@pubisher is right. But what a great time of life , if you would lucky enough to have time at each those three great schools. Hard work but so very interesting and fun.
TBH UVM on its own sounds awesome !
This thread made me think about college costs more generally. My parents paid for college (two years for one sibling who transferred from a service academy, four years apiece for the other three of us), graduate school (master’s in library science for one sibling), and law school (me and one sibling) at UW-Madison and the U.W. Law School. It probably didn’t cost them much more than $200,000 total, and none of us received financial aid. Middle-class family, one parent was in the workforce. I think that’s why that $200,000 for UW-Madison gives me such pause.
This definitely has given me a lot of insight on the actual financial aspect of the schools and how that would work out for me. I did get a little bit of financial aid for Wisconsin and way more for Vermont. I’m wondering if there’s more community in one of the schools than the other and things like that. I feel like if I’m getting more of an experience at one school that could push me towards it but finances are a major part of it.
My nephew goes to UVM. He seems to like it a lot. To tell the truth, I liked that I could be anonymous at UW-Madison my first two years. Big classrooms, back row of seats: that was my dream setting until I settled on a major. By the time I got to law school, I was ready to not disappear.
I like the idea of being in a college like mentioned above, where you get the idea of being in huge lectures and slowly paving your way to stand out. Does anyone have any advice about potentially attending a summer program at Wisconsin (it would knock out 6 credits towards my degree)? I’m wondering if it’s a good idea to take that opportunity and get to go to Wisconsin or go to Vermont. Also, any advice about actually deciding— was it a gut feeling for anyone or did it come from research (choosing a college)?
Back in the day, I applied to only two schools and I really only liked one. But my daughters applied to a bunch (apiece). They relied on both research and gut feeling and both went down to the wire between their top two choices.
Is your max budget still $40k? Was your 1110 SAT enough to get any aid at Rutgers? The travel expenses should be less if you stay in state.
Summer programs are generally worth it because they help acclimate to college so that you can hit the ground running in the Fall. Since the program is free there’s no downside except spending that last summer with family and friends + forfeiting summer work earnings.
The bigger problem is the annual cost of Uwisconsin. I really don’t think Wisconsin is worth 80k more than Vermont and if your budget is 40k Wisconsin is just over budget whereas if I understand correctly you’d graduate debt free from U Vermont?
(You could always ask UVermont if they have a summer session for freshmen you could participate in if that option appeals to you, and Vermont would still be cheaper than Wisconsin.)
UVM has just announced its new president (term starts July 1). https://www.uvm.edu/uvmnews/news/suresh-garimella-become-next-university-vermont-president “Under [Dr. Garimella’s] leadership, Purdue has experienced consecutive record years in research funding and established significant new partnerships around the world. Garimella conceived and implemented an ambitious Life Sciences Initiative, establishing two new institutes that bring together faculty from dozens of disciplines to study integrative neuroscience and inflammation, immunology and infectious disease, to complement signature efforts in the plant sciences and drug discovery.”
To answer the comment about staying in state— it is a viable option but 1) I got some out of state offers that were cheaper 2) I still am considering it if I hate both campuses when I visit soon. Also really interesting to ready about Vermont’s new president, research there definitely seems like it’s up and coming
I have a current sophomore at UVM and we are very very pleased with the experience. For him the size (of the school) is just right, he’s had plenty of small classes and direct professor interaction, will have 2 publications by the end of this semester and an internship through his college.
I do not believe he would have had any of that at our large (outstanding) flagship or even at the directional that was 18K cheaper per year. UVM also actually gave him an extra grant his sophomore year based on freshman year performance.
Weather wise the two aren’t all that different. Burlington as a town can be small depending on your frame of reference, but lovely, I know my son is the main part of town all the time (works there). That said he wasn’t looking for the big D1 college football kind of school and has really found his tribe where he is at. I would absolutely go visit if you can and highly recommend setting up faculty meetings at both schools. Meeting with faculty is what really helped my son decide, at all his schools.
Thank you so much! This advice was super helpful in determining what could help me make up my mind! 