Bloomsburg does not yet have that style of new dorm. They are in the process of building and it will open in the fall of 2017 to upperclassmen. No freshman allowed.
Many upperclassmen will live off campus in years 3 and/or 4. Some of the newer upperclassmen dorms are apartment style on campus. I will say that the surrounding town for West Chester (apartments) will tend to have more expensive rents than a more rural school, like Kutztown. A friend was paying $900/month for an apartment in West Chester for her D, who is a senior. She said it was very nice, but sounds pricey to me!
Yes…I have heard that off campus living is expensive at West Chester.
Bloomsburg University was just rated highly by the ETC College Rankings…interesting.
https://www.bloomu.edu/today
Interesting, I have never seen these rankings before now. I wonder what their patent pending strategy is. I might look that up. Both Millersville and West Chester (on our list) rank fairly high along with Bloomsburg, while others on our list such as McDaniel, Randolph Macon and Christopher Newport rank much lower. Maybe since this weighs employability, it has a bias against small schools?
Did these rankings base on sticker price or net price, I wonder?
Good questions indeed. Either way…it shows that the despite the ongoing lack of funding, less than optimal student aptitude, remote locations and so on…there are some positives in the PASSHE system. Yes, they could be better and should be better but some remain in pretty good standings.
I’ve never seen those rankings either. @Portercat, most of the schools you mention were on our radar, too. My D now goes to small liberal arts college in Virginia ranked right in the middle of the ETC ratings. I decided to check on my alma mater, Miami University in Ohio, and it is ranked near the bottom at 1,044, which surprising since it is a state school and pretty well regarded. So I’m not sure how much stock to put in those ratings.
ETC Rankings are legit. Read this article and Forbes states that the ETC is only based on outcomes(near the bottom of the article).
With all due respect @ barbalot…my neighbor spent last year at Miami of Ohio. Transferred to Slippery Rock this year. I just saw him and he told me the level of education he is receiving at SRU is at the same or in some cases better than he received at Miami. I realize it is all subjective but that was his early opinion. He transfered because his out of state cost was very high.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ccap/2014/09/11/u-s-news-vs-forbes-college-rankings/#2aebaecd17d3
Good statement, but IMO this all depends on the advertised cost or actual cost of attendance,:
“This week also saw the release of the Education to Career (ETC) College Rankings Index. This ranking is based entirely on outputs and according to the methodology measures the improvement in earnings and employability the school adds to students relative to the cost. Therefore expect to see top state schools toward the top, and the expensive Ivy league schools fall toward the bottom. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill tops this list.”
Exactly…ROI. When you line up COA and ROI you see many state funded schools with lower costs move up in the rankings.
@bester1 True, but I was thinking that on the other end, after merit aid (and need aid), the COA for privates will come down at a higher percentage than state schools without much aid.
@portercat I am hoping that to be the case. Time will tell for us!!!
Although I am not intentionally promoting Bloomsburg…I saw another high rating…from the Bloomsburg website.
BU ranks among “Best Bang for the Buck”
Academic Quad
Bloomsburg University was recently named among the top of Washington Monthly’s list for Best Bang for the Buck in the Northeast.
BU ranked at 125 out of 386 colleges and universities on the list, and was the second highest PASSHE school. Washington Monthly ranked their list based on best overall graduation rate, Pell Grant performance, First-generation student performance, earnings performance, and net price in the Northeast schools. Making it the best education for the best price.
BU ranked ahead of Millersville, Shippensburg, East Stroudsburg and Slippery Rock. BU was also listed higher than Temple University, Philadelphia University, Johns Hopkins University, Drexel University, and University of Connecticut. The complete list of rankings are available on Washington Monthly.
These rankings are making my head spin. One example, McDaniel College (lovely college) is ranked as 24 in Wash Monthly National Liberal Arts colleges, 128 in US News Liberal Arts, and 522 in ETC rankings. So you must surmise one of three things:
- Rankings are highly variable and somewhat useless in many cases
- Liberal Arts colleges are very weak when it comes to employability "outcomes"
- Small schools become much more relevant when merit aid is considered
- All of the above, AND you can drive yourself CRAZY with this stuff
@ Portercat…winner, winner chicken dinner! Yes…highly subjective. Depends on what you want? I think all of the schools we have discussed carry some clout.
Looks like Mansfield beat Bloomsburg in the Washington Monthly rankings…
http://washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide?ranking=best-bang-for-the-buck-northeast
@bester1 hmmm, I wouldn’t expect that.
My son is a freshman at Bloomsburg. So far he has been very happy there. Yes, they are building a large new dorm that will primarily house upperclassmen in suite style rooms. That being said, other than the lack of air conditioning in his dorm room, he has had no complaints about it. The room is on the larger side compared to rooms that we saw on other college tours. The bathrooms have been renovated and are large and kept very clean. The price was right, we are out of state and pay just over $30k for the year. He did not receive any merit or need based scholarships (nor were we expecting any). Any questions? Just ask 
@ shellyr25 …Thank you for your post. I would love to know about your son’s experience at Bloomsburg. I think it could be a hidden gem and a great opportunity. Is the town too small? Kids all seem very nice. Any challenges? Food? Classes going well? Thank you for your help.