<p>I recently got admitted to American University in Washington, D.C., Reed College in Portland and F&M College in Lancaster, PA)</p>
<p>American offered me $20K in a grant, $8K in loans, and $3K in workstudy, all per year.I will have to pay $22K out of pocket. Also, I was admitted to the Honors College. </p>
<p>Reed offered me $30K in a grant, $5K in loans, and $2.5K in workstudy, all per yearh. I will have to pay $19K out of pocket. </p>
<p>F&M offered me $41K in a grant (all of tuition) plus $3.5K in loans per year. </p>
<p>I want to major in Government/ PoliSci or International Relations and focus on Eastern Europe (but I might change my mind to the Middle East...) </p>
<p>Anyway, in terms of money, location, people, and opportunities, what do you guys think is my best choice??? I will still be trying to wrangle more money out of American and Reed (my parents are going through a divorce and my mother hasn't supported me since 2002, but that might just give me $5-8K more a year). Right now, I can afford to pay $12K a year (my dad may be able to squeeze out a bit more...) so that will yield MORE loans. Help!</p>
<p>you have a hard choice … all the schools are good but for what you want to study American may be strongest and it is in D.C. and has great opportunities for internships and making connections … certainly from a financial stance F & M would be a lot easier … you have to decide how much debt you want to graduate with, especially if you plan on doing graduate work after college … just some things to consider</p>
<p>yeah, graduate school is definitely in the picture, but American (or Reed, for that matter) seem to offer better opportunities. Is is better to graduate undergrad with less debt (or none) but to have gone to a worse college, or to go to a better college and hope to be able to pay off the debt?</p>
<p>No one can make the decision for you, but the image that come to mind for me when I think about coming out as an undergraduate with close to $100000 of debt is of the Pied Piper … then to put grad school on top of that …when I really think about it, I don’t think the opportunities/advantages are worth the cost …</p>
<p>I agree with dbrenner. The opportunities offered to you from American University will be better than from Franklin and Marshall, or even Reed for that matter, given what you want to study. But I think there is a limit to how much debt you should take on for your undergraduate education, especially if you want to go to graduate school, and I think American University and Reed would put you well above it. (I’m basing my thinking on the assumption that your mom and dad will contribute $12,000 per year.) For me the line in the sand is about $40,000 for four years. Reed’s package come closer to something that might work. Reed’s cost of attendance must be higher than I realized.</p>
<p>Have you visited the schools? What did you think?</p>
<p>My first choice would be Reed and then F&M then American.</p>
<p>I’ve never really brought into the whole I want to study politics so I need to be in DC train of thought. Plenty of Reed and F&M students do summer internships in DC (as well as various state capitals, if they so desire). </p>
<p>Reed is a truly great school with a top-flight academic program and reputation.</p>
<p>Have you visited? Which did you like best? Where do you see yourself fitting in best?</p>
<p>For academics and the prestige associated with it-Reed > F&M and American. That’s just the simple truth-you’ll be far better prepared for graduate school if you go to Reed versus the other two. Reed has a wonderful International Comparative Policy Studies (ICPS) programme that sounds great for you.
However, if money is an issue, while I wouldn’t give up Reed just as yet, I’d strongly consider F&M because you can still get to graduate school from there at a much cheaper cost.</p>
<p>I’m going to disagree with the above post. At least in the fields with which I am intimately acquainted (biology and classics), Franklin & Marshall is every bit as strong and respected as Reed. Granted, I have no idea how their IR programs compare, but suggesting there is a huge gulf between them in all disciplines is highly misleading.</p>
<p>If you go to American, you can intern during the year - for the others, you intern in the summer (when DC is slower and not typical.)</p>
<p>THe Honors college at AU is great, and AU is investing in expanding their programs. THey are opening the new School of International Studies building shortly.</p>
<p>But I agree the money is huge. I tried to get my son to talke the lowerst price school so he would end up with out any debt. He too got a scholarship at AU, and did end up there.</p>
<p>Reed doesn’t have International Relations. It has a very strenuous International Comparative Policy Studies which is interdisciplinary in nature, but has its roots in one of Anthropology, Economics, History or Political Science; strenuous because it’s structured to the extent that you’re fulfilling major requirements with nearly 80% of your classes. That’s another thing to consider-ICPS is fabulous, but it’s not just another International Relations programme and many people start out with wanting to major in it, but find it too difficult. So, if you’re committed to International Relations, you might want to check if you’re comfortable with the demands of ICPS (or you could always major in a broader Social Science).
warblersrule86, I didn’t suggest there was a huge gap between the two; all I said was that if it was a pecking order, Reed would come out on top; I shouldn’t have just taken graduate school admissions into account, but I’d say overall, as well. The margin separating Reed and F&M might be small, but I’d still wager Reed is the better college. I may have a slightly deflated opinion of F&M, but I’m pretty sure, overall, it’s a better place than American. I don’t know about their Honors College though. If marthamydearest’s circumstances were taken into account though, I’d pick F&M.</p>
<p>I agree. Reed offers one of the most rigorous and coherent liberal arts & science educations in the country. The oral comprehensives, the thesis, Humanities 110, the approach to grading, the small size, caliber of students, and focus on academics all add up to a distinctive college experience. Assuming you think it’s a good fit for you. </p>
<p>The money makes this a tough one though. Try to get more aid out of Reed. I think it’s o.k. to cite the F&M offer (maybe email all the details to the finaid office). Look into advanced placement credit to help graduate on time. Also investigate work opportunities that pay well over minimum wage, e.g. math tutoring (see if there are any expensive private schools nearby where parents would pay a premium for this.)</p>
<p>I don’t recommend paying a big cost premium just for the opportunity to live in DC. But I don’t recommend taking on huge debts for Reed, either, if F&M is that much more manageable. You need to think carefully about what that tipping point is for you and your family. The total COA for Reed seems to be pushing $55K. Subtract the grant, leaving $25K/year. From work-study and summer employment, you should be able to cover $5-$10K, leaving about $15-20K “out of pocket” including loans, as I see it. Can you reliably count on your parents for $12K? If you think you can keep the debt no higher than about $5K/year (which adds up to about the size of a car loan over 4 years), I’d say it’s worth it to consider Reed (if and only if you think it’s a better fit for YOU than F&M, and you won’t be working yourself silly to pay for any perceived advantage ). F&M has a fine reputation and, all things considered, may be the best choice.</p>
<p>These schools are quite different in their location, size, and type of students. You should consider that in this mix. F&M and Reed are much smaller and more known for their academic intensity than American. American is in a very nice but somewhat remote part of DC. I believe American’s Male/Female ratio is 30/70 with the other two closer to 50/50.</p>
<p>From an educational point of view I think all will challenge you and you will get out of the experience what you put into it. F&M’s Gov. Department is historically, I am an alum from 30+ years ago, very strong with many graduates working in Washington, both with and without graduate or law degrees.</p>
<p>I believe F&M’s student body may still be considered more conservative than Reed’s but I take those sorts of comparison’s with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>I was wondering about that too. Reed has a very liberal atmosphere and a rather casual attitude towards drug use. (Sorry for all the Reedies that I’m offending with my closed minded attitude.) That said, there is room for all types and if you aren’t into having the drugs around you can sign up for a substance free dorm.</p>
<p>Pea, you’d be happy to know, that Reed is working on re-interpreting and using the Honor Principle to have a more balanced approach to drug use. However, in most cases, students who come to Reed and get addicted to hard drugs, are either already addicted or have had a history with drugs before they came to Reed. Therefore, it’s not a function of the college. Similarly, the sub-free dorms and Reed, in general, allow someone who has no interest in drugs to stay away from them.</p>
<p>Also, marthamydearest, you mention you have to pay $19,000 to attend Reed, but the figures don’t add up because Cost of Attendance for 2010-2011 at Reed is $53,700 (not including travel to and from home). You might have to pay quite a bit less, in that case, if you’ve received as much aid as you have.</p>
<p>Yes, it certainly is not a function of the college. It’s more a position the college has taken that is very casual regarding the problem of addictive behavior. That type of permissive atmosphere is off putting to some students so I just thought I’d put it out there.</p>
<p>I’m a Reed graduate myself and I loved it there. Drugs were around, I didn’t do them, none of my friends did them, I didn’t mind that they were there. So when my daughter was considering Reed she brought up its reputation for drug use and I thought she was overly concerned about it. Then one of her friends went to visit because he thought he might be interested in attending. It was an overnight visit where he stayed in a dorm and he said there were drugs in the refrigerator. I mean, they didn’t even bother to hide them when a prospective student visited.</p>
<p>It made me start to think that Reed might have a problem on it hands. Anyway, there it is. If the OP doesn’t mind that some people use them but doesn’t want to be around them herself the substance free dorms are a good solution.</p>