<p>I’m in the upper middle class income level, so obviously I don’t qualify for much need based aid. I was wondering if there are respectable universities out there that would offer me a substantial amount merit aid?</p>
<p>it is currently December 15th so obviously I can’t complete any aid applications that were due prior to this date.</p>
<p>cursory stats:
ACT: 34
GPA: 4.926 / 4.000 weighted (ALL As)
ECs: great
National Merit COMMENDED
intended major : biomedical/bio engineering</p>
<p>Take a look at Vanderbilt University’s merit awards web site. A 34 and all As might put you in the pool for one of the awards, but they are highly competitive and much depends on course selection, etc. Biomedical engineering is one of the majors in VUSE, Vanderbilt University School of Engineering.</p>
<p>Jan. 3rd is the deadline for the Cornelius Vanderbilt and the Chancellor’s scholarships. </p>
<p>I’m sure there are other engineering schools with merit awards for someone with a strong pre-engineering record. If you look at the top of the Parent Forum there is a permanent thread with information about merit scholarships, but I don’t think there is a lot of special discussion about engineering schools.</p>
<p>Research Rice University and see if it would be a good fit. It is a peer of Vanderbilt, Duke, Ivies, WashU, Stanford, CalTech, etc. They automatically consider every applicant for merit aid (although still very difficult to get, as is true of getting merit aid at any top school). However, unlike at other top schools, no separate scholarship applications required!</p>
<p>U Miami
U Rochester</p>
<p>What is your intended major?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, many deadlines for scholarships at other schools have passed.</p>
<p>thanks guys for your suggestions!</p>
<p>intended major: biomedical/bio engineering.</p>
<p>I have really bad timing dont I? :)</p>
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<p>midmo,</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is a good school with merit aid that is giving Duke a run for the money (no pun intended) as the “Harvard of the South.”</p>
<p>But it is not a top school for engineering in general or biomedical engineering in particular:</p>
<p>[Rankings</a> - Best Engineering Schools - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/rankings/page+2]Rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/rankings/page+2)</p>
<p>[Biomedical</a> / Bioengineering - Best Engineering Schools - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/biomedical]Biomedical”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/biomedical)</p>
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<p>Don’t you get tired of selling (or shilling for) Rice at every given opportunity?</p>
<p>Rice is NOT a “peer” of the Ivies, Stanford or CalTech. (Not-so “slik” move, “nik”!)</p>
<p>It is a peer of Vanderbilt, Duke and WashU though and is probably underrated relative to them. It is also good for BME, but not so much for engineering in general.</p>
<p>I got 20k PER YEAR (Founder’s Award) in pure merit aid from Tulane with lower stats. You might get a full-ride there.</p>
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<p>U Rochester is decent for engineering and the OP may have a better-than-average shot at merit aid there. It is not very well known but has fairly strong academics. (Ironically enough, U Rochester actually has much better engineering than Rochester Institute of Technology.)</p>
<p>RPI is another decent engineering school in upstate NY. It also offers merit scholarships.</p>
<p>@interestingguy: I only post when I believe Rice or other peer schools are an appropriate fit… I have the right to be proud of my school, just like you have the right to constantly bash Duke… every single post I’ve seen from you trashes Duke. At least I’m positive in my posts, unlike your constant bashing. Duke is an amazing school and offers an equal, if not better, undergrad education than your beloved Ivies. Same with Rice. Very few people know that Rice offers 30% of its incoming freshmen merit aid, so I’m just spreading the word.</p>
<p>Rice is strong in engineering, especially for bioengineering and electrical engineering.</p>
<p>I would argue all top 20 schools are peers. One of my professors has a colleague at Stanford, and she called Rice a peer school. Sure, is Rice at Stanford, Yale, MIT, or Princeton level yet? No, but they are very close… I would argue that Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, CalTech, WashU, Emory, Vanderbilt, Duke, JHU, Notre Dame, Georgetown, CMU, etc. are all on the same playing field. And, by the way, I believe that all these schools offer equal, if not better educational opportunities, to their undergraduate students than Harvard… that school is going downhill, especially for undergrad students. Their grad programs are definitely phenomenal and are among the best in the world, but with all the resources dedicated to grad programs, its hard to provide similar opportunities to undergrad students.</p>
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<p>But the OP is interested in engineering and Tulane has weak engineering programs.</p>
<p>emmers,
I suggest you check the posting record of midmo and compare to i-guy and see which person’s advice you feel is more reliable. If you can’t figure that one out, then you probably won’t get into any of these colleges. </p>
<p>i-guy,
In your zeal to promote the Ivies, I think you overstep in trying to differentiate between quality places like Rice and the others you mention. The statistical differences are tiny and, in many cases, in favor of those schools you hope to marginalize. These schools are most certainly peers, at least on an overall basis, although due to faculty reps, some will be considered stronger in certain fields than others. But the actual student quality and educational quality differences are infinitesimal. </p>
<p>Take a look at the following and see if you can separate out which is the Ivy and which is not. </p>
<p>College = Fresh Retention , 4 Yr Grad Rate , 6-Yr Grad Rate </p>
<p>College A = 98.0% , 82% , 94%<br>
College B = 98.0% , 79% , 94%<br>
College C = 96.8% , 82% , 93%<br>
College D = 97.8% , 81% , 88%<br>
College E = 98.0% , 86% , 95%<br>
College F = 96.2% , 88% , 95%<br>
College G = 96.5% , 85% , 94%<br>
College H = 97.5% , 84% , 94%<br>
College I = 98.0% , 88% , 95%<br>
College J = 98.5% , 87% , 95%<br>
College K = 96.0% , 84% , 89%<br>
College L = 96.2% , 87% , 93% </p>
<p>College = Classes with <20 students , >50 , S/F Ratio </p>
<p>College A = 65.2% , 12.7% , 7/1
College B = 72.2% , 11.7% , 6/1
College C = 65.4% , 8.1% , 5/1
College D = 70.8% , 6.4% , 3/1
College E = 62.5% , 8.7% , 8/1
College F = 71.4% , 5.0% , 8/1
College G = 74.2% , 8.7% , 7/1
College H = 70.6% , 9.2% , 8/1
College I = 72.9% , 7.3% , 6/1
College J = 77.2% , 8.4% , 6/1
College K = 67.7% , 6.6% , 8/1
College L = 58.1% , 16.8% , 10/1 </p>
<p>College = SAT 25 - SAT 75 , ACT 25 - ACT 75 , Top 10% students</p>
<p>College A = 1380 - 1560 , 31 - 34 , 97%
College B = 1330 - 1540 , 30 - 34 , 92%
College C = 1320 - 1530 , 30 - 34 , 85%
College D = 1470 - 1560 , 33 - 35 , 97%
College E = 1330 - 1550 , 29 - 34 , 90%
College F = 1340 - 1540 , 30 - 34 , 90%
College G = 1380 - 1540 , 31 - 34 , 96%
College H = 1320 - 1540 , 28 - 33 , 93%
College I = 1330 - 1520 , 30 - 33 , 99%
College J = 1360 - 1550 , 29 - 34 , 94%
College K = 1330 - 1500 , 30 - 33 , 84%
College L = 1300 - 1500 , 29 - 33 , 88%</p>
<p>College = % of Need Met , Per Capita Endowment </p>
<p>College A = 100% , $977,647<br>
College B = 100% , $965,310<br>
College C = 100% , $844,916<br>
College D = 100% , $782,841<br>
College E = 100% , $674,475<br>
College F = 100% , $435,544<br>
College G = 100% , $393,510<br>
College H = 100% , $333,977<br>
College I = 100% , $327,756<br>
College J = 100% , $308,105<br>
College K = 100% , $289,010<br>
College L = 100% , $275,149</p>
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<p>(Condoleezza) Rice at Stanford is more famous than Rice…</p>
<p>The deadline for the full-tuition Tulane scholarships was yesterday :(</p>
<p>[Deans</a> Honor Scholarship](<a href=“http://financialaid.tulane.edu/idxdean’s_honor_scholarship.htm]Deans”>http://financialaid.tulane.edu/idxdean’s_honor_scholarship.htm)</p>
<p>There are still other merit scholarships available from Tulane.</p>
<p>[Presidential</a> Scholar Award](<a href=“http://financialaid.tulane.edu/idxpresidential_scholar_award.htm]Presidential”>http://financialaid.tulane.edu/idxpresidential_scholar_award.htm)</p>
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<p>Not interested in your boring stats. Only in prestige and selectivity. </p>
<p>In terms of prestige, the Ivies trump Rice “and the others and I mention.” In terms of selectivity, the Ivies destroy Rice “and the other I mention” in cross-admit battles (as indicated by acceptance rates and yield rates). </p>
<p>The Ivies, unlike Rice “and the others I mention,” don’t need to attract students with merit and athletic scholarships.</p>
<p>The Ivies have better academics (as defined by faculty, departmental strength, etc.) than Rice “and the others I mention.”</p>
<p>The Ivies have more name recognition than Rice “and the others I mention.”</p>
<p>Last but not least, the Ivy students have more accomplished ECs and demonstrate more leadership potential than those at Rice “and the others I mention.”</p>
<p>@interestingguy:</p>
<p>First off, your logic makes no sense. You are comparing apples to oranges. Politicians are generally more famous than educational institutions. </p>
<p>Many of our country’s best universities are not well-known. If I was use to your faulty logic, Condelezza Rice would be more famous than CalTech, UChicago, Dartmouth, Brown, UPenn, Emory, WashU, etc. People think UPenn is a state university.</p>
<p>This just comes to show that you are really concerned about prestige. I could care less that Rice is relatively unknown.</p>
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</p>
<p>Oh, you must know something that 75%+ of Harvard admits don’t…</p>
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<p>Is that why you started THREE separate, coincidental threads about your “buyer’s remorse” at Rice???</p>
<p>
Oh, I think the Ivies would disagree.</p>
<p>Brown University, the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Cornell University and Rice University have traveled together for many years to speak to students and their families about college admissions. We do so because our institutions, at their core, are similar. We all offer students a broad-based liberal arts curriculum, committed to providing every student with a well-rounded education in social science, humanities, mathematics and science. We are all residential colleges; the vast majority of our students live on campus, so much of our students’ education takes place outside of the classroom. Lastly, we all practice highly selective admissions; each of our schools seeks not only a class that is strong academically, but a class that is diverse in every way and one with dynamic students who will enrich their campus intellectually, extracurricularly and personally.</p>
<p>
Vandy’s undergrad BME was ranked #15 in the USNWR ranking to which you linked, right behind Stanford and Berkeley and ahead of Cornell. That’s not good enough?</p>
<p>Getting back on track, RPI was a good suggestion. Boston U and Case Western would certainly be worth consideration as well. It’s free to apply to Case if you do so online, I believe.</p>
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<p>Stanford and Berkeley may rank lower for bio-medical engineering than they deserve to be because technically they don’t even offer this (niche) specialty. They do offer bio-mechanical and bio-engineering respectively. In any event, BME is arguably the weakest engineering specialty in Stanford’s and Berkeley’s entire repertoire.</p>