The Apprentice School –
tuition is free
That may be accurate for some private schools if they aren’t offering any financial aid.
For a family income of $150K/y, with commensurate assets, I’d expect some of them (esp. the more selective ones) to have net prices below $50K.
$50K/year is enough to cover the full OOS cost of attendance for many (but not all) public universities.
https://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-public-colleges/index.php
@Corbett thanks for suggesting Lehigh! I’ve never heard of it before but this looks pretty cool
@tk21769 Do you know of any less selective private schools with good financial aid? I know if I got into, say, Harvard, I’d be able to afford it but with my stats it’s not realistic 
@pleasgod Have a look at this list:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2017-09-21/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need
Many of them may be out of reach for your stats.
Of the ones that are more realistic, none leap out as being especially good for what you seem to want.
Union College, maybe (for general engineering).
Some private colleges that don’t make that list nevertheless come close to meeting 100% of demonstrated need, as they define it anyway, and for the students who get any at all. Lehigh for example claimed to meet 97.5% for freshmen entering in 2016-17. Each school’s Common Data Set (section H2(i)) shows this percentage. Run the online NPCs for any schools that interest you.
If you want a good engineering program for no more than $50K/y, I think you have many options (especially among state universities but probably also at a few good private schools like Lehigh).
I presume you’re a junior, not a senior. You should look into the College for Creative Studies at UCSB, especially if you’re a CA resident. Otherwise, I strongly second Olin, but also suggest giving a look at New College of Florida.
@ pleasegod “I liked how their curriculum and activities focused on building projects/experiential learning.”
CMU, Stanford, Cooper Union and the combination of Brown and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) would be excellent choices, but are also very difficult to gain admission (don’t confuse this with your abilities!). It is not possible to achieve the artisan skills discussed in the American College of The Building Arts presentation AND to cover the rigors of CS and /or engineering within a four year time frame.
You have a breadth of options before you that cannot be met anywhere in four years. It appears you might even need to refine your definition of hands on. Leonardo da Vinci and his less well known competitor Albrecht Duerer mastered the art and the science and are widely viewed as the last people to accomplish this. Our knowledge base has grown geometrically. This is why so much design today is accomplished by teams.
“Hands on” also has different meanings. Repetition of known procedures is largely a classroom/lecture activity. A different thought process is required to design a solution to a new problem. To develop confidence in design, students need to actually do design and research of their own. This is a form of “hands on” and may or may not involved a piece of machinery. It involves the application of ideas to a new situation.
California Polytechnic prides itself on hands on learning. Olin college of Engineering offers the ultimate mentoring environment. WPI is an established pioneer in project education. All are highly respected schools which offer CS and engineering. Olin and WPI probably offer the more flexible programs. None are a cakewalk for admission, but you should look into them because you enjoy “building projects/experiential learning” and you need flexibility. They are less competitive than CMU, Stanford, MIT, etc.
:bz
I have a lot of cali friends at smu they have some very cool collaboration between engineering and the art school (meadows is a top art school). The engineering program is small and focused on hands on design may be good to look more into. Both engineering and art have a fair amount of scholarship they give out as well.
Check out Colorado College:
https://www.coloradocollege.edu/other/innovation-institute/index.html
@woogzmama I’m actually on a gap year and applying this year, so it’s too late for UCSB I’ll look at New College of Florida!
Northwestern University has an excellent 3D and rapid prototyping lab:
http://design.northwestern.edu/info-by-audience/current-students/rapid-prototyping-lab.html
They also have “The Garage”, a hub for student entrepreneurship and innovation:
https://thegarage.northwestern.edu/about/the-garage/