Low-cost [<$30k] (with merit?) schools with engineering [MA resident, 3.91, 1500, not NMSF]

[AustenNut]

@MAmomto4

Just in case anyone is interested, I worked on getting cost estimates for the schools listed here. Some of them were high-ish, but maybe those schools offer merit aid beyond what they list in the NPC or the list of guaranteed aid (or maybe I did something wrong). I’m going to talk with him about the list this weekend. Thank you for the suggestions!

@Luanne

When I run the NPC, I only look at direct costs like tuition, fees, room and board.

I’m definitely getting different numbers from you, though like Luanne, I only use tuition, fees, and room & board since different colleges make different estimates for books, travel, and other expenses.

In case you’re not aware, when there’s linked text (blue), it’s usually because I’ve tried to link to the relevant source.

@MAmomto4

|Kansas U|29000

@AustenNut

U. of Kansas : About 19k undergrads. Your son would receive $14k/year in merit which would bring costs to about $23k. This school has linguistics (through a PhD) and is ABET-accredited for aerospace, architectural, chemical, civil, computer, electrical, mechanical, and petroleum engineering as well as CS, engineering physics, information technology, and interdisciplinary computing. And it has an honors program.

So in this instance, if you follow the linked $14k/year in merit from my post, it will take you to the page where you can see this:

I generally pulled the expenses from College Navigator (the feds’ website with data provided by the schools) because sometimes the colleges make it harder than necessary to compare apples to apples:

College Navigator’s site

vs. KU’s site

@MAmomto4

|New Mexico|36000

@AustenNut

U. of New Mexico : About 16k undergrads. He would receive the Amigo scholarship ($22,919/year + a $200/year stipend), bringing the costs down to about $15k/year, and could compete for a full ride. Offers linguistics (through a PhD) and is ABET-accredited for CS, construction management, as well as chemical, civil, computer, construction, electrical, mechanical, and nuclear engineering. And it has its own honors college.

If you follow the linked “the Amigo scholarship” it will take you to the page where you’ll see this:

And here are UNM’s costs from College Navigator:

@MAmomto4

|Arkansas|46000

At U. of Arkansas your son would qualify for the Extended States New Arkansas scholarship (i.e. any U.S. state that’s doesn’t border Arkansas or is Kansas, Illinois, or Georgia).

And further down on that same page it will show you what the 80% discount on out-of-state fees will give you in terms of total costs. I’d call this about $27k (about $13,5 for tuition & fees and about $13,4 for room & board) but they do show personal expenses, books, and transportation addition up to nearly $6800 more. Obviously, this varies from college to college, as KU was doing $3246 and UNM was doing $4442, which is why I just use tuition, room & board to compare apples to apples.

@MAmomto4

|Gannon|38000

@AustenNut

Gannon (PA ): About 3100 undergrads. ABET-accredited for CS and Information Systems, as well as biomedical, electrical, environmental, industrial and robotics, mechanical, and software engineering. Some majors that might strike your son’s fancy also include Applied Intelligence , Cybersecurity, Industrial Management and Business Administration (a dual degree with a U. in Stuttgart, Germany), and Risk Management and Insurance. Offers a number of scholarships (with a competitive one for full tuition) as well as academic scholarship competitions based on exams, and your son is a good test taker (source ). I’d expect this school to be below $30k after merit.

For Gannon, I’m putting the price up first.

If you follow the link from “source” you’ll first see this list of scholarships:

Although there’s no stats listed by the scholarships, I’d be pretty surprised if your son applied by December 15 and wasn’t among the top 10% of applicants, so those eligible to compete for the Presidential Scholarship. It appears that anyone invited to compete for the Presidential Scholarship (full tuition) is eligible for the Founders Scholarship of up to $24k. Since the scholarship below that is $22-23k, and below that is $20-21k, I strongly suspect your son would get at least one of those, which by themselves would bring the costs down to around budget (slight above or slight below, depending on which).

But further down the page it talks about academic competitions for which student can get extra scholarship money:

As your son is such a strong student (and a strong test taker as seen on PSAT and SAT), I think he’d stand a good chance at doing well on the exams that can result in extra scholarshp money.

Hope this helps. If you need assistance doing this for any other colleges, let me know.