^it’s for CS and Engineering Technology, not Engineering that I can see.
I believe York College has ABET accredited Engineering. While not a state school, a student can receive merit that puts it on par with PASSHE tuition, even with modest stats.
Bunch of news…
http://www.pennlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/03/here_are_pennsylvanias_14_stat.html
http://www.lockhaven.com/news/local-news/2017/03/cutting-sports-is-up-to-lhu-president/
That pennlive article has a good overview. I would like to see a 5 year graduation rate, or average grad time. I know the average for WC is something like 4.4 years, so closer to 4 years than 6, at least for kids that stick with it and not counting those that drop out.
Just curious, does anyone spend time on other threads? I was on the “Parents of Class of 2017”, and it was night and day between that one and this one. It is full of parents with kids getting into top level schools with top scholarships, or able to pay most of it without worrying much about cost. It just seems like a different universe to me. Lots of conversations about what the kids will be wearing to graduation, again I don’t understand.
Those threads do seem to have lots of families chasing merit aid, at the usual suspects. Many students applying all over the place. And yes, an occasional clearly wealthy person whose kids are casting an even wider net, to include pricier colleges. There are definitely some wealthy people that post on these forums, but there really does seem to be a mix of incomes . But some of the Parents Cafe threads are the ones that can definitely have interesting posts- about expensive vacations, gourmet meals, expensive cars, etc. where money seems to be no object. But, I get to hear how the other half lives!
And a lot of people on this thread seem to be looking for merit aid, although generally not at the top schools. But it’s all relative-what level of school you can look at, how much you can pay or are willing to pay.
The thread I follow closely is the 2017 kids with 3.0-3.4 gpa. There’s a wonderful list there of the kids, their stats, where they applied, and the admit/FA info. Great info that keeps me grounded, either when I think my kid is the bees knees or when I despair of her making it out of 10th grade.
Agree. Good to also look at the threads that involve more of the kinds of kids that are out there applying to schools. Lots of kids are still going to community college , schools like the PASSHE schools, or other instate options. If you read some threads, you might think that is not the case, but I’ll bet that’s still the reality for lots of families. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
The funny thing is there are probably, oh, I dunno, random hugely generalized numbers here: 10 thousand or 20 thousand of these perfect kids out there with perfect stats, and all the parents are here on CC doing all the good research and getting the great prep that will help them, and then there are probably several thousand more perfect kids whose parents don’t know anything and aren’t here – and then there are several million kids who aren’t perfect and whose parents aren’t here and then there are about 100 kids who aren’t perfect and whose parents are here, trying to find the right school and get the best fit for the money.
LOL, I know I’m exaggerating, but it sometimes feels like we are tiny hidden tadpoles in a huge pool filled with monster sharks.
@sevmom …Exactly…In 2008, 43% of all undergraduate students were enrolled in community college. That number is likely over 50% now but I could not.find the data.
@Portercat …These PASSHE threads are so very important because our situations/type of student/financial situations had been underrepresented on College Confidential. I think it has been great and I appreciate all of the contributions!!
Btw, my Daughter has really come to terms with nice schools such as Bloomsburg, West Chester, Cleveland State and WVU. It took a year but I think shes got it now… Everything from money, opportunity and an understanding that you are going to own this experience…Make it special
Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement! Latest argument in our house, being honest here, is that West Chester “forced” her into picking a major when applying when she is really undecided. This goes back the point about advising. I understand that certain parts of the university are very strict, like the Nursing program only has 200 slots or whatever. BUT for other majors like business or liberal arts or psychology, is it that difficult to change majors? Naive on this one…
No…Not difficult at all. May require a written request. She still has time to change with so many general education requirements to take. Unless she wants into the nursing program, she has two years to decide.
Thanks @bester1. That’s what I thought. Why do they make you select one when you apply? With the smaller schools you don’t have to “check the box” and it is open ended. Maybe that is one of the differences between a college and university.
Well, at some colleges they may limit the number of students accepted to a particular school or major (business/nursing), so they would need to know if you are interested to be accepted to that school/major when you apply.
I always thought that majors don’t have to be declared until at least sophomore year.
My fave PASSHE is Bloomsburg. Run away from Cheney, don’t even look. I think you should look at some SUNY schools as alternatives. There’s city schools, suburban schools, remote schools (Plattsburgh is in a beautiful area, right across Lake Champlain from University of Vermont and a short trip to Montreal, a great city, with passport), small city schools (Binghamton is 30 minutes north of the PA NE Ext, Cortland is just a bit farther, right down the road from Cornell). If he likes skiing and hockey, they are worth a look. Heck, Plattsburgh is worth a look even if you don’t want to go there.
Thing is about remote schools is that they generally rely on frats/sororities for social life. If your student is a frat/sorority type, that’s fine. If not, it could be a risk.
@SpacemanEd, which post are you responding to? I know for a couple of us going north into colder weather was a non-starter, for good or bad.
@Portercat My oldest that went to local Penn state branch campus wanted to try different types of classes. She also felt forced into taking specific classes while she was more interested in exploration. I told her to talk to an advisor and got nowhere there either. Someone, somewhere here(?), said she needed to declare double majors and minors to be able to get the classes she was interested in, no idea if that is how it needs to be done or just worked for them. Branch was too expensive for what it was. Never considered in for any of our other kids.
Never even considered top schools for DS who had high stats. Too competitive, no guarantees, and often a lot of work for not enough. I know there are threads here about schools with great aid, but many are just way to high to begin with. Great aid bringing costs down to around $30K might be a bargain for some, but not for us.
Youngest is a decent student. She took her SAT today, but knows she did very poorly on the math section. She said there were things there she had never seen before. I have been telling her to prep, she said she did, but maybe not as well as she should have. Think I will have to get more involved for the next one.
When my S took the PSAT in 10th grade it showed that he had just started Algebra 2 and Stats 1. On the last SAT he improved a lot on the math. He had just finished Stats 2 and is in Precalc. But there are still some things he hasn’t learned yet. He wants to try and do some practice over the summer. There are some SAT practice tests on Collegeboard website and Khanacademy helps too.