Interesting that there is another thread on CC bemoaning the issues with NJ state schools, their expense and the expense of the flagship (Rutgers).
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20224063#Comment_20224063
@fleishmo6 Edinboro seems to be taking a different approach, by raising admission standards to make the school more attractive in the long run. This may hurt in the short term but better long term.
Does anyone have general thoughts or know people who had a good experience at East Stroudsburg, Shippensburg OR Kutztown? These are larger (+5000 kids enrollment) and kind of fall in the middle for reputation (relative to PASSHE!) as far as I can tell.
I am thinking ahead for D2, possibly. Ship published some recent stats on their accounting program, and ranks fairly high for students taking the CPA exam.
I think Shippensburg is probably the best of these three, particularly for business. My daughter’s best friend is a freshman at Ship (not a business major) and loves it.
Update: Temple’s financial aid offer was, as I had suspected, not that great (no institutional aid). My daughter emailed the financial aid office to try to see if they could increase her aid, but I don’t think she even received a response. She wore her West Chester shirt yesterday rather than the multiple Temple shirts she’s been wearing for the past few months and has been texting a friend from a different high school who is planning to go to WC. She also told me yesterday that she was signing up for the March 25 accepted student’s day, so I guess she is accepting the fact that Temple isn’t going to happen. She received an excellent financial aid package from Toledo (better than either of the PA schools, go figure) but when I suggested that she reconsider that school, she said, “Do you want me to freeze?”
@kidzncatz Well if our kids end up at WCU, we should introduce them lol!
By “instituitional aid”, do you mean need or merit aid or both? Also, do you know what they do at the accepted student day? Trying to determine if it would be worth it as we just toured 2 weeks ago. Thanks!
@Portercat - I live very near ESU. My D went to a lax camp there and the dorms are pretty spiffy. I have been to a lax game there. Other than that, I cannot tell you much. The campus is fairly compact. It’s not viewed particularly highly by folks around here, but I don’t think I’d use that as a basis for much of anything. If you want me to go check something out or take pictures, I can certainly do that for you, as my son’s Catholic middle school is literally across the street.
(You might reasonably ask, “Are you considering it?” And my answer would be not unless we are out of all other options. It’s pretty basic, academics-wise, just from what I’ve read.)
Thank you @Gatormama for the offer, but no need right now. We did a drive through a couple of weeks ago. She liked it enough to go back for a real tour at some point. Need to get D1 settled first!
Hi all - just found this site today as my son is trying to decide between Lycoming, Millersville and York…and possibly a couple of NJ state schools. OOS PA ends up costing us about what in state NJ does! @Portercat - I can’t say why, but my son’s wrestling coach who went to East Stroudsburg said he would kill my son if he went there! Again, I don’t have details. My son also got into Kutztown, but academically Kutztown seems to be the least competitive - and I’ve heard a huge party school, which my son doesn’t need!!
Welcome @NJWrestlingmom ! We are mostly a huddle of PA residents here and I’m gratified to hear that any school in PA is cheaper than NJ. :$)
@Portercat I was referring to institutional need-based aid. My daughter’s stats are within the average range for Temple, so I wasn’t expecting any merit aid. I don’t know what admitted students day involves, but we haven’t been to WCU since last summer.
Thanks @NJWrestlingmom, so my daughter did get into Millersville and York. As I wrote earlier in the thread, I liked both of those schools. We have a good merit offer in hand for York making it equivalent in cost to PASSHE schools but my D is not currently interested. Oh well. Millersville is also on the back burner compared a couple of our other choices, including West Chester, but I liked it! The 'Ville has a pretty campus.
Do you have concerns about either of these?
The city of York worries me a bit! We are going 3/25 to accepted students day. A friend’s son is a senior there and has never had a problem, but we are in a very rural part of NJ (yes, that exists!) so it makes me nervous! Loved millersville! What seems to be complicating matters is wreslting! Lyco and York are bothD3 and I think that’s swaying him. Unfortunately he’s been injured and so not heavily recruited so I think he’s debating trying to walk on somewhere. York is the most affordable, and comes in right where the NJ state schools do. He doesn’t seemed thrilled with any of the NJ schools, but that could just be because everyone pretty much leaves NJ for college here!
Does anyone know if Millersville is dead on the weekends? That’s a concern anywhere because all the PA schools are about 2.5 hours away so he won’t be coming home every weekend.
@NJWrestlingmom Yes, there are several comments on CC talking about the city of York. We actually had lunch there during the tour and thought the part we were in was sort of charming actually. Indoor farmers market thing across the street. I heard that the security is good but that they do get notifications (regularly) if a criminal act takes place near campus. There is a section between 2 parts (between main part and fitness center) of campus where kids walk back and forth. I’m not sure if this is a concern. My D did not like the lack of football team, the small Greek system, and some stories from friend’s about lack of “school spirit”. I also heard that you must stay in their on-campus housing all 4 years. I like all of their online videos, the way they package their message, and their transparent straight-forward pricing (underrated). Unfortunately, my D lost interest.
Someone earlier mentioned that Millersville does get quiet at times. I have spoken to a few students and parents from Millersville and almost all (except one) says great things.
It’s funny because my son played football in high school too. No interest in playing in college, but I was surprised he couldn’t care less about going to a school with a team. I guess 10 years of playing was enough! Lol. Good luck with your daughter! I’m hoping we have a decision early April after all the accepted student days- it’s getting close!
@NJWrestlingmom Is he leaning towards one school for now? How did you pick Millersville and York from all of the PA schools, is it b/c he likes the Lancaster area?
I think he is leaning towards York for a few reasons- it’s affordable, it’s a good size (he wanted smaller, but if afraid Lycoming is too small), and it has D3 wrestling. He’s leaning towards education, and York has a coaching minor as well.
We heard about York from one of my co-workers. Another of my friends had a daughter who graduated Millersville and his son is a senior at York. Also, my husband is a teacher and a number of his co-workers went to Millersville.
We had actually started looking at Kutztown first - it’s less than an hour from us in NJ and a pretty popular safety school in our high school. Bloomsbury is also popular and that led us to look at all the PA schools. Most have discounts for NJ residents and/or SAT scores. Millersville gave us enough money to bring it down to the NJ state school cost.
He also was accepted to a beautiful little school in VT that wants him to wrestle. Of course it’s a state school and offered no aid so it’s $10,000 more per year than his other choices!! We just can’t justify $40,000 just to play D3!!
I totally understand your thinking on the extra costs. My D’s two dream schools in Virginia are about 7-10K more per year, which would make her gap around 40K in loans over 4 years. We can’t justify it, so are leaning towards West Chester but still waiting to pull the trigger as she is waiting to hear on some external scholarships. She is learning about reality and disappointment. I was a little heartbroken the other day when I read her “pro/con” list and one of the cons of going to WC was always wondering “what if”.
It seems to me that Rider, Rowan and Seton Hall are NJ state directional schools much like PASSHE schools (like a Millersville) but the NJ ones are ranked a bit higher on most rankings. Am I missing something? Thanks.
West Chester sounds like a nice choice, @Portercat. It really does sometimes seem like the grass is greener elsewhere. CNU and Randolph Macon are perfectly fine schools but don’t get as much love from lots of Virginia kids. Maybe that’s why some NJ kids would rather go to Millersville than Rowan, Rider, etc. Just something different. But as you say, at some point, reality needs to set in. Hope your daughter can start getting excited about West Chester if that is where this ends up going.