Helping a lowish-income first-gen California student figure out her college list. Outside of the UCs/Cal States, I’m wondering if it makes sense for her to have some other state flagships on her list that might offer enough merit aid to get them down to the cost of the in-state options. She’s got good grades, decent rigor but not top of her school, no test results yet, interested in an ABET-accredited engineering program.
I keep seeing that Bama offers great merit, but wondering about state schools in other parts of the country, especially the Midwest and Northeast.
Kansas State gave my son great merit. It got the yearly cost down to around $20K and there were other scholarship possibilities he didn’t apply for there, as well.
I have heard Iowa (don’t know which of the 2 universities!) has good merit also.
SUNY Buffalo gave my son merit to get the cost to about $35,000 (for tuition, room, board, fees) and there were competitive scholarships that could have taken more off that he didn’t apply for. None of the other NE flagship schools we looked at got lower than that, except possibly Maine.
There were a lot of non-flagship state schools that would have come in lower, but he wasn’t very interested in those.
It might help if you stated what this cost is expected to be, ie what the UC/CSU cost of attendance calculator is showing. Because there are far more OOS options that are the same cost for a full pay CA family compared to ones which are the same cost for a “lowish-income” family that will receive need-based aid instate.
The northeast is tough, but the NY schools have a pretty good price, and U of Maine has a matching program for your state’s flagship. Some people have had good luck with UMass.
The midwest is generally lower cost that other areas of the country, both for tuition and cost of housing.
She is still figuring this out but I’m hoping to generally give her price-sensitive options that are a mix of in-state, ‘meets need’ privates, and privates and/or other state publics that are known for giving out good merit packages.
Don’t know about engineering but D23 received $23k last year from UCONN OOS. Although she didn’t accept, it was one of her least expensive options. Also received good merit from Arizona State.
Yes, many “lowish-income” families need a net price of $8-10k or less (that can be covered by the student’s federal direct loan plus a reasonable amount of student work earnings with no or minimal parent contribution), which restricts the selection of “big merit” colleges much more than for higher income families looking for a net price of $25-40k or so.
You led with mentioning 'Bama - another option for an aspiring engineer who isn’t seeking the “rah rah big southern flagship” vibe would be U of Alabama Huntsville, which is smaller, STEM-oriented, and located in a Northern-AL city (mountains, cooler weather, even occasional snow) that is an aerospace hub that was at one point known for being the metro area with the highest percentage of PhD’s (don’t know if this is still true, but it gives you a sense). UAH also has auto-merit: UAH - Admission & Aid I hear the housing is really nice, too.
As others have said, it would be helpful to know budget, and also specific interests within engineering.
Not sure about budget yet but I am generally trying to give her options that are price-sensitive either through being in-state, oos with merit or a meets need institution.
U of Akron is particularly known for Chemical/Materials/Polymer Engineering Undergraduate : The University of Akron, Ohio It’s an Ohio public, with a fairly affordable sticker price and some generous merit awards, plus a 4-year tuition guarantee. I don’t believe there is predictable auto-merit, however.
Continuing on Ohio theme Miami of Ohio has engineering and gives lots of OOS merit. Beautiful campus cute college town but in a rural area. 45 minutes from Cincinnati however.
One thing to consider when looking at schools to try to stay under a certain budget is travel expenses.
My son is at an out of state school almost 9 hours away. He’s an hour from an airport. We have spent at least 2K in travel expenses this year. Flights, hotel rooms, ubers or shuttles to/from airport, rental cars, etc add up fast. Flights to/from for: fall break, to come home for an event, for us to go to family weekend, Thanksgiving, Winter Break, Spring Break, for us to go to a musical performance, to drop him off at the beginning and pick him up at the end, etc. Every time we were in town to see him we needed a hotel room. Shuttle/car service to from the airport was 50-100 each way. We are very fortunate that we are able to afford all these travel expenses, but someone on a tight budget really needs to consider this. If their max budget is 10K (for example) for tuition, room and board - don’t forget to include travel expenses. Our son is 100% thriving at the school and it was the exact right fit for him, but travel has honestly been an expensive hassle.
In contrast my dd25 is strongly considering a school an hour away. If that’s where she goes, we will never need a hotel room to see her, and she will never need to fly. Our only expenses will be the gas for the car when we drive to/from school.