<p>D got into Amherst College (she really loves the school) but we have not heard from FA yet. Our EFC is fairly high so it will not be that good. Then surprisingly she was offered yesterday a full tuition scholarship to Providence College for all four years!. PC was her safety school and she didn't really want to go there but didn't hate it. This is a difficult decision: PC is not Amherst but it is certainly not a terrible school either and it would save us probably 120K over the four years. What do you think? How much would a degree from PC vs. Amherst affect her for future jobs/grad school etc?</p>
<p>Congrats on the scholarship! If she takes it, she should feel great about PC. But Amherst’s value is not just the degree - it’s the impact on her development as an adult from interacting with highly-talented peers in a culture that expects and rewards achievement. She’ll be likely to come out of college more like the typical student at each campus - consider whether you think that the typical A student is different from the typical P student. Go online and read their student newspapers - that’s a pretty good barometer of the student climate on each campus. She has great options - either one will be wonderful!</p>
<p>PC full tuition is definitely worth considering. Graduate school admission is based in large part on the undergraduate GPA, GPA in the major field, letters of recommendation from professors, and GRE scores. If your kid had the stats to be admitted to Amherst, there is every probability that she will have the stats for grad school. If grad school is her goal, being a bigger fish in a smaller pond can really work in her favor. While you are perusing the Amherst website, take a look at where those professors earned their degrees. Lots of them will have a B.A. from Never-heard-of-it U, and a Ph.D. from Everyone-has-heard-of-it U.</p>
<p>120k is not chump change. Your family may prefer to spend that kind of money elsewhere - or in the case of loans that you/your daughter would have to take out, you may prefer not to spend it at all. If you look around in the Parents Forum, you will see a number of “I was hugely successful at Never-heard-of-it U” type threads. I’d suggest you take a look at them and see if they offer useful guidance for you.</p>
<p>Your daughter has two really good options. She will do well at either place.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>I hate to say this but my gut tells me that Amherst would give her a huge advantage over PC if she applies to law school. Maybe lawyers are just status mongers and this wouldn’t be true of other grad school programs, but I’m guessing most people (including academics) who live outside of New England will never have heard of PC. Still, what an honor to receive the scholarship, and if she likes the school almost as much as Amherst, and it would fit her academic interests/plans, then it might be worth considering.</p>
<p>Most people who live in the Pacific Northwest (excluding academics) will not have heard of Amherst either.</p>
<p>OK…I’ll be the “odd man out here”. What would you have advised your daughter if she had NOT gotten the full scholarship? Did you have a plan for paying for Amherst (or Providence without a scholarship)? Did you tell your daughter that she would be required to take the least expensive option when the final numbers were in?</p>
<p>We were in a similar position three years ago. DD got a fabulous scholarship to her second choice school…fabulous. HOWEVER, we had had the “college costs and payment” discussion with her BEFORE SHE SUBMITTED THE APPLICATIONS. If there had been a place where we wouldn’t have been willing to pay the bills, we would have told her that upfront. When she got the fabulous scholarship, we told her that our initial discussion did NOT change her decision. I will tell you…she agonized over the decision and didn’t make it until the last minute. She chose the more expensive school. It was the BETTER choice for her for a lot of reasons (size being one, program being the other). Sure…we would have loved it if she had “followed the money” but we had a plan for paying her college bills and she knew about it before she applied. We weren’t going to change our minds or make her do so…because she got a huge financial aid offer. If we had intended to do that, we would have told her UP FRONT “you have to go where the costs will be the least for us”. </p>
<p>Now…I will say…I know this doesn’t work for every family, and I also know that finances have changed for many since the applications went out. BUT sometimes it’s not “all about the money” in my opinion.</p>
<p>Thumper, that’s one great post. I agree with you fully.</p>
<p>Make sure to let us know how that decision making process goes for you. It’s an interesting one. I have a son at Amherst and a daughter in the honors program of a state university. I can see advantages to both paths from an academic point-of-view. Financially, we are in a different situation than your family so Amherst’s need-based aid makes my son’s attendance there possible. Only you will know how important the money factor is in your situation, but I do think a motivated student can get an excellent education in a variety of schools. Would you be able to help your daughter through grad school if you didn’t spend so much on her undergrad? That might be something to talk over with her.</p>
<p>I think if you went across America, (many) more people would have heard of Providence College than Amherst. Maybe not in academia, but certainly in the general public. Big East Division One basketball reaches a lot of places. </p>
<p>CC is a very small fraction of the US.</p>
<p>It would depend on her career goals. Does she have any ideas? Certainly in business or the arts the Amherst name may pay. In other fields it may not. As an Amherst parent, it’s worth every cent to us for two reasons–DD’s goals and the fact that it is not bankrupting us.</p>
<p>Take the money. She projects to do extremely well at Providence.</p>
<p>i JUST WANT TO BUMP THIS THREAD FOR MORE OPINIONS. We are still very undecided!</p>
<p>What are you telling your daughter? Are you telling her she has to follow the money or are you telling her she can decide between the two schools?</p>
<p>I really want her to decide but if she goes to Amherst there will have to be some loans on her part. She needs to consider getting into grad school from either college and the possibility of undergrad loans when faced with grad school.</p>
<p>Have you contacted faculty in her likely major, etc., at Providence, asked them about their students, where they go to grad school, and the like? We are in a similar situation – D admitted to some first class schools, but without aid – and scholarships at other, “lesser known” (i.e, “second tier”) schools. This was not the choice we hoped we would have to make. </p>
<p>At one school (where she has about full tuition), we have corresponded with the chair of the chemistry department (one of her likely majors), and asked about grad school placements, and discovered that students have gotten into top programs (Yale, Caltech, Cornell), etc., in her field. That was helpful to us, as was looking at the resumes of the undergrad faculty (where their degrees are from), research opportunities, etc.</p>
<p>We don’t think the situations will be identical for her at her various options; but we think she can thrive (and we will have more of a bank account to help her and her sister in grad school and with other things along the way). She has known from the beginning where she could go would depend on certain amounts of aid (hence, the apps to several UCs, where she was also admitted). I think she will pick the full tuition award, and “grow into” her choice … But she’s visiting there tonight, so we shall see how it goes!</p>
<p>Money is only money (as long as you can afford either option, and it sounds as if you can), and education is far more than job preparation or procuring a degree from a school that will be familiar to a potential employer in Deer Meadow, Montana. I’d recommend you let her go where you all think she’ll spend the next four years excited about learning.</p>
<p>I’ve known PC grads and yes, basketball is big there. I don’t know much about PC’s programs though.</p>
<p>I do have a niece at Amherst and she’s had some wonderful research opportunities that would be a lot harder to come by for those going to “lesser” schools. I guess that’s one of the intangibles in going there.</p>
<p>$120,000 of after-tax money is a lot so I can see where this is a tough choice.</p>
<p>It’s a hard decision but I think she should go to the school SHE chooses.</p>
<p>You can search for stats on job placement and salaries - especially for her major. Salaries usually don’t vary that much from going to different schools, unless you’re comparing a community college with an Ivy League school.</p>
<p>I’d encourage you to look closely at her graduate degree aspirations. If she’s looking to go to graduate school in a subject where there isn’t a huge amount of institutional or research support (English, for example) then I’d do just about anything to avoid carrying debt from undergraduate years. If, on the other hand, she’s heading into a hard science major where graduate students are likely to be able to get decent grant-funded support, I wouldn’t worry as much about debt. If she’s thinking of law school or medical school, I’d definitely go with the less expensive option for undergrad, which could also have the secondary benefit of probably yielding a stronger gpa, which is key for both law and med school admissions.</p>