Gov. Wolf’s proposal shines spotlight on Pennsylvania’s higher education problem…
https://www.mcall.com/news/pennsylvania/mc-nws-pa-passhe-scholarships-20200208-btsmuv4oergtndlo37pftuqppm-story.html
Gov. aims to redirect funding from horses to PASSHE students in new budget proposal
“Let’s bet on our kids instead of bankrolling racehorse owners,” Wolf said during his budget address on Feb. 4.
I think more kids should consider the PASSHE schools. They are a far better value and environment for some students. Yes, I’m pro PSU, but that environment is far different…massive lecture halls, competitive mentality, have to advocate for self, easy to get lost, history of harsh weed out classes, etc. Some students excel in a more individualized learning environment and a place where they can feel confident and thrive for all 4 to 5 years and not have to change campuses. And some PASSHE schools have amazing programs. Lock Haven’s health science, education, and criminal justice programs are highly respected. And they are expanding their nursing programs. Bloomsburg and WCU have strong programs in their own right. Students need to take big football out of the equation and earn a bachelors without accumulating a lifetime of debt.
State System of Higher Education votes for a second consecutive year to freeze tuition
https://www.passhe.edu/News/Pages/Releases.aspx?q=2020-04-29-tuition-freeze
I’m so glad this thread got resurrected! My D19 didn’t end up going to a PASSHE school but WCU and SRU were on our list for a long time, and we visited both and were pleased with what we saw.
SRU had a better theater tech program (D’s major) - but there was not an actual theater there when we visited - just a plan, and a dilapidated structure that hadn’t been used in a while, iirc. I’m not sure of its current status in that regard.
And WCU, I believe, had theater as a major but not theater tech. But I wholeheartedly recommend its fall visitation days; D said she loved the school after that day.
Nonetheless, D ended up at WVU with tuition covered by scholarships, so it was an easy choice for us. And I highly recommend that PA residents check it out; the aid offered is amazing for an OOS public.
I thought about starting a new thread, but as this already has an audience I’ll add it here. Our S21 is primarily looking at LACs in PA and OH but I’m encouraging him to apply to at least 1 PASSHE school as a financial safety. With that in mind I’ve been trying to figure out available merit at the state schools. As noted by many previously, it is limited, but there does look to be some merit available, with Kutztown leading the way in guaranteed merit. Of course this is using 2019-20 data and will likely change in the coming years due to COVID-19 and PA budget changes.
Hopefully this is useful to someone and please fill in any gaps or inaccuracies.
-Bloomsburg - Scholarships mentioned for Honors students but no amounts provided https://intranet.bloomu.edu/honorscollege
-California - Vulcan Merit Scholarship - $1000-$4000. Full tuition scholarship mentioned but no indication of how many are awarded https://www.calu.edu/costs-aid/financial-aid/scholarships.aspx
-Cheyney - didn’t research due to accreditation and financial issues
-Clarion - $2000-$5000 https://www.clarion.edu/tuition-and-financial-aid/financial-aid/scholarships/scholarship%20infographic.pdf
-East Stroudsburg - nothing guaranteed that I could find https://www.esu.edu/financial-aid/scholarships/my-scholarships.cfm?displayAll=true
-Edinboro - nothing guaranteed that I could find https://www.edinboro.edu/directory/offices-services/financial-aid/types-of-aid/scholarships/edinboro-university-scholarships.html
-Indiana - all honors college students receive a scholarship but amount is not published https://iup.edu/honors/scholarships/
-Kutztown - Sesquicentennial Academic Honors Scholarship - $7000 https://www.kutztown.edu/affordability/guide-to-financial-aid/scholarships.html
-Lock Haven - highest looks to be $2500 per the calculator but not clear if guaranteed http://www.lockhaven.edu/scholarships/freshmen/
-Mansfield - nothing guaranteed https://www.mansfield.edu/scholarships/
-Millersville - merit is offered, but amounts aren’t published https://www.millersville.edu/finaid/grantsscholarship/admissions-scholarships.php
-Shippensburg - Raider Success Scholarship - $1000-$4000 http://www.ship.edu/financial_aid/scholarships/
-Slippery Rock - SRU Merit Scholarship - up to $2000. Honors college offers up to $1500. Stackable? https://www.sru.edu/admissions/financial-aid/types-of-aid/scholarships/first-year-scholarships
-West Chester - Golden Ram Award, competitive and couldn’t find any set $ amount https://www.wcupa.edu/_services/fin_aid/scholarships.aspx.
@Gatormama how is WVU? you can PM if you like. It’s on my D21’s list, but she’s nervous about location and the fact that Naviance puts her far above the typical applicant from our school. But the price and majors are perfect for us! And she meets the Honors College threshold. Any insight is appreciated!
My S received a $2,000 renewable Sutton scholarship from IUP.
I think for 2020 they raised that to $4,000.
It’s worth applying to see how much merit would be awarded, especially if the student would qualify for honors.
I recommend applying early.
https://www.iup.edu/financialaid/types-of-financial-aid/scholarships/undergraduate-admissions/
IUP has a one year living on campus requirement.
Off campus housing is plentiful and pretty affordable, around $2,000-3,000 a semester for a furnished room in a shared apartment with utilities included.
@NJWrestlingmom - I am PMing you. I wrote a whole long post and this is the PASSHE thread, so I don’t want to clutter it up 
@Gatormama …I think posting in regards to WVU is okay as many potential PASSHE students cross shop with WVU as well as Akron, Kent, Cleveland State and the likes. WVU is more likely to go back to school in the Fall…it has excellent resources and close to Pittsburgh. If I were a student shopping…all of these schools would be on my list.
I personally appreciate your thoughts, experience and input.
Well, since you’re encouraging me, @bester1
Here’s the post I send NJwrestlingmom:
My D loves WVU. I’m not sure what your kid’s major would be; mine is in theater design & technology.
She is not in Honors but says the best benefit is priority registration. Lincoln is the honors dorm and very nice. After the first year, though because students move off-campus, you lose the close-knit camaraderie. (But the registration benefit stays with you, and it is great, if your major is a popular one).
Feeling "too smart’ for the school is probably not going to be a problem. There are tons of smart kids there. My kid is in the theater department and she has noticed that she is more academic than a lot of her classmates, and she notices that her intellectual training was more rigorous, if that makes sense, but it does not affect her day-to-day existence or learning.
That said, I’m sure the rigor in engineering or the sciences is on par with anywhere short of, you know, Stanford. The engineering program is as good as anywhere.
The campus is spread out on two sites - downtown and Evansdale, where the arts, medical and engineering colleges are based, along with the law school. Some other science/communications courses also could be offered on Evansdale.
The campuses are about two miles apart on steep hills. But WVU has the Personal Rapid Transit system - the only monorail at any school - and my D loves that. Also free buses everywhere on campus and around town, and they go way late at night
Adventure WVU is the freshman summer orientation weeklong session for literally $95, subsidized by the university. You can choose from a ton of trips full-on remote backpacking, or cabins & day trips (rafting, hiking, rock-climbing) or even a week of volunteer service, plus major-based trips, so you meet everyone in your major during the summer. Because of Adventure WVU, D moved in to her dorm with a group chat already set up and close friends already made. The sad thing is that this has been canceled this summer. (But there is a sophomore trip!)
Dorms - there are LLC (living learning communities) that make it so much easier to plug right in with your peers.
Off-campus housing is cheap - she’ll be in a four-BDR, four-bath penthouse apartment next year, $480 pp., per month, plus $45 for electric. There are much cheaper ones, I know.
The partying can be intense if you succumb, but WVU offers Up All Night, which is an amazing alternative to heavy-duty Greek life partying. It goes to 2 am (?) every Friday/ Saturday at the Mountainlair, Lots of free activities, like bowling and pool tables, free food, movies, “game shows” with cash prizes, arts & crafts. Pretty sweet.
Football and basketball games - lots of fun, lots of spirit. Town is great, people are nice, professors are lots of help, tons of interesting classes, free tutoring, including a center in Towers dorms (where freshman tend to be, for Evansdale Campus), kids can also get paid to tutor. There are coffee shops all over campus.
The Rec center is new and impressive, with all the usual perks. There is an Outdoor Education Center - they rent out winter stuff, camping, kayaks for next to nothing. Tons of nearby recreation stuff, state parks, forests, etc. Beautiful in the fall.
All in all, the school works hard to give you the best college experience it can. I totally recommend it and so does she.
Thanks for all the info @Gatormama! Hopefully we can get out there in fall (non-football weekend!).
It is becoming increasingly clear that affordable, high quality education is becoming and will remain the way to go for high school seniors as they look for schools. All of these schools provide this and have the opportunity to reposition themselves as just that.
Why spend tens of thousands of extra dollars for the same accredited degree with an uncertain economy(post Covid 19)? Passhe, Ohio publics, WVU…excellent bang for your buck. People have been overpaying for higher education for too long…these schools might come out better for the long term?..who knows?
S&P only moved IUP, Cleveland State, from stable to negative. Small privates are extremely vulnerable. Some of the schools like Temple, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Illinois, Missouri, Colorada School of the Mines, Oberlin, Juniata, Goucher now all have negative outlooks.
Which PASSHE or equivalent (OH, WVU, etc) would you recommend for CS, Informatics, U/x, or Data Science?
PASSHE schools seem to be OK, except for IUP.
Temple is part of the “A+/positive outlook” universities that were automatically revised to “stable” due to coronavirus making “positive outlook” impossible at this point.
Cleveland State was also A+ but was downgraded to negative outlook - still among the strongest in its group.
More questions than answers: Planning for a post-pandemic future
https://chancellorgreenstein.blogspot.com/2020/05/more-questions-than-answers-planning.html
Just stopping by and nice to see a few posts and familiar names.
@sccaflagger74 In response to your post about scholarships. My D, at WCU finishing her sophomore year, received a GPA based scholarship renewable for all 4 years. It is equivalent to full tuition. I know other kids had some awards as well, but there were never any amounts mentioned. The one thing about the PASSHE schools is that tuition is reasonable but the "fees’ are very high. D was able to cut costs by living in traditional dorms. She is very lucky because on campus housing is very limited. It was a concern when she started, and I am concerned every year she has to apply for housing. Probably the biggest issue with WCU.
I am not 100% sure, but I think i remember someone saying their kid at Bloom was awarded $5K. I do know when D was in high school Honors assembly, they had all the kids walk across stage and announced their colleges. Every single one that was going to Bloom had a scholarship mentioned as well. As they are state schools, I would think the amounts were on the low side, but they did get something.
I will say I have been very impressed w/ WCU’s response to this pandemic. D was home on spring break and never went back, they closed down the school. They were given times to return and clear their dorms, and it was done with social distancing in mind. They also were quick for prorated refunds for dorms, fees, and meal plans. On another forum, I have seen better rated schools not as forthcoming.
@MYOS1634 In regards to CS. My D is taking that at WCU. She was complaining it was too easy, but according to some parents of upperclassmen, they say the program gets intense once they hit jr year. It is ABET accredited and has all the necessary classes you would expect to see. She is also minoring in Linguistics which was also an area in which she had interest.
I do know of a girl that graduated with the CS degree from WCU and she was offered a position at Microsoft. I think like many things in life, you get out of it what you put into it. Guess D will find out in 2 more years!
I’m in Big Data and a Pitt alum. My S20 is interested in Marketing Analytics. Of the local schools he applied I liked Temple. They have a data science degree that’s housed in the business school. It was structured very well. You could do the same at Pitt but it was disjointed.
I grew-up close to Cal U. I took a few summer classes there and know many grads. They spent a lot on campus upgrades the last few years. I think WVU is also worth a look for CS/Engineering if you can get scholarships. It’s much nicer than it was 30 years ago. We went to a football game last year. Hardly recognized the place.
Thanks!!