@laralei My son was invited to apply for the board of Governors scholarship at West Chester. It was for kids in the STEM field. His sat was 1320. He got the scholarship it was for free tuition. He was also invited to apply for the Honors program but didn’t even bother. He ended up choosing Bloomsburg because he felt more comfortable there. He was accepted into their honors program. He had to apply and do a phone interview. The perks as far as I can tell are Honors housing with an early move in date, He gets to pick his classes early, He has to take some honors courses and do a project.
@shelleyr25 Thanks for the info about the Facebook page. I am going to join right now:)
@sparkleybarkley, did your son get a comparable scholarship from Bloomsburg? Is that the PASSHE school that offers engineering?
Bloomsburg has a new president…
http://www.dailyitem.com/news/local_news/bloomsburg-u-names-new-president/article_7044bef4-7cd6-5d0d-9d5f-98d47e96f842.html
DD is in top 10% of her high school and has the honors/AP classes. She doesn’t have the stats my son had, but she has more in the EC’s, volunteering, etc. She has expressed interest in the Peace Corp.
So I think if she can get that SAT score up over 1300, she would be a good candidate for the Honors Colleges. I also think that would give her a little more enthusiasm for the state schools.
@mommdc, thanks for the school recommendations, I will look at them, but I think I might have already and they were not affordable. We have a very low EFC, so most schools aren’t. 
The only way DS was able to attend Bama, even with the full tuition scholarship, was due to the additional engineering scholarship and the Pell grants.
The only reason I am even considering the state schools is due to DD wanting to go into education; it will allow her to apply for the TEACH grant as well. She really wants to go away to school and I am trying to get that for her.
@LucieTheLakie He got a 5000.00 a year scholarship from Bloomsburg. The full tuition from West Chester was about 7500.00 a year but if I remember correctly the room and board at West Chester was a little more so both schools came pretty close in price with scholarships. I don’t think Bloomsburg has engineering but I am not 100% sure. My son is going for Computer Science with a possible double major in Business.
Bloomsburg has a 3+2 program for engineering. Of course, you need to transfer to Penn State for the last 2 years. I
When looking for DS, I couldn’t find any benefit or savings to this program. The fields are as follows:
In Penn State’s College of Engineering:
Biological Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Engineering Science
In Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences:
Environmental Systems Engineering
Material Science and Engineering
Mining Engineering
Energy Engineering
Shippensburg seems to have several Engineering programs:
https://web.cs.ship.edu/overview-of-programs/b-s-electrical-engineering/
Thanks, @Portercat. I think it was Shippensburg that offered the most engineering options, although only three of their degrees appear to be ABET accredited:
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING, B.S.
COMPUTER SCIENCE, BS
COMPUTER ENGINEERING, B SC IN COMPUTER ENGINEERING
http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=907&ProgramIDs=
It looks like there are several other engineering options spread around the PASSHE system, but many of them are in CS or are engineering technology degrees.
ABET is a good place to look, as their search engine is very comprehensive: http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx
There don’t appear to be any mechanical (or aero) engineering degrees offered in the PASSHE system, probably because the cost of maintaining them is too high. I see this as a major weakness of the system.
It looks like Penn State is the ONLY place in the entire state you can get an aero engineering degree! (If anybody is really interested in that field, check out UAH - they’re are top-tier and VERY generous with scholarships!)
When we visited Shippensburg w/ DS, computer science was the only accredited program. Looks like the other two got accredited after we were already looking at Bama.
At the one open house, a parent asked about the accreditation for the software engineering and they said it wasn’t necessary. No, wouldn’t attend any program if not accredited.
EE is not accredited, and someone posted a grad in that program had a hard time finding a job.
I think York college of PA has EE and Mechanical. Much cheaper than the PS route.
Slippery Rock’s engineering program…
http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=382&ProgramIDs=3955
Gannon apparently offers several ABET accredited engineering disciplines, like biomedical, electrical, software, environmental, and mechanical, and computer science.
With the ABET program search, there are 19 results for mechanical engineering. Drexel, Bucknell, CMU, Lafayette, Lehigh, Temple, several PSU branches, Gannon, Villanova, and more.
My daughter had Gannon for about 23,500/year. Great deal but she did not like it. I loved it!!!
That Gannon at $23,500 would still be way to expensive for us, which is why this thread has been so very helpful.
Yes…still not inexpensive by and standards.
I thought this was interesting (I am a PASSHE fan having graduated from SRU) that the Ohio State schools are increasing the amount of credits that a student can take from 12-16 per semester to 12-18 per semester and many of the PASSHE schools are charging extra for credits for going over 12 credits.
“YSU took a number of steps resulting in opportunities for undergraduate students to enjoy combined savings of more than 9 percent over the course of four years: reducing the number of credits required to earn a bachelor’s degree, from 124 to 120; introducing the new Penguin Jump Start program that allows entering students to take up to six credit hours for just $500 per course; increasing tuition bulk rate by two credit hours, from 12-16 credit hours to 12-18, effectively allowing students to take up to two additional credit hours at no additional cost; and doubling the number of College Credit Plus course offerings, resulting in a 122 percent increase in participation.”
PASSHE’s tuition switch…
https://ragingchickenpress.org/2015/02/20/passhes-new-tuition-schemes-to-increase-costs-to-students/
“Previously, students enrolled in 12 to 18 credits paid the same flat rate for tuition $3,410 (Pennsylvania resident) or $8,525 (non-resident). Under the new per-credit pilot program, tuition for a Pennsylvania resident student taking 12 credits will be $104 lower than he or she would have paid under the flat rate and tuition for a student taking 15 credits will be $748 more than he or she would have paid under the flat rate. Undergraduate per-credit tuition for non-resident students will be set at two times the undergraduate Pennsylvania resident per-credit tuition rate and will result in a savings of $1,965 (12 credits) and $261 (15 credits).”
I don’t think Bloomsburg adopted this plan though. Still, it does speak volumes to direction of thinking that is going on at the two sister state systems are moving.
Someone had asked about Youngstown State University and we did visit on two occasions. It is on an amazing upswing with millions of dollars in donations and improvements. Engineering is ABET accredited the difference that President Tressel is making there in nothing short of amazing. I would not hesitate sending my child there for a moment. She decided against it because they only have a woman’s swim team and she wanted a co-ed group experience.
http://www.ysu.edu/academics/science-technology-engineering-mathematics
Youngstown is improving drastically as well…
This is an absolutely more affordable school that has tons of momentum.
http://www.sbnation.com/2016/12/18/13996992/2016-fcs-playoffs-bracket-scores-results-semifinals
PASSHE State wide study website(limited information at this time).
Hi @bester1, Do you have a list of the Ohio state colleges that offer discounts to PA students or otherwise have serious merit offerings? I am investigating for my younger HS daughter. She will be a HS junior in the fall. Is this only available from directional Ohio U’s (obviously not Ohio State)? Is this only offered to students from certain counties in western PA? Some of the schools you have listed previously (from my memory) include:
Youngstown State
Cleveland State
Ohio University
Others?
Thanks!
Some additional Ohio schools that give merit (depending on stats):
Kent State (COA is $28,000 for OOS I think)
U Akron
U Cincinnati
U Toledo
Ohio Northern
U Dayton
Findlay
Thanks @mommdc. This was discussed a while ago but I think @bester1 was mentioning the ability to get total COA around or just under 20K even with modest stats (22-26 ACT) at some Ohio schools. This may have been for some PA counties only, as I noticed in some NPC calculators they ask if you are from a tuition discount area? I know bester talked about Cleveland State.