Thank you for the chart.
Itâs not from the colleges directly, so I would take it as guidance only and not an absolute.
Hoping @kelsmom sees this and weighs in.
Fair enough but then again NPCs are sometimes wildly inaccurate.
In our case, the chart (which is based off of the FAFSA) showed that we would get no financial aid from publicâsâand we didnât, only merit. It also showed that we would get aid from privates and we did âand no it wasnât a loan.
JMU and W&M arenât engineering schools. Agreed on the SEC schools but was thinking too big/too party.
UGA has some merit but full cost is well within budget. But the SAT may not be. Itâs a tough in
Bama is the fair sub but itâs gonna be way too much school based on the descriptor.
Hence I gave smaller and quieter Ms State.
You are right about costs though.
But some of the sport spirit schools are the biggies - same conference as Wake.
So there will have to be trade offs - size vs crazy 
I believe they want to be near a city. Miami Ohio is a good hybrid - a big W&M with engineering that hit costs. But itâs on the rural side.
Would she consider West Virginia University? I think it has the majors, and I think it would also meet your price point. Good school spirit, neat college town.
Or how about university of Kentucky?
JMU has engineering and some ABET accredited programs.They are adding new concentrations. Virginia Tech and UVA however are better known for engineering in Virginia.
I know several other people have mentioned honors colleges at larger public universities. My older son turned down Wake for Auburn honors primarily because he decided he wanted engineering and Wake only offered a general engineering degree. The honors college really makes a bigger school feel smaller and provides a cohort of very bright, more academically focused students. Itâs sounds very cheesy when people talk about the 'Auburn family" but there really is a strong sense of community and tons of school spirit.
Your D would most likely get merit aid if she applies in the early rounds. (They have 4 early action rounds. EA1 has an application deadline of Sept 15 with decisions announced mid October). I believe presidential scholarship for out of state is $17 k which could bring your cost to under $40k. Itâs also really nice to have a college acceptance by mid October. It alleviates a lot of the college admissions stress.
JMU and W&M arenât engineering schools. Agreed on the SEC schools but was thinking too big/too party.
Do they need to be âengineering schoolsâ or do they need to offer engineering? Big difference IMO.
Agree about Miami of OH and thatâs why I suggested it as well.
OP are you guys considering UVA?
My apology - you are correct - ABET in general engineeering plus CS and integrated Science and Tech too.
It seems a decent fit. Gorgeous campus. The heart of it isnât big. Solid name. A bit large population wise but many are gonna be.
I think UTC fits better - half the size - but I was wrong on offerings.
Thanks for correcting.
Op - whatâs the current SAT? Not hoped for ?
I meant offer.
If they want bio engineering? It will limit more.
I was using schools with at least FCS football because sports is important here. I was wrong on JMU - accredited for a general degree. Sounds like more may be coming from @sevmom .
Hopefully weâll learn an UW GPA, current test score, highest level of math and science to be taken.
It could be some schools, Wake included, are reaches or high reaches.
Based on what youâve shared, I would eliminate Duke, Rice, and Vanderbilt from consideration, as they are likely to be a reach just to get in, and your D is unlikely to be considered for merit aid from them.
Yesterday I was looking at Trinity U.'s profile page on Niche, and I saw a message saying something to the effect of: âThinking about EDing to Trinity? Get a merit aid pre-read to get a better sense of the costs.â Of course, when I went on the page today, it didnât see that. I feel as though people needed to ask for the pre-read prior to October 1, or something like that.
All of that to say, for schools like Bucknell or Case Western or whereverâŠit doesnât hurt to ask if theyâll do a merit aid pre-read for your D. And then your family will know whether a school is worth an app. As there are a lot of unknowns going into this application cycle (a drop of domestic students with the demographic cliff, a likely decrease of international students who were more apt to be full pay), admissions offices may be more motivated to let students know a merit aid range up front. And most schools would much rather take a family that will pay $60k/year then not have enough students, and might provide sufficient merit aid to make that happen.
Is Texas not geographically out of the question though?
Well, Texas is in the southern U.S. But I was using Trinity as an example of a school (with an admit rate of 28% per College Navigator) that is offering merit aid pre-reads. And if Trinity is now doing so, other colleges may be willing, even if theyâre not advertising it. So if OPâs D wants to reach out to Lehigh or Wake or wherever else, I donât think it hurts to ask the question.
Plus, schools like Case and Trinity, Iâm guessing they donât meet the following test - of course, Wake is in the ACC - so are there ACC, Big 10, SEC schools that might fit the bill? There are some FCS - not quite the spirit - but maybe theyâll work ? - and theyâll hit budget.
For school spirit- she wants a place where students go to games and are excited about the place they attend (she does not have that in high school).
Mark Kantrowicz, the author, is very well known in financial aid circles. His information can be relied on, but ⊠there are a couple changes as a result of the new bill that passed that may affect an individualâs SAI. So itâs correct as of that date but may not be correct for next year.
OKâŠIâm just saying that OP referenced being in the Southeast, which Texas isnât.
Definitely look at Mercer
And their merit scholarships
Thatâs actually a similar to WakeâŠnot in spirit but the rest. They are accredited in General Engineering. Itâs a fine school.
Itâs FCS in football and D1 in hoops.
So good call.
Macon - bleh - but good call overall
Many students explore a breadth of interests by taking a class or two in the subject and seeing what they think of it before choosing a major. If thatâs what she has in mind for engineering then itâs not something easily done for a few reasons. First, to complete an engineering degree in four years you usually have to be all-in from the start since there are more required classes than in other majors.
You didnât say what branch of engineering she is interested in or maybe thatâs something she doesnât know yet, but a second point is that many of the required classes (first year especially) are math and science, not engineering. So even starting on the engineering pathway may not tell her a lot. Dropout rates are high in engineering and some schools are trying to get an engineering course or two during frosh year to keep the kids interested. A sample schedule for ME is https://viterbiadmission.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/USC-Mechanical-Engineering-Curriculum.pdf and you can see what I mean about the math/science loading and number of required classes.
Third, engineering in college and in the career can be quite different since in college there is a heavy focus on theory and quite a bit of math (differential equations, etc) while in industry there are software tools used to do the calculations. So the engineering classes themselves may not be the best guidance to whether the career is a fit.