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frogger
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I know there are a ton of threads on this but thought I'd add a new link.

 

 

So I don't see that until you apply and get the financial aid package back that you really have any idea what kind of school you can afford but here is an interesting cost comparison by NPR. I think this could be helpful somewhat but I'm not really sure.

 

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/09/30/444446022/what-youll-actually-pay-at-1-550-colleges

 

 

How would I know how much  having 6 people in our household would matter on these graphs?  It doesn't sound like COL is really relevant to the schools. I haven't been asked to put my zip code in once on a net price calculator but the net price calculators are just there for show from what I can tell.  Do any of them ever factor in COL?

 

 

Edited to add that I also find it very frustrating that they always lump in state and out of state together in their charts and graphs. I know that if the average is low and it's a state school than obviously our cost will be way higher but by how much? Lumping these together renders all averages and charts, etc. completely meaningless to any parent but I will at least say that State schools seem a little more transparent and forthcoming with the actual cost of attending. It seems like a complete mystery what a private school will cost unless those net price calculator are accurate that don't even count number of people in the household etc. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by frogger
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As far as I am aware, Zip code and COL are not figured into the financial aid offers.

 

The number of people is figured in on the FAFSA formula.

 

I found that for a meaningful comparison one has to wait until one has the actual financial aid offer in hand, because that factors in all particulars for that student the college is willing to consider. The calculators don't have a clue what merit aid the student will get or what Stafford loans, and schools that use the CSS may consider mortgage expenses, the cars you own, and extenuating circumstances.

Edited by regentrude
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It seems the only option is really to apply to a ton of schools even with app fees and mix of public and privates and in state regardless of if they have his degree. We certainly can't visit them everywhere from Mass. to Florida to New Mexico and all over in between. I feel like with all the research we've done we are still blindly swinging at a pinata hoping for the best. Lol

 

The State schools at least feel more concrete to me.

 

Has anyone ever had the price within a reasonable range and then had it go up dramatically when you are already invested in a school?

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It seems the only option is really to apply to a ton of schools even with app fees and mix of public and privates and in state regardless of if they have his degree. We certainly can't visit them everywhere from Mass. to Florida to New Mexico and all over in between. I feel like with all the research we've done we are still blindly swinging at a pinata hoping for the best. Lol

 

The State schools at least feel more concrete to me.

 

Has anyone ever had the price within a reasonable range and then had it go up dramatically when you are already invested in a school?

 

It makes no sense to apply to schools that do not have his desired degree program. I would limit it to schools where he can study what he actually wants to study.

You can visit select schools after he has been accepted to narrow it down. 

 

DD had a mix of 12 schools: a number of extremely selective reach schools, a few strong matches, and two safeties. In hind sight, we could have left off one of the safeties.

DS applied to two schools; the one he wanted and an in state safety I made him apply to. He considered a third ( OOS public), but after being accepted to his top choice, he did not bother applying. We could not have predicted his merit scholarship before the financial aid offer came, and it is this merit aid that makes the school feasible for us.

 

I found the in state public to be the least expensive option, but if your student has strong stats he may qualify for a free ride somewhere.

My DD got 40 lbs of college mail, some of them actual offers. 

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It makes no sense to apply to schools that do not have his desired degree program. I would limit it to schools where he can study what he actually wants to study.

You can visit select schools after he has been accepted to narrow it down.

 

DD had a mix of 12 schools: a number of extremely selective reach schools, a few strong matches, and two safeties. In hind sight, we could have left off one of the safeties.

DS applied to two schools; the one he wanted and an in state safety I made him apply to. He considered a third ( OOS public), but after being accepted to his top choice, he did not bother applying. We could not have predicted his merit scholarship before the financial aid offer came, and it is this merit aid that makes the school feasible for us.

 

I found the in state public to be the least expensive option, but if your student has strong stats he may qualify for a free ride somewhere.

My DD got 40 lbs of college mail, some of them actual offers.

I was just thinking of an in state option in case he can't afford something else. There are zero degree options for his interest in state but there is a related one of which he is also interested.

 

Currently, there are a couple oos options IF we count merit aid and some loans at some cheaper midwest schools but the prices of private schools really are out of reach if their net price calculators are in any way accurate. This is why I was checking out how in the world you even come close to knowing whether they are worth pursuing. I wish I could give him more enlightened information.

 

Visiting isn't all that simple because of distance (We are in Alaska), cost, and dual enrollment but we can cross that bridge when we get there I suppose. If he has to wait until he is accepted and then wait for the financial aid package and then fly from Alaska to the East coast and who knows where else and visit and then decide it would be not only a tight schedule but probably an expensive ticket without having time to look for deals etc. Honestly, I'm not sure it could happen.

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We haven't found the number in our family has impacted our expected contribution unless more than 1 student is in college at the same time. The FAFSA EFC has been rather meaningless for our financial scenario. Our income is higher than determining Pell eligibility which seems to be its main worth.

 

Most publics do not offer non-merit aid aid beyond loans and distributing Pell and state aid. They are usually pretty easy to assess costs outside of merit. Many publics merit awards are completely stat based and published on their websites. Competitive merit should be considered exactly that and be considered putting the college in the reach category if merit $$ is necessary to afford.

 

Privates can do whatever they want. Their formulas involve investments, money currently being contributed to retirement (as opposed to $$ already in retirement acts), home equity, and a large percentage of income. Running the NPCs on their websites is not necessarily 100% accurate, but if the number is out of reach, it is most likely going to remain exactly that.

 

Fwiw, our strategy for our kids is to spend the greatest amt of time researching and applying to schools they know they can afford. That might only be the local U or it might be schools with published automatic merit. We visit those schools and meet with the depts. There is not point in applying if there is no way they want to attend.

 

Then they focus on schools with competitive merit where they seem in the higher likelihood of being awarded merit. That means spending time in data (IPEDs/common data sets/school profiles/schools specific forums on CC, etc). Those are their reaches.

 

Fwiw, my kids don't waste their time on privates without large merit awards. Being accepted is meaningless if they can't afford to attend. Apps and test scores cost $$. Applying takes energy. If there is no clear path to affordablity, we move on. It really doesn't matter how wonderful the school or how good of an academic match. If the NPC says we can't afford it, we don't waste our time trying to nuance out just how accurate or inaccurate the NPC might be. For us the numbers are usually too high by well over $10,000, so throwing anextra $1000 or 2 in there doesn't matter.

 

(Sorry if that is incomprehensible...I am 1/2 asleep after days of not sleeping well.)

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I was just thinking of an in state option in case he can't afford something else. There are zero degree options for his interest in state but there is a related one of which he is also interested.

 

Currently, there are a couple oos options IF we count merit aid and some loans at some cheaper midwest schools but the prices of private schools really are out of reach if their net price calculators are in any way accurate. This is why I was checking out how in the world you even come close to knowing whether they are worth pursuing. I wish I could give him more enlightened information.

 

Visiting isn't all that simple because of distance (We are in Alaska), cost, and dual enrollment but we can cross that bridge when we get there I suppose. If he has to wait until he is accepted and then wait for the financial aid package and then fly from Alaska to the East coast and who knows where else and visit and then decide it would be not only a tight schedule but probably an expensive ticket without having time to look for deals etc. Honestly, I'm not sure it could happen.

Reading this.....he can do a lot via the internet. My kids email deans, professors and ask all sorts of questions about the dept, research, other opportunitie, etc. spend time reading the school paper and comments about students on different websites, etc. My kids have eliminated a lot of schools based on dept interactions or strong social vibes, etc.

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How would I know how much  having 6 people in our household would matter on these graphs?  It doesn't sound like COL is really relevant to the schools. I haven't been asked to put my zip code in once on a net price calculator but the net price calculators are just there for show from what I can tell.  Do any of them ever factor in COL?

 

 

Edited to add that I also find it very frustrating that they always lump in state and out of state together in their charts and graphs. I know that if the average is low and it's a state school than obviously our cost will be way higher but by how much? Lumping these together renders all averages and charts, etc. completely meaningless to any parent but I will at least say that State schools seem a little more transparent and forthcoming with the actual cost of attending. It seems like a complete mystery what a private school will cost unless those net price calculator are accurate that don't even count number of people in the household etc. 

 

In my mind this chart is relatively useless. I looked at similar type data for individual schools and they did not accurately represent our financial situation. For me, it has been best to run the net price calculator for each school and only look at what the school would provide in grants. I would then add in any automatic scholarships that I knew that DC qualified for and started comparing. I totally ignore loans, student contribution, and student work study because that is dependent on so many things that I have no control over and there is not much rhyme or reason from school to school

 

For us the state schools are less transparent but in a "good" way because there was more scholarship money available for higher stats students that one could not always identify. With the private schools, our need is greater than most automatic scholarships and competitive scholarships are too iffy to count on. Consequently, I took the numbers from the Net Price Calculator at face value and knew that the state schools would come in less than calculated.

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He is interested in Nuclear Engineering but I think he wants more new technology.  It would be better if he explained it but he is at a martial arts class right now.  Electrical Engineering would be something he could find in more places like our own state or in some places with really good merit like Alabama, Huntsville.  Opening it up to another engineering field for undergraduate definitely changes his options. I could see him liking some private Polytech type places but it really depends on the money. 

Edited by frogger
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He is interested in Nuclear Engineering but I think he wants more new technology.

... I could see him liking some private Polytech type places but it really depends on the money.

I don’t know if it is affordable but CalPoly (California state university) has a nuclear engineering program.

 

“This fall, Cal Poly students will have the opportunity to train for careers in energy via a university partnership with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).

 

Designed to educate students on nuclear and carbon-neutral renewable energy systems, the educational program takes advantage of the proximity of Diablo Canyon Power Plant for class tours, projects and paid internships.

...

Cal Poly’s program will focus on nuclear and carbon-neutral renewable energy systems. The program will adapt and enhance online courses from Texas A&M University – which houses the nation’s largest nuclear engineering department – and later will fund a dedicated tenure-track faculty position and specific laboratory equipment.

 

Mechanical Engineering Department Chair James Meagher noted that California’s mandate for renewable energy is to be 50% by 2030, requiring that the energy industry acquire new tools and new staff. “Our partnership with PG&E will help Cal Poly prepare engineers equipped to meet the challenges of reducing carbon, meeting energy needs, and expanding renewable energy systems,†he said.

 

Although PG&E has announced that the Diablo Canyon Power Plant will close within the next decade, new technology is being developed to address the problems with nuclear energy. Small modular reactors, molten salt reactors, thorium liquid fuel, and traveling wave reactors are all under development. These solutions aim to provide scalable, full load, zero carbon energy with reduced or zero radioactive waste.

 

“We are pleased to partner with PG&E to enhance our programs aimed at producing the renewable energy experts of tomorrow,†said Cal Poly President Jeffrey D. Armstrong. “Cal Poly already offers courses in solar and wind energy. This new program will round out our offerings and help us to play a significant role in reducing carbon emissions and promoting renewable energy throughout California and the nation.â€â€ https://engineering.calpoly.edu/news/pge-partners-cal-poly-train-students-careers-energy/

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We haven't found the number in our family has impacted our expected contribution unless more than 1 student is in college at the same time. The FAFSA EFC has been rather meaningless for our financial scenario. Our income is higher than determining Pell eligibility which seems to be its main worth.

 

Most publics do not offer non-merit aid aid beyond loans and distributing Pell and state aid. They are usually pretty easy to assess costs outside of merit. Many publics merit awards are completely stat based and published on their websites. Competitive merit should be considered exactly that and be considered putting the college in the reach category if merit $$ is necessary to afford.

 

Privates can do whatever they want. Their formulas involve investments, money currently being contributed to retirement (as opposed to $$ already in retirement acts), home equity, and a large percentage of income. Running the NPCs on their websites is not necessarily 100% accurate, but if the number is out of reach, it is most likely going to remain exactly that.

 

Fwiw, our strategy for our kids is to spend the greatest amt of time researching and applying to schools they know they can afford. That might only be the local U or it might be schools with published automatic merit. We visit those schools and meet with the depts. There is not point in applying if there is no way they want to attend.

 

Then they focus on schools with competitive merit where they seem in the higher likelihood of being awarded merit. That means spending time in data (IPEDs/common data sets/school profiles/schools specific forums on CC, etc). Those are their reaches.

 

Fwiw, my kids don't waste their time on privates without large merit awards. Being accepted is meaningless if they can't afford to attend. Apps and test scores cost $$. Applying takes energy. If there is no clear path to affordablity, we move on. It really doesn't matter how wonderful the school or how good of an academic match. If the NPC says we can't afford it, we don't waste our time trying to nuance out just how accurate or inaccurate the NPC might be. For us the numbers are usually too high by well over $10,000, so throwing anextra $1000 or 2 in there doesn't matter.

 

(Sorry if that is incomprehensible...I am 1/2 asleep after days of not sleeping well.)

 

 

That has been  what I was thinking. That privates are just a complete overreach and not bother with them at all but I have heard many say that they were less costly so I thought I would start looking at what people actually ended up paying in case I was completely missing something.  This is where I dead ended. 

 

I'm pretty sure it's big merit or in state with a different degree program for my son but I didn't want to short change him if I'm wrong and I can't see how they decide anything from some of the 30 second calculators I have seen. The longest one I tried was Stanford and that was almost doable but none of the others have proved to be.anyway even remotely close to doable even with loans. I also recognize that Stanford is more lenient with their aid.

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That has been what I was thinking. That privates are just a complete overreach and not bother with them at all but I have heard many say that they were less costly so I thought I would start looking at what people actually ended up paying in case I was completely missing something. This is where I dead ended.

 

I'm pretty sure it's big merit or in state with a different degree program for my son but I didn't want to short change him if I'm wrong and I can't see how they decide anything from some of the 30 second calculators I have seen. The longest one I tried was Stanford and that was almost doable but none of the others have proved to be.anyway even remotely close to doable even with loans. I also recognize that Stanford is more lenient with their aid.

You really need to know your hard limit. For us, it was the cost of the University of California instate. My oldest applied to some privates. There were a couple that were within that limit because they offered full tuition or very close to it. The rest were at least $10,000 over our limit per year. In the end, she decided to go to one of the UC campuses where she received a merit scholarship. We had no way of anticipating this since these scholarships are not automatic or strictly dependent on specific GPAs or test scores.
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Do you know about ABET? There are only 21 ABET nuclear engineering programs in the country: http://main.abet.org/aps/accreditedprogramsearch.aspx.

 

I am aware of scholarships at at least 2 on that list: https://scholarship.unm.edu/scholarships/non-resident.html

https://www.vcu.edu/admissions/paying-for-college/scholarships/

 

Fwiw, the reason privates are touted as affordable is bc they have generous aid for those with lower incomes. If your income is above a certain threshold, aid drops significantly.

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Do you know about ABET? There are only 21 ABET nuclear engineering programs in the country: http://main.abet.org/aps/accreditedprogramsearch.aspx.

 

I am aware of scholarships at at least 2 on that list: https://scholarship.unm.edu/scholarships/non-resident.html

https://www.vcu.edu/admissions/paying-for-college/scholarships/

 

Fwiw, the reason privates are touted as affordable is bc they have generous aid for those with lower incomes. If your income is above a certain threshold, aid drops significantly.

 

The privates also have generous aid for those that are not low income (merit) . We are full pay, but the scholarships from dd's five acceptances so far are all less than the cost of our instate public. The NPCs we ran are so far fairly close to what we've received.

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I have found net price calculators that account for merit aid to be pretty accurate. The ones that only ask about finances, though, seem useless to me. We are looking at one private school that doesn't publish automatic merit aid info. So the net price calculator gives us an estimated financial aid grant. But ds will get at least some merit. And that will change his need and his financial aid grant. I'm assuming he will be at least a little better off than the NPC predicts but it really is not very helpful.

 

Another to note is that some NPC are for school years 3-4 years back. The way tuition increases and merit aid policies change that is hard to see as useful. I guess if you are looking at large trends it helps but if you are really stretching the budget than a few thousand dollars makes a difference.

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The privates also have generous aid for those that are not low income (merit) . We are full pay, but the scholarships from dd's five acceptances so far are all less than the cost of our instate public. The NPCs we ran are so far fairly close to what we've received.

 

It is really going to depend on the private school.  There are really different categories amg the privates as well as publics.  Meets-need schools that only offer grant aid fall into a different category than privates that offer merit aid. Your dd would not have received scholarships from HYMSP and therefore the costs would be greater than your instate public.

 

On the nuclear engineering list, almost all of the schools are public.  MIT is on the list and they do not offer scholarships.  Rensselaer does, but their scholarships combined cannot exceed tuition. (Total Rensselaer-provided scholarships and/or tuition benefits may not exceed tuition.) Considering 

 

 

Tuition: $51,000

Fees: $1,305

Room and Board: $14,960

Books, Personal, and Supplies: $2,867

Total: $70,132

 that means an estimate of $19,000 remaining costs even if tuition is covered.  There are a lot of states where instate is cheaper than that.  

 

The only other non-public school on that list is a military academy.

 

Frogger,  applying should not be random and hoping for outcomes.  It is possible to create a very targeted realistic list.  It takes time and research. Start with common data set info like www.collegedata.com and then move to IPED info.  You can see % of merit, avg awards, etc and know where your student falls in their profile and then dig deeper into various schools' websites.

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Thanks everyone. Missouri S&T and UNM are two that are on his list because of merit aid. They would be a stretch but the closest things in reach for now and I think doable depending on how much he works and saves. I'm sure he can get merit at UNM but I don't know how much. I'll ask him if he has looked at the other two at all. We can check them out too. He is a Junior so we will know more by summer after getting test scores back.

 

Yes, we know whatever he does must be Abet accredited but thanks for checking.

 

Right now he is keeping his mind open to EE as that opens a lot more doors college wise. I did tell him to look up some graduate school requirements for nuclear as they don't always require a matching undergraduate degree.

 

 

My husband looked at houses in Huntsville, Alabama as he is going there to hire someone for his work and they have an office there. If we moved there it would be like getting a 20% raise, 20%! just from cost of living differences without a change in pay, and we could afford so much more but we have 6 ageing parents (including step parents) up here and 2 disabled brothers and it's home but oy this college thing is painful. It is funny because Huntsville also has fabulous merit aid.

 

 

He didn't make NMF. If they would have doubled the math rather than the English he would have had a chance. :) He actually has documented disabilities that make verbal things tougher but he can ace the math portions.

Edited by frogger
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It is really going to depend on the private school. There are really different categories amg the privates as well as publics. Meets-need schools that only offer grant aid fall into a different category than privates that offer merit aid. Your dd would not have received scholarships from HYMSP and therefore the costs would be greater than your instate public.

 

On the nuclear engineering list, almost all of the schools are public. MIT is on the list and they do not offer scholarships. Rensselaer does, but their scholarships combined cannot exceed tuition. (Total Rensselaer-provided scholarships and/or tuition benefits may not exceed tuition.) Considering

that means an estimate of $19,000 remaining costs even if tuition is covered. There are a lot of states where instate is cheaper than that.

 

The only other non-public school on that list is a military academy.

 

Frogger, applying should not be random and hoping for outcomes. It is possible to create a very targeted realistic list. It takes time and research. Start with common data set info like www.collegedata.com and then move to IPED info. You can see % of merit, avg awards, etc and know where your student falls in their profile and then dig deeper into various schools' websites.

I wasn't meaning completely random, I just felt that it wasn't really transparent. We would have targeted schools somewhat but I still feel after everything is said and done you can't know for sure what anything is going to cost you. Rensselaer was of interest for example and could have been a good fit but fit right now is narrowed down to what we can pay for that moves him forward period.

 

We haven't looked at just Nuclear but also things that could get him to graduate school with his interest like physics engineering or some other base to work off of.

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So it sounds like, even for those who managed to get merit aid the NPC did give a good estimate at least for those who in this thread who compared them with final results.

We've had two schools (one private, one public) that gave us packages 10k under the NPC estimate. Making the private go into our 'affordable' range. The public school difference was not unexpected though. (merit aid)

Edited by Jen500
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I wasn't meaning completely random, I just felt that it wasn't really transparent. We would have targeted schools somewhat but I still feel after everything is said and done you can't know for sure what anything is going to cost you. Rensselaer was of interest for example and could have been a good fit but fit right now is narrowed down to what we can pay for that moves him forward period.

 

We haven't looked at just Nuclear but also things that could get him to graduate school with his interest like physics engineering or some other base to work off of.

 

It really boils down to how good of a student he is and what his stats are.  The better the student and the higher the stats, the more affordable options are going to be via merit.  It is really that simple.  Our really good students have far more options than our avg students. 

 

FWIW, kids can make non-great options work.  If our kids don't get enough merit $$ at the better options, they have no choice but to attend the affordable option.  That would mean following slightly divergent paths like you are describing.  I don't know a lot about nuclear engineering, but kids whose hearts are set on aerospace can get there through mechanical.  He might be able to talk to depts and ask if there is a way to create a focus toward nuclear within their dept even though it wouldn't be labeled nuclear engineering.

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You can get a sense though running through the NPC's for individual schools, checking the rough numbers on niche (that provides similar estimates to this tool for every school), and googling around to see how schools are with merit aid.  That information is also in the common data set for each institution so you can see if the merit is there.  I wouldn't waste a lot of time letting students applying to programs where you know they aren't good with aid and the EFC is quite out of ballpark.  To be best qualified for straight merit, you want your student's stats to be at our above the 75% for that school.

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For us, it is looking as if an in-state private will come in the least.  He qualifies for a state scholarship and got a great scholarship.  The total is less than in-state with room and board.  Living at home and going in-state would be the cheapest.

 

We applied to a lot of schools to see what happened.  Schools with honors programs where he is in the very tippy-top of the stats are coming in the best.  The more selective school he's into (still waiting on one) gave a merit scholarship, but no other help and it will be a good $6000 more a year than the middle of the pack and $9000 more than the front runner.

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It seems the only option is really to apply to a ton of schools even with app fees and mix of public and privates and in state regardless of if they have his degree. We certainly can't visit them everywhere from Mass. to Florida to New Mexico and all over in between. I feel like with all the research we've done we are still blindly swinging at a pinata hoping for the best. Lol

 

The State schools at least feel more concrete to me.

 

Has anyone ever had the price within a reasonable range and then had it go up dramatically when you are already invested in a school?

 

frogger, we are in Alaska too. My last grad was in .16 and she is engineering too.

 

She did, in fact, apply to a significant number of schools. In part, because applying was cheaper than visiting ahead of time. Also, because finances WERE a concern and we didn't know which ones would be reasonable in the end. Her decision was made very last minute because there were those factors to consider. We held off on visits until acceptances were in, for the most part.

 

There is no in-state nuclear here, but I'd make sure he is set up for the performance scholarship as a back up plan. That really is a pretty good deal.

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We have definitely made sure he qualified for the APS.

 

I was looking at ratings for our in-state engineering programs the other night; it was a tangent to something else I was doing. Anyway, they are not bottom of the barrel, and in some areas, quite good. I tend to think it's nice for kids raised here to get a taste of somewhere else, because of the geographic isolation, but there's a good education to be had here.

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Has UT-Knoxville been mentioned for Nuclear Engineering? For the Volunteer Scholarship, entering freshman must have a 3.8 GPA and the following test scores. Knoxville is a really neat city, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory is right next door. https://www.ornl.gov

 

Out-of-state Students

**ACT/SAT               Score Annual Award Four-year Award Amount

34–36 / 1520–1600    $18,000                     $72,000

30–33 / 1390–1510    $15,000                     $60,000

28–29 / 1310–1380    $10,000                     $40,000

*UT Weighted Core GPA

 

**Writing component of the standardized test scores not factored into the calculation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by amathis229
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Has UT-Knoxville been mentioned for Nuclear Engineering? For the Volunteer Scholarship, entering freshman must have a 3.8 GPA and the following test scores. Knoxville is a really neat city, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory is right next door. https://www.ornl.gov

 

Out-of-state Students

**ACT/SAT Score Annual Award Four-year Award Amount

34–36 / 1520–1600 $18,000 $72,000

30–33 / 1390–1510 $15,000 $60,000

28–29 / 1310–1380 $10,000 $40,000

*UT Weighted Core GPA

**Writing component of the standardized test scores not factored into the calculation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They superscore the ACT. At least they have the last three years as my kids have applied there.

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Has UT-Knoxville been mentioned for Nuclear Engineering? For the Volunteer Scholarship, entering freshman must have a 3.8 GPA and the following test scores. Knoxville is a really neat city, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory is right next door. https://www.ornl.gov

 

Out-of-state Students

**ACT/SAT Score Annual Award Four-year Award Amount

34–36 / 1520–1600 $18,000 $72,000

30–33 / 1390–1510 $15,000 $60,000

28–29 / 1310–1380 $10,000 $40,000

*UT Weighted Core GPA

**Writing component of the standardized test scores not factored into the calculation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I remember them being out of budget unless he got a 34+ on his ACT, which seems unlikely for him. He could get the second scholarship if PSATs are a good sign but that would be a big stretch with plenty of debt.

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I was looking at ratings for our in-state engineering programs the other night; it was a tangent to something else I was doing. Anyway, they are not bottom of the barrel, and in some areas, quite good. I tend to think it's nice for kids raised here to get a taste of somewhere else, because of the geographic isolation, but there's a good education to be had here.

They aren't horrible and they aren't great but he would need to attend at least UAF so he will be paying room and board even with tuition free. We can certainly handle that but if he changes majors then he also has some other options in almost the same price range elsewhere. So then we could pick and choose. We will keep it on the table but also look around.

 

The best thing I got from Fairbanks was my husband. :) Neither of us managed to finish although he finished later at another school. It was hard to find a place to study. Hard to find a place to sleep, well the library when I tried to study seemed to work well. Too much partying in the dorms. I can't say I have fond memories but I would try to help my son and set him up for a more successful experience. But I am biased. :)

Edited by frogger
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They aren't horrible and they aren't great but he would need to attend at least UAF so he will be paying room and board even with tuition free. We can certainly handle that but if he changes majors then he also has some other options in almost the same price range elsewhere. So then we could pick and choose. We will keep it on the table but also look around.

 

The best thing I got from Fairbanks was my husband. :) Neither of us managed to finish although he finished later at another school. It was hard to find a place to study. Hard to find a place to sleep, well the library when I tried to study seemed to work well. Too much partying in the dorms. I can't say I have fond memories but I would try to help my son and set him up for a more successful experience. But I am biased. :)

 

haha, I hear you. Fairbanks was the backup plan for both of my olders. I was concerned about the lack of sun since they both tend to depression, and hoped to avoid it for that reason among others. But there do seem to be plenty of happy kids there!

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