(Any info is appreciated!) College life at Penn State, Bing, UFlorida, UDel?

Student Lounge College Life
21

Florida, Delaware and Penn State all have beautiful campuses. I’ve known many students who graduated from these three schools and I’ve not met a student who did not talk about each with pride.

Florida is a remarkable campus. It is obviously the flagship for Florida’s top shelf university system but it also has amazing resources. I’ve always been blown away when I’ve attended conferences there-especially in the med center which seems to be very well funded. It was nice to be at a university that did not scream poverty and that clearly had a very outgoing and fun vibe. Gainsville is mixed in terms of what it offers. But it is a great place to spend 4 years.

Of the schools you mention, Florida is the most immense and complete on one campus in terms of just having a very active campus with everything available including a medical and law school and I believe dentistry along with just about every kind of department imaginable. But Delaware and Penn State are close-just lacking a med school. They have nursing-I believe Penn State’s med school is in Hershey. Florida, Delaware and Penn state all have great school spirit and a very upbeat vibe and are all very complete flagship compuses.

Florida wins in the weather department (224 sunny days; no snow), Delaware comes in next with 202 sunny days per year and an average of 11.7" of snow a year while Penn has a few fewer sunny days (182) and a bit more snow (46"). both Delaware and Penn will have cooler summers with crisp mornings while Florida will be sticky. Delaware is about 100 years older than Penn and Gainesville, and is a combined private university and land grant institution (or as they put it “A state-assisted, privately governed institution”). It has a feel of a private university in many ways. Their academic facilities are really state-of-the art. But that is also true of Florida and Penn State. All three are great universities that have top notch facilities.

I’d give the nod to Florida but it is probably the most expensive and the furthest away. I suppose I’d put Delaware next, and very close (I might even put Delaware before Florida) because of its strength academically but also because of its proximity to so many great cities. Wilmington (about 15 miles away from Newark is pretty small but it is a quick scoot to Philadelphia (less than an hour away) and not much further to Baltimore (an hour), Washington (1.5 hours), or NYC (two hours). So I think Delaware also has the best location. It too has a beautiful campus.

Penn State wins over Delaware in the school spirit category but Delaware students have a lot of school pride too. All three have a very spirited student body. Penn state suffers from location, as far as I’m concerned but that is also because I like easy access to a thriving active energetic city and Penn State simply does not offer that while Delaware offers it in every direction.

You can’t go wrong with any of these three schools. Given your preference to be closer to home, I’d go with Delaware. All three have top notch facilities-both academic and nonacademic and I expect you’d be happy at any of the three. Nice selection to be choosing from!

22

You should certainly be able to visit Delaware and Penn State before having to choose. I would guess they are not far for you. I’d recommend visits to get a good appreciation of the academic and social climate at each.

Also, if you are pretty set on veterinary (or animal) science, look at the department ratings for each school. Some people contend that the department ratings are just relevant to graduate school. I disagree. If you go to a school where the department of your major has a lousy reputation it probably translates into things like not having much funded research (so undergraduate research opportunities will be limited) and when funding is rare, departments have few resources. That means the faculty will not be the most active and engaged people. So, look up the rankings of the majors for each of the schools you are interested in. That might help your decision making (not be the sole criteria but add that information to the other information you have).

23

It’s good that you are considering cost when attending these out of state schools.

On the plus side, you do have some options to help deal with the cost. I’ll talk UF, but PSU and Del will have similar options.

First, UF CALS (College of Agricultural and Life Sciences) does offer undergraduate scholarships. In 2015-2016 they offered 332 scholarships. You can start applying after your first year. These may not be large awards, but they will help.

http://cals.ufl.edu/students/scholarships-awards.php

To increase your chances at one of these scholarships, you need to get involved in EC’s and work. As a pre-vet students, that’s also a requirement to get into Vet school (or grad school).

Next, working part time. That’s something of a requirement for pre-vet students. See Cornell’s DVM admissions formula, below, and note that 20% is based on “experience”.

My daughter’s roommate is in CALS going the pre-vet route. As a freshman, she volunteered at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Over the first summer she even went with them on a one week trip to Washington DC (for something or the other). After a year, she was able to turn it into a paying job.

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/

That’s just a typical example. You may have to work for a year at as a volunteer, before getting a paying job in a role that fits your major. Of course, other jobs will also be available on campus, such as working at the Rec center, but ultimately, you want something that’s related to your major. At any of these (large public) schools, you’ll need to be proactive and dig up one of these jobs.

At some point, you’ll also need to work in a Vet’s office (more income), perhaps over a summer or two.

Good Luck and Go Gators!

24

Go to Binghamton. An income of $150,000 a year with no college savings is not enough to pay out of state prices for you and your sibling. Hopefully your sibling will apply to schools that give tremendous merit. If you go to Binghamton you will take out $27,000 and your parents will take out about $60,000. I would not allow them to take out bigger loans so that you can attend one of the other schools on your list, despite being wonderful schools. Personally, I would not be comfortable taking out any loans for an undergrad education given that you want to attend grad school, but I do understand that you may have to.

If you visit Binghamton and do not like it, you have two options. Attend a community college for two years and then transfer, or take a gap year and reapply to schools that will give you merit. Please do not put your parents in the position of helping you pay back tremendous undergraduate loans at an age where they will eventually be looking to retire. My guess is that their retirement savings is not big enough to pay back these loans, but of course I could be wrong.

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Before I begin replying, I just wanted to thank everyone who has took their time to answer me, it really means a lot to me! You are all so helpful !!! :smiley:

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Sure! So more about Binghamton: students are very involved in campus life. Every single person I knew had at least one thing that they were very passionately involved in. For my boyfriend it was the school paper, for me it was Challah for Hunger, for other friends it was the Art Co-op, the theater club, the campus preschool, a capella… there really is always something going on. Usually on the weekends I would be downtown at party or else watching a movie or hanging out or getting ice cream with my friends. There’s also something called Late Nite which happens every Friday and Saturday night until like, 1 or 2 am. It’s in the union and there’s either a recently-released movie and/or a special performance with lots of food and clubs tabling with fun activities. This way, even if I didn’t have specific plans, we could always be like “hm let’s see what’s going on at Late Nite!” But there were definitely people who went downtown literally every weekend for parties, there’s always multiple ones going on. There are buses running from campus to downtown and back all night long.

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@lostaccount thank you for the comprehensive information!!! I was not expecting such a detailed answer! :slight_smile:
The way that everyone talks about Florida really makes me envious of all of the students who attend there. But I am very nervous about my debt if I were to go to Florida/Penn State over Delaware or Binghamton. At the same time, everyone that I speak to about my thoughts is telling me that I need to ignore the debt and do what makes me happy… yet I feel like all of these schools are amazing and have so much to offer that I would find my niche no matter where I attend.
I’m visiting UF on March 15, and I feel like I am going to fall in love. My friend from HS goes there and she is going to take me out after my tour and she keeps telling me “there is no way you will not love this school, everything about it is amazing etc.” But I fear that I will fall in love and then decide that I want to stay closer, because I really do…
I grew up in NY so these winters will be no difference to me. Some people say that a college experience isn’t complete without the seasons, which I do not really understand entirely.
To my knowledge, Florida does not give out large scholarships to OOS… I am guessing this is because of all of the scholarships that Floridians get to enjoy (i.e. Bright Futures) but I am not really sure. Penn State is my most expensive school, almost 50k a year w/o scholarship money, and they also are not big on scholarships so I am assuming that the cost will not decrease much. Do you think it is wrong to jeopardize my college experience by staying closer just so I can save money? Everyone is saying that and it troubles me but picturing the debt I am going to have in the future makes me nauseous lol.
I’m planning on visiting soon as I really need to to be able to make my decision.
Just looked up school expenditure on each department, UF spends a WHOPPING 500 million dollars on the life sciences department… WOW. Compared to Delaware’s 50 million and Bing’s 8 million (couldn’t find PSU)

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@Gator88NE of course I have to consider it, with grad school I would be spending 200k on that alone so it makes me want to be able to save the money while I can

If I do decide to attend UF I will most definitely be applying for scholarships after my freshman year because I will want to lower my debt as much as possible. I plan on getting a part-time job on campus so I don’t have to budge into my parents wallet more than I already have to.
But thank you for the information! I did not know that Cornell had a formula as to how they treat applicants so knowing this will definitely influence how I spend my time over the next 4 years.

I just hope it is not difficult for me to find opportunities to increase my experience.

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@twogirls I agree that any other college would be a lot of money. But my family is not helping with the realistic side of things. I’ve already asked my mom to attend my local community college and she told me she wants me to go away and have the full experience and not worry about the money. But I think she is crazy because she must not realize how much trouble attending a costly institution will bring. She has always dreamed of me having the true college experience, as almost everyone in my family didn’t even end up attending college. My mom is one of the only who have attended, and she only went to Manhattanville and commuted so all my years she has busted my *** about doing good in school so I could have these opportunities.
Of course I’m grateful that I have them but me being more realistic than her I think of the total cost to attend Bing, 100k, or even Delaware, 136k, compared to close to 200k at PSU or UF… grad school will already be a 200k cost to pay and that is inevitable. Taking that into account Bing or Delaware seem like the better choices for my future because both are still amazing schools!
I just hope that when I do visit Florida, I don’t fall in love and choose to attend. Lol sounds weird because of course if I am happier there I can’t control that but its so much more costly.

30

YOUR undergrad debt will be $27,000. That’s it. The rest will be your parents debt and the loans will be in their name. If you attend UF, you will pay approximately $40,000 a year not including spending money, books, and transportation. Your total cost will be more like $45,000 give or take. Again, your debt will be $27,000. If that was going to be the only debt, I would tell you to go for it. Even if your parents debt totaled $27,000 in addition to your $27,000, I would possibly tell you to go for it. But that is not the case. Your parents will be signing for approximately $130,000+ in loans (it will be their loans, their debt) if you go to UF. Then they will be have to do this for your sibling. Your parents will possibly be faced with loans for $260,000 at a time when they are getting close to their retirement years. How much money do they have saved for retirement? You say that you will help them pay it back, and I believe you, but you will also be paying back your grad school loans totaling about $150,000 (those will be in your name, along with the $27,000). You will owe about $180,000 in loans coming out of grad school. It will not be easy helping your parents, especially if you intend to live on your own. You say you have a serious boyfriend. Let’s pretend that this relationship lasts until you are out of grad school and you decide to get married. How will he feel about paying back the $180,000 that you owe (I understand this is necessary for grad school) in addition to helping your parents pay back some of their loans? This may impact your ability to buy the house that you want. How do you feel about supporting your parents if they can’t afford to pay back these loans plus support themselves (I may be off base here, and I hope I am).

Will your parents ever be able to retire if they sign on for all of these loans for you and your sibling? How old are they and how much do they have in retirement savings right now? Is there any college savings?

I understand that these are amazing schools, but the four years pass very fast and then reality will set in. I would attend Binghamton unless you tell me that your parents have a tremendous amount in their retirement. And by that I mean that there is enough in there so that they can pay their loans and not feel any impact.

UF is a great school, despite some very large classes. My daughter’s friend told her that one of her classes has 700 students. UDel is a great school, and would probably be my top pick. Everybody loves PS but in my opinion it is not worth such large undergrad loans. I would go to Binghamton if you can handle the upstate NY dreariness. The campus is not like the others, but you will have a very good education with less stress on your parents. As rebeccar pointed out, the social life is also pretty good. Every kid I know who attended Binghamton loved the school. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Is it affordable? Not really, given that you and your parents will have about $90,000 in loans for an undergraduate education. However, it is the most affordable out of all your options. I wish you had come to CC earlier because I would have steered you differently.

I am sorry to be so harsh. I do not think you fully recognize how difficult it will be for you to be 25 years old with $180,000 in loans to pay back, plus the good intentions of helping your parents pay back their loans that they took out for you. This will have a large impact on your lifestyle as a young adult.

31

If you told me that your parents had enough money saved up to attend Binghamton debt free, and that you wanted to attend UDel at $34,000 a year, I would tell you to go to UDel and take out $27,000 in loans and allow your parents to take out the rest (about $20,000). That, to me, is doable. You are telling me (I think) that they have nothing saved and you would be taking out loans to pay the full cost of Bing. Is that correct?

32

I just read that grad school is a 4 year program. Is that correct? That would be $50-60,000 a year x 4 years and could total over $200,000 for grad school.

33

A couple of points.

UF will announce OOS scholarship around mid to late March. Somewhere between 10% to 20% of the admitted students will get offered an OOS Scholarship. They range from $8K a year to $20K a year. They are competitive, so you can’t count on it, until UF makes the announcements.

Going to UF (or the other OOS schools) is not a financial suicide pact. If after a year or two, it simply is not making financial sense, you do have the option of transferring (to Bing, for example). The problem with this option is that you would lose any freshman scholarships.

Twogirls has done a good job of laying out the financial issues. After you get your final financial packages from each of these schools, you really should have a conversation with your family.

Good Luck!

PS: Yes, UF CALS is HUGE. It’s a major center of research and has a wide range of majors to choose. No matter which school you attend, you should think about your options if you don’t go to vet school. Take some exploratory classes your first year and find what’s best for you!

34

The money issue is your issue and your parents’ issue. If they’re willing to pay it, you shouldn’t let people make you feel bad for taking advantage of that.

35

The issue is not “are they willing to pay it.” The issue is “can they pay it?” Maybe they can, and maybe they can’t. A salary of $150,000 a year is not enough to pay these loans for this student and her sibling. To the best of my knowledge there are no college savings. These parents may be left with $260,000 in loans at a time when they are starting to think of retirement. Do they have a tremendous amount in retirement savings which will allow them to pay this debt if there is no salary coming in? Maybe yes, maybe no. This student needs to sit down and ask some questions or she may very well be supporting her parents one day. If the parents have an enormous amount of wealth tied up in retirement accounts, then this may all be a non issue. Their salary is not high enough to support an out of state school (plus a sibling who will attend college one day) unless they take out tremendous loans or are lucky enough to have scholarships kick in. Time will tell.

In my opinion, parents taking out $130,000-160,000 in loans for an undergraduate education, plus the student taking another $200,000 in loans for graduate school, is a recipe for disaster. This is just for one kid- there is another child that will likely be attending college. The parents do not make enough money to pay this off. Although the student has every intention of helping her parents, she will not make enough to pay all of these loans and still live the life she wants to lead.

If the OP comes back and tells me that her parents have enormous wealth tied up in retirement, whereby they can easily pay back the loans one day without having any impact, then I will rethink what I am saying.

36

I am a current student at UD and I will tell you about my personal experience here.

First of all, UD has a main campus and a North Campus. North Campus has suite style dorms for freshman with private bathrooms and AC! The students that live here will all be in a triple and it is kind of far from main campus. You will need to take a bus to main campus, but you will probably have to take the buss at UF and Penn State too. Having a private bathroom and AC is a plus, but you are disconnected from campus. This is something to consider when filling out your preference in the housing application.

The UD campus is broken up by many streets. Personally, I do not like this. I wish the campus was more enclosed. But it seems like Penn State has a simmilar situation (I don’t know anything about Binghamton and UF)

UD has Main Street which is a huge plus! There is a Barnes and Noble, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, 7/11, Wallgreens, Panera, Frozen Yogurt, clothing stores and so much to do on Main Street! This is something you should check out when visiting UD after your tour (the tour will not take you down main street.)

As for the night life, partying is a big part of UD! There are a lot of frat and sport houses that throw parties on thursdays, fridays, saturdays and sometimes during the week too. Most of the time these parties are within walking distance. Sometimes the neighborhood isn’t so great near these houses, but if you walk in groups you should be fine. Frats also offer safe rides and many students take ubers. Another thing abut UD is dages are very popular and A LOT more fun that going out at night. Many students that live in apartments on main street also have parties.

If you love dogs, UD has two student groups that raise and train service dogs! You can be a dog raiser and have your own dog or just participate in the club! This is a huge plus to the school.

UD does not have a lot of school pride and the games aren’t popular to attend. If you are looking for that kind of atmosphere, Penn State is big on that.

Another downside is UD is not generous to its out of state students with aid and scholarships :frowning:

37

For those of you trying to “sell” the OP on Delaware, Penn State and UF. you are doing the OP a grave disservice. Unless this family has saved a lot of money, it is unlikely the OP can afford these schools, no matter what her parents think. And if they haven’t saved much, that is a good indication that they are not going to be able to divert $40-60k a year to tuition. An income of even $150,000 a year is going to make it hard to afford these schools. Many parents and students think that oh, the school wants me so they will make it work for me financially. That is simply not true. Or they take the dangerous tactic of, we’ll figure it out later - isn’t this exciting!! Maybe if UF comes through with money, but that is a big maybe. There is no sense in OP getting her heart set on something that is simply unrealistic, particularly with the long term goal of vet school. OP even recognized that her parents are not facing reality. That is a real shame. OP, have your parents ever sat down with you and told you how they are going to finance your education exactly? Have they run the NPC’s for each school? Is there some info that your parents are not telling you (expecting an inheritance, grandparents will pay, etc)?

OP, please listen to @twogirls.

38

Thank you blprof. I do not like to see students (and often their parents) have unrealistic expectations.

OP here is my advice once again, for whatever it’s worth:

  1. Attend a community college for 2 years and then transfer to a 4 year college…or
  2. Take a gap year and reapply to schools that will give you tremendous merit…or
  3. Attend Binghamton. You will take out $27,000 over 4 years and your parents will take out $60,000 over 4 years. Hopefully your sibling will have a good strategy and get merit someplace when the time comes. With this plan, your parents should not owe more than $60,000 for you and $60,000 (+/-) for your sibling. That is still a lot, but it is better than your original plan. Hopefully your parents will be able to work long enough to pay off these loans. If not, they will be forced to spend their retirement savings to pay back the loans- hopefully it is well funded. If their retirement is not well funded and they are unable to work, they will have no way to pay these loans or support themselves.

You will be on your own for grad school, and will owe $200,000-$240,000 plus the undergraduate loans totaling $27,000 plus interest. I would not count on helping your parents.

I do not mean to repeat myself. I am trying to help you. If you were the youngest and your family had to borrow $40,000 to get you through your last year of school, that would not be awful. However…you are the oldest and your parents appear to be borrowing !00% of your and your siblings undergraduate education. That is not a good plan. And the schools you applied to are way too expensive.

39

How much can your parents pay/year? Ask them for a dollar amount. It’s generally not a good idea for families to borrow more than the federal student loan ($5500 as a freshman, $6500 as a soph, and $7500/year as a junior and senior), especially when they’re “always tight on money.” If your parents have to borrow the balance of your cost of attendance (after the ~$5500 federal student loan that you can take), I’d recommend starting at a community college then transferring to Binghamton or one of the other SUNY schools.

40

I agree with austinmshauri. I will even take it one step further and recommend a gap year and reapply to schools that will give you significant merit.