I am only speaking from one day visits to both Newark and UMass, but from our impression, the Umass campus seemed more standalone and less integrated into the town than Delaware’s was. Delaware had the main street shoppes that lined one side of campus - it reminded me a lot of Penn State U Park and College Ave there. Amherst had something similar, but IIRC, it was about a 6-10 minute drive from campus – or at least we had to drive to get there, but maybe we were just on the wrong side of campus. It wasn’t right across the street. And from what I saw of the shopping district (which, to be fair, was really just a quick drive through on our way out of town), Amherst seemed a little more upscale than Newark. But again, our visits mostly focused on the campus - we didn’t spend a whole lot of time looking at the towns other than to say “oh this is cute” (and to notice that UConn didn’t have one).
Comparing Amherst and Burlington is like comparing apples to oranges imho. I would agree that UVM does attract an outdoorsey type student but the size of the school certainly allows for different tribes. With it being a small city, even the more artsy cosmopolitan student would like the vibe. Its a long way to a city (or large metro center) from Amherst.
@NEPatsGirl sounds like you really like UVM and Burlington. I don’t know if we’ll get a chance to visit UVM unless she doesn’t love either UMass or Miami U, which is entirely possible. I think she’s a bit more concerned about the fit at UVM. James Madison will be a tricky one too. It’s a bit more than we wanted to spend, but if she loved it, maybe we’d stretch, but I don’t know if we are going to take a 13 hour round trip to find that out if she already loves UMass or Miami U. If JMU greatly surprises us with a modest merit package, we probably would then scramble to visit. And then there’s UConn still out there too, where she’d be very happy assuming she gets in and enough merit there. Accepted student visit days in march/april for both JMU and UVM will be next very difficult to make work though, so if we went, it might have to just be for a regular tour. Delaware still out there too, but she doesn’t seem to feel that’s a fit, plus they don’t have a specific speech pathology major, though they do have a path to getting into grad school for it. Rhode Island still in the running, probably only because they have a 5 year speech pathology masters program. If they were to give a larger than expected package, maybe that gets a little interesting.
Well, good luck with your search! I really did like Burlington but it was more that we disliked UmassAmherst and we’re MA residents. My D was accepted into their honors program but the school wasn’t a good fit for her. I did have two nieces that graduated from there in the last five years and both are doing very well…one from the business school (accounting) and one from the hospitality department (event planning)… and they both loved it and Amherst, the town itself. I guess I just wanted to be clear that UVM is nothing like UMA, vice versa, so depending on circumstances, might be a good look if she didn’t like UMA.
Obviously you know your D better than anyone and know what is a good fit for her. She can’t go wrong with any of the schools you’ve mentioned so I wish her all the best!
Accepted to URI. $13.5K/year merit scholarship offer. That’s certainly higher than expected at the beginning of the process. URI still in because of the 5 year speech pathology masters program. Our upcoming visits to UMass and Miami (OH) will start to help clear things up. If she loves one or both of those, that should narrow the field a bit.
Still waiting and waiting and waiting on UConn. Could easily be another month before we hear from them.
The only other thing we are waiting on is any merit offer from JMU, but I think it’s unlikely one is coming. I don’t think we’ll know about that until mid-March though.
It sounds like you have a sensible plan. If you do get to visit Burlington, definitely check out Church Street and take in sunset on Lake Champlain. If weather cooperates, it can be spectacular, looking across the lake to the sun going down over the Adirondacks. Of course, last time we were there it was a very mild, sunny early spring day, and not super cold. Burlington, Flagstaff, and Asheville are my favorite small cities.
JMU is terrific. If it looks like you might want to take a look, I’d suggest trying to make it down there. Like I’ve said before, students really love their experience there. And it does have the advantage of being warmer than some of her other choices, which are really outstanding.
It sounds like you guys have enjoyed the experience and learned a lot. That’s really important in itself.
Good luck!
Our son was admitted to Towson as well. We are OOS. Likes what he sees but also is afraid that the campus empties out on weekends. Not a concern that mostly Maryland natives as most state schools are like that but the fact that they choose to go home on the weekends makes him wonder why??? Not enough activity and social life to keep them there??? Any one have any insight on this?
@TTG - I echo your sentiments about Burlington, VT. It’s the quintessential college town - with lakeside ambience that can’t be beat. I attended St. Michael’s nearby and have fond memories of heading “downtown.” Harrisonburg, VA - home to JMU - is a bucolic town in the Shenandoah Valley. Lots of character and history - the Newmarket Civil War Battlefield site just north of the school is a moving memorial to the cadets from VMI. JMU kids are a happy crew - and have a fabulous alumni network. It was the springboard to my daughter’s consulting job in Northern VA.
We got a letter from Towson today with a $10K merit scholarship. Very nice. Got $5K from Buffalo the other day (making that very low, but she really disliked the campus).
We also just got back from UMASS-Amherst Destination Day. We stayed overnight at the UMASS Hotel last night and had a nice dinner in Amherst. The program today was very informative. There was even a small break-out section for just the Communication Disorders majors. We got a lot of specific information and met some great students. There was little to no interaction between our daughter and any other perspective students, but just based on appearances, the kids seemed very down to earth and this probably would be an excellent fit. This was our first time seeing the campus and it’s fine, nothing spectacular, but good. The town was cute (though Northampton where Smith is seemed even nicer), but maybe a little smaller than we expected. Also seems like a bit of a walk from campus, but I guess not too bad. Lot of people were walking around, which is nice. Dining hall was very nice, though we were a bit rushed for time so I don’t think we got the full experience. Wish the merit package was slightly better, but if she winds up wanting to go there, we’ll see if there’s an opportunity for an appeal. Her end of jr year weighted gpa was a 92, but her jr year was was close to a 95 and sr year, 1st half is about a 100 with a tough schedule both years as well. With Delaware as a fair comparable at about $2K less and knowing others at UMASS got about $2K more, I think there’s a reasonable case to be made. I just don’t know if UMASS considers appeals at all.
I think we’ll probably cancel the Vermont accepted students trip, I don’t see how that’s going to be UMASS. She just doesn’t feel the fit there.
We are still thinking about Delaware Decision Day on 3/2. It may be worth attending yet, we’ll see.
We are off to see Miami of Ohio in less than 2 weeks. I think that will give us a good basis to compare now that we’ve seen UMASS and soaked in a lot of new information. I’m expecting that Miami will be the nicest campus and the nicest town we’ve seen, but not exactly sure what to expect. I think she’s apprehensive about the distance and more worried about the fit there. but the visit should help with that. I think something will have to really click there for her to love it or it’s not going to beat out UMASS, though the much lower COA is nice.
Still waiting another 2-3 weeks on UCONN as well. She says she still wants to go to their accepted students day if she gets in and gets a package that we hope for.
And James Madison, who knows. I think I’ll have her send an email to the admissions rep preemptively noting the increase in grades and asking for that to be considered for merit. I don’t think they release merit for another 4 or 5 weeks. We still are expecting nothing there and won’t visit if that’s the case. If something does come if it there, we may have to scramble a visit together in early April.
Good progress, but still a long way to go.
We are back from our visit to Miami of Ohio. It’s a beautiful campus, with a great layout, buildings that all look alike (a good thing), very nice renovated dorms with large lounges and an incredibly impressive/relatively new Armstrong Student Center building. Miami admissions department put on a great program. We continue to see that the Miami admissions department as well as their social media team is very well run. Our daughter definitely liked the campus a lot. Oxford is very nice as well and vibrant with student activity. I think we did get over the hump of the people “fit”, but there’s a lot of apprehension about going to school so far away in a different region of the country.
Even if UCONN comes through with $15K, it’s the same COA as UMASS and she seems to like UMASS better (having the nice town of Amherst there is a nice factor). She’s never really warmed to Delaware, which is a slightly lower COA. JMU remains a very long shot for merit. Without knowing much about it and presenting some of the same issues as Miami (at a much higher COA though), it’s probably too late in the process even if they came in with some money.
We are most likely down to Miami OH and UMASS at this point. Miami COA is significantly less and seems like it would provide more for her in a nicer setting. Being from NY though, our daughter is very apprehensive about the distance and just the difference of being in the Midwest. I think she did get over the hurdle of the people “fit” though and did feel that she would fit in that way. It would be a much easier/safer decision for her to decide to go to UMASS and it seems as if she’s strongly leaning that way that this point.
Great choices. And I don’t disagree with your current “lean” at all. She will really love it there.
@privatebanker are you referring to my lean or our daughter’s lean? I think it’s pretty obvious that we lean different ways.
Sorry. Hers.
I see I recommended Miami of Ohio in the first post on this thread. So I guess you have me to blame for the difficult decision!
Congratulations, two terrific choices, that’s great! Good luck with the decision!
@TTG yes, I see that. Thank you for the suggestion. You definitely were on target about Miami fitting the profile. Though it took some hard work from our daughter to get that 33 ACT that made Miami possible in the end.
Lots of deliberation going on at this point. The difference between Miami and UMASS of $40K over 4 years isn’t an inconsequential sum of money. But there are plenty of other things that need to go into the decision.
Yes, congratulations to her for her hard work. She earned a great choice.
I hope she has a wonderful four years, and am sure she will.
OP just wanted to express my appreciation for this thread and the work you have put into sharing your process. Not only has it helped us identify another school to tour over spring break, but it has likely educated many about the type of research that can help our students set goals (test results) and meet family goals (budget) so that all can get what they want and need out of this process. I cannot wait to see where she chooses!
@Cheeringsection Glad to hear. I know we put it all out there, but this forum has been an invaluable help to us as well. We’ve been through this before. There’s a long Daughter #1 thread out there. Entirely different set of schools and totally different process. I know I received similar feedback there about it being a help to others. She’s a happy junior at Grinnell College now.
I think we are all very excited to have her decide on a school, but we are probably equally as excited to have the process be over with.
I’ll do this as 2 separate posts.
UConn package came today with $18,500/year and honors college. Very surprised positively in both cases.
Only thing outstanding is any JMU scholarship (slim to no chance) and some honors college results.
We have a verdict!
Our Daughter will be in the Miami University Class of 2023!!! Deposit not in quite yet, but the clothes and paraphernalia are on the way!
The visit really changed everything. The campus was beautiful (grounds, buildings, dorms, student center, etc), the town looked like a great extension of the campus and she felt comfortable with the people she met/saw. She’s been communicating with various groups of admitted students and seems comfortable with them as well. The travel will be an annoyance once again, but we’ll deal with it.
In the end, we also felt the program at Miami was a better fit as well. We got much more of a sense of community there between the faculty and the students. It seems like she’ll get more support there vs some of the other schools that were just behind and she’s the type of student who will benefit from that. The fact that the hearing clinic is available to undergrads is also very nice. The organization of the admission staff as well as their marketing and media teams really impressed us as parents. The President is also very visible and active. We are very confident that Miami will provide a great education and environment.
They even accepted a review of our her financial aid package. Immediately, I received emails from 2 different people that they would review and within a day, I got a personal call letting me know they have increased her package a bit. That will pretty much cover all of the travel. In the end, the direct fees will wind up being almost exactly what our state flagship, Binghamton, would have been and for her, Miami is a much better fit.
We’ll just have to deal with a confusing name once again, but between myself and our other daughter, the 3 of us will have gone to schools in the Midwest with confusing names.
Special thanks to @TTG who was the first to mention Miami U and thanks to anyone who participated or even just took the time to read any of this. Perhaps all of this information helps someone else some day. Having been through this twice now, I know it’s not easy.