My daughter is having a hard time finalizing her college decision. She is going in as a Business major, but that could change. She likes a mid size school with lots of activities including club tennis, possibly dance and music department. What are your thoughts and comparisons to Bryant University, Sacred Heart University, Endicott and Merrimack. She has been asked to be in the Honors Program at Sacred Heart and Merrimack.
I’d choose the one you could afford and she feels most welcome (and can play club tennis).
None are less or more than the others.
What works for you, your budget, family, etc.
You might want to look at niche grades for housing and food - if you need a differentiator. Food is underrated - I mean, you have to eat.
Bryant gets a C+ for dorms, C- for food.
Sacred Heart a B and A-
Endicott A-, B-
Merrimack C-, C-
So I’d likely chhose between Sacred Heart (better rated food) and Endicott. You see more complaints about food than anything.
Sacred Heart is Catholic - if that’s an issue.
If you can do another trip to each, eat!!! You’ll know.
Good luck.
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Do the honors programs come with any financial benefit? Otherwise, after reading about their honors programs, I don’t see any particular benefit. Bryant has a long history as a solid business school and has expanded its base from that core in recent years. If I were choosing based on an interest in business, this would be my first choice because it’s business programs are mature and well developed. They know what they’re doing in this regard. I was on campus recently for a grandson’s soccer game and toured. Very nice campus. The other 3 are historically liberal arts colleges which have expanded their core from this base in recent years, so their business programs are newer. Bryant is 62% a male.
Merrimack has been growing in recent years, almost doubling its enrollment from when it was a small liberal arts college and has been attracting increasing numbers of applicants. It does a good job of graduating it’s students. I read an article recently which described it as a mini-Villanova because they are the only 2 Augustinian colleges in the country and offer a similar well rounded program. For example, even when it was half the size it is now, it offered an engineering major. It is the only one of these 4 colleges that is even remotely close to having a 50:50 make:female ratio (actually 48:52). Read the linked article to see why this is important:
Because of the information in that article and because I am the overprotective father of 3 daughter, I have a hard time with colleges which are so heavily female - 62% at Endicott and 70% at Sacred Heart.
Having said that, I’ll tell you that one of my daughters also thought that business would be a good field for her in college. Like your daughter, she had several colleges among which to choose. So I asked her if not business, what else she might be interested in. She replied that she had always thought she might like to be a nurse. My wife and I were both shocked because she had never once in all her 17 years mentioned this in our presence. The more we talked, the more we realized that this was a serious interest of hers. We also realized that if she went to a college where nursing was not offered, this would effectively eliminate nursing as an option for her. So at this point, half of the colleges came off the table.
As you’ve probably guessed, she did choose to become a nurse and has even gone on to graduate school for her nurse practitioner degree. She has loved her career in nursing and is very good at it. Had she gone to Bryant, nursing would not have been an option for her.
My point is not that your daughter should be a nurse, but that schools if this size do not offer everything. I’d have some conversations with your daughter about what her full range of interests might be. Even though she doesn’t know at her age, I’d still push her a little bit. She needs to know that whatever her choice of college, she will likely be eliminating some possibilities. If she really can’t come up with anything beyond business, starting from the other end might work by asking what she would not like to be. Through the process of elimination, you might come up with a list of possibilities. Even using the list of majors at the various colleges might help by rating them interested, so-so, and not interested.
Best of luck with your final decision.
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Bryant is probably most well known for business (at least in New England) Endicott is known for their internship program. And has the most beautiful campus. They’d be my top two. Some honors programs have real advantages; others not so much. I’m not familiar with the honors programs at SHU and Merrimack so don’t have an opinion.
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Bryant is the most well-known for business, solid in all areas connected to this, with innovative minors that should be added to the different business majors.
Will she be able to join club tennis there?
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