I got a 1480 on the SAT freshmen year (the real one), I just took it again a week ago, I’m hoping for a 1550
What do you mean by how I could get a full ride but they wouldn’t be safeties?
So you’re in good shape and there’s a reason Alabama is buying kids in from all over…smart kids to - with amongst the most national merit scholars (but not the highest concentration).
You’d max out merit at $28K + $2,500 for engineering. You could also, if you didn’t want to double or get a minor with the respected Culverhouse School, get could be a part of the STEM to MBA.
RIght now direct costs (tuition, room, board, fees) are $48,040 - so you’re at $18K - so with transport and fun stuff you’re under your budget.
Wonder if it’s good? My kid chose over Purdue - had 20 interviews by xmas and 5 offers - and is working with kids from Purdue, Michigan, CWRU, and more. Frankly, it’s because of ABET accreditation - but the campus is gorgeous and engineering facilities first rate.
The other D1 football school to look at is Mississippi State. It’s $39K but with your stats you’d get either $23K or $25K off - and if your SAT goes to 1550, one year housing. You might even get it now - that happens with a 34 ACT or SAT equivalent. It looks like yours is 33 in equivalency.
btw - no superscoring.
So those schools work because they have auto merit - vs. others that - you don’t know the exact amount.
Again, W Carolina (football) and UAH no football - but hockey - would also work. WCU full price and UAH with significant auto merit.
FSU if you got the out of state tuition waiver which it seems like you’d be likely - would work as well.
So that’s your - I want to be an engineer - hopefully I get into MIT or Stanford and can afford them but if not situation…
Perhaps others will know others.
Then there’s Stamps and other full ride offers out there - they’re just Hail Marys - so you can go for them - but you need to be able to count on something - and that’s these. And you’ll have plenty of similar students at the first two and likely UAH too if that was a worst case.
Others may have other thoughts…
If you’re from Kentucky (you mentioned UL), well look at UK, UL, and WKU too for costs. I was looking to see if any states have reciprocal but you can look at them too.
No, you’re fine. Since you need substantial financial aid, it makes sense to apply to the Ivies and other schools with generous aid policies. It’s just that you need to narrow down the list a bit to make it manageable, and it sounds like you’re doing that. So all good.
As for safeties: is your in state flagship affordable? Would you go there? (You mentioned the importance of academic quality - and that varies by state. Which state are you in?)
Are you the first in your family to go to college?
I believe what tsbna is referring to is that there are a few top notch schools that give a very limited number of full ride merit scholarships. However, these are not safety schools by any means and the scholarships are extremely competitive. But if you get them, you go for free. Examples are Duke, Georgia Tech and UMD. UMich would have been in that list too but I think they no longer provide the Stamps Scholarship.
Miami of Ohio will give you lots of merit. Clemson meets some of your criteria but the 20K may not be doable. Pitt would be another good option for your criteria. University of Maryland, Virginia Tech.
I might have missed it but where do you live? Usually in state flagship will be very affordable.
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Neither will be a safety. Definitely not UMD with its holistic admissions and OOS acceptance rate in the 20s/low 30s for engineering and business.
These aren’t going to qualify as east coast, but they would be in the eastern half of the U.S.:
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U. of Louisville (KY): About 16k undergrads and mentioned multiple times already. Its engineering school has a big focus on hands-on learning.
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Iowa State: Well-respected around here for very strong engineering
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U. of Nebraska - Lincoln: This might really hit the sweet spot as there are a lot of business opportunities in Nebraska but it’s also got engineering, etc.
Run the Net Price Calculator on these and I think they will all show you your estimated amount of merit aid (Nebraska) or check their scholarship pages (Louisville).
If you really want east coast, check out West Virginia.
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Now focus on some different buckets of schools to help you figure out what would be a good fit.
It’s easy to just say MIT and CalTech, plus Ivies as the your list then find some safeties. But you miss out on exploring a bunch of great schools. A lot of the IVY engineering programs tend to be more academic and theoretical, where there are some programs that are a lot more hands on practical. As many mentioned always include 1 or 2 of your state colleges (typically this will be one of the more economical options and even if you go elsewhere it provides a good baseline of comparison showing you the cost delta of going to a “Duke vs Ohio State”
I’d include one section of flagship public engineering programs
Virginia Tech, Penn State, Rutgers, Purdue, NC State
Look at some programs that offer CO-OP
Northeastern Drexel
Look at some private outside of T20 great engineering programs
Notre Dame, Villanova, CWRU, Lehigh, Tufts,
Look at some outstanding Masters Level Engineering programs
Rose Hulman, Olin, Bucknell
Look at some great hands on project based engineering programs
WPI, RPI, Stevens
Look at some regional smaller schools that have a niche specialty
Manhattan College (Civil Engineering / Big Construction), The Service Academies (Naval, Airforce, Army, Coast Guard)
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Delaware has all of the aspects you mentioned. Not sure about their business program but they have great engineering. I applied this fall and got a 50k merit scholarship, but I’m not sure they meet full tuition.
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I have friends who recieved full ride scholarships at VT, NCSU, RPI, Purdue. Apply EA to these schools and you will have a high chance of getting $$. You seem like a great student, so I’m sure you will find what you need somewhere.
Based off what you mentioned, I’m not sure you would actually enjoy the Ivy League. Programs like UT Austin CSB dual degree, UIUC, GT, Mich, UIUC, UCSD, UMD, etc could fill your needs as a teenager. Obviously these are reaches but as someone who applied to these schools with similar stats, you should be fine for atleast a few.
EDIT: just noticed aid was a topic of conversation. Publics are usually a bit stingy with aid so try applying to some privates like RIT, Drexel, etc.
Some schools are not competitive in terms of admission (for a student of your quality) but the process for getting a significant scholarship (full or full tuition) there is a competitive one which might include numerous interviews, extra essays etc. I think that is what they were talking about. There are also schools that are competitive for admissions and, also, competitive for top scholarships - i.e. Morehead Cain at UNC.
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Just to add onto this, USC, Vanderbilt, and BU have competitive full ride programs as well.
Meant for @curryeater
SMU has the Presidential. Many schools have STAMPs - see link below. Others have their own full rides - W&L the Johnson as an example (they aren’t ABET).
But you need an Alabama and/or Mississippi State to ensure you have an engineering possibliity - and they’re ABET and they’re solid.
btw - they’re more in line with what you’re looking for than the schools you hope for: Big-Medium size school, D1 football, Greek life, social scene, yk-the “college experience
It would be good to decide if you want to study engineering or not. If you do, flagship schools are great. Don’t waste your money on a more expensive school (I’m a professional engineer).
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Case Western might be a good safety, but don’t let them think that. They practice yield management, and with your stats they might defer you and ask that you apply ED II. Show lots of interest with campus visit, essay, etc. Strong in engineering and they have a decent business school (my son is majoring in MechE and minoring in Business). In a nice neighborhood of a recovering rust belt city. Very generous with merit aid.
If you don’t mind being at a large midwest state school surrounded by cornfields, UIUC might be a good fit. It is very strong in both engineering and business, especially finance and accounting. While competitive with schools on your list in rankings for engineering, and even business, the admit would be far easier. It’s D1 (though teams not strong) and greek life is huge there.
And how would you get to $20K on either of these - you wouldn’t. Not even close.
There’s very few “safeties” that can get to low 20s assured.
I gave a few - maybe there’s more but these, Miami Ohio, Delaware etc. - fine schools - but let’s ensure we are noting they are not assured - and in fact are unlikely at the budget.
So that he doesn’t skip the most important school on the list, thinking these would get him there - highly unlikely they won’t.
@DadOfJerseyGirl - that’s not meant for you - just in general as people provide school names.
But does anyone have names besides those I mention that are assured to hit OP’s budget? That’s what they need.
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I get it…. But if he did in fact have a 1480 Sat freshman year I think UMD or VT will be viable options for this student.
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For the record, Rose Hulman does not offer PhDs and the focus there is on undergraduate education, not masters level. That said, it is an amazing school where professors self select for teaching, students have a lot of access to professors, and class sizes are capped at 30 students.
Rose is also generous with merit aid for students it wants. The downside is that it is in the middle of nowhere, Indiana.
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As a rule, you might want to look at strong, but not top tier, schools that have honors programs which often include very strong financial aid (Ohio State comes to mind).
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acceptance - not even close on budget. He needs 23K cost for those who missed that above…
Even the BK OOS won’t get him close unless he gets the full which is extremely unlikely.
There are very few public schools where this will happen.
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Possible, but as a target/match. However, they’ll be unaffordable for OP.
I don’t know as much about VT but UMD gives very little merit aid and won’t give any financial aid to OOS applicants.
(P.S. : OP is yet to disclose his home state - could turn out to be UMD or VA and that changes the picture)