My OOS son also got great scholarships at Kansas State and loved it there!
Michigan State gives pretty decent merit scholarships for out of state students and they have an ABET accredited engineering program. It will still be more expensive than in-state tuition though, but getting close.
1 Like
Have you considered Pitt? For a large state school, the campus is surprisingly compact and manageable. We were impressed during our tour when my son was applying to schools. They have honors programs for all majors, which I believe comes with some healthy merit awards. Pitt also has a cross registration program with CMU, which is just next door, so your student could take some classes at The Nerd Farm.
1 Like
When I was in Chicago it seemed like every second MEP engineer was an IIT grad. Their network was strong in the city.
2 Likes
Definitely, IIT is doing really well…
2 Likes
My cousin is an IIT grad & has had a very good career. My friend is a Dean at IIT, and he is very well respected in his field. It’s one of those schools that flies under the radar.
4 Likes
I have always looked at IIT as the STEM cousin to DePaul, in that many of the students were first in their families to attend college, many of the students were first generation immigrants, and many were working their way through school. I may be off the mark, but this is what I gathered from MEPs on my jobs, one of whom was a pipefitter who went back to school.
2 Likes
My kid is an IIT grad as well. This is an accurate description. My kid’s impression was that IIT works pretty hard to get lower income kids through school and on to a great career. She had a top scholarship, had an internship every summer, walked into a great job, passed all the engineering licensure exams on the first try, got a great education, and is doing great in her career.
5 Likes
The UC NPC at Estimate your aid | UC Admissions suggests that with parent income of $70k and a family of 4, the net price at UCs ranges from about $12k (UCB, UCI, UCM being the cheapest) to up to about $16k (UCR, UCSD, UCSC being potentially the most expensive.
So it is likely that the “generous merit aid for out-of-state applicants” needs to bring the net price to that level to be competitive with in-state UCs. Of course, if that net price is not affordable, then the student needs to look at cheaper options, such as commuting to a nearby CSU, or starting at a nearby community college.
1 Like
If budget is the driving factor, then I would look at Iowa State or Missouri S&T. If I could go back 30+ years, I would strongly consider Iowa State!
2 Likes
OK, thanks all for your may recommendations. I’m taking a look at them and will make some judgement calls about which to add them to my list.
@ aquapt, you’re right, ‘flagship’ is not really relevant. She wants big and I think that a school with a good amount of out-of-state kids would be ideal, so that had translated to flagship in my head, but that may well be wrong.
Surfing CC, I keep seeing the statement ‘as long as it’s an ABET-accredited engineering program, you’ll get a fine education’… this seems off to me. There’s a lot more that goes into a program outside of whether it can get a particular accreditation — teaching quality, class size, breadth and depth of classes beyond a minimum, academic strength of your fellow students, reputation within the industry, strength of career center type stuff, etc., so I’m a little curious as to why this statement seems to be accepted so readily on here.
1 Like
Have you ever been part of an accreditation process? I have for my field. And my husband is familiar with ABET accreditation. There is quite a standard for what these schools need to have and do to get this accreditation. There is a standard they need to meet, and they need to continue to meet it…and get re-accredited. Sure there are programs that are viewed as stronger ones. But really…ABET sets a strong standard.
My DH went to an ABET accredited program that no one on this forum would view as anything close to high end. But the program was extremely strong. He had a very successful career as a professional licensed PE in EE rising to VP of his company. He managed projects that you would be very familiar with if I named them here.
That ABET accreditation is a standard that isn’t low end.
3 Likes
I’m not suggesting it’s low end. I guess my point of reference is the accreditation that the private schools over here get done. Sure, it means something, and if a school didn’t have it, I might wonder, but for me it implies a minimum quality has been met. I would not say that all these schools are ‘excellent’ or that the accreditation is so important that it’s enough for me to feel sure that if my kid went to the school, they would get a great education. Of course, things may be very different with ABET, which is why I asked and was curious to learn more.
Iowa state is an under-rated school for engineering. well regarded. coa is ~44k, but remember my son getting merit of $14k for a net cost of $30k. so can be comparable to UCs. Maybe even higher merit is possible i think.
4 Likes
It is not that it does not matter, but ABET accreditation does set a relatively high minimum standard for engineering majors in terms of preparation to work as an engineer. However, variations in curricular organization, in-major electives, etc. can make some programs better or worse academic fits for specific students. Basically, any ABET accredited engineering program will be good in terms of preparation to work as an engineer, but some may be better for a given student than others in terms of academics. Non-academic factors (cost, whether there is secondary admission, social factors, etc.) can also matter for any given student.
Since you mention “academic strength of your fellow students”, be aware that students receiving substantial merit scholarships are usually at the top end of entering academic credentials at the college, since such students are the ones the college is most interested in enrolling, but who typically have more other options and therefore less likely to yield.
3 Likes
Why must it be a public school? With the low income, need blind highly ranked privates will likely give more financial aid(lower net cost) than publics. Sometimes these privates give better (lower) net cost than the IN state public options, particularly for income levels in the Questbridge range .
On first glance the stats seem to make many top privates “reasonable “ reaches. Run the NPC at the top privates with engineering and see (WashU, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Duke, ivies with engineering ). And definitely consider Questbridge .
3 Likes
It doesn’t have to be a public, I was just trying to see if it made sense to add any to the list. I do have quite a few ‘meets need’ privates already but they’re all quite selective, so I was thinking it might make sense to balance it out a little with some publics that might give good merit. Would love some suggestions for less selective but likely to give good aid privates that have engineering departments as well.
1 Like
So pretty selective but Olin might be worth checking out if she would consider a smaller engineering college. Rose Hulman as well.
A little bigger, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
And finally, a little bigger still, I would check out Marquette.
3 Likes
Iowa State’s merit aid is automatic and posted on their website. An OOS student with a 4.0+ Weighted GPA would receive $12,000 a year. That would get the Cost of Attendance to $31,219 with opportunities for additional aid. The University of Iowa is less transparent with their automatic aid, but they would likely be comparable (if not better).
2 Likes
My older son is at WPI. They do give almost everyone merit aid, but they don’t meet full need. So families without need are usually expected to pay between $50,000 and $60,000 per year. The lowest I have seen the numbers get for families even with zero SAI is just below $30,000 per year. (It is possible that there is someone out there who got a total less than that, but I regularly see parents saying that they have a zero SAI but they’re still expected to pay $30,000 a year.)
For a few years, they were giving women additional merit to incentivize them to attend, with hopes of balancing the gender ratio better. But they stopped that recently, and the gender ratio reverting back to heavily male is noticeable. It is always possible that they could implement that award system again.
2 Likes