Look at Ohio State. We have a friend who had two high stats kids go there from OOS because of the very generous financial packages.
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The University of Toledo – which has many ABET accredited engineering programs including chemical engineering, here: APS – gives in-state tuition to incoming OOS freshmen who have a 3.5 or higher GPA (although I don’t know whether this would be a GPA as calculated by the University of Toledo). With in-state tuition/fees and on-campus room and board, the annual cost is currently about $27,500: https://www.utoledo.edu/financialaid/undergraduate/estimate-costs/. There might also be the possibility of additional merit aid.
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Are we talking lowish-income by US standards (median income of around $40k, per source)? Or are we talking lowish-income by CC standards (not sure what that would be, but significantly higher)?
We really need to know what the budget is here, and until we do, I’m going to restrict myself to private colleges.
More attainable admissions chances
- Case Western
- Lafayette* (extremely generous net prices for low income families amongst this set of schools)
- Lehigh
- U. of Rochester
Reach-for-all type of schools
- Tufts
- Northwestern U.
- U. of Notre Dame
- Vanderbilt
- WashU
- Rice
- Princeton
- Yale
Also, has the student looked into Questbridge? It seems like it might be a good option to consider if the student would be eligible.
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We are also from CA, S24 applied for Aero Eng (UW GPA 4.0, W GPA 4.21 and 1440 SAT) got $14.5K/yr merit offer from Ohio State. COA is only a few $K over UC in state cost and cheaper then WUE merit offer from Oregon State. We were kind of surprise with such generous offer.
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For New England, UMaine will be your easiest admit, has a nice honors program and she should get good merit (not sure how they are with FA). There’s a very nice new engineering building and kids in the program seem happy.
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$70K income, family of four in a high cost of living area. I feel like I’m seeing a lot of $60K cutoffs for low income, but in this area $70K is very much low income. Questbridge mentions $60K so I didn’t really think it would work or if her stats were high enough. Your list is aligned with the one I’d been building on the private side though, so that’s reassuring.
From what I have heard, the Questbridge cutoff isn’t necessarily super strict. I would suggest reaching out to the organization to see if this student might be able to qualify. Also, @Mwfan1921 might have some insight as well.
With a family income of $70k/year in a HCOL area for a family of four, it really seems as though the kid would need a full ride or very close to it. I would also make sure the family is very familiar with its local community colleges and which options have TAG to UCs, because there’s a decent chance that will end up as the most affordable option.
If the kid doesn’t get Questbridge, I would make sure the family runs the NPCs at all the schools, but I would consider EDing at a school the kid likes that has an affordable price for the family, as those “more attainable” schools are all need-aware, so ED may be her best bet to get in rather than hoping for an RD decision.
I’ll start trying to figure out some schools where the OP might be able to get a full ride or close to it.
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What would her projected costs be at UC Merced, and would that number be affordable? With a 3.9W/4.3UW, she’ll get in there, and ChemE is offered… and it will most likely be less expensive than living on campus at a CSU school. (I’m not saying she won’t get into other UC’s too - just establishing a baseline with a true safety. I assume she must be in the top 9% and therefore an auto-admit for Merced.) http://finaidcalc.ucmerced.edu/
The good thing about calculating costs there is that you can then use it as a filter - no point considering any place that isn’t more appealing to her, more affordable, or ideally both.
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She really wants to leave California. Maybe not doable but I was hoping to find her some options.
That’s fair; I just wondered what her in-state costs would look like, as a baseline.
Maybe look at Syracuse. Syracuse U. isn’t as reachy as most of the full-need-met privates, but it meets, on average, 96% of documented need. SU has a ChemE major, and its immediately adjacent public neighbor school, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, has ChemE too, as well as several other related majors. Students at either school can cross-register at the other. SU would likely be less expensive than SUNY ESF for this student, but the latter is quite affordable for OOS students too, with a flagship-match rate and merit possibilities.
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It’s a private school so the MSRP tuition is likely higher than public flagships, but Case Western is generous with merit aid for students it wants. Many CC students reported awards equal to half of tuition, or around $25K/year.
Unfortunately COL doesn’t factor into the equation (NJ resident here).
The Questbridge site notes $65K for a family of four, so $70K is ok to submit an app from that perspective.
I don’t have a good grip on her academics though. Do you know her class rank and percentage of honors/AP/DE classes she’s taken? Most QB finalists have relatively high stats.
I would consider all of that before completely the QB app which is time intensive and due by end of September. Most QB finalists do have an SAI (formerly EFC) around zero (-1500 is the lowest SAI value.) She can estimate her SAI here: 2024-25 Student Aid Index (SAI) Calculator – College Money Method
I concur with the poster who make the point about considering travel costs in her budget. I would also encourage her to work full time this summer, if that’s possible.
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It really might not be possible to leave California and get a school of the same quality at the same price, especially in the northeast or at a flagship (assuming that means a school over 10k students with football, a full array of majors, etc). It will be hard to beat California. California also has pretty good FA for instate students, and offers a wide variety of schools with different campus types, locations, majors. Cal Poly SLO is very different than Riverside, which is different than Santa Cruz.
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Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago) is a private with strong merit aid. University of Wyoming (WUE) is very affordable (and great study abroad options).
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They don’t do class rank but she was told she’s in the top 15%. That said, her school doesn’t cap APs and she’s at about ~50-60% APs, so I suspect there will be plenty of kids with a more rigorous schedule. I’m leaning towards thinking QB doesn’t really make sense for her.
Yeah, that sucks. That feels like quite a thing to ignore.
Actually editing this after looking at my notes. She’s been told she’s ‘ELC’ (top 9% of her class) and APs are more like 2/3 of her classes. (She goes to a magnet.)
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Also, I guess I’m unclear as to why you asked about flagships specifically. (I know we’ve all mostly been ignoring that criterion in lieu of suggesting the best financial options we can think of.) Was that because you want schools that are reputationally comparable to a flagship u, or because the student wants flagship-like student life (large school, sports fandom, and so on)?
If the financial aid would be sufficient, Syracuse has a lot of flagship-like qualities (larger school, school spirit around sports). Reputationally comparable to many flagship U’s also. A bunch of other good suggestions have also been made re: schools that meet need and might be attainable, with a range of sizes and “vibes.” Keep in mind that need-aware admissions may make all of these “reachier” than they appear, but they may still be attainable. I’m just unclear as to whether the “flagship” stipulation is important, and in what way.
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some thoughts:
ACT/SATs will be important in your hunt for merit-giving state schools **.
**midwestern KU & KSU and Miami of Ohio give auto merit with just GPA.
If this kid gets CA state funding (isnt there a middle class grant?) I dont think you’ll be able to beat that plus in-state tuition unless the kid gets into a special program at a state school, or is a meets-need school. EG: Iowa State (a well-respected engineering school in the midwest) has a tuition-free first generation scholly for 100 kids each year; that is the type of scholarship to look for at midwestern schools.
some state schools that have ABET engineering with great merit (and mostly need test scores) include Texas tech; FSU, UNL, SD School of Mines, missouri, Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Bama gives good merit, but needs test scores. One idea i have is New Mexico . . . in-state tuition pretty easily.
it’s such a sliding scale . . .
(have a 24 engineering grad from a state school --computer engineering with a BIG job offer; and a freshman engineer who took a state school special engineering scholly; working alongside purdue, cu and other interns this summer as a freshman. amazing opps can be found from state schools; we went merit route!).
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