@scholarmin , you might like Florida State. More individual attention is given to FSU students as opposed to UF. It has a pretty and traditional campus and active Greek life. Your stats could qualify for OOS tuition waiver, bringing total costs under $20,000 per year. It’s also climbing in the rankings because the State of Florida is aggressively funding their public university system. Good luck.
University of Arizona is large, but they are opening a new Honors complex this fall (housing, dining, classrooms) that will likely make the campus feel smaller for Honors students. Merit should bring COA in the neighborhood of where you want to be. https://financialaid.arizona.edu/types-of-aid/scholarships/freshman-transfer
Here are the costs of sororities at U Arizona. https://greek.arizona.edu/fsp/cost
My D20 loves Univ of Alabama but is also considering Univ. of Arizona. The one thing we are considering as a family is that Univ. of Arizona is in Tucson, which has direct flights to our area. If our D attends Alabama, she will have to take an hour-long shuttle to Birmingham and then take 2 flights home. It’s not a deal breaker but something to consider.
I’ll add in Kansas State. They have a great honors college, excellent study abroad, a very good psychology department, Greek life that is fun and not as crazy as in a lot of the southern colleges, warmer and less snow than you may think, great college town, happy students, and very nice professors. Sororities are not terribly expensive and you can do very well academically and still be in one. S’s gf is pre-med; 4.0 and in one of the top sororities. Son is pre-vet, same GPA and president of his large fraternity. Excellent OOS merit available, housing in the area very reasonable.
S17 from a big city OOS loves it there!
I’ll chime in about the sorority/social aspects…
University of Alabama…A word of warning-depending upon which sorority she would pledge- it can be outrageously expensive. (one sorority’s house cost about $13M and is subject to numerous articles nation wide when it was built, we have friends who go to UA, some recent HS friends who are gearing up for rush, etc,and are familiar the greek machine on campus)…its not a diss on Greek life there, just a warning some sororities are not for the faint of pocket book!
If Miss State was not to your liking, then Auburn may not be either as its in a small college town, but I would at least consider it. At her ACT level, she should be considered for some merit aid (not sure how much) but the sororities there do not have official houses, so the cost might be less.
I know App State may be too “cold” for your daughter, but I know some who have LOVED it there!
Sorority dues in the southern flagships can be expensive but at other schools can be quite reasonable. My daughter paid about $350 per semester which covered her national dues, parties and social events, parlor fees (for the meeting rooms, snacks, office supplies). They did have a house but it was run by the university so the cost was the same as a dorm room but even a better deal because it had a private bath and you didn’t have to have a meal plan.
Building a new house on campus is expensive. Most of the houses feed 300+ students 2-3 times a day, house 75 students, have an apartment for the housemother, and living rooms, meeting and study space for up to 400 members. I’m glad to hear a new one cost $13M because the one my organization build about 8 years ago ‘only’ cost $5m. Think of the appreciation!
@twoinanddone Since you have a point of reference this is the particular house I was referring to…https://www.al.com/entertainment/2016/10/take_a_look_inside_the_new_13.html#0#incart_m-rpt-2. I did not mean to paint all sororities in the same light, but I have to think…UA is a different ballgame all together, lol.
(for full disclosure, my D20 will likely rush when she goes to college)
Sorority life at Alabama is a different world but it seems to work for Bama students since almost 2500 pledge the Pan Hel sororities every year (plus the many who pledge the traditional black sororities and the specialty ones (music, Christian).
Phi Mu is the top sorority, and that new house is on the lot their original house was on (prime real estate on Sorority Row). This was a ‘replacement’ house.
When a sorority goes onto a campus (new) it has to hit the ground running and do what the other houses do, especially ‘have a house’ if the others do. My organization just opened on UF, and had to have a $10M house to compete with the others. They delayed opening the chapter for a year to get the house done. We put a bid into another (non southern) campus and just the land (university would sell) was $2M, and the university wanted a commitment to build a house of a certain size because the university depends on Greek housing to cover any shortages. It’s a business. At another campus close to this one, we are opening a chapter and the university will own the house and lease it to the organization.
I’ll toss in another one with good merit- University of Central Arkansas. You’ll have to judge quality of the program for yourself- it’s just a regional public and I know nothing about their psychology or grad programs. The campus is lovely with lots of flowers and brick buildings. We really liked the school and the town on our visit. And it sure was nice to leave April snow at home and see green grass and flowers there!
It can be a little tricky to figure out cost on their site but what I gleaned from it plus emails to staff was that OOS gets in state rates if you live on campus all four years. Which is about $16K. Then their automatic merit would give your DD $7K off that. You’d have to confirm with them of course and they say deadline is 12/1 on auto merit.
Another school that has recently come on our radar is the University of Arkansas. I think they have about 24K undergrads. Surprisingly to us, they have a direct flight to our area from the Bentonville airport. From our state, our D will qualify for an 80% non resident reduction. Here is info on non resident tuition reduction:
https://scholarships.uark.edu/nrta/index.php
However, with your D20’s stats, she may try for additional merit money with their competitive Honors Fellowships.
https://honorscollege.uark.edu/prospective-students/fellowships/index.php
Adding on to my last post, here’s the cost of sororities at University of Arkansas:
https://uagreeks.uark.edu/panhellenic-council/average-costs-for-panhellenic-sororities.php
Seems to be quite a bit less than Alabama (average first year SEMESTER new member fees are a whopping $4,200 at U Alabama, per their Panhellenic website https://uagreeks.uark.edu/panhellenic-council/average-costs-for-panhellenic-sororities.php), and U Ark’s greek life seems similar (huge sorority houses, etc.)
Auburn is nothing like Mississippi State in Starkville. Auburn is not rural, it’s more of a small township with restaurants and shopping. It is 1 hour 45 minutes from downtown Atlanta with 12 round trip shuttles from the airport every day to Auburn. Check it out - it is a lovely, lovely place…there’s a reason people fall in love with it.
Editing post #29 too late to change it. Here’s the link to Alabama sorority costs per their Panhellenic. https://ofsl.sa.ua.edu/join/financial-info/
Miami University(OH) is one where you should look at. Very solid chance to get COA under $20K with those stats. I can’t speak much to the Psychology dept, but Miami doesn’t have grad students so undergrads do a lot of research. Sororities don’t have their own houses so I think it keeps the costs down. Frats do.
PM me and I can give you even more details as my D19 is starting there in the fall.