Yes, in the 1980’s and 1990’s, PASSHE schools had sufficient funding and offered decent learning conditions for C+ to B students. Tuition was cheap, just above community college, allowing students to dorm relatively easily.
Penn State and Pitt tuition was a fraction what it is now (15 years ago Penn state tuition was 1/3 what it is now.) Lower middle class students could get by with Pell, state grants, and 12-15 hours of work a week. It wasn’t easy, but it was doable.
15 years ago Pennsylvania was relatively ‘normal’. Today, it’s not. It’s in the company of Illinois for it’s combination of high instate fees and lack of financial aid. And Illinois has a old reason - it’s nearly bankrupt. As far as we know, Pennsylvania isn’t.
Iup has become problematic (I wouldn’t send a kid there) and CalU is in danger of closing. Millersville had CS but if you look at career outcomes or recruitment fairs as a parent you try to think if getting your kid elsewhere.
That’s how fast the situation has changed. Parents who knew the situation in the 1980’s/1990’s are the first to realize what a mess it is. What surprises most people on this thread is that few Pennsylvanians seem to care.
Funding has gone down in most , if not all, states. Tuition and fees have risen everywhere. College is not cheap. It’s a struggle to pay for most families. Pennsylvania does provide a variety of options for students (14 community colleges, state related schools, PASSHE schools, 24 branch campuses of PSU, etc). Some of the PASSHE schools still seem to be viable choices. If even they are not acceptable, then looking OOS, as some of you are doing, seems like a good plan.
^AMEN to that!
“15 years ago Penn state tuition was 1/3 what it is now.” Wow, that is just crazy.
The OOS (and private) options are not always as widely available as they seem to be for PA kids. @Bester has found some good ones in Ohio and WV and there have been others mentioned on this thread for Alabama or SUNY. I think this may work better for folks on the western side of PA. Also, many of these options involve kids with athletic hooks or high stats. If you are in middle for stats/income/ECs, it can be very difficult.
Kids closer to eastern PA do not tend to have good affordable OOS options in NJ, DE, MD or VA.
That’s why many, many middle income/middle stats kids in most states end up staying instate. It is usually cheaper to work with your instate options, including community college or directionals, even if those choices are not seen as optimal. Money always gives people more options.
As a Maryland resident, we have relatively few instate options, and looked at the PASSHE schools when my B student D was applying a few years ago. I found them fairly budget friendly for out of state when you factored in discounts for OOS high school GPA at SRU and being in a bordering state at IUP. Virginia’s state schools, on the other hand, were far more expensive for out of state. After the low temperature was around 0 on accepted students day at SRU, my D decided to stay further south in the end.
I guess for B students in Maryland, Salisbury and Frostburg, maybe Towson , would be options? Salisbury and Frostburg remind me somewhat of PASSHE schools. Were Slippery Rock and IUP still more expensive than instate options, @Barbalot ?
I think you’re right @sevmom . But Salisbury and Frostburg didn’t have the major she wanted (early childhood special education) and many of the PASSHE schools do. Yes Slippery Rock and IUP were still more expensive, with the tuition in the $13,000 range, if I’m remembering correctly, but still far better than almost any other non-Maryland state schools.
That’s too bad they didn’t have her major @Barbalot . Would Towson have been her only option if she had wanted to/needed to stay instate?
As a B student, yes. And, coincidentally, she is transferring there next year from her small Virginia LAC (where she got enough aid to make it cheaper than the PASSHE schools) because she decided the school was just too small and insular for her. She had rejected Towson initially because she thought it was too big. You just never know.
Good luck to her!
Sounds like Edinboro University is in for very difficult times…
http://www.goerie.com/news/20170216/edinboro-university-assessment-changes-will-be-made
Sounds like he is admitting problems and has some proposals at least. Whether they work, who knows.
Little scary for those of us considering Cleveland State?
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/02/four_robbed_in_12_days_at_clev.html
Well, Cleveland State is not in University Circle and it’s commuter, which increases the risks.
@bester1 I guess you need to get a sense of their security and the surrounding area bordering the campus.
I would ask lots of questions about security, and some not so obvious ones like “do juniors and seniors typically move off campus?”, “is housing guaranteed for upper classmen”, etc.
I have a question for the group, perhaps better for another thread but I like this one 
Most schools have a deadline of May1st for notification. As long as they guarantee housing for freshman, is there any other advantage to committing much earlier than May1st? I’m not talking about early decision. It is looking like we would like as much time as possible before committing, thanks.
^The only disadvantages would be 1) that the most popular housing might be filled. For West Chester, I don’t know if that would be the cheaper older dorms or the newer affiliated housing; and 2) many kids will already have picked roommates (This is my daughter’s concern).
Thanks @kidzncatz. Roommate selection is something I have no experience with. I know there are profiles to be filled out and group chats where potential roommates can find each other. Isn’t it still a crap-shoot to some extent?
I heard a story yesterday about a Temple student who moved into a “house” (not a dorm) sophomore year and it wasn’t a very good experience. Her friends were going off-campus and she would have ended up dorming with strangers, which she didn’t want to do. The Mom had to regularly take groceries down to her daughter (from the suburbs) since there wasn’t a good shopping option.
Couple interesting tidbits on PASSHE Schools:
- Shippensburg does a nice job preparing CPA's.....http://www.ship.edu/News/2017/02/SU_grads_rank_high_in_2016_CPA_exam_passage_rate/
and
Clarion University President says they will not close…http://clarioncallnews.com/2017/02/23/whitney-oberlander-clear-up-school-closing-scare/