30K income total from two parents. If you have an uncooperative noncustodial parent, that could change the picture. Talk to your GC about this. Several factors could affect your situation such as your parents’ current & former marital status, court orders, history of financial support, his income, etc.

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@mom2collegekids‌ why is biomedical engineering a risk before med school?

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@UnicornDuchess Also it looks like you would get a full ride to Tuskegee.

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I made a new list! It is as follows:

1. UNC Chapel Hill

  1. UMD
  2. Howard
  3. Gannon
  4. Tuskegee
  5. Northwestern or another school with a no loan policy

I know @JoanneB‌ mentioned her concern about the competition I will face at schools like UNC and UMD but these are also the ones that are the best value (UNC for its no loan policy and UMD for its instate tuition) with good engineering departments, and are actually possible for me to get into. And I know that they’ll be rigorous, but I’m willing to work hard! I was also recently invited to Project Uplift (a diversity initiative program at UNC) which I will definitely attend.
*I crossed out some schools due to their lack of ABET accreditation (I believe one of them was Alabama State). I also ran the net price calculators on the other schools mentioned and crossed out the once that were really high (CUA and Georgia Tech come to mind) or had little possibility for scholarships with my stats.
* Keep in mind that I am still going to apply for the Questbridge Scholarship and plan to rank these schools (pay no attention to the order, I have not decided yet):

  1. UVA
  2. Notre Dame
  3. MIT (I know this is a long shot but gotta try :P)
  4. Northwestern
  5. Tufts
  6. Rice
  7. UPenn
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I just realized that I confused UNC with North Carolina state for the accreditation. The former is not actually accredited for electrical nor mechanical engineering. That sort of changes things :confused:

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If you’re going to go for Northwestern, you could also take a look at Columbia - they have a no loan policy for families in your financial situation, too. I will say, though, that their math classes feel very fast-paced (I took calculus II there in grad school, and my husband was a math major there).

A 660 isn’t a low math, btw. It puts you in the 88th percentile of all test-takers. I got a 660 math in high school and did very well in AP Calculus and Physics; my teacher was trying to persuade me to become an engineer, and I ended up in a somewhat mathematically-intensive career (quantitative social sciences). Doing arithmetic at lightning speed feels kind of different from doing problem sets in the comfort of your own home - or even doing them on an exam.

Someone suggested Smith; I also suggest Lafayette. Your test scores fall in the middle 50% of accepted students; obviously your class rank and GPA are great and Lafayette is another small liberal arts college with ABET-accredited engineering programs right there. They have electrical and computer engineering there. Other suggestions that are matches or matchy-reaches are Lehigh, Villanova, Bucknell, Case Western, Clarkson University (actually a pretty safe match), Marquette (ditto), Southern Methodist, and University of Miami.

If you are interested in HBCUs, there’s also Florida A&M and North Carolina A&T. Both have solid engineering programs and would give scholarship money to you for your scores and grades, even OOS. The Florida A&M engineering college is joint with Florida State, which is also located in Tallahassee. Another public school (but not an HBCU) is Colorado School of Mines; it’d be a match and is a well-respected engineering school, but being an OOS public it might not give you much aid. The same is true of Virginia Tech.

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Not sure why Gannon is on the list – does it offer a big enough merit scholarship that you are likely to get? Its net price calculator (which does ask for GPA and SAT) indicates that, with custodial parent income of $30,000, your net price after need-based financial grants (including Pell grant and a $16,000 merit scholarship) will be $21,889 or so, which is a lot more than you can cover with federal direct loan and work earnings.
http://www.gannon.edu/Financial-Aid/Future-Student-Net-Price-Calculator/

UNC-CH does not have engineering.

MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn, and Tufts require the CSS Profile for non-custodial parents. This can mean no financial aid if you have an uncooperative non-custodial parent.
http://sfs.mit.edu/undergraduate-financial-aid/aid-info#1
http://undergradaid.northwestern.edu/apply-for-aid/prospective-students/regular-decision-application-instructions.html
http://financialaid.nd.edu/prospective-students/applying/
http://www.sfs.upenn.edu/finaid-checklists/checklists-pro-us.htm
http://uss.tufts.edu/finaid/apply/

UVA and Rice require CSS Profile, but do not specifically say whether non-custodial parent information is required. Ask them specifically before applying.
http://sfs.virginia.edu/new/undergrad/2016
http://financialaid.rice.edu/undergraduates/applyforaid/

Please figure out the situation with your father. If he will be uncooperative (or has high income/assets but won’t pay), then you may want to remove schools which will require his information for financial aid purposes, unless you have a good (or automatic) shot at a large enough merit scholarship.

Howard (full tuition + room), Tuskegee (full ride), and UMDCP (good in-state aid, FAFSA only) are a good start to your application list.

37

You may want to investigate competitive full tuition to full ride scholarships, such as those listed at:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/16224918/#Comment_16224918

Note that Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, North Carolina State, North Carolina A&T, and perhaps others previously mentioned may be too expensive on just need-based aid, but do have full tuition to full ride merit scholarships. But check to see how difficult they are to get, and note that admission without the scholarship is likely to be equivalent to a rejection if they are too expensive without the merit scholarship.

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@ucbalumnus‌ I was told that my stats make me competitive for Gannon’s Presidential Scholarship (though I will still have to compete for it). And as far as the CSS profile, I have no idea as of right now how cooperative my dad would be but he recently gave an important document of mine back (which he had sworn for years that he didn’t have) after my sister begged him so I’m hoping it will be the same for this. However, Im not going to get my hopes up too much, so I will definitely be making a list with schools that do not require it. Thanks again!

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By the way, Gannon University is the same driving distance (actually a handful of miles more) from Washington DC as is Ohio University in Athens; approximately 6 hours.

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Be sure to check whether any of the schools want SAT subject tests. If needed, the most commonly asked for ones for engineering applicants are math (level 2 if you have completed precalculus) and a science (physics or chemistry), but check each school to be sure.

If needed, end of 11th grade is often the best time to take them (in subjects that you are just completing) so that you have them before application season in fall of 12th grade.