Help me choose some colleges!

moooop
Wed, 18 Jan 2017 12:39:27 +0000

The tippy-top schools generally don’t grant merit aid, as others have mentioned, but the good news is that since you are leaning towards fields where your undergrad prestige is not overly important, that’s not a huge issue.

So pray for some merit at those privates that insanedreamer mentioned, but your best bet is to get big merit aid at solid publics like Pittsburgh, Florida State, Alabama, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, Kentucky. It’s quite possible you would be able to attend one of them cheaper than you could go to NC State.

Also, compare the wide variations in how many credits u will get at the various colleges based on your AP exams. (Each college’s web site has a chart showing which classes you get credit for based on the various scores on each AP exam.)You might have enough credits from AP exams to graduate in 3 or 3.5 years, which could save you thousands of $. The public universities are generally more generous with credits for AP exams than top privates, which is another factor in their favor. Also, some schools, like Alabama, would give you a huge merit scholarship for 4 years, & if you get a bachelor’s degree in 3 years, the fourth year of the scholarship can be used for grad school.

We all realize that it’s sort of a blow to your ego that so many big-name schools are bad financial fits for you. But you’re a classic case of being in that financial range where you won’t get need aid, but (like most of us) your parents can’t drop a quarter of a million bucks without feeling it.

Also, you’re leaning towards engineering…I thought UNC chapel Hill didn’t have engineering…?