Looking for Some Suggestions (High School Junior)

ucbalumnus
Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:44:22 +0000

You can put “net price calculator” in a school’s search box and put in your family’s number to get a cost and financial aid estimate. Your task for finding schools becomes more difficult if the schools’ expected family contribution is significantly higher than what your family is able or willing to pay.

UIUC is an obvious choice since you are in-state.

Minnesota Twin Cities has a relatively low out-of-state cost of attendance list price. Other schools with relatively low out-of-state cost of attendance list price include the Cal Polys and Virginia Tech.

Berkeley is expensive out-of-state, but you can try for the [full-ride Drake Scholarship for mechanical engineering majors/url.

Stanford and MIT are reaches for everyone, but may be sufficiently generous with need-based financial aid.

Remember to include a safety that you will definitely get into and which you will definitely be able to afford. If none of the above is a safety, look to other in-state public universities (e.g. NIU, SIUC, SIUE, UIC) and schools with large guaranteed-for-stats merit scholarships (e.g. [url=Scholarships – College of Engineering | The University of Alabama]Alabama](http://www.me.berkeley.edu/StudentAffairs/ProspectiveStudents/Undergraduate/Drake.html)). You can use [Accredited Program Search](http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramSearch.aspx/AccreditationSearch.aspx) to find mechanical engineering degree programs.