Help Find a College - Daughter #2

College Search & Selection
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@lexluthor5 I predict 13.5K merit from URI and the GPA requirement is only 2.8.

I was in their honors program back in the dark ages but seeing DS’s experience in the new honors program was really cool. As a STEM major, he really enjoyed the specialized gen eds he could take. Small classes and the teachers tailored them based on the students in the current class. The honors program kids can get special on campus housing as upper classmen - FYI. When it comes down to decision time, as a parent I enjoyed going to the honors program talk on accepted students day.

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@lexluthor5 NY does qualify for the match; there’s a chart right on their website. Looks like NY is included under “All Other”.

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@gearmom it says 3.5/27 here https://web.uri.edu/honors/program-requirements/ Need to maintain a 3.4 to remain in honors. That’s a relatively high number. Not sure if I’d be worried about her being dropped from honors at some point.

What are you referring to as far as the 2.8 requirement?

I think 13.5K merit at URI is very optimistic. That would surprise me. URI w/$13K merit and honors college would be a very attractive option. We are excited to see the school next weekend.

@NJWrestlingmom yes, it does look like U of Maine is $13200 off automatic for 3.0GPA/2.2 ACT. It’s definitely on the list as a solid safety for both admittance and net dollars.

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@lexluthor5 DS is just under a 3.4 as CE/Japanese major (which I think is pretty good) but he already took his general eds through honors. They just raised the GPA requirement from a 3.3 to a 3.4 for honors. I think for Speech a 3.4 is O’k actually.

After watching merit awards for some time, I really think she is getting over 10k in merit. A 30 for the ACT and I’m fuzzy on her GPA but a weighted 3.7 maybe. They just had a 1280 SAT, 3.3 UW get a 11k a year scholarship. They are pretty generous with merit and her test score is like a 1390-1410 SAT. That is high. 13.5 is Gearmom’s prediction. (Let’s take bets :wink: )The key is to apply EARLY in mid October for the best results for $ and honors. Tippy top OOS students get 18k a year (the max Centennial scholarship). 13.5k for a good student is reasonable. IMHO

Merit scholarships have GPA requirement that you have to maintain in order to keep. For URI, you only need to maintain a 2.8. For a lot of schools it is a 3.0. And unfortunately, some have a 3.3 requirement which is bad for STEM. Causes a lot of stress for kids in engineering who sometimes lose their merit scholarship.

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@gearmom no, she’s only at a 3.55W GPA and 30 ACT (31 if superscored).

That was my concern for the honors, 3.4 could be stressful to maintain. It looks like it’s 3.5 to get in and 3.4 to maintain at least according to the link I posted. That’s if she even got in to honors there.

Unaware that applying as early as October would provide best results. I would have assumed that the 12/1 EA deadline would have been sufficient, no?

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@lexluthor5 You’re right to always confirm, but it should include NY. Scroll down to the bottom of the graph and it says “all other states”

https://go.umaine.edu/apply/scholarships/flagship-match/

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@lexluthor5 I think kids have the best results with early application honestly. I really would not wait. There is no reason to. It is an easy application. We got quick results with UMass, URI, UMaine, WPI with early applications. We got REALLY good results for UMass and I think that is absolutely a reflection of applying early. Certainly certain major, they recommend early application like pharmacy. I’m not sure about Speech but why risk anything. The early bird…

Honors is nice but honestly it isn’t something to stress about. The STEM courses are challenging enough. Those kids don’t need the little boost really. They already form their own little communities. Use it for two years and who cares if she drops. She probably will not be taking honors courses for her major as a junior or senior anyway. Really shouldn’t be a determining factor IMO.

A little more info. Some upper classmen do go “down the line” and live near the beaches which requires a car. DH and I and DS1 didn’t do that. There are plenty of houses surrounding the campus that you can get a room or apartment at if you plan. That way we still simply walked to campus. Also, fun fact, near the train station, there is a bike path through wooded community to the beach.

Also UMaine and URI are part of the National Student Exchange. Not all schools are. https://nse.org/ I think both schools have a high OOS student population. URI is probably 40%. The way they attract is OOS is with merit aid. I don’t think she is getting lower than 11k at URI. Final prediction between 11k - 13.5k.

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@gearmom agree, apply early. I think with our older daughter, we had applications in just before Thanksgiving, but no reason to go even earlier here. Our daughter will be home most of the summer, so she’ll have time to work on this.

If she does get $11-$13K at URI, it’s probably going to be towards the top of the list (assuming we have a good visit).

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@lexluthor5 As long as you hit their early date. And you have to look that up, Nov 1st I think. Especially with a weaker GPA, she wants to be early. Applying in mid October when admissions has a lot more time, the calm before the storm was good for us because they were so quick. Closer to the early dates, November 1 maybe, I noticed that it took longer. With weaker stats than her sister get her in before November 1. For UMass, DS got a good merit scholarship and honors. He was a weaker candidate than kids who applied later and were rejected from honors and had lower offers. And the same for WPI. YMMV

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It doesn’t look like either UMBC or George Mason has a Communicative Disorders major so that may be a problem for both.

By the way, funny side note. Schools in the discussion are 5-0 in the NCAA basketball tournament, including the historic win by UMBC last night.

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@lexluthor5 Hope she likes Bball. Go Rams.

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Long day in Rhode Island today! Had a very nice trip to URI. We had a good tour and enjoyed the campus. Tour guide was a freshman who told us at the end that it was her first tour, but she did a good job. The campus is nice. We don’t have too much to compare to since we looked at all smaller private schools with our older daughter. Quad area is a nice part of campus. The buildings we saw were all in good shape. Dorms are dorms. Common area in the dorms were large and looked nice. Liked the main dining hall, didn’t try the food though. There’s definitely some general maintenance that needs to be done here and there. The little area of off campus shops was good to have, but didn’t seem like there was any off campus “town” to take advantage of. Sounds like maybe need to drive to Narragansett for that? Definitely good school spirit with lots of kids wearing URI gear. The kids all seemed friendly and seem to be enjoying URI. The tour guide was in a triple, which is far from ideal. Any idea what percentage of freshmen are in forced triples?

After the tour, we drove to Newport and had a nice afternoon/evening there. My wife and I have been there a couple of times, but neither of our kids had. We love Newport.

The trip up took 2:40 without any traffic whatsoever. Looks like the train station right there would be a relatively easy way home. Location is almost perfect for us in that it’s both an easy trip for us, there’s plenty of stuff in between and nearby to take advantage of and it’s an easy trip for her.

She definitely felt like she could see herself there. Now we just have to hope that she can get $10K+ in merit. If she does, it probably does eliminate at lot of other schools (like Alabama, Ohio U, West Chester, all SUNYs except Buffalo, etc.)

Next Monday/Tuesday we have tours at Towson and Delaware. We may also tour UMBC, though it doesn’t look like they have a communicative disorders/speech pathology major, so that probably eliminates them. We’ll probably also do a self guided tour of tcnj on the way back.

At some point we are going to need to visit SUNY University at Buffalo. Would be nice to first see what comes in from URI, but that would mean we’d have to go in the winter, which isn’t ideal. Buffalo may need a visit either way (it could wind up ahead of URI, even with his merit) so maybe we’ll do a visit late summer at the beginning of their year, before HS starts, if possible. It’s a long trip up there though for a visit.

The Ohio schools, Alabama, WVU, JMU and some others will probably not got visits unless she gets less than expected at some of the safer schools or doesn’t get into Buffalo (or dislikes it upon visit) or if she gets more merit than expected at one of them (ie JMU).

I would say that the way we are looking at things today, URI at the $13.5k merit that @gearmom originally guessed could be tough to beat, but long way to go yet. You weren’t sure about her gpa, it’s around 3.57 weighted. Guidance counselor said that re-weighting is usually good for our district we aren’t overly generous on the weighting. Her ACT is a 31 for URI as they do superscore.

Good progress!

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According to the URI 2017-18 CDS, for that year < 11% of incoming freshman received merit grants (333 out of 3164). The average award was $ 6,921. 10.3% of incoming freshmen had ACT scores in the 30-36 range (roughly equal to the percent receiving merit grants).

So it looks like that 31 ACT score would qualify for merit money (assuming all other qualifications are in line). The numbers don’t seem to indicate an award much bigger than than the ~$7K average … unless maybe the award amounts do tilt significantly to favor OOS students.

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Exactly, from what I was able to put together by reading the URI forum posts here, merit $ amounts do tilt significantly to OOS students at URI.

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@lexluthor5 The town near URI is Wakefield. You take a side street at the top of campus.There is everything there. Less than a ten minute drive. They even have a rock climbing gym. That’s why we go there now. There is a village green, restaurants etc.

They do have “The Emporium” at the top of campus for students with CVS, restaurants etc.

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@tk21769 Instate students receive 2-5k and OOS students receive 7-14k usually. That is why 40% of students are OOS. Predominately from NY and NJ I would guess based on my experience.

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@gearmom Our tour guide didn’t mention Wakefield. Still would have to drive, but seems like a lot of kids have cars, (even our freshman tour guide did), so I’m sure not an issue escaping campus for a while if so desired.

Thanks for following up with more info on the merit aid. Still curious how prevalent triples for freshman are. Hopefully she has a good shot at >$10K merit at URI. That would certainly put it very high on the list.

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Does the school have a shuttle system? Even at our PASSHE schools like Slippery Rock or IUP they have some shuttles that run to the mall/Walmart and other places on the weekends.

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@lexluthor5 My guy did not have a triple. Not sure about everyone. For the first few months my guy did not bring his car to school. He would just hop on the bus and go to Providence. He actually went to Brown for a bunch of things. Pretty sure the busses also run to Newport. Wasn’t expensive. I bet they run the bus to Wakefield, Narragansett.

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@lexluthor5 RIPTA is the bus service. Looks like the #62 and #66 for destinations between Galilee (beaches) to the Wakefield Mall to URI to Providence. #64 for Newport. Looks like ten rides for $10. Much cheaper than driving. And they have wheeli and zipcar. The bus is the best deal. She’d want to go to Providence for a good mall.

https://web.uri.edu/parking/off-campus-transport/