My daughter has been accepted at 6 of 7 schools she applied to. We’re currently in the decision making process with time on our hands. Our only issue is at one school she didn’t receive a scholarship(of course,one of her favorites). She’s interested in Business Management. What are your thoughts on the following schools if money was and wasn’t a concern? Thanks for your input.
University of Denver - $0
Loyola Maryland -$12K
Fairfield University -$15K
Loyola Chicago -$16K
Creighton University -$16K
St. Joseph’s University -$20K
Looks like scholarship, is distance from home a factor? Ease of travel? Size of school? Big urban area? What else is important to you/her in a school? A lot of people leave money on the table in college selection and send their student to the school they want to attend. Just be careful reading too much CC, because it will seem that know one actually pays for college or wants to. Many do.
She wants to be close to an urban area. Close to culture and potential interships. Wants to feel part of a community on campus. Study abroad. School size 4,000-10,000 students. We selected all schools based on these credentials.
Does she have a chance to spend an overnight on some of these campuses? Go to a few classes, meet some students? Sometimes that gut feeling of being comfortable in a place is the best way to decide.
Are the final costs close after deducting the scholarships? Are you sure those are the final scholarship/FA offers? It seems unusual to me that DU didn’t offer anything as there are many scholarships available, including for room and board.
There is a big difference between urban Denver, urban Baltimore, and ‘urban’ Omaha.
Yes, the size of the scholarship does not matter. It is her cost of attendance after the scholarship is applied that is important. Also, do any of the scholarships have minimum GPAs she needs to maintain?
You should also factor in the cost of getting her to and from school. If she has to fly home (and I am assuming she does if you live in Toronto), some airports could be cheaper than others. We’ve found that getting our son to and from college does eat into that scholarship money.
We visited most of the schools. Some during summer and holiday and therefore students on campus were limited. She felt the biggest connection at U Denver during an open house in the fall. Currently, daughter is looking into which business program is favorable. Does anyone have knowledge of these schools?
Is money a concern? If you can pay an extra $100k for her favorite, it’s not a problem. But if you can’t afford her favorite school, then it’s better to take it off the list now instead of waiting until May.
You mentioned internships. Does she have a field or industry that she’d like to work in? For example: if she’s interested in working with insurance companies, a school in Connecticut might have more connections. Similarly, if she’d like to intern in a government agency then Loyola Maryland is not far from DC iirc. That might be one way to weigh the options.
Is she a direct admit to the business program at Denver? How about the other schools? My son applied to Denver, also received no merit aid, and was not a direct admit to the business program. The process for getting into the program later struck me as rigorous and subjective. What if she isn’t admitted? Will she be fine with studying something else like economics?
We were also impressed with Denver overall, but not getting accepted as a direct admit probably would have placed it way down on his list. He ended up getting accepted ED elsewhere so withdrew his application, and we never had to contend with the decision.
I have met some happy Loyola Maryland grads, but don’t have strong firsthand knowledge to share.
I have my masters from Denver and I can’t imagine it being worth $61k a year. My D is a biology major at Loyola and loves it, but the school is really known for its well regarded and nationally ranked business school. She received a sizeable scholarship and is paying about $35k a year so we feel she is definitely getting our money’s worth. Fairfield is also a very good school but I don’t know anything about their business program. I don’t know enough about the other two schools to give you any meaningful thoughts.
I don’t know about business, but I good friend of my D’s went to Loyola MD and absolutely adored it. She ended up staying in the Balt. area she liked it so much. She did an eight month study abroad in Thailand and had a blast.
I’d make a spreadsheet (because I love to make spreadsheets for almost any situation).
First I’d make columns with all the must have’s for her, and then GO VISIT THEM ALL! In session. Sit in on a class or two. Then rank (however you want to rank) the experiences for all the must haves-like food 5, dorms 2.
This is what we’re planning on doing next year with older dd-get a list of acceptances, make a knockout spreadsheet, and hit the road to visit the colleges and see which ones fit her both for how she feels and for specifics like quality of the department, overall cost, etc.
I’m betting we’ll find several where the price tag doesn’t match up with the experience.