@thumper1
I do not believe that starting salaries are independent of college. Engineering students at places like Stanford, Cornell, and MIT have higher starting salaries. Cornell electrical engineers, for example, have a median starting salary over $70,000. The national average is $57,000. Yes, that may be because different companies are hiring those students, but the point is the same: those students get paid more.
And yes, prestige matters. Title matters. There are expectations of me. One of those is to go to a prestigious university. Anything less than that is to bring shame to the family — I will have been a waste.
OP - Re: ALEK placement. If it’s required during new student orientation, you will already have been admitted, know your financial aid package, and accepted your spot. Your aid would not be dependent on your math placement. That’s just to guide you and your counselor to know what math course to register.
You need to change your mindset about this now!
First off, there is much more to starting salary numbers. Where are the Cornell EEs going to work? Most of my friends stayed in the NE or went to the West Coast. Cost of living is super high so starting salaries are higher. I will tell you right now that making $57K in OH will give you a much nicer quality of life and help you repay loans faster, than $70K near NYC. The national average includes all 50 states, many, many of which have much lower cost of living.
Second - no one is owed a full ride to college in the US, let alone at their top choice. Nearly all of my daughter’s friends gave up offers at what you would consider “prestigious” schools to chase merit and better financial aid offers. For better or worse, that is how our educational model is set up. It’s expensive! Once you graduate and have your first job, it wont matter at all where you went to college. All that matters is how hard you work wherever you land.
Third - You have obviously worked very hard and you and your family should be proud. NOTHING that happens or doesn’t happen in the college admission process changes that. Do NOT tie your self esteem into college acceptances. Rejections, and EVERYONE gets rejections, don’t diminish your drive and capacity to succeed. It just means that maybe that school had too many people interested in the same major, or from your country, or of your gender, etc… Schools try to balance their incoming classes. That’s why 1600/36/4.0 fabulous EC applicants are rejected every single cycle. That’s how it works, and again, doesn’t negate your hard work and your future potential.
Please, please, please change your mind set and start talking to your family about it to. Don’t set yourself up for heartache.
@momofsenior1
No, the scholarship I am interested in requires a 76 or better on the ALEKS. FAMU is unaffordable without that scholarship, so I can’t commit without knowing whether or not I got the scholarship.
I know I should, but it’s hard. All my life, I’ve been told by my family that “I’d do great things.” That I’d “be the one to bring the family to the US.” That I’d “give my family a comfortable life through a well-paying job.” That I’d “be the first in the family to attend a prestigious American university.” That I’d “be rich.” That “my name would be known in my field.” That’s a lot of responsibility and expectation to have as a high schooler.
OP - Email FAMU and ask about ALEKS. If they require it for the scholarship, then they have a vehicle for you to take the test earlier than during orientation week. Also, what was your math sub score on your ACT? At my daughter’s school a 76 is considered the equivalent of a 27 on the math subscore or a 630/640 on the math SAT. Many schools will also take your ACT/SAT sub score in lieu of having to take ALEKS. May be worth asking that question as well.
That is a ton of pressure to put on a kid. But, you can do great things and get a great job no matter where you go to college!
@momofsenior1
Thank you for your confidence in me.
I got a 29 on the ACT math, and 680 on the SAT math. 730 on the Math II subject test.
Ask if the sat math 2 score or the ACT score can be used for the scholarship.
A 76 ALEKS should be no big deal if you want to study engineering. In order to succeed in STEM 80+ would be my expectation.
She just graduated from Florida Tech. She had 9 different types of aid on her bill every semester, including the subsidized loan. She could have taken a job on an oil platform and made more but she didn’t want that lifestyle.* She had turned down higher ranked schools because she didn’t like them and did really like the STEM school, and because she wanted a full financial package. School ranking and prestige didn’t matter to her. We lived in north Florida and not one kid from her school went to Georgia Tech because there isn’t enough money to pull anyone away from Florida’s great FA money. One classmate did go to MIT (full pay). I think there were 6 NMF in her class, all stayed instate.
My point above was that we didn’t dismiss any schools until we looked at all the grants and scholarships available. Prestige didn’t/couldn’t matter because money mattered more. We couldn’t afford the prestige. It wouldn’t have done her any good to get into Vanderbilt if we couldn’t pay for it. There really are very few 100% awards even for those with $0 EFC. We found it better to take those 9 sources of funding (2 very large for merit and athletics and the others smaller amounts) and build a ‘do it yourself’ FA package. @CourtneyThurston has many posts on how she fully funded her undergrad and some grad school costs using the same plan.
We on CC realize you are doing this yourself. We are trying to help you consider other options. My uncle thinks my daughter was nuts for turning down Smith and Kenyon and Oberlin to go to what he considers a ‘no name’ school, but he wasn’t willing to toss in $20 grand for her to go somewhere more prestigious (and she didn’t LIKE those schools). Will your relatives be more proud of you for going to a less prestigious school or for NOT going to MIT? If they want the prestige, are they really considering what is best for you?
*The cost of living in her area is about 30% less than in Northern California, so I think her salary is actually better than a Stanford grad making $70k but living in Silicon Valley.
@twoinanddone
Well, in my case, affordability comes with prestige (with a few exceptions). I would pay far less at, say, Vanderbilt than at Florida Tech. It’s not only about prestige, but a matter of money as well.
I’m not quite sure I understand the question you ask. Less prestigious is a relative term; Rice is “less prestigious” than Princeton, but still prestigious by any measure (both are on my list).
The cost of living is within one’s control. It may be more expensive to live in the same conditions as somewhere else, but there are always cheaper options.
Well, in any case, my search for safeties is essentially over. Tuskegee and PVAMU should be safe enough. At least this way I will have some agency in whether or not I will be taking a gap year should catastrophe strike.
Personally,
I don’t think your safety of Tuskegee is really a safety. While you feel that you have the GPA and scores for merit, it is not guaranteed merit but competitive merit. Tuskegee is a very popular HBCU, where the pool for those 30 full ride scholarships are going to be deep. With only 30 full ride scholarships, trust and believe HBCU is not going to veeer very far from their mission.
There will be plenty of people with ties Tuskegee: local high schools, legacies( there is nothing like the HBCU legacy system, which is multi-generational going back many generations), members of the divine 9 with far reaching influence, facbrats, etc. You definitely hav the stats to get accepted, but you are no where near having a lock of getting a full ride (which totally annoys me as to why some people are quick to tell especially non-black students on CC to apply and get this scholarship $ at the HBCUs).
I live and work in NYC, and know kids who attend Tuskegee and HBCUs every year.
One of my D’s good friends is a HBCU specialist at Google, where she travels to HBCUs across the country to recruit for them. There is a lot of corporate recruiting done at Tuskegee, FAMU U, NC A&T, Howard, Morehouse, Spelman, Grambling, Hampton, and other HBCUs, especially where companies are looking to increase diversity because they can essentially one stop shop and find talented prospects.
If Tuskegee’s scholarships are competitive rather than automatic for stats, the web page is not very clear about that.
https://www.tuskegee.edu/programs-courses/scholarships/freshman-scholarships
@sybbie719
So I’m left with just PVAMU, then.
Seriously???
Let’s start with the fact that they only offer 30 Distinguished- full ride scholarships, and 30 University- Full tuition scholarships. Where would that be guaranteed or automatic to any student who meets the criteria?
Ya gotta continue reading so you know what the terms are.
Prairie View’s scholarships are not Guaranteed or Automatic
What about UArk Monticello?
Could you major in Physics and participate in a 4+1 program such as the one at Haverford ? An issue would be financing the +1 so you’d have to inquire about that aspect.
Email Berea about this too.
@MYOS1634
UAM’s top scholarship only gives $12,000. That doesn’t cover cost of attendance.
Is there an Oos tuition waiver for non residents?
Not that it may change things for you 
Have you run the NPC on Michigan again?
Will your divorced, non custodial parent participate in our Education costs?
@MYOS1634
No. I will be applying for a Noncustodial Parent Waiver for the CSS.
Have you looked into UTD? AES and McDermott?
Many Texas universities (except for UT and TAMU) grant an Oos tuition waiver if you get a 4k scholarship so that in-state tuition +R/B would cover what you need.
@MYOS1634
Way are these you’re naming? I’m searching them up and not getting any relevant results.
UTD= university of Texas at Dallas, one of texas’ well-known engineering/computer engineering universities. Mc Dermott and AES are their merit scholarship programs.
If Tuskegee and PVAMU full rides are competitive, then the remaining best safety option (with engineering) for the OP is UAH with scholarship + Pell grant + direct loan + work to piece together barely enough to pay for it. Maybe FAMU similarly, but the renewal restrictions (e.g. cannot change major) are stricter.