<p>jamimom,
Pitt's total cost is estimated at $22,354 minus $2K from honors college and $2K from the engineering school as merit. (tuition 10,804, R&B 7090, plus fees, books, etc)</p>
<p>Penn State total cost is estimated at $21,330 minus $2500 from Schreyer as merit. (tuition 11,480, R&B = 7110, plus fees, books, etc)</p>
<p>It sure has gone up alot since my college days!</p>
<p>I left Pittsburgh about 9 years ago, and I am in sticker shock from your numbers. The last I heard which was a couple of years ago, Pitt was about $8K in tuition, and I thought that was high. All I can say is "wow". I know our state U has gone up as well, but not quite there. I do know that CMU is $30K+ for tuition alone as many private colleges now are.</p>
<p>CMU's total cost is going to be around $44,000! Tuition 31,650, R&B 8544, books + fees + incidentals around 2500, music lessons not included in tuition 1400. Makes the state schools look like a real bargain!</p>
<p>lk...
We were in a similar situtation last year waiting for the "final" offers from several schools . I wanted to send a word of caution. IF you are considering CMU at all, check to see if their deposit is refundable. Housing selection is based on the order the deposit is received. It can make a substantial difference if you don't respond until the very last minute. Some schools allow you to make that deposit, refundable until May 1. A different college even advised us to do so, specifically for the housing choice. I don't know CMU's policy, however.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice kjofkw! I did think to ask that and was told by phone that the deposit of $500 is NOT refundable but not binding either. Did you have a bad housing experience from sending you deposit at the end of the month?</p>
<p>One issue that has not come up is the social aspects of college. Given that your son grew up in the Pittsburgh area and you still live there, I think it may be a bit of a social disadvantage to go to school there. A major part of going away for college is the "going away". I think that if he went to college locally that he would be tempted to spend weekends and perhaps some evenings at home. While this may make some parents who are struggling with the concept of an empty bedroom happy, I'm not sure that this a great way to foster growth in independence and the excitement and confidence that comes from the ability to strike out on one's own.</p>
<p>Another factor may be related to his music. Perhaps I missed what instrument that he plays, but if it is one that lends itself to marching bands, I can't think any of the other potentials could match the excitement and comraderie of playing in the PSU marching band - and, if they can get their football program back in line, possibly at the Rose Bowl.</p>
<p>Edit; Oops I forgot that Pitt was on the list as well. They too would offer the bigtime marching band opportunity.</p>
<p>Lkf, CMU is always short of housing, so if you are at the tail end of the deposits, you can end up pretty far from campus. There have been years when CMU student were put up in hotels, because there was not enough room. But I would not make that a big deal issue because $500 is a decent amount of money. They do guarantee housing, and shuttles are provided. A lot of kids rent rooms off campus at about half the cost. Food is very expensive there as it tends to be a la carte with no central cafeteria, so again off campus with a kitchen--a frig and microwave, at least will cut living costs trastically. The same apartment that the Univ will give to a kid at one of the leased out apartment houses is about the twice the price if the kid got it on his own and then split the cost with a room mate. So after freshman year that can be a significant reduction in cost, and enough kids do this so that she will have no trouble finding roommates and housing is cheap and plentiful in Oakland. Since the dorms and apartments are so scattered and there is no real central dorm cluster--CMU has one of the most eclectic housing situations that I have seen, particularly for a school that guarantees all 4 years if you stay in uni housing, so living off campus if not as big of a deal as it might be with other schools. The same with Pitt, which simply has very little housing for its students.</p>
<p>Darn! I sure hope we hear something from the financial aid office soon. If son goes to a school with $44K yearly expenses, and has to take a bus from an apartment 2 miles from campus, I will totally lose it! I still can't get over the lack of a dining hall which is a lost social opportunity in my mind. He says that is not so important to him, but it really does affect the quality of life.</p>
<p>fundingfather,
I know alot of enthusiastic band people, but my son is not one of them. He is one of about two or three kids who declined to be in marching band in high school, even though he plays a band instrument. His reasons include that marching band music is not "real" music (probably true) and that the large amounts of time spent to practice marching would preclude his giving attention to the things that were really important to him. We agreed and it worked out just fine, except the band director was initially a little upset. BUt I agree with you that being further away might be better to build independence. OTOH, he has traveled alone frequently and it might not be such a big issue in this case.</p>
<p>I am so glad to hear that there are lots of kids considering Schreyer who have varied interests/talents. My S is planning to study bio-chem, genetic engineering, philosophy and is a banjo player and choral singer.
Can someone please start a thread for Schreyer acceptances or explain how to do it? I am new to this and don't know how. :o</p>
<p>mkl,
To start a new thread, go to the main college discussion page, select the forum you wish to add to, then click either the white "new thread" box at the upper left or "new thread" from the drop down tool box at the upper right. We really do need to collect Schreyer info in the same place. Let us know where you post!</p>
<p>Our son considered Case for a variety of reasons(curriculum, merit aid, no required SAT2's). After reading comments on CC our expectations were not high. However our visit was great. Being an urban campus, it was not bucolic but it is in a great area of Cleveland and was nicer than we expected. We visited the CompSci department on our own before the scheduled session and were approached by 2 faculty members for nice chats and were invited to the department picnic that afternoon. The dorms were spartan if you get my drift, but a new housing project which looks very nice is underway and will be completed soon.</p>
<p>Like your son, he was offered a nice merit scholarship($17.5k) and his choice boiled down to Case and Rensselaer. He ultimately chose Rensselaer(add'l $8k merit aid w/ no gpa requirement, 2 hrs closer to home, an interesting interdisciplinary AI program). However he is quite sure he would have been very happy at Case too.</p>
<p>lkf725
I posted on the College Admissions thread under Schreyer Honors Thread.</p>
<p>
[quote]
a new housing project which looks very nice is underway and will be completed soon
[/quote]
The new housing apartments at Case will open in Fall 2005 and accomodate 750 students (almost 1/4 of the undergrads). Each person gets his/her own room with
a double bed
. Taking a page from CMU, the housing is built around the football field like a stadium.</p>
<p><a href="http://nrvcam.cwru.edu/view/view.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://nrvcam.cwru.edu/view/view.shtml</a></p>
<p>Case is halfway through the building of a Master Plan to make the school better. It was known to have excellent lab facilities, innovative programs, low student-faculty ratio and small classes. The liberal arts side of the school is actually just as good as the science and engineering side; yes you can major in German there. It seems they are now out to improve student life. They changed the meal plans all around and brought in a new food service (Bon Apetit apparently like WashU has). FWIW, USNews already has the school at #35.</p>
<p>My D was accepted at CMU (0 merit aid) but is likely to be going to CWRU (academic scholarship and music scholarhips). On her audition day at Case, my D found the faculty was friendly and the students were a good match for her. She said their Theory test was the most advanced of any school she auditioned at (incl CMU & McGill conservatory). Lessons and music theory classes are at CIM. The campus and university circle is nicer than I was expecting. Severance Hall is amazing and it, along with the new library and the student center (will be expanded) make up the heart of the campus.</p>
<p>WS17 - my son will also be attending Case next fall. A great school!!!!</p>
<p>I"m attending Case in the fall too. They are doing fantastic things and I suspect their ratings (which seems to be important to many on this board) will rise in the next few years. I'm pleased with my decision and I was accepted at CMU, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Michigan, WashU etc.</p>