<p>As I'm trying to whittle down my college list, I'd like some insider/locals info on these two schools. I'm somewhat familiar with Gonzaga but have no idea with Providence at all. If anyone has info on either the school, the academics, or the surrounding area (Spokane and Providence) that would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>We have three friends whose daughters just enrolled at Gonzaga and couldn’t be happier. I hear Spokane is charming, the school a nice medium-size and the academics top notch. Two of the three girls are there for the business program, and all got great merit aid.</p>
<p>That’s cool! I’ll be studying business too, were they able to get decent FA? </p>
<p>A friend of mine goes to Whitworth and actually recommended Gonzaga, he also said Spokane is a nice place…</p>
<p>My son’s best friend attends Gonzaga. He is currently a sophomore and is very happy with the school. He likes the people and says the academics are solid. The only thing he’s not too crazy about is the location – he thinks Spokane is rather small and much too far from Seattle or any other big cities.</p>
<p>On the other hand, PC’s location is probably one of its strengths. Providence itself is a great little city with lots to things for college students to do, since there are quite a few colleges located there besides PC, including Brown, RISD, J&W, RWU, URI, and Salve Regina. It’s also just a short train or bus ride (under an hour) to Boston. I don’t have any first-hand knowledge of PC itself though.</p>
<p>S3 has played on various teams with a player on the varsity soccer team at Providence…I saw him several times this summer and he is very happy there and says that there is a good balance between academic and social. Very, very nice kids there.</p>
<p>DS toured PC 3 years ago, and we know a couple of kids that go there. PC has a nice campus but it’s in a so-so neighborhood. PC students do get free use of all Providence city busses, so it’s easy to get to the malls and other places in the city. They have a well-known 4 semester Western Civ course that is required for all students. They also have fairly strict dorm rules - no overnight guests of the opposite sex - which I hear they do enforce. All the kids I know that go there really seem to like it. It has a reputation that many of the kids have fake ID’s and party in the bars near campus, I can’t vouch if that’s a deserved reputation or not.</p>
<p>Both sounds like wonderful schools, that makes the decision to choose 1 so much harder, maybe I’ll have to apply to both!</p>
<p>What about the academics, are both somewhat similar in terms of difficulty and/or the quality?</p>
<p>Seems like Gonzaga is getting a lot of positive vibe, are they more well-known outside the region than say Providence?</p>
<p>My sister works at Gonzaga. 
Spokane is a big city (500,000), but has a small town feel, partly because it’s very “spread out.” Don’t mistake it for Seattle–it has cold winters (snow) and hot summers. It’s also conservative compared to Seattle, but liberal compared to the little farm towns near to it. The closest bigger cities to it are Portland and Seattle. Pretty good public bus system. GU has nice, old, brick buildings, good academics, and everyone in Spokane is crazy about their basketball team. The city is nice, but not very diverse–it is 90% white. I imagine the campus is more diverse.</p>
<p>Friend’s daughter graduated from gonzaga last spring and has had zero luck finding jobs or even unpaid internships. She says she wishes she had gone to UW and saved herself $150,000.</p>
<p>Ahh, Spokane is a LONG way from Seattle and Portland. Hours and hours away. But it does have an airport with lots of connecting flights, so it’s not hard to get to logistically.
I just don’t want anyone thinking they will zip out for dinner at the Space Needle . . .</p>
<p>If you are coming from the LA area, it’s a major culture shock up here in these parts. It’s white and conservative. Hard for those who grew up in big urban cities to comprehend…</p>
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<p>Do you realize that F/A at most colleges is a package filled with student loans?? </p>
<p>F/A is not “free money” at most schools (Ivies are an exception to the rule). So, when you ask if they got “decent F/A,” what were you expecting to receive?</p>
<p>:)</p>
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<p>Especially if that $150k is now student loans that she has to pay back…ugh. Perhaps she was lucky and her parents paid her college costs.</p>
<p>Merryecho, what was the daughter’s major that caused her to not being able to gain employment?</p>
<p>mom2collegekids, I’m totally aware of getting loans and am okay with it if it’s not outrageous, I was just asking if it was mostly loans, mostly grants/scholarships or was it more like a balanced of two…</p>
<p>How much colder/snowier is Spokane from Seattle? also, does either school feel more residential or rather commuter ish?</p>
<p>And how easy is it to explore the city from campus? It appears the transit system is pretty acceptable</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>:) I didn’t want you to be surprised in the spring when your F/A package contains student loans. The whole “F/A process” can all be very confusing. </p>
<p>BTW…when my kids were applying to schools, their scholarship offers came under separate covers. They weren’t considered to be F/A. But, maybe some schools do things differently.</p>
<p>Also, if your parents’ EFC is too high (more than college costs), then you won’t get a F/A package at all. Unfortunately, the family doesn’t get to determine its “need”.</p>
<p>Only low income kids get grants. </p>
<p>Gonzaga and Providence are not very good at giving significant merit scholarships to very many students. I believe they also want FAFSAs for scholarship determination because they only want scholarships to go to low income kids.</p>
<p>My kids went to a Catholic high school and many kids applied to Gonzaga and similar schools hoping for some $$ help. They got none, except student loans. Since the cost to attend such schools can be $200k, taking out student loans can be too daunting… 
Gonzaga and some other Jesuit/Catholic schools don’t like giving scholarships without checking parents’ incomes first. </p>
<p>Do you know what your family’s EFC is? If so, have they told you whether they can afford to pay their EFC? </p>
<p>If you are looking for schools that will give you some scholarship money, please post your stats and some of us can give you some suggestions. :)</p>
<p>^^^
So you’re saying that either schools are pretty stingy with financial aid? if so, I probably should not apply to it…</p>
<p>As to EFC, all I know is that my parents told me before that they had 45k in my college piggybank thanks to both my siblings…</p>
<p>As to scholarship money, I don’t have high hopes because I’ll be applying as a transfer as opposed to a first-year student which I understand gets the bulk of it anyway…</p>
<p>Just for clarification. Providence College does not require students to apply for need-based aid to be considered for merit scholarships. The largest merit scholarships are for students invited into the Liberal Arts Honors Program (scholarship levels are half, three-quarter and full tuition). Beginning with the Class of 2014, there are also smaller merit scholarships available, ranging from $3,000 - $14,000.</p>
<p>No “merit” award at Providence requires the submission of a financial aid application. Providence College requires the FAFSA and the CSS Profile for consideration for all need-based awards.</p>
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<p>Yes, true of most Catholic schools.</p>
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<p>Actually NOT true of most of the Jesuit and other Catholic schools. With the exception of BC and Georgetown, all the Jesuit schools we researched gave merit scholarships which came with acceptance – had nothing to do with FAFSA. If this is true of Gonzaga, it would be an exception.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>OP will not be an entering freshman, so any of those scholarship incentives for entering freshmen wouldn’t apply.</p>
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<p>As to EFC, all I know is that my parents told me before that they had 45k in my college piggybank thanks to both my siblings…</p>
<p>As to scholarship money, I don’t have high hopes because I’ll be applying as a transfer as opposed to a first-year student which I understand gets the bulk of it anyway…
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<p>So, it looks like you have about $22k per year for college. You’re from So Cal (I’m a So Cal native!!!), why not go in-state to a UC, Cal Poly, or nicer Cal State? </p>
<p>Would your parents be able to add a little more to the piggy bank to cover a UC school? Or, would you have to take out student loans for the rest? </p>
<p>It sounds like your parents earn enough that their EFC is too high for F/A at any (non-ivy) school. If their EFC is in the $40-50k range (as many So Cal families is), it won’t matter if any school is generous with F/A, because that would just mean that they’re generous with F/A for lower income people.</p>
<p>Are you applying to any UC’s? </p>
<p>If you have your heart set on attending a Catholic univ, apply to a few, then in the spring have a long-look at what loans you or your parents would have to take out to make that feasible. </p>
<p>I don’t like undergrads taking out student loans - even if it’s just $10k total. They become a huge “monkey-on-your-back” after you graduate and are only earning a starting wage. Most rather-new college grads don’t earn enough to pay rent, car, food, clothes, entertainment, AND student loan payments (month after month, year after year )</p>
<p>Where are you going to school, now?</p>
<p>Some Catholic U’s require FAFSAs for scholarship awards…I know that from personal experience. Yes, some don’t…SLU, Fordham, and Spring Hill all awarded $$$ to my kids w/o FAFSA; others like Santa Clara, BC, etc, did require FAFSA for consideration.</p>
<p>But, it’s irrelevant for the OP, since he’s going to be a transfer student, and typically the big scholarships are for entering freshmen.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids – You are right, my bad! Didn’t see that OP is a transfer.</p>