@shelleryr25…sorry for the misspelling
My son loves Bloomsburg! From the minute he walked onto the campus when we did the tour last fall he knew he wanted to go there. The town is adorable and connected to the campus so the kids can walk right down and get pizza, shop etc. There is a Walmart in the area that the school runs a shuttle to for bigger shopping if needed. He is happy with the food in the main dining room as well as the Husky Lounge which has a grill and a few healthier options and is opened late nights. There are 2 Starbucks on campus plus a Steak and Shake and next year when the new dorms open there will be a Qdoba as well. He was a B student in high school and is right on par with his classes. He is taking advantage of the peer tutoring for 2 classes that he finds more challenging and is doing well with it. If your child would consider that area it is certainly worth taking a tour before the weather really gets cold.
Thank you. She did a weekend recruiting trip visit earlier this fall. She enjoyed the school, the team and coach. She just seems to wait for something better but I think it would be a really good fit for her. We will see!! Thanks again.
You’re welcome…just so you know, for the most part, the athletes are housed in Elwell hall which is the one air conditioned dorm. So going there for a sport has a benefit!! Good luck and if you have any other questions just let me know.
Thank you @shelleyr25. Can I ask if you looked at other PASSHE schools and if so, how did Bloomsburg seem in comparison? Did you base any decisions on your test scores (ACT, SAT, etc?)? Unfortunately my D1 removed it from her main list (for now), but I may be able to convince D2.
No, we did not look at any of the others. His guidance counselor recommended Bloomsburg-he thought it would be a good fit for my son based on his SAT and GPA, distance from home, size of the school etc…
@bester1, looking for some thoughts. We have been getting acceptances and a couple of offers (the good news!), It looks like the financial packages for the state schools (like West Chester) don’t come until later…? We have also rec’d 3 private school letters and most of the info (acceptance + merit offer) arrives in the same package. 2 of the privates after merit still come in at around 30-32K/year; which we cant realistically afford without larger loans, whereas the COA for the state schools are still around 20-25K. So overall, we have not been pleasantly “surprised” by the private offers. May try and negotiate but don’t know how to do that. Have your private merit offers (not the NPC) actually been closer to the state school cost? York college of PA is the only one that is comparable so far, but I am not sure how interested she is.
I also had a good phone conversation with a Millersville parent. She was very positive about the school, said that there is a lot of unclaimed money, and her D was offered an additional $3500 out of the blue 3 weeks before the start of the semester. Happy Thanksgiving!
@portercat …I think we are living the same exact life!!! All of the privates have come in at 30 - 35K. York at 24. She has no interest in that one. We are waiting for the state schools, Bloom, West Chester, WVU, Ohio University and I am thinking we already know that they will all be in the 20-25K range. I believed that the privates would get into that range…not the case at all. No “Surprise offers”. Granted she has only a 26 ACT and a 3.3 ish but some this includes some $ for swimming so I had hoped for something more affordable. The loan system is almost criminal. The bright side, she has been accepted to every place she has applied. The costs are discouraging.
I don’t think the PASSHE schools have money to throw around. In western PA, she would get a great deal at Clarion but I she has zero interest and won’t apply. She would get a great deal from IUP but the counselor from school contacted us and did not recommend saying that the level of partying there has gone out of control. We shall see. Thank you for the discussion and Happy Thanksgiving and I hope that you enjoy the day.
@bester1 @portercat My daughter received her acceptance to Temple yesterday (yes, on Thanksgiving Day!). I just wish she would consider the small privates, some of which would be as inexpensive as West Chester and much cheaper than Temple, based on the NPCs and considering our EFC of 0. But no, they are all “too small”. She is now saying even West Chester is “too small” (with 14,000 undergrads!). We’ll all get through this, but it is really frustrating for us parents, especially those with opinionated kids.
@kidzncatz Thank you for the update. Did you get any financial info from Temple? I had read they are changing the grant awards based on last years mishap…but you never know. The funny thing with my daughter is that she learns so much better in smaller settings yet she refuses to look.
@kidzncatz and @bester1, thanks for the support. I brought it up because as exciting as it is to receive the acceptances at the privates, I was hoping one of the offers was better. Maybe we go back and visit York again. The Elizabthtown offer is close to $35k (unaffordable). Application was free, so tried anyway. We’ve got 2 more kids after D1 and can’t be spending that much. Can’t be risking what little home equity we have after the housing crisis, or our retirement accounts. We still have to hear from 2 more schools, but don’t want to get our hopes up too much also.
@bester1 No financial aid info yet. I figure it may take a while, though hopefully it will be earlier than in past years, since the schools have the FAFSA data ~3 months earlier.
@bester1 will WVU and Ohio U be out of state for you? Would you expect them to be the same price as in state (West Chester and Bloom)?
@Portercat We are residents of PA. I expect the price to be within $2-3,000 of the PASSHE prices.
Is that for swimming? We applied to an OOS state school in VA but the only way I think it will comparable to a PASSHE price will be with their presidential scholarship. Thanks.
That woould be before any swimming scholarship.
Thanks @bester1. I did the NPC for WVU and it only came back with $6K merit for us as OOS student, which would still put the COA in the high 20s. Hoping for some good news this week.
I was also researching some other threads about negotiating merit, and without new/better test scores or GPAs (which we don’t have), it is unlikely that the schools will budge, which may put us right back into the PASSHE discussion.
@portercat …I get it. On the bright side, some of the PASSHE schools do a good job. From what I gather, West Chester, Bloomsburg, Slippery Rock, IUP and maybe Shippensburg are the best. On the west side of the state, California, Clarion and Edinboro are shaky at best. I still find it amazing that PSU has 20 branch campuses and those campuses receive public funding but we under fund our true state schools (the PASSHE schools). Same with Pitt and their branches. I think my daughter will end up at either Bloom or West Chester.
Thanks @bester1. Yes, for PASSHE, my daughter would end up at either West Chester or Millersville (also ranked relatively high in many ranking systems, better than Ship overall) and she has been accepted to both. If that is the case, she would be giving up on her dream of going to college in Virginia or Maryland, but it may be the best long-term decision.
I think we will be crunching a lot of numbers and over-analyzing this between New-Years and March as we zero-in on a final decision. 20K of debt is reasonable in my mind, but 50-60K of debt for undergrad is unwise (and we as parents would be on the hook also). We’re not talking about Princeton vs. West Chester; we’re talking about Randolph-Macon vs. West Chester and I don’t think it would make that much difference.
@portercat…yes…sorry…I forgot to add Millersville. Good choice. I agree with the $20K versus $30-50K. I tell my Daughter that she can go to grad school where ever she wants on her own time/merit but that it does not make much sense to go into heavy debt for an undergraduate degree.