Putting in a plug for Erie which, admittedly, we’ve only visited on vacation. But we ADORE Presque Isle. We live on the eastern side of PA and have returned five times to vacation there. It’s a great little city and Presque Isle is the best state park in PA. (State parks are the best thing about PA, hands down).
One of my co-workers went to Gannon. He was all gung-ho to go to a big school OOS, but his mom worked as a secretary at Gannon, there were five kids in the family, and duh, they all went to Gannon for the free tuition. He is a great guy and has a great job, fwiw!
As far as cities go, Erie is small, not overwhelming, with a nice walkable downtown. Some of the Gannon buildings are amazing - rambling old mansions…
My wife went to Gannon and had a wonderful experience. Her best friends today are from her times at Gannon.
@MACmiracle have you looked into UScranton?
I have heard about Messiah because of their music program. But it has engineering too so I would assume science would be fine there. But you could always try and get some information.
@mommdc The NPC results weren’t great for Scranton and she’d need scores a bit higher if she wanted to try for competitive merit.
I was looking at the Messiah website and it looks nice, warm and open. I met a kid who went to Messiah and she was so friendly and sweet and was a great ambassador for the school.
I’m getting the feeling that my friends here might not think GCC or SVC is the best choice. Is there something I should know? GCC is conservative to the point of being rigid and not enough warm & fuzzy? SVC?
@MACmiracle I prefer conservative leaning over liberal schools, so not why we didn’t pursue GCC or SVC. 
I am too pragmatic to really not consider anything that will save me $$.
We passed on them, as I am trying to find DD something close to what she would like and she wants a larger student body than either of these had to offer; the lack of federal aid at GCC also didn’t work for me. Our state schools just keep coming out better for us financially as well.
You are right about U Scranton. It is a Jesuit school and supposed to be strong in science, but the NPC came out much higher then the rest.
I did not look further into GCC because we wanted to take out federal loans, and they don’t participate in the federal aid program. But an aquaintance speaks well of the school. I have no knowledge of the religious environment there.
Saint Vincent I have looked at online and it looks like a nice school to me. But it wasn’t on the list of NASM (National Association of Schools of Music) and doesn’t offer a Music Education major, so we didn’t look into it further.
I would go ahead and go on your visits and open house, and go see for yourself, talk to faculty and students if possible, not everyone is looking for the same things.
For comparison sake here are some net price calculator numbers for several schools I had looked into at one time.
The net price does not include loans yet, it is just **direct costs/b **minus scholarships and grants/b. The EFC used was $6,000.
Grove City College $16,500
Susquehanna $18,000
St Vincent $18,500
Messiah $21,000
Seton Hill $21,500
Westminster $23,000
I forgot Lycoming, it was somewhere between GCC and Susquehanna’s net price.
@MACmiracle found this about St Vincent
http://www.stvincent.edu/community-events/newsroom/2017/09/29/svc-ranks-well-on-us-department-of-educations-college-scorecard
I’ve run so many NPC’s I can’t even keep track of them anymore, but I would say our costs were similar to yours @mommdc for those schools. Ours were probably a couple of thousand less, but our EFC is lower by that as well.
@nomadic do some of those NPC numbers include substantial need aid? Susquehanna is $57K/year, so that would be a massive discount. In my mind it kind of shows how crazy the system is.
@lararei I made a spreadsheet to keep track of it. Yes, we are above Pell egibility, but we do get a state grant which varies by school.
The private schools would give us less grant aid once D doesn’t count as student in college, which when that will be I am unsure of at the moment
@Portercat, yes the aid is scholarship and need based institutional grant aid, and about $4,000 state grant.
Some schools show merit and grants separately on the NPC. Susquehanna had it all listed together under ‘scholarships and grants’.
htt://www.messiah.edu/info/21375/spotlight_days
@MACmiracle look at the “spotlight days” visit option at Messiah.
I had never heard of this school, other than that a classmate of my D’s is going there.
Then my S’s music teacher mentioned it and I looked at it more.
It seems like a really nice place.
They also offer music scholarships he might be able to get.
But I wish it was closer. Over three hours is much further than I would prefer.
Another Christian school to look at is Geneva College.
http://www.geneva.edu/student-financial-services/aid-types/scholarships_awards
PASSHE chancellor praises Edinboro’s ‘Path Forward’…
http://www.goerie.com/news/20171002/passhe-chancellor-praises-edinboros-path-forward
PASSHE SHIFTING FROM “SYSTEM REVIEW” TO “SYSTEM REDESIGN”…
http://wccsradio.com/passhe-shifting-from-system-review-to-system-redesign/
Wonder if the Board has looked at the increasing enrollment at some of the schools and working on “why” and how to continue the trend?
IUP RECOGNIZED BY “WALL STREET JOURNAL”/“TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION” COLLEGE RANKINGS…
https://www.iup.edu/news-item.aspx?id=245478
Special education degree ranked among the best in country…
https://www.bloomu.edu/special-education-ranking
IUP may be well ranked but it has a terrible reputation in our HS, per all the kids my DD has spoken with. 
Interestingly, after DD preferring WCU over Bloom, and me finding the cheap dorms make it possible, she has now decided that Bloom’s campus would probably work better for her.
Ever changing…