For the parents of the old "Best and worst PASSHE school?" thread.

Parents Forum
81

@laralei , thanks for the input. I’m a proud graduate of Bloomsburg so am a big booster for PASSHE and try to counter the negativity about it. My son views PASSHE schools as below him, unfortunately, but we need to keep it in the back pocket for affordability so I’m trying to counter his impressions. A lot of kids from his high school go to WCU so that’s out because he wants a new experience. WCU is also only 25 minutes from home and he wants to get farther away. However, full tuition scholarship might change his mind. Do you mind me asking what your daughters stats were when applying?

I do agree that fees and dorm pricing are outrageous at the state schools and I think most schools went the wrong direction when building the new “fancy” dorms. I think Bloom got it right by adding just one new dorm and focusing on apartments instead of replacing the old dorms completely.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/upshot/public-colleges-endangered-pandemic.html
The PASSHE chancellor is featured prominently in this thoroughly depressing story, which makes it crystal-clear what has happened in PA.

83

Unfortunately the Ohio publics are getting whacked as well:

https://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/2020/05/see-how-much-ohio-gov-mike-dewine-is-cutting-funding-to-each-college-and-university.html

84

The story is from the NY Times. No bias there.

The PASSHE schools went into debt mode and built up all the campuses even though they knew enrollment demographics looked bad even 10 years ago. Combine that with paying lacrosse coaches $125k/year and it’s not as crystal clear as the NY Times would want you to believe.

Salaries are public record. Look them up. Also look at the PASSHE budgets. Almost as much spent on admin expense as teaching. The pension expenses are even more staggering.

Cheap money (low interest rates) allowed them to borrow too much. Being backstopped by the government allowed them to create too many government jobs. How many assistants to the assistants do you need at these schools?

Either the fat will be trimmed and accountability will come back or there will be more bailouts. Time will tell.

85

The situation is not pretty for LAC’s as well…

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/will-coronavirus-kill-liberal-arts-colleges#survey-answer

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@sccaflagger74 I so get the PASSHE schools being beneath them. D was the same way. She was invited to interview for the Honors college and wasn’t selected, which also didn’t sit well. Yet, her GPA has been dropping every semester and this one was to be a GPA booster, so clearly the school/program isn’t the cake walk she thought it would be.

My nieces attended Bloom and my friend’s son is there now. I liked the campus and I agree about the housing. Friend’s son is in an off campus apartment, own bedroom, and the cost isn’t much more than the dorm. And housing seems readily available. WCU has very limited on campus housing and apparently the off campus apartments are also hard to come by. Many parents would chose the traditional dorms and complain about the costs of the suite style but even they are hard to come by. The housing situation is definitely a mess at WCU. They were the only PASSHE school that had enrollment going up, but aren’t equipped to handle it.

D’s stats were good but not outstanding. She was in top 10% of graduating class, 400+ students, with SAT score of 1280. She was very involved in a few activities and would be a URM for any of our state schools. She received the board of governors scholarship, it is invitational only. I don’t know how many were awarded. I also wonder if the CS major was also considered in the selection. ??

I can see your son not wanting to go to college so close to home, D was the same. Good luck.

87

Both of my kids toured Bloomsburg University. Both really liked the atmosphere and the proximity to town. Really nice campus. Excellent interviews with the department heads. I think it is a fantastic college experience opportunity. I do think more folks should check it out.

http://msit.bloomu.edu/mf76924/sampleVR/

Oh, it is funny that I hear on occasion that it is out in the middle of no where…but it is 10-15 minutes from Bucknell University but I never hear that about Bucknell (which is further from Philly or NYC). Lewisburg and Bloomsburg are similar as well.

88

My D21 is interested in Digital Art/Animation, and we have been doing lots of research and virtual information sessions. My daughter originally had no issues looking OOS and currently has a love affair with Pratt. However, with everything going on right now, she seems to want to select a school where she is closer to home.

I initially suggested she look at Kutztown as a safety school for its affordability and proximity to home and she initially thought it was beneath her. But after her GC really talked it up and we sat through their virtual info session, she realized that Kutztown had one of the nicest and informative sessions she sat through and now has interest in visiting when things open up.

On a side note, we have sat through at least 15 info sessions with schools that she had a real interest in that she was then turned off. Some of these sessions are a hot mess. A lot of schools are really going to have a hard time if things don’t open up and they have to do all their recruiting virtually without the benefit of in-person visits.

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@Mcru1231 My D knows quite a few kids at Kutztown from her high school. It surprised me there were so many as it isn’t a school that has come up in the past as a destination. They are very much the artsy kids, and loving it.

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@laralei I agree it really wasn’t a school on our radar initially. Evidently, quite a few kids from my daughter’s high school have applied and are attending due to proximity to Philly and affordability. The GC has received great feedback from those students on how much they love it. I have heard that it is a bit of a suitcase school which would concern me a bit as my daughter wouldn’t be coming home every weekend and staying on campus. Would you have any info on that?

91

Tour Kutztown
https://www.youvisit.com/tour/kutztown

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@bester1 Thank you for the link . My daughter and I already attended an in-depth virtual information session plus a took this tour and an Instagram live student-lead tour and QA which was extremely informative. We even brought up this subject but I realize that most schools are not going to admit to that. Most colleges that have that label usually tell you that it’s always extremely populated on the weekends with lots to do. This is why I asked that question from other parents on here that may know if they have kids in the school presently or know those who have attended recently. The last thing I would want my daughter to do is attend a school where everyone goes home on the weekends and she is left there with nothing to do.

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@Mcru1231 I will see if D can get info from the kids she personally knows who go to Kutztown and get back to you.

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It’s nice to get more posters here.

I believe IUP has a good CS program as well.

My S is a music education student there.

We have been impressed with his school’s handling of the pandemic as well.

My S was on spring break from 3/8 on and was supposed to return on 3/15 but then we got word that spring break would be extended, then a few days later it was decided to finish the semester online.

Time slots were given out from 3/16-20 for students to move out.
We received prorated housing/meal plan and some fee refunds at the beginning of April.

He was concerned how he would finish his semester at home as a music major but his professors managed the transition to online learning well. The hard part was missing his friends and not being able to perform in ensembles, the music department is a pretty close community there.

If you check the IUP Facebook page, there are some virtual information sessions and tours coming up next week.

The Cook Honors college is also well regarded at IUP as well.

My S used to come home more often in his first semester, he had a girlfriend here, he brought his laundry home, spent time with HS friends.

But as he has gotten more busy with piano practice, hanging out with friends, rehearsals (opera or musical), and singing in a local choir on the weekends, he has stayed there except for breaks.

We have been there for concerts on weekends, and while it seemed pretty quiet, there are students walking around and hanging out in their rooms. My S has lots of music friends and they are not into partying.

95

IUP Fall 2020 News

Dear Parent,

As we move closer to our June 1 tuition deposit deadline, I know you have questions about what IUP will look like during the fall 2020 semester. We have been working hard to make those decisions and will share many of those details with you later this week.

Look for an email message from IUP President Mike Driscoll this Thursday, May 21. It will include details on what in-person classes might look like, life on campus, and how we will support your student during the fall semester.

No question, we’ll need to remain flexible and adapt to new health regulations and guidance as they are issued. However, no matter what the future holds, we will remain dedicated to the health and safety of the IUP community.

Everyone at IUP has been working hard to support our students during this extraordinary time. I look forward to officially welcoming you and your student into the IUP community in August.

Sincerely,

Patricia McCarthy
Vice President for Enrollment Management
Indiana University of Pennsylvania

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IUP’s Announces Plan - It’s a glimpse of what is coming.

https://www.iup.edu/news-events/coronavirus-information/

97

That’s interesting. Hopefully it will all work out well. I wonder how they are able to give all kids their own room? That’s not typically the case, correct?

98

Each kid gets their own BEDROOM but might have to share a bathroom. IUP built a bunch of suite style dorms recently. Kids still will be sharing the suite common areas and bathroom, just no sharing of bedrooms. Statistically it should help but I think it’s a little misleading. Still have thousands of kids crammed into dorms with shared areas.

From the link in post #95.

“All students who live in residence halls will have a private bedroom. Some students will also have a private bathroom; some bathrooms will be shared, but if a bathroom is shared, it will be shared by no more than two students. All shared living-learning areas in the residence halls will be cleaned and sanitized on a regular basis.”

99

^it’s still a HUGE improvement, health-wise, especially since the bathrooms and common areas will be cleaned/disinfected more than once a day.
Confined space+lots of people sitting/standing next to one another seem to be the #1 propagation factor (hence the problem in classrooms, stadium bleachers, gyms, churches…), with an exponential effect.
2 people in staggered times would not be too bad.
It’d be relatively easy to spread “black soap” or just random soap on a bathroom sink’s surface, but we know most college students won’t do it. Shower shoes have always been recommended so I’m thinking it’ll be okay?

The “2 in a small room+bathroom for 20” model may have lived. I don’t see how it can continue as long as we don’t have a commonly-prescribed/produced vaccine or a cheap treatment.
And even afterwards, I don’t see freshmen returning to the old system when for 2-3 years it wasn’t in place and it was so out of touch with 21st “comfort norms” - the dorm comfort “front” was already big before this, due to the 50s-70s “kids’rooms” norms being now abnormal (ie. 50s middle class norm: small kids room and/or 8+girls room and/or 8+ boys, or little kids+girls/boys-only = 2-3 kids rooms regardless of how many kids per room => the norm since the 80s-90s is one kid-one room, with an additional 21st century twist of a parents’bathroom/kids’bathroom in most middle class households.) It was always a big moneymaker for colleges to charge so much for room&board, so they’ll have to rethink this model too.

It’d feel safe sending a kid to IUP based on these changes.

100

@MYOS1634 At D’s college, most of the kids are in favor of the suite style dorms, but a lot of parents are not happy about paying the much higher prices for the suite style. Most of those suite style also have 2 per bedroom. I did not think it was worth the extra $4K per year.

You will always have those kids whose parents are willing to pay the price, but I am seeing a lot of posts on the WC parent pages wishing for more traditional style. They think it is better for acclimating and far more social than the suite style, as well as the cost savings. Of course, with the state schools, many parents/students are choosing it for the lower costs to begin with.

@Mcru1231 Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner regarding Kutztown. D’s two friends don’t come home often and don’t see that as an issue. However, they are both in sororities & very involved on campus, so that might have a lot to do with.