<p>An interesting thing about the Plan II Honors Program at Texas is that it is also a major that students in the Honors program need to major in. Many double major in some other academic area, too.</p>
<p>DunninLA - in regard to your post of 6/16, I am not sure what is your question? What do you mean by "Are there several Case Western Universities, and this one is the best of them "?? Are you trying to be funny? I am not sure what you mean by your reference to Junior University. Could you, please, clarify your question if any of it is important.</p>
<p>If you can get into Schreyer's Honors College you might be able to get into an Ivy, Stanford, Caltech, MIT, Chicago, Duke. Why not just go to one of those schools? It seems foolish to go to an honors college unless you have financial limitations.</p>
<p>collegehelp - oh we've been down this road before so many times on various CC threads.
First of all, how many of us truly don't have some form of financial limitations? Even if I had a full 200k to spend on UG, I might choose to look at the full picture and spend it differently. Perhaps 50K at Schreyer, 50K for frequent study abroad opportunities, and 100K for advanced education (law, med, business). Or maybe I just keep a huge cushion so I don't need to live with my parents when I get started!
Foolish? One might argue those paying full sticker price are the foolish ones - although I would never make that judgment for anyone. Everyone has their reasons for a particular choice.</p>
<p>Many students in Schreyers turned down Ivy's for PSU. When you look at the outcomes of many of these students there is no need to go to an Ivy. Goldman Sachs to Harvard law and med and on and on. PSU is an extraordinary college experience. Some people just don't buy into the Ivy at all costs mentality.</p>
<p>I doubt that the real difference in cost between public and private would exceed $10,000 per year max after financial aid for the vast majority. If your financial aid is so low from a private school, your family can probably afford the cost of the private school.</p>
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Foolish? One might argue those paying full sticker price are the foolish ones
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<p>Amen - coming from an aunt whose two nieces (ahem-sister and b.i.l.) paid $200,000 each for girls who went to Cornell for engineering. One is getting married after getting her real estate license. The other is trying her hand at acting.;)</p>
<p>Hard to see the investment value of all that $$$</p>
<p>In-State tuition all the way!!!:D Woo Hoo!!</p>
<p>I glad that graduates from Schreyer's do well but they probably could have spent those four years at a top 20 private school surrounded by the best and brightest in a great academic and social climate. I am cynical about the purpose of honors colleges. I think they are a marketing ploy to lure naive students to a university that is beneath their potential.</p>
<p>"The best and brightest".....well, that's open for debate now isn't it.:)</p>
<p>ag54-
sorry to hear that sad news about your nieces</p>
<p>They're actually very happy with their decisions. What they're unhappy about is the fact that they bought into the idea that it was Ivy or nothing.</p>
<p>They could have done with they're doing for less than 1/2 the cost.</p>
<p>For most (not all), making the most of a state school degree will get you to the same end result. Ask your bosses where they got their degree from:D
Chances are, it was from a state school (unless you work for Goldman Sachs, but I don't know if I'd want to be working there now;))</p>
<p>ag54 - Engineering is in great demand and much easier to get a job than most other professions. Not to work as an engineer with engineering degree was most likely by choice, was not it? My husband and most of my freinds, including women are engineers, some of them are with bad English and we are in a worst economic area with arguably one of the highest unemployment rate. All are working as engineers and are paid comfortably well.</p>
<p>OK college help, you think that the honors college kids are a bunch of naive kids falling for marketing ploys? Yeah, pretty cynical.
Others with a bent to cynical thinking might consider the Ivy kids lemmings who buy into the Ivy or nothing mentality.
Really, there is no right or wrong way here...just different choices.
With the Harvards and Yales picking up financial aid for even the most wealthy families, I can see how many would choose these schools over an honors college...especially if the cost is close.
But for right now, many in-state kids in Honors Colleges are there with fantastic deals....paying 1/4 or less than what they would be charged at a Duke or Cornell. Can you at least acknowledge that this can be a difficult choice for many parents and kids? What is the added value for spending an extra 150K or 200K? Can you really even speak to this without spending time in both types of environments? The social and academic environments I've seen at some of the top honors colleges are hard to beat.<br>
Yeah, some honors colleges may be just window dressing. But many offer strong programs at a great price. Don't lump them all together!</p>
<p>Toneranger - agree completely with your position. Why to pay full price, unless you are truly into millions and really do not care. There are very selective programs that accept only very very best at state schools where you will pay very low $$, if not having full ride. We are paying less for D's college than her High School (were she was also on Academic scholsrship). We pitched invitations for application from Harvard, Prinston and very happy about it. One thing I a little disagree - Medical School is definately higher than $100k and going up even at state school, unless again, you get academic scholarship. Med. School is where my D. would like to be in 3 years, so we are trying to save some dough for that.</p>
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I doubt that the real difference in cost between public and private would exceed $10,000 per year max after financial aid for the vast majority. If your financial aid is so low from a private school, your family can probably afford the cost of the private school.
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<p>I can't speak for the vast majority, but I can tell you that our family does not qualify for financial aid. And I am willing to tell the CC community that we paid ~$16,000 last year due to merit scholarships for D to attend OSU. 50-16= $34,000 savings in the first year</p>
<p>We are out-of-state. If she had been in-state or a national merit finalist, the cost would have been even lower.</p>
<p>In July she will be a volunteer at the summer meeting of the Linguistics Society of America LSA:</a> Meetings held at OSU.</p>
<p>toneranger-
I acknowledge that, for some, the financial considerations outweigh the amenities of an elite private education. But it is really too bad when a prospective student fails to apply to an elite private school because they assume it is not affordable. At least apply, then weigh the financial considerations after you have the financial aid offer. The difference in cost will rarely be $150K. The average difference might be $40K.</p>
<p>I don't think the experience of being in an honors college could be much different from non-honors students except for the time you spend in classes with all honors students. Do faculty adjust their teaching for honors courses? Are non-honors students well-segregated from the honors students at all times? I doubt it. I think people exaggerate the differences in their minds.</p>
<p>Don't discount the prestige factor. Graduating from an elite school can be a great confidence-builder. For the rest of your life you are going to be a Penn State graduate saying "I went to Penn State Schreyer's Honors College". "Where's that?"</p>
<p>Uggh, Snobby Mcsnobberson! </p>
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For the rest of your life you are going to be a Penn State graduate saying "I went to Penn State Schreyer's Honors College". "Where's that?"
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<p>You know, I'm going to walk down the hall to my CEO's office and ask him where he got his degree (I know already, but just for fun:))</p>
<p>Then, when he says, "Miami of Ohio." I'm going to very smugly say, "Where's that?" like he's a loser.</p>
<p>Think I'll get a good review next time?;)</p>
<p>My family paid about $17K per year out of pocket for Cornell with an annual income in the triple digits. That was after grants and work-study.</p>
<p>ag54-
You call it snobbishness but it isn't. The school you attend becomes part of your identity. That's the reality of it. It is one of the benefits of attending an elite school. Why deny it?</p>
<p>Lucky you </p>
<p>My brother in law is a firefighter and my sister works as an administrator at a nursinghome, hardly folks that you would think of as being able to afford a $200,000 college education. </p>
<p>They qualified for 0 dollars in financial aid because he is a part owner in a nonproducing family tree farm of which he gets 0 dollars per year in income. My nieces had college funds set up by our parents that were depleted by the middle of the sophomore year. So my nieces are in debt up to their eyeballs. On the positive side, my niece snagged a really rich fiance from the NE who can afford to pay off her loans;) My other niece is hoping she can score a recurring TV commercial, that's where the big bucks in acting are!</p>
<p>EFC is a tricky thing, and not all qualify.</p>