Welcome advice and thoughts on selection - Binghamton University, Scholars Program vs. NYU vs. UMass Amherst Commonwealth Honors College vs. University Maryland vs. Fordham. Pursuing either political science/pre-law or writing. Completely overwhelmed and welcome any insight.
Binghamton University is a solid academic University, and is the best of the SUNYs for your academic areas of jnterest. It has an excellent Political Science, Philosophy and law (PPL) major and strong pre-law advising. In my opinion unless the cost is comparable these other universities do not offer much of an advantage. And you will need to save money for law school. And if you pursue writing instead, writers don’t make lucrative salaries so that’s another reason to keep the cost down for undergraduate degree.
Can you list your parents’ budget (what they can afford from income and savings, without any loans) and the net cost for each college*. This way we can think in terms of best value.
Are you instate for any college?
In my opinion, UMass Amherst CHC has the edge for political science because you can take classes at Amherst college, which has one of the best programs in poli sci in the country, and you’d have all the resources of the consortium.
- (tuition, fees, room, board) - (grants, scholarships) = ?
Thank you.
NY resident so in-state for Binghamton, NYU and Fordham.
Budget will not be a deciding factor but don’t want to frivolously spend $ if the program doesn’t warrant the price.
Binghamton est $25K
Fordham est $35K due to merit awards
NYU est. $65K
UMASS Amherst est $35 due to merit awards
UMD awaiting package
@MYOS1634 and @trackmbe3 thank you for your replies. I didn’t tag you in my response but provided the figures above. Oh, and Boston College is in the mix too which would be est. $65K per year. Any insight appreciated. Thank you
Ok, Binghamton Scholars, UMass Honors, and Fordham are worth examining. (Honors at Fordham or not?)
NYU and Boston College aren’t worth it.
For UMD it’d be worth it - very strong in poli sci, ties to DC - if it’s around 35K.
Have you visited, spent an overnight, attended classes?
Thank you @MYOS1634 , going to visit over the course of this month.
I’d encourage Binghamton. The others will be at least $40K more over the course of four years, and boy, law school is PRICEY! Good luck to you - there are no bad choices here, but don’t spend the extra money if you don’t have to!
I was a full pay parent. There was great value in the more personal aspect of the private schools that my kids went to.
I would have told you to consider each school on it’s merits and then decide.
I think that there is a lot of benefit to being in Boston over Binghamton, and I recommend that you check out BC.
NYU is very different and can be an outstanding and unique experience, though I don’t see it as “personal”. Fordham, I’m less confident about.
After you’ve visited the contenders and imagined your self attending these schools, then you and your family can decide if any of the choices are worth the money.
@ClassicRockerDad thank you from the parent (mom). My son asked me to read the responses.
Granted it was many more years ago than I would like to mention but I went to Binghamton undergrad and was a Political Science, Philosophy and law (PPL) major and then I went to NYU Law for law school. Definitely a path I would recommend both in terms of quality of education and finances!
@jbtcat YES! Someone else mentioned that program major and it sounds great. I feel like the Binghamton offer - which places him in their Scholars Program and the Freshman Research Immersion program - may give him the personal attention similar to a private or smaller school but at a great price point. And we might be wise to save our $$ for grad school. And now I’ve officially hijacked his CC account LOL.
If the parent is willing to offer money for law school, how will the price difference for undergraduate affect the amount available for law school, and therefore the amount of law school debt the student may have to take?
@Snowtree98 your son sounds like a very smart kid! I enjoyed the PPL major because it combined a lot of interesting courses and not too much of one thing. I wish him luck whatever path he takes! (and don’t we all hijack our kids accounts? LOL!)