looking for recommendations for southeast engineering schools

College Search & Lists
1

Mom here asking questions :slight_smile:

My son, a 10th grader, is very interested in engineering and I am trying to get a feel for what schools may be the best fit for him. I am looking at automatic merit aid, competitive merit aid, BS/MS 5-year programs, and BS/MBA programs. My dh and I want as much merit aid as possible and my son is on board with that, too. We’re planning to visit in the next year: UT Austin, A&M, U of AL, UAH, Miss State, Ole Miss, Louisiana Tech, and LSU. I am open to advice in regard to these schools and others and put some information below. I am also looking at summer engineering camps for next summer.

In-state: Texas
Interested in: schools in the southeast
Parents willing to pay: $15,000 /year (With student loans in-state public is covered, if needed.)
Expected aid: $0 for public instate; some aid for private but still will cost well over the $15,000 we will pay
Others kids in college: 1 other sibling at time he goes to college (that’s how we know the aid numbers already)

Testing:
ACT: 33 (just got scores back)
Breakdown: English 29, Math 33, Reading 32, Science 36
PSAT/NMSQ: taking soon but doesn’t count until next year; possible to make NMF
APs: (not taken yet; all that school offers) AP Language, AP Calculus AB, AP Biology, AP Government
Dual Credit: (not taken yet; all that school offers) US History (6 hours), Speech (3 hours), College English (6 hours)
GPA (weighted): 4.1
(unweighted): 4.0

Extracurriculars:
Varsity Cross Country (planning to participate 4 years)
Varsity Soccer (4 years)
Varsity Track (4 years)
Band (4 years)
Boy Scouts: several leadership roles

Awards:
A Honor Roll
National Honor Society (should get in this year)
School Academic Team (planning on 4 years with this)
School Academic Award: Honors Chemistry, BCIS, should get more later
Eagle Scout: will get this year
Class Rank: School doesn’t rank; probably in top 5%

Experiences/Accomplishments:
Eagle Project
Passed German CLEP at age 11 (as a non-native speaker)
Some volunteer work (math camp)

2

One word of advice (we learned it the hard way ), merit offers change each cycle, sometimes drastically. Do not get your hopes up for one or 2 schools only to have the merit swept away before your students application year.

Your list looks good based upon current merit.

You may want to look at Trinity. They don’t have guaranteed merit, but they do offer consistently nice packages.

3

University of Central Florida has good engineering programs and offers good merit aid for top students, especially for National Merit SF.

4

Keeping in mind that TAMU and UT-Austin are great in-state options.

When he’s a senior, consider what majors he may be interested in. All of these schools offer Mechanical, EE, Civil, etc., but only a few may offer aerospace, computer engineering, industrial…

In addition to the schools you’ve listed:

USF (Tampa) and UCF (Orlando) both have strong engineering programs. UCF’s scholarships are competitive, while USF’s are automatic and “stackable”.

http://www.usf.edu/admissions/freshman/admissions-scholarships/nonflorida.aspx

Auburn’s top automatic merit scholarship is about 2/3’s OOS tuition. However, if he’s a NMF, they would offer him a National Merit Presidential Scholarship:
Value of $88,000 over four years for non-residents ($22,000 per year)
On-campus housing for one year, valued at $7,800*
University stipend for four years at $4,000 to $8,000 ($1,000 to $2,000 per year), depending on eligibility as determined by National Merit Scholarship Corporation and financial need as determined through completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

Several other schools have very nice NMF programs.

At Georgia Tech, he may be competitive for the Stamps Scholarships, if he’s ACT score moves up 1, 2 or 3 points (which is likely).

Run the NPC for Vanderbilt. They offer a nice FA package that doesn’t include any loans.

Good Luck!

5

A good starting point when searching for schools is focusing on those schools with ABET accredited programs. You can filter the ABET list by location and also search by types of accredited engineering degrees. ABET site: http://main.abet.org/aps/accreditedprogramsearch.aspx

As suggested above, once you get a list of schools you can start looking at their sites for information on merit scholarships. With those stats he would be in good shape. Don’t restrict yourself to looking only at large state U’s - many private schools have accredited programs with good merit available. I know you said Southeast, but you might want to throw in some schools in the Midwest - they tend to be less expensive to begin with.

6

Many schools offer high school summer intro programs. Few have merit for these. It is a great way to get the feel of the campus.