My DC has a $16K package from Arizona State basically making it about $13K total in tuition which is similar to in-state tuition. This of course does not include room and board.

Not sure if he is going there yet, but this is the package outline:

30 min credits completed and 3.0 average at the end of each academic year (so you add Fall and Spring which allows a Fall slip up to be fixed) You are also allowed to use the Summer semester to improve your GPA to still receive the aid for the following year.

They also have a maintenance plan that if you fall between 2.49 and 2.9 or are above 3.0 but on less than 30 credits, you still receive 80% of the aid. There is a sliding scale based on worse GPA and credits, but it gets to 0% quick.

If you have a violation of conduct, you can lose the aid

There is an appeals system in place if you can prove hardship and there are free services to keep your grades up during the semesters.

Not sure if he is going there, but is sounds pretty fair to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid lost his merit aid but wasn’t a great student. If your kid is a good student and mostly got As in high school hopefully he should be fine. Talk to him about it.

My kid got nearly all As in high school.

She is now in a big ten engineering program where she is above average according to the admission stats. Her merit aid continuation requirement is fairly low (good standing).

She is currently a B+ student (thank you, humanities elective!) with mostly Bs in her technical classes. Statistically she is well into the top half of the class but not in the top quarter -- she and I looked carefully at the distribution statistics for each class.

I'm telling you this detail because although I would like my kid to have done better, she is proud of her effort and her grades. I would not be confident that a freshman engineering student would do much better after watching my child this past fall. Maybe your kid will, but you aren't worried about that here.

She will get into her major, and she will keep her merit aid. We turned down other schools where these kind of grades might not have resulted in that outcome.

May I ask which Big 10 Engineering gives merit aid, please? And did that bring your out of state tuition to your state flagship? Thank you.

This is probably the Purdue poster

Not the Purdue poster, but they give very little merit aid to OOS engineering students. I think the most that has ever been posted is $8K and you have to have absolutely top scores, and it is still rare. Purdue is pretty cheap without the merit, they have had a 6 year tuition freeze, and they know the OOS kids will come regardless. My child is looking there and I have done a lot of research on it. Most OOS merit packages are given to non engineering students.

NP here. My ds just got merit offer from Purdue engineering for $10k. He has top test scores but far from perfect gpa. Purdue's tuition & room is $42k for OOS so with merit, it would only be $32k.

I hope he is going. You won't get a better deal than that. Their engineering program is incredible, even compared to UMD. We loved the campus and everything about the program when we went to visit. A friend of the family had a job for 87K for Exxon Mobile 3 months before graduation. They are paying for her masters.

Purdue tends to get a lot of inflated GPA's they can work with on fudging their average GPA numbers. They do not get many ACT 35 and 36. The ones that do are usually CS and FYE. If he had that, it increases their 50% median by a lot. So they want him there. Congrats!

PP here. Hmm, you are making me rethink. Actually Purdue is not high on ds' list. At #9 in US News, it is certainly the highest ranked engineering program he has applied to but being from DMV, I don't think he has much interest in being in midwest. My concern with Purdue is the fear that it weeds out a large number of kids. I haven't necessarily heard of Purdue as weeding out a lot of kids but assume it since it is so highly ranked but relatively easier to get into compared to similarly ranked engineering schools. Do you know?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is a senior and has packages at multiple OOS flagships. Most have offered her honors programs too. It looks tempting, but at the same time engineering is hard enough. To keep up with the GPA, do you think we are better off avoiding the honors programs?

I think you should talk to them directly. If the honors classes are smaller and more interesting (and appropriate for your kid) maybe she'll do better in them. The median grade may be different, too.

I wish my kid was good enough for honors where he is because it would have gotten him out of the gynormous physics class.

Me again: I forgot to say CONGRATULATIONS!!!! JOB WELL DONE!!!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is a senior and has packages at multiple OOS flagships. Most have offered her honors programs too. It looks tempting, but at the same time engineering is hard enough. To keep up with the GPA, do you think we are better off avoiding the honors programs?

I think you should talk to them directly. If the honors classes are smaller and more interesting (and appropriate for your kid) maybe she'll do better in them. The median grade may be different, too.

I wish my kid was good enough for honors where he is because it would have gotten him out of the gynormous physics class.

Most honors school classes are for english and humanities. If you are in engineering, you must take the huge physics class unless you get a 5 on the AP physics C test. Even then many retake it to make sure the basics are all covered. Of course if you go to a smaller school, you may get a smaller class, but even Case Western has 150-200 kids in their Physics classes and I think they only have 4500 undergrads.

You know little about engineering schools...

There often is a small honors physics, invitation only. My kid didn't get an invite (rightly so). My friend's kid did (rightly so).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid lost his merit aid but wasn’t a great student. If your kid is a good student and mostly got As in high school hopefully he should be fine. Talk to him about it.

My kid got nearly all As in high school.

She is now in a big ten engineering program where she is above average according to the admission stats. Her merit aid continuation requirement is fairly low (good standing).

She is currently a B+ student (thank you, humanities elective!) with mostly Bs in her technical classes. Statistically she is well into the top half of the class but not in the top quarter -- she and I looked carefully at the distribution statistics for each class.

I'm telling you this detail because although I would like my kid to have done better, she is proud of her effort and her grades. I would not be confident that a freshman engineering student would do much better after watching my child this past fall. Maybe your kid will, but you aren't worried about that here.

She will get into her major, and she will keep her merit aid. We turned down other schools where these kind of grades might not have resulted in that outcome.

May I ask which Big 10 Engineering gives merit aid, please? And did that bring your out of state tuition to your state flagship? Thank you.

This is probably the Purdue poster

Not the Purdue poster, but they give very little merit aid to OOS engineering students. I think the most that has ever been posted is $8K and you have to have absolutely top scores, and it is still rare. Purdue is pretty cheap without the merit, they have had a 6 year tuition freeze, and they know the OOS kids will come regardless. My child is looking there and I have done a lot of research on it. Most OOS merit packages are given to non engineering students.

NP here. My ds just got merit offer from Purdue engineering for $10k. He has top test scores but far from perfect gpa. Purdue's tuition & room is $42k for OOS so with merit, it would only be $32k.

I hope he is going. You won't get a better deal than that. Their engineering program is incredible, even compared to UMD. We loved the campus and everything about the program when we went to visit. A friend of the family had a job for 87K for Exxon Mobile 3 months before graduation. They are paying for her masters.

Purdue tends to get a lot of inflated GPA's they can work with on fudging their average GPA numbers. They do not get many ACT 35 and 36. The ones that do are usually CS and FYE. If he had that, it increases their 50% median by a lot. So they want him there. Congrats!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is a senior and has packages at multiple OOS flagships. Most have offered her honors programs too. It looks tempting, but at the same time engineering is hard enough. To keep up with the GPA, do you think we are better off avoiding the honors programs?

I think you should talk to them directly. If the honors classes are smaller and more interesting (and appropriate for your kid) maybe she'll do better in them. The median grade may be different, too.

I wish my kid was good enough for honors where he is because it would have gotten him out of the gynormous physics class.

Most honors school classes are for english and humanities. If you are in engineering, you must take the huge physics class unless you get a 5 on the AP physics C test. Even then many retake it to make sure the basics are all covered. Of course if you go to a smaller school, you may get a smaller class, but even Case Western has 150-200 kids in their Physics classes and I think they only have 4500 undergrads.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid lost his merit aid but wasn’t a great student. If your kid is a good student and mostly got As in high school hopefully he should be fine. Talk to him about it.

My kid got nearly all As in high school.

She is now in a big ten engineering program where she is above average according to the admission stats. Her merit aid continuation requirement is fairly low (good standing).

She is currently a B+ student (thank you, humanities elective!) with mostly Bs in her technical classes. Statistically she is well into the top half of the class but not in the top quarter -- she and I looked carefully at the distribution statistics for each class.

I'm telling you this detail because although I would like my kid to have done better, she is proud of her effort and her grades. I would not be confident that a freshman engineering student would do much better after watching my child this past fall. Maybe your kid will, but you aren't worried about that here.

She will get into her major, and she will keep her merit aid. We turned down other schools where these kind of grades might not have resulted in that outcome.

May I ask which Big 10 Engineering gives merit aid, please? And did that bring your out of state tuition to your state flagship? Thank you.

This is probably the Purdue poster

Nope, not Michigan or Wisconsin, but I won't clarify further.

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is a senior and has packages at multiple OOS flagships. Most have offered her honors programs too. It looks tempting, but at the same time engineering is hard enough. To keep up with the GPA, do you think we are better off avoiding the honors programs?

I think you should talk to them directly. If the honors classes are smaller and more interesting (and appropriate for your kid) maybe she'll do better in them. The median grade may be different, too.

I wish my kid was good enough for honors where he is because it would have gotten him out of the gynormous physics class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid lost his merit aid but wasn’t a great student. If your kid is a good student and mostly got As in high school hopefully he should be fine. Talk to him about it.

My kid got nearly all As in high school.

She is now in a big ten engineering program where she is above average according to the admission stats. Her merit aid continuation requirement is fairly low (good standing).

She is currently a B+ student (thank you, humanities elective!) with mostly Bs in her technical classes. Statistically she is well into the top half of the class but not in the top quarter -- she and I looked carefully at the distribution statistics for each class.

I'm telling you this detail because although I would like my kid to have done better, she is proud of her effort and her grades. I would not be confident that a freshman engineering student would do much better after watching my child this past fall. Maybe your kid will, but you aren't worried about that here.

She will get into her major, and she will keep her merit aid. We turned down other schools where these kind of grades might not have resulted in that outcome.

May I ask which Big 10 Engineering gives merit aid, please? And did that bring your out of state tuition to your state flagship? Thank you.

This is probably the Purdue poster

Not the Purdue poster, but they give very little merit aid to OOS engineering students. I think the most that has ever been posted is $8K and you have to have absolutely top scores, and it is still rare. Purdue is pretty cheap without the merit, they have had a 6 year tuition freeze, and they know the OOS kids will come regardless. My child is looking there and I have done a lot of research on it. Most OOS merit packages are given to non engineering students.

NP here. My ds just got merit offer from Purdue engineering for $10k. He has top test scores but far from perfect gpa. Purdue's tuition & room is $42k for OOS so with merit, it would only be $32k.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid lost his merit aid but wasn’t a great student. If your kid is a good student and mostly got As in high school hopefully he should be fine. Talk to him about it.

My kid got nearly all As in high school.

She is now in a big ten engineering program where she is above average according to the admission stats. Her merit aid continuation requirement is fairly low (good standing).

She is currently a B+ student (thank you, humanities elective!) with mostly Bs in her technical classes. Statistically she is well into the top half of the class but not in the top quarter -- she and I looked carefully at the distribution statistics for each class.

I'm telling you this detail because although I would like my kid to have done better, she is proud of her effort and her grades. I would not be confident that a freshman engineering student would do much better after watching my child this past fall. Maybe your kid will, but you aren't worried about that here.

She will get into her major, and she will keep her merit aid. We turned down other schools where these kind of grades might not have resulted in that outcome.

May I ask which Big 10 Engineering gives merit aid, please? And did that bring your out of state tuition to your state flagship? Thank you.

This is probably the Purdue poster

Not the Purdue poster, but they give very little merit aid to OOS engineering students. I think the most that has ever been posted is $8K and you have to have absolutely top scores, and it is still rare. Purdue is pretty cheap without the merit, they have had a 6 year tuition freeze, and they know the OOS kids will come regardless. My child is looking there and I have done a lot of research on it. Most OOS merit packages are given to non engineering students.

I was an engineering major with merit aid at a top 25 school. I had to maintain a 3.0 GPA. I did drop below that one semester, and was put on probation for the next one, but got my GPA back up and graduated with a 3.5 GPA. The semester I got below a 3.0 was sophomore year, and I was taking a lot of engineering pre-reqs along with very motivate pre-meds (like Organic Chemistry). I did not lose my scholarship.

Anonymous wrote:My dc has gotten several offers from colleges with merit aid. They, of course, all have gpa requirements to maintain (3.0 or 3.2). Dc is planning to major in engineering and I'm concerned about him maintaining the gpa for merit aid. I went to a big state univ and I recall many engineering students did not have a 3.0. In fact, 3.0 was considered really good. And even if they graduated with that, there were certainly years that it dipped lower. I don't want to send him off to private school and then be stuck paying $70k the next year because he lost his merit aid. How common is this? Anyone have any experience with this?

I don't know how common it is, but my DC has a large merit scholarship ($32K) contingent on a 3.0, and he knows that if he loses it, then he needs to transfer to an in-state public.

My daughter is a senior and has packages at multiple OOS flagships. Most have offered her honors programs too. It looks tempting, but at the same time engineering is hard enough. To keep up with the GPA, do you think we are better off avoiding the honors programs?

Look at the package.

Some allow you to dip one semester as long as you maintain it all the others.

Some allow you to have an average of the year, not a semester.

Some take away partial merit

You can also speak with professors AHEAD OF TIME and say "can I do anything to bring this grade up. I am going to lose my merit and have to drop out of school" . You would be surprised how many will work with you as long as you are up front and don't go after the semester is finishing up.

Also, most colleges allow up to 18 credits. I have heard of kids finding courses with no homework (1 credit intro courses) and taking two of them for easy A's in addition to their other courses.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid lost his merit aid but wasn’t a great student. If your kid is a good student and mostly got As in high school hopefully he should be fine. Talk to him about it.

My kid got nearly all As in high school.

She is now in a big ten engineering program where she is above average according to the admission stats. Her merit aid continuation requirement is fairly low (good standing).

She is currently a B+ student (thank you, humanities elective!) with mostly Bs in her technical classes. Statistically she is well into the top half of the class but not in the top quarter -- she and I looked carefully at the distribution statistics for each class.

I'm telling you this detail because although I would like my kid to have done better, she is proud of her effort and her grades. I would not be confident that a freshman engineering student would do much better after watching my child this past fall. Maybe your kid will, but you aren't worried about that here.

She will get into her major, and she will keep her merit aid. We turned down other schools where these kind of grades might not have resulted in that outcome.

May I ask which Big 10 Engineering gives merit aid, please? And did that bring your out of state tuition to your state flagship? Thank you.

This is probably the Purdue poster