<p>I am starting to put together a list of schools to look into further that have what I want to major in as an undergraduate: urban and community planning. One of them is ECU. I am interested in a school that not only offers this major but also has a lot of school spirit, down to earth people and where I could possibly receive enough merit money to bring the costs down to what I would pay for my in state schools here in Virginia. If anyone has information about this school, please share. I have done a search and read through the posts from the past, but there hasn't been any talk lately about it. PackMom are you still on cc? </p>
<p>I would be interested in knowing about that particular program, its reputation, the possibility for OOSers to get merit money, etc. Thanks everyone!</p>
<p>My son is also looking at ECU. PackMom is still on CC, so perhaps she will comment. ECU–according to its publications–is one of the fastest growing schools in the country. Son is going to visit in August.</p>
<p>csdad, that is also what my grandmother has told me about what she thought of ECU when she was growing up in New Bern, NC. </p>
<p>But…I also know that some schools, even if the overall academic reputation isn’t as great, can offer very good educations in certain areas/programs. They also can get better over time with the academic quality of their student body. For example, in Virginia, VCU has always been a school that anyone can gain admittance to and it isn’t as well-regarded as some of our other schools like UVA, VT or WM. However, it has one of the very best Arts programs in the country and its medical fields are also top notch. With the economy, many of my smartest friends have gone there and like it a lot (doesn’t hurt they went to the Final Four this year! :))</p>
<p>Is there a chance that the same can be said for ECU? With my predicament being I need to get merit money to go OOS, I am going to be looking at schools that maybe aren’t Cornell or Ivy league status and who want to draw higher achieving students to their campuses. If I could be in an Honors Program and challenge myself with courses that I am enjoying, I think I would be OK at a school that isn’t a bonafide USNews superstar. </p>
<p>Thanks for all of your replies so far, keep 'em coming! MDMom, please share what you and your son think after your visit if you can!</p>
<p>Do not believe all the popular nicknames for ECU…“Party School”, “EZU”, etc. They have one of the fastest rising academic reputations among major US universities no matter what US News and World Report or graduates of the other state universities say. One note on that, ECU refused to answer the questionnaire that was sent by that magazine because the administration believed it was highly biased.</p>
<p>My daughter received her undergrad and graduate degree in education from ECU and it was anything but “EZU”. </p>
<p>Research all things East Carolina. Call and talk to the financial aid office. Great student life. Great sports environment. Football Saturday’s at ECU are next to none in the pageantry, the tailgating, and the excitement of Pirates football.</p>
<p>One website I would like to suggest for you to take a look at for all things ECU is [url=<a href=“http://www.ecuytt.com%5DHome%5B/url”>http://www.ecuytt.com]Home[/url</a>] ( East Carolina University - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow)</p>
<p>College is what you make it. Hopefully ECU has what you’re looking for.</p>
<p>As a NC native, ECU may be turning around in terms of academic quality but it has a terrible reputation for having low admission standards and emphasizing socializing/partying over learning of any kind. I would not send my children there or recommend any one I know to go there. </p>
<p>There are plenty of other great public schools in North Carolina -
Tier 1: UNC, NCSU
Tier 2: UNCW, UNCC, UNCG, App State, UNCA, NCCU
Tier 3: WCU, ECU, Pembroke, Fayetteville State et al.</p>
<p>I suggest looking at any of the schools in Tier 1 or 2 instead. UNC is nationally competitive in a number of disciplines, UNCAshville is a great public liberal arts school with great undergraduate teaching, NCSU would be better for Math/Engineering focus though they have a number of great programs including Design, UNCW for education etc etc. All the others have different strengths. </p>
<p>I can’t let JohnBlack’s negative comments toward ECU pass without factual rebuttal. </p>
<p>John, have you ever been to ECU? Do you know any ECU graduates? Do you work with any? </p>
<p>Do you know that only the 2nd Dental School in the state of NC will be opening this fall at ECU? It’ll provide dentists for underserved areas ALL OVER NC, places where the dental grads at UNCCH don’t want to live & practice. Those are the same areas ECU’s nationally-acclaimed Family Medicine graduates go to practice. Once again, because UNCCH grads think they are too good to live & practice in those hick towns.</p>
<p>Do you know about the East Carolina Heart Institute, where they teach robotic heart surgery? It’s where heart surgeons from all around the world come to train with one of the best robotic heart surgeons in the world!</p>
<p>I’ll make a guess that you probably went to school at NCSU or UNCCH or WISH you had. Most likely you live in NC, west of I-95, where the arrogance toward & ignorance of ECU is widespread. I find it very interesting that folks outside NC have a much higher opinion of ECU than NC residents do.</p>
<p>Parties can be found anywhere there are 20,000 kids between 18-22 years old in the same town. Just like at every college, there are plenty of other things to do at ECU besides party. There are not many upperclass students anywhere that can get away with partying on a frequent basis. They’d be back home at the local community college or working at Walmart.</p>
<p>One day, hold your nose, open your mind & come visit…</p>
<p>I’ll add that ECU’s nursing school grads pass their NC state boards at a higher rate than any other college in NC. ECU graduates more teachers than any college in NC. Until many of them retired recently, most of the upper management of BB&T consisted of ECU School of Business grads.</p>
The list of accredited BA/BS program in planning seems pretty short:
[ul][<em>]Alabama A&M
[</em>]Arizona State
[<em>]Ball State
[</em>]Cal Poly SLO
[<em>]Cincinnati
[</em>]CSU Pomona
[<em>]Eastern Michigan
[</em>]Eastern Washington
[<em>]East Carolina
[</em>]Iowa State
[<em>]Michigan State
[</em>]Missouri State
[<em>]UIUC
[</em>]UVA[/ul]
UVA offers an accredited program, an excellent reputation, in-state tuition, and a great college town. This is admittedly not my field, but I’d be surprised if ECU has much to offer that UVA doesn’t.</p>
<p>I am not sure how they stack up for planning, but Cincinnati has an excellent co-op program and good merit scholarships. Arizona State is even more generous with merit scholarships, and I’ve heard great things about Barrett Honors.</p>
<p>You may want to consider an alternate route. Some students pursue a liberal arts field for undergrad - political science, public policy, economics, geography, urban studies, or sociology, for example - and then pursue a master’s in city/urban planning. This has a number of advantages.
[ul][<em>]You have a lot more options and can perhaps include colleges that are better fits and/or are more generous with financial aid. (Publics are often, though not always, somewhat stingy with aid for OOS students.)
[</em>]Although it’s possible to be hired with just a BA/BS, many positions are going to expect a master’s, which is the more typical degree for the field.
[<em>]Most urban planning programs offer only a master’s.
[</em>]If you change your mind about city planning, many of the above accredited schools are relatively weak in other areas.[/ul]
Any school would be suitable for this approach.</p>
<p>As I had mentioned before, A note about planning degrees…</p>
<p>There are 2 types of planning programs…design based ones and policy ones.</p>
<p>Design programs are typically in a college of design/architecture and require you to take their design core. The Iowa State program is design based.</p>
<p>Policy programs typically do not involve design courses and are generally more similar to a geography major. Eastern Michigan is an example of this.</p>
<p>Planning careers do not require a grad degree but to not have one would be a mistake.</p>
<p>You may have a difficult tie moving from a policy undergrad program to a design grad program so you should decide as an undergrad the route you want to take.</p>
<p>A lot of different kinds of advice. I appreciate all of it, thank you! I am just starting to think about this and have a looong way to go before I decide many things. I do think that I am pretty sure about wanting to pursue this career. The more I read about it, the more it interests me. </p>
<p>warblersrule, I will be applying to at least a couple of Virginia schools and realize how good they all are. It is just they are all very competitive to get into, esp UVA and WM, even VT for that matter. Will I will have the SAT/ACT scores, grades,etc.? And, more importantly, will I feel comfortable on those campuses? </p>
<p>About the alternative route you mentioned, if I am pretty certain that Urban Planning is what I want to do, wouldn’t it make more sense to get as much learning of that subject as an undergraduate and then also go to grad school at maybe a more highly ranked program? The only other subject related to this that interests me a bit is geography (human not physical), so where to go for that and where I can afford to go is something I could look into.</p>
<p>I like the south and the midwest and could see myself in either area of the country. Iowa State has a really neat looking program, and I like the prospect of it being design based. (I had originally thought architecture was the direction I was going to take, but have kind of steered away from that-structures and buildings don’t interest me as much as spaces and the environment people are in). </p>
<p>Anyway, again guys I really appreciate your help so far! Have a nice night!</p>
<p>Design based undergrad planning degree. Follow that up with a Master in Public Administration (MPA) with a concentration in planning. That would position you well for future mgt positions.</p>
<p>To say any school anywhere would “emphasize socializing/partying over learning” is pretty ridiculous. There is partying at every big state u. in NC. How much or how little a student parties is totally up to them. </p>
<p>I certainly didn’t find ECU so terribly easy when I was a student there. My S2, a rising ECU senior, doesn’t think it’s been a cakewalk either. There is lots of school spirit at ECU, esp. during football season. Greenville has it’s good sides and bad sides but on the whole is very supportive of ECU. With all the state budget cuts the state u’s are having to slash their budgets. I wouldn’t expect there to be a lot of merit aid for oos students.</p>
<p>S2 has taken two Geog. classes while there and had good teachers for both. He has not had any grad. students as instructors except for one entry level Bio. Lab. One of his Geog. profs was chosen by the UNC system as the ECU’s most outstanding prof. a couple of years ago. ECU has a lot to offer and is often overlooked by those who think it’s below them. It’s not perfect but few schools are. Those I know who have attended really loved ECU and are Pirates for Life.</p>
<p>i was looking at east carolina and even applied but then i found unc Pembroke which is more diverse and also cheaper for in and out of state students but alot of the academics are the same…so i guess ecu is good if you want a huge campus and unc pembroke is good if you want a smaller one</p>
<p>I know nothing about ECU. But I do know that there are very few colleges where a student who is committed to getting an education (and not just a degree) can do so.</p>
MDMom, please share what you and your son think after your visit if you can!</p>