<p>A young woman who works with my DH graduated from Howard w/ an engineering degree. She passed on Michigan for Howard and loved it.</p>
<p>My daughters’ orthodontist went to Howard, and has a successful practice.
I’m sure Howard also has a lot of students who didn’t test well, because they didn’t come from high schools where everyone takes test prep classes or tutoring.
DC is a very cosmopolitan city, so if you can take classes at other schools it can be a great experience.
If you plan to go to graduate school, having an affordable undergraduate experience will help make grad school possible.</p>
<p>You still have the option of applying to many colleges that have later application deadlines! </p>
<p>Check out this:
<a href=“http://www.petersons.com/college-search/late-deadline-schools.asp[/url]”>http://www.petersons.com/college-search/late-deadline-schools.asp</a></p>
<p>You can still seek out other schools that would potentially give you a full ride :)</p>
<p>Initially, I had a list of 8 schools. I quickly eliminated schools I really liked (American, BU, Fordham) because even if I did get in, all mentioned schools don’t have a history of giving decent need-based aid, and with a sibling at a college that mom pays a fourth of her salary to attend, and having other siblings, where I attend in the fall is ultimately predicated on wherever gave me the most money. At first, Howard was my last choice, even below Temple, which I live a 10 minute subway ride from. Then they gave me the full ride, my family began bragging about how I got a full ride to the most storied of all the HBCUs and when I approached my parents about having other options, I was told that I essentially had to go to Howard and that they wouldn’t give me any of the money I would need to fill out applications, send SAT scores, submit CSS profiles and the like. I suppose I don’t actually have a choice anymore.</p>
<p>Ouch…I feel your pain. That is a pretty horrible way to send one’s child off to college. Perhaps your objections to Howard have more to do with how your family has taken away the element of choice. You might very well haven chosen Howard yourself once all the factors (especially financial) were considered but now you are being told what to do instead of being able to exercise your own judgement and free will.</p>
<p>@dc Why did you apply to Howard? Did you not know it was an HBCU? What information do you have now about the school that you didn’t have before applying? Please explain why you applied to a school where you feel like you will be smarter than the rest of the population and where the lack of diversity is a negative.</p>
<p>I totally get where your mom is coming from. It sounds like she is probably doing all she can do to keep all the balls in the air so to speak and you have an acceptance/great package, and now you are waffling and looking a gift horse in the mouth. It just doesn’t seem like you are being fair to her and your siblings on this one. Is she a single mom? I don’t remember you saying.</p>
<p>Its easy for everyone to sympathize with you when they haven’t walked a single day in the shoes of a single mom or the shoes of someone/a family who/that is struggling the pay the bills/survive. </p>
<p>Was your application submitted under your own volition? Or did someone force you?</p>
<p>OP’s post #17 indicates that he prefers Morehouse over Howard, supposedly for a more academic environment.</p>
<p>However, data in post #24 indicates that Howard’s top quarter is closer to being an academic peer group (at least in SAT scores) to the OP than Morehouse’s top quarter.</p>
<p>Howard was the one school I applied to because my family really really wanted me to apply there, especially because I have a cousin who got the same scholarship and loves the school. I might have put all my eggs into one basket by banking on getting into my ED (which I’m still shocked by, considering that my essays were amazing, and although my GPA is below the average, my SAT scores were 100 points above the median, and its only 3% AA) and applying to schools that served as a last resort/schools I have no way of affording.</p>
<p>@UCB statistics from the Department of Ed’s NCES indicate that Morehouse’s top quartile, in fact, is higher scoring than Howard’s, but not by a lot. Additionally, I suppose that at this point I would have to concede that the comparative numbers have become irrelevant. The general consensus, among AA circles is that Spelman and Morehouse, the single-gender flagship HBCUs are the intellectual powerhouses, and while Howard competes with them for their best and brightest, is the less socially-balanced and party-heavy school. I understand that not everyone in the student body is into that, but why go to a bigger school to deal with a segment of the student body. At this point, my argument has become quite circular because I will end up attending one of the two schools I am not particularly enthralled by in the fall. I’m going to the Scholar’s Luncheon at Howard this weekend, so hopefully that’ll change my mind. And if it doesn’t, their top students don’t place too badly for grad school.</p>
<p>@NewHavenMom – I entirely understand financial constraints, but the fact of the matter is that I don’t have to give Howard an answer until May 1st. The fact that I wasn’t even given the ability to see if I could get a comparable financial aid package is actually why I’m frustrated about this entire situation.</p>
<p>There is no real difference between the two schools from a top score standpoint.
Morehouse: 590, 580, 570, 25
Howard: 580, 570, 570, 25</p>
<p>OP, what did you decide?</p>
<p>I have a friend whose son applied to U of New Hampshire, UMASS Lowell, Ithaca & a few others…his mom encouraged him to add Howard U to the list. Well, he was accepted to all and his EFC for all the schools starts at $17,000.00 and moves north of $22,000.00/yr.</p>
<p>The school that gave him the most aid was Howard. He got a full ride. He is against going, but how can he expect is mother to take out $17,000/year loans or more? He should be thanking his lucky stars that she made him apply to that school. Where would he be if he hadn’t?</p>