College Suggestions in the West at $33K annual budget after merit

College Search & Selection
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I don’t know much about it, but Nevada State College is in Henderson, NV just outside of Las Vegas where there are a few different Irish dancing schools, and it has a student population of 5500. I assume this would be in WUE, but even if it’s not, OOS costs seem very reasonable.

University of the Incarnate Word is in San Antonio, which also has an Irish dancing school and comes in at around 5,000 students. St. Mary’s is also in San Antonio, but a bit smaller, at around 2k students.

St. Edward’s is in Austin, TX where there’s also some Irish dancing available. This one’s slightly smaller at around 3,000 students.

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63

Have you considered the University of Idaho? There’s an Irish dancing school in town and the student population is just over 8300 students. There’s a major in criminology as well as in cybersecurity.

Or the University of Montana? 7,000 students with an Irish dancing school in town.

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Thanks AustenNut. She is just not keen on those areas except for Idaho and she prefers Boise St over U of Idaho.
Nevada St could be one to bring up if we need more schools but she is not keen on Nevada.

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I’m just impressed that @AustenNut is an aficionado of all things Irish Dancing - especially at the collegiate level.

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66

Yes, it is impressive. Maybe he/she also has an Irish dancer in the family?

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Have you considered University of San Francisco? Westminister College in Utah is committed to their LGBTQ+ students, is a lovely, safe campus and surrounding area is residential.

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Nope! I just googled Irish dancing schools by each state and looked to see where they were located. Resources on collegiate teams didn’t have much available in the western half of the U.S…

ETA: I do like to watch Irish dancing, but I’m about the level of watching Riverdance and Lord of the Dance.

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69

I can highly recommend Scariff School of Irish dance in Utah!

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I know that is a good school. My daughter dances for Tara Academy in Seattle. So, in the same region as Scariff, both in the same Oireachtas.

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Final school list is: Gonzaga, Santa Clara, Univ of Washington, Univ of Portland, Portland St, Seattle U, Oregon St, Whittier, Laverne, Univ of Pacific, Willamette, Pacific College in OR and Western WA. May ask her about keeping Univof Pacific on the list as have heard that Stockton is a pretty rough area and was not very high on the list to start.

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signing up to follow your thread and we are from the same area and have some overlap in our Ds’ schools lists!

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Curious about Santa Clara. It’s one we sort of looked at and immediately felt it was waaaaaaayyyyy too expensive and there is seeming little aid available for donut type families. Are we missing something?

Pretty sure the weather there is too warm for our D23 but am looking for more options closer to home for her.

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They do give some merit aid.Mord reach for my daughter due to visit primarily, matchish academic wise. Grew up in the Bay Area and 15 minutes from where my MomandStepDad live.

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My D was admitted to Western WA. Apps in at Santa Clara, Oregon St and Pacific Univ (in OR). Next apps coming up are: Univ of Washington, Gonzaga, Portland St (which I think she should take off but she wants to keep), Whittier, La Verne, Willamette, Seattle U and Univ of Portland.

Some things about schools we have visited within last few months:

Had a nice impression of Gonzaga, they are into their hoops. Super nice admissions folks, friendly campus.

La Verne: small campus, right by small town of La Verne (across street), surprised that almost 50% of students live off campus, kind of far from LA (1 hour drive with 0 traffic to LAX).

Whittier:
My D did not even want to stop and check out. Much closer to LA than La Verne.

Willamette: Can shave a year off law school if undergrad done with law school, nice river running through campus, Salem is not too big nor too small, state capital/courthouse=great internship opportunities.

Univ of Portland: Not really in DT/view of DT, religion seemed a little more important than other schools on D’s list, students seemed excited to be there, cool coffee bar.

Western WA: Very familiar since older D attends. Gorgeous campus with views of Sound and mountains. In between Seattle and Vancouver, Canada. Pretty chill/relaxed student body. Seems to be easier to get classes than Univ of Washington.

I know some of this is superficial but interesting tidbits outside of typical cost and academics that can be easily found on the web.

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76

Congrats to her! I am super jealous of anybody who has Western Washington as an in-state option. I think it would be perfect for my own daughter except OOS COA is almost $50,000/yr!

Luckily, it does belong to National Student Exchange, which is a consortium of about 200 schools that allow up to a year of exchange, only paying in-state tuition (and your scholarships still apply) so maybe my kid will end up doing that. https://www.nse.org/exchange/colleges-universities/alpha-location/

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Thank you. Had not heard of that program before. I think my D really likes Univ of Washington. Not sure it is the best school for her but it is our State flagship and very well regarded.

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Western Washington is also part of WUE, and students from western exchange states can get a big tuition break.

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79

My D has now received acceptances from Western WA, Pacific ($25k scholarship), Oregon State and LaVerne. Western gives little $ if at all in state (my older D got a $1,000 scholarship total not per year!). Waiting to hear about merit from OSU and Laverne. None of these are top of the list, think she would pick Western based on what she knows at the moment.
Hope to hear from most of the other schools between now and Xmas (she still needs to complete her EA app for Gonzaga which is due 12/1).

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“My D was admitted to Western WA. Apps in at Santa Clara, Oregon St and Pacific Univ (in OR). Next apps coming up are: Univ of Washington, Gonzaga, Portland St (which I think she should take off but she wants to keep), Whittier, La Verne, Willamette, Seattle U and Univ of Portland.”

Is this still the list? So she’s got some great ins - and now playing with house money - assuming you can get to your price point with what you’ve got so far.

Congrats to her.

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Yes, she wants to go to Univ of WA. They take until March to make admission decisions so she is going to choose what she wants assuming she is not admitted. Still lots to hear back but nice to have the admittances in hand.

I saw on an EA thread that several kids have some options. Such a relief in what can be a very stressful process.

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