<p>My son is leaning toward Syracuse. I am more to Penn State Erie, since is cheaper. My son is not very independent. Not sure if he'll survive the college academic life. Paying $60K/year is an expensive experiment for us. </p>
<p>Penn State Erie,
* tuition $20,794
* Smeal College of Business, Honors Program,
* honor housing,
* $3500/year scholorship,
* one-time $1000 for international study,
* annual $1200 to perform undergraduate research
* 2+2, transfer to Penn State University Park after two years</p>
<p>University of Connecticut
*tuition $30,970
*Exploratory major
Syracuse
* $40,458
*Dual degree program,
*School of Information Studies
*Whitman School of Management.</p>
<p>What’s your budget - where would the difference come from, a college fund, income, loans?
Why does your son like Syracuse? </p>
<p>Thanks for replying, MYOS1634.
We are middle class people, neither rich or poor. We can manage to pay the tuition and cost, but it will be a big chunk of our income. We want him to have good education. The fund will be from our personal savings and income. His college fund can only cover only one semester in SU.
Why does he like Syracuse? We attended the admitted event in San Francisco. He had a good impression on the program and campus life. I think his decision is more based on the ranking and comments he found online. </p>
<p>Behrend College (Penn State Erie) has the reputation of being the best “penn state” college after University Park, and is highly regarded for engineering. The 2+2 from Behrend is great and it’s guaranteed - it’s not always great at all colleges, because some branch campuses are little more than community colleges with a TAG, but Behrend is a real college, with a campus, residence halls, activities, and an academically strong student body. The advantage is to provide a smaller environment for the first two years, which, based on what you say about his personality, may actually work best for your son.
Penn State has the best alumni network in the country (allegedly) and has been ranked #1 for recruiting by nationwide companies, and not small ones either. Smeal is good, but Honors is very, very, very good - I’m assuming you mean Shreyer? If not Shreyer, then I don’t know - if Shreyer, it’s one of the best Honors Programs in the country. The opportunities these kids get are unbelievable.
Syracuse is definitely a high-reputation school and the dual degree program is good. However it’s not worth three times the cost of Penn State, especially not over Shreyer.
Honestly, I’d rank Syracuse and Penn State roughly the same, but if he got Shreyer that’s a game changer.
Do you live in San Francisco? Syracuse and Erie are both in coooooolllllld locations (lake effect) though! 
Why is Uconn off the table? While it’s not really better than Penn State, it may be a possible compromise? (I’d still take Behrend + Smeal + Shreyer over UConn but ymmv).
If he doesn’t take Syracuse, will you set the savings aside for his grad school or his first downpayment? Or fund study abroad/study away or housing in a big city if he gets a summer internship there?</p>
<p>If it were my son, I’d find a way to grease the wheel to help him fall in love with Penn. As a SU grad, I loved my experience…but it is NO way worth double the price of Penn. </p>
<p>I was paying for the deposit for Syracuse. $950, even the amount of deposit is more than others.
I filled out the bank info, and clicked submit button. For some reason it did not go through. Then I checked this post and saw your responses. and decide to think a little bit more. When is the deadline? May 1st midnight? EST? PST?</p>
<p>MYOS1634, thanks for sharing your opinion. The admission letter states :
“you qualify for the Penn State Behrend Honors Program (BHP)
. …,
Students also have the opportunity, based on
…, to apply for membership in the Schreyer Honors College, Penn State’s university-wide honors program.”
So I guess he is not a member of Schreyer college yet. </p>
<p>JoBenny, yes, I just did that. He is pleased to find out about Schreyer program. and is reconsidering. </p>
<p>If he goes to Behrend/PSU Erie and has the opportunity to apply for membership in Shreyer, he absolutely should.
Good luck today!</p>
<p>Penn State sounds the better choice. Maybe u can send ur son to a campus tour at Penn State since he was so influenced after attending the event in San Francisco. </p>
<p>SU sounds unaffordable.</p>
<p>So, what did your son decide?</p>
<p>He chose penn state at 10PM. Then at 1AM, he came to me and said that he was worried that Penn State Erie is too small, and not enough activities to keep campus life interesting. We’ll try again this evening.
Penn state is nice enough to extend the deadline to Jun 1st. We need to decide if we’ll give up Syracuse today.
I wish we made a campus visit during his spring break. Thought information online would be good enough. </p>
<p>UConn is not considered, since it does not have advantage in cost, or program. The major is not in business. </p>
<p>We have decided to keep penn state erie. Thanks everyone for your opinion. Many thanks to MYOS1634 for your advice. </p>
<p>How did your son decide? This may be helpful for other students who read this and may be in a similar situation.
There is a Penn State forum and a student posted a big thread about the 2+2, answering questions, so that may be a good thread to point your son to.
Keep us updated and congratulations to you and your son!</p>
<p>My son has accepted Penn State Erie’s offer.
Now he received more offers, some from Canadian Universities, some from waitlisted schools:
Other options now:</p>
<h2>School, (major), deadline to accept offer</h2>
<p>Windsor, (B.Comm.Honours Business Administration) by May 14th
CU Boulder, (open major in school of Art and Science), by May 15th.
Laurentian University (BA Economics), by June 2nd<br>
UBC Okanagan, (Ba of Management), by June 2nd </p>
<p>Any comments or advice?</p>
<p>Can you provide the costs (tuition, room&board), after scholarships/grants but before loans? And what’s your budget?</p>
<p>UBC Okanagan is the same principle as for Penn State: Okanagan is a branch campus, more isolated but very pretty. They don’t have a 2+2 so there’s no automatic admission to UBC from Okanagan.</p>
<p>I suppose that at CU Boulder he’d do applied math and economics? Depending on costs it would be a serious contender, but I’ve heard CU Boulder is expensive OOS.</p>
<p>Windsor is a good comprehensive university and a BComm is respected in Canada. Does your son want to work in Canada though?</p>
<p>Canadian schools are way cheaper:
Windsor,
- tuition $6952 CAD
- B.Comm.Honours Business Administration
*by May 14th</p>
<p>CU Boulder,
- tuition $32,008
- open major in school of Art and Science
- by May 15th.</p>
<p>Laurentian University
- tuition $7,108.94 CAD
*BA economics
*by June 2nd</p>
<p>UBC Okanagan,
- tuition $4,890.30 CAD
*Ba of Management
*by June 2nd</p>
<p>I must say UBC Okanagan is very attractive</p>
<p>No scholarships/grants received so far.
Windsor: total $19178/ year, (corrected tuition $8010, room, meal, insurance, fee, etc, )
Cost other than tuition are similar, around $12000/year.</p>
<p>Hm, for a kid who worried Erie might be too isolated with not enough to do on campus, I wouldn’t recommend the Okanagan Valley and UBC-O. Can you visit before June? Take a few days after APs if you can and go visit. Don’t choose <em>just</em> on price as there’s a reason it’s cheaper, like there’s a reason it’s cheaper to attend South Dakota School of Mines than Colorado School of Mines, even though both are good schools. Visit. You may find it beautiful (it is) and calming and your son may love it. Then again,…</p>
<p>Colorado is out of the running: it’s not better than Penn State and twice more expensive.</p>
<p>Laurentian is bilingual and I’ve read good and bad things about it, but I don’t know anything first hand.</p>
<p>Key questions: does your son want to work in Canada? (Are you Canadians?) Does he speak French and/or want to become bilingual? What’s his target job or career hopes?</p>
<p>Between Laurentian, Windsor, and Penn State, I’d still pick Penn State’s 2+2, <em>as long as you can afford it</em> and that your son wouldn’t borrow more than the federal loan ($5,500 his first year). If you can pay for it, think of it this way: the goal of education isn’t to save the most money.
Now, if you were going to do yard sales and sell a car, or HELOC or Parent PLUS loans… the situation’s different. </p>