Michigan merit aid?

bclintonk
Thu, 10 Oct 2013 01:37:09 +0000

So if your original calculation was that you’d be full-pay at Michigan, does that also mean you’d also be full-pay at a meets-full-need private? Most of the top privates aren’t going to give much, if anything, in merit aid.

If Purdue is a safety and Michigan is a reach, then what lies between the two financially and in terms of selectivity, especially for a student who is determined to do engineering? I’d say maybe Wisconsin. It has a very good engineering school, a bit more selective than Purdue but less selective than Michigan, a better college town than W. Lafayette, lower OOS tuition than Purdue, maybe not quite as renowned as Purdue for engineering but not far back. And it’s got more strength in non-engineering fields than Purdue, so if S ever has a change of heart about majors (and a majority of students do), there’s more to fall back on.

With his stats he might also take a shot at Cornell, Princeton, and Northwestern. These are selective enough to be reaches but they have quality engineering programs and tremendous institutional resources across many fields. A 35 ACT and 3.95 unweighted is going to get a good, close look pretty much anywhere he applies. That, plus legacy status and strong ECs, gives him a very strong chance at Michigan, to the point I’d rate Michigan engineering a high match/low reach. And as others have said, you won’t know about merit money until you apply. Or as the ads used to say about the New York State Lottery: “Hey, you never know!”