<p>From a sheet I received from a college financial counselor, The Evergreen State College has an average merit award of $3,800. Given the horrible financial conditions here in Washington State, I wouldn’t expect an OOS student to get much in the way of aid. As someone else said, it is a good school for a particular sort of student, but not for all students (IMO).</p>
<p>I agree with Emmybet that the Wisconsin schools are all pretty similar. Most do have one or two programs that they are strong in or known for. UW-Superior’s niche is the Transportation and Logistics Management major for UW-Stout it would be hospitality etc. The Superior / Duluth area is cold in the winter but pretty.</p>
<p>proudwismom – Transportation and Logistics Management is a pretty unusual major for a school that bills itself as a “Liberal Arts College.” Do you think UW-Superior is merely marketing itself as a “public LAC” or is their substance behind the facade?</p>
<p>I’m not sure why Superior put itself out on a list as being unusual - but as I said, I don’t know that school. I will say that Superior as a location is WAY up there. Up north WI and MN have wonderful attributes, but there are many WI public schools that are much more accessible. And as I said before, most are pretty similar in terms of cost and size, and proudwismom is right that you can get most majors everywhere. A few have some particular things that they offer strongly: Platteville and Stout are known for engineering; Milwaukee has a school of Architecture; Stevens Point has a competitive BFA in Musical Theater, and strong Music in general, etc. </p>
<p>Many threads on CC bemoan the lack of good schools with 8-12,000 students - usually they are very small or very large (or private and expensive). The WI publics, in general, fit this category, at a good cost. And most of them are a great academic fit for the B student.</p>
<p>Transportation and Logistics Mgmt is an unusual major to offer but I think it is available there because of Superior’s unique location. They have access to Lake Superior for cargo ships, there are trucking firms in the Superior/Duluth area as well as access to rail lines.</p>
<p>I believe that Superior markets itself as a public LAC due to its small size (2800 students), the small town (under 30,000) and the the small class sizes. It also has a service learning component for those interested in getting course credit for service to the community as well as the Bridge program which offers more structure and support for students entering college with a less than stellar high school record. My information does come second hand. I work with a woman who grew up in Duluth and is familiar with the school and area.</p>
<p>That said I think that across the board the non-flagship UW schools offer their students good access to caring teachers and an opportunity for a solid education. There are always exceptions to the rule but in general I don’t think there are too many teachers who don’t want to see their students succeed. Again all schools will have some sort of niche. Platteville is known for engineering, Stout for hospitality, Stevens Point for environmental majors etc. Transportation and Logistics just gives Superior something unique to call its own.</p>
<p>EmmyBet – My sister is an administrator in the University of Minnesota system and her PhD. is from UW-Madison so I have some sense of what you are saying about the geography, weather and public colleges and universities out your way. The Superior campus only intrigued me because I was doing some research into private and public LACs.</p>
<p>I don’t want anyone to think I would steer anybody away from a school I admit I know almost nothing about - it’s dangerous here to put suppositions and hearsay, as we all know. Thanks, pwm, for the details on Superior. Hudson, I was just curious really about how it ended up on the radar of someone so far away, and now I know!</p>
<p>Hey, it’s exciting to have a chat about WI schools on any of these threads. It doesn’t happen too often.</p>
<p>I imagine it’s kind of exciting for people from other states to see the breadth of the WI state university system - it was for me, coming from an eastern state where the options are very limited. For a while I wondered why no one seemed to look outside the state system, but over the years I’ve come to understand. My D is applying all over, including Minn, and probably 1-2 WI schools as well. It becomes obvious once you look at them that the quality is there at a hugely reduced cost. They are worth a look, as are many public schools in lots of states.</p>
<p>I agree it’s nice to see Wisconsin schools discussed. It’s very rare for kids in my hometown to think of going anywhere other than a UW or UMinn school. A couple of years ago we had a girl accept an offer to attend Princeton and she was the focus of a lot of discussions during half time at the soccer games. Don’t get me wrong–everyone was happy for her but it was very out of the ordinary. Even the NMF and NMSF tend to choose either UW-Madison or U Minn-TC over going out of state.</p>
<p>Even when I hear people on CC bemoaning the lack of affordable or B / C student accessible schools I still hesitate to suggest WI state schools. Most people seem focused on very selective or state flagship schools.</p>
<p>"I don’t see any posts of students with B averages in regular classes. Is there a thread for that? "</p>
<p>Then you should search for MY posts. My sons weighted and unweighted GPA is exactly the same ( 3.09 without bible and weightlifting classes!), as he has never taken an AP or H class prior to this, his senior year. </p>
<p>If you are looking at, or living in the west, be sure to check out the 3.0 of the west thread.</p>
<p>proudwismom, it is the same for us here in NC. The majority of kids go to a school in the NC system and are happy to go. Both my kids did. </p>
<p>HudsonValley, my neighbor’s D (who I’ve known since the day she was born) is a freshman at UNC-A and loves it so far. She was 100/500+ in her h.s. class, a good student who was very involved in theater in h.s. and plans to major in Art History.
I think her SAT was somewhere around 1100 (m+v).</p>
<p>Packmom I’ve heard good things about the NC schools so I can imagine kids do tend to stay instate. I feel lucky that my son does have so many good options. He’s pretty independent and insists he wants to go somewhere out of state just to be different but in the end I would be thrilled if he attended a state school.</p>
<p>I must admit that when I first started following on CC I thought for sure you had to be from Wisconsin with a name like Packmom. We Wisconsinites have Packers hardwired in our brains and whenever we see Pack we think of them!</p>
<p>My guess is that so little CC posting involving nonflagship state schools is that people in those states do not need CC to find out about them.</p>
<p>I do think posters seeking B student options would welcome such suggestions if they are in a region they are considering.</p>
<p>We do seem to get a fair amount of discussion about the various NY and CA non-flagship publics (I guess they’re all non-flagships in NYS), but not much about peer schools in the other 48. So it is nice to hear about some of those schools in places like Wisconsin, North Carolina, Minnesota, etc. now and then.</p>
<p>Yes, Packmom, I always think the same thing!</p>
<p>yabe, I wonder … I think “little CC posting” happens at any school that isn’t particularly famous, or at least well-known in a heavily populated area. I can’t remember, but there have been so many schools that have shocked me with how little attention they get here. CC definitely has the issue of “only the schools that get attention are the schools that get attention,” if you know what I mean.</p>
<p>We all know this from this thread - so many B-student schools that are so exciting and fresh. Many, many state schools are in this category. And I’ll say again that non-flagship state schools are a terrific way to get that nice 8-12,000 student size that is right for so many kids, plus the kinds of ECs they provide, like sports, etc.</p>
<p>And everyone is right that it’s exactly for the OOS people that it’s great to mention them here.</p>
<p>So I’ll plug for WI schools: </p>
<p>UW-La Crosse, in a beautiful bend of the Mississippi River, a couple of hours from Madison and from Twin Cities;
UW-Eau Claire, a nice school on a pretty hill, also between Madison and Twin Cities;
UW-Stevens Point, with great outdoor recreation, a couple of hours from Madison; and
UW-Oshkosh, nestled among lakes and rivers and with excellent access to Milwaukee and Madison. </p>
<p>All four are solid, quality universities with a range of majors and resources, at a very reasonable cost. These are some of the more selective of the public schools in WI, after UW-Madison (a whole other ballgame in so many ways). There are 14 UW schools, so forgive me if I don’t mention them all right now.</p>
<p>Not to mislead: All excellent admission bets for the B student with low-mid-20s ACT.</p>
<p>Yabe you’re right. From now on I will mention our state schools if someone is looking in the Midwest region. No one will know if we don’t promote ourselves.</p>
<p>I’ll add to Emmybet’s post. </p>
<p>UW-La Crosse is situated in a small city that has access to two teaching hospitals (one is promoted as a model of health care) so health related fields of study have good options. Within the city itself there is also a private Catholic university and a Technical college. A 45 minute drive will get you to two other universities in nearby Minnesota, one public and another Catholic. That all translates into a lot of college students and a lot of college related activities.</p>
<p>UW-River Falls is the state’s agricultural school. It’s about a 1/2 hour from the Twin Cities. UWRF runs 2 lab farms so all ag students can get hands on experience with dairy, beef, swine and equine animals. Also has a rodeo team. A lot of rural “midwest nice” kids attend. Only downside is that a lot kids do go home on weekends. </p>
<p>UW-Eau Claire has a good study abroad program. It also has a good marching band. And the Hill will keep the freshman 15 off!</p>
<p>UW-Platteville is a good engineering school. Bonus for those living in Iowa and Illinois is a tuition reduction plan.</p>
<p>UW-Whitewater: small school with a lot of school spirit.</p>
<p>Emmy, I think the entire college scene is very much as you said "“only the schools that get attention are the schools that get attention”. Today’s list of top 50 schools would be remarkably similar to the 1970 list and and changes in the next 150 would be largely sports-related.</p>
<p>I also think CC posters are far more likely to be from the midAtlantic states and CA.</p>
<p>One thing that benefits everyone and our 3.X kids in particular is that American universities have been cranking out top-notch PhDs for decades with only limited faculty positions at so-called “top” institutions. So wonderful, prestigiously trained professors are at schools all over the country, including lower-tier colleges where B students are likely to attend. </p>
<p>Of course there are downsides, but I do think that from a positive angle this means we can expect more quality at schools for B students than most people assume is there.</p>
<p>You’re probably right about the CC demographic, but I’d also suspect that even posters from other parts of the country buy into the belief that the best schools are clustered in the mid-Atlantic and CA.</p>
<p>Please know I’m not trying to be snooty or anti-snooty; I am a transplant and appreciate several parts of the country and their educational offerings. Also I already have one child, and may have a second, who has ended up in college in the northeast. So I’m not working on any revolutions. I do think the general vision could broaden a bit, though.</p>
<p>OK y’all… just to clear it up…when I first joined CC a looong time ago, S1 had just been accepted to NC State University…home of the Wolfpack…hence PackMom. S1 has now graduated from NCSU . NCSU is not considered the “flagship”. That would be UNC-CH. However, NCSU is the largest university in NC(30,000+) . It’s most often thought of as the “engineering/architecture/agric./forestry school” in NC but has lots of other great programs too .<br>
DH is also a NCSU grad. </p>
<p>When choosing my screen name I never considered that I might still be on CC when S2 went to college but here I am.<br>
S2 is attending East Carolina University, home of the Pirates and the third largest univ. in NC at 28,000 (21,000 undergrads). ECU is most known for education, health sciences,music, art and business majors. ECU is my sch. too.
Fun fact…Sandra Bullock is an ECU grad. as is Emily Proctor (CSI Miami).</p>
<p>Packmom–I know all about picking a CC name on a whim and then being stuck with it 1000 posts later! And Pack Basketball star Brandon Costner is from around here (you or your DH wouldn’t know David Thompson–the best player the the Pack (or anyone else, including UNC-CH) ever had, by any chance?).</p>
<p>Emmy’s point about PHDs flowing down the status pyramid is very accurate. Let me add that there is a huge difference between teaching ability and publishing ability, with most top 100 schools greatly preferring the latter. In both college and law school, I was shocked how many professors at very top schools were clearly more interested in writing articles on obscure topics than in teaching. The professor at the lower ranked school with small classes whoa ctually has to interact with studnets directly, without a graduate student as a screen, is much more likley to be inspiring.</p>