Hello!
I’m a senior currently trying to make my decision on which school to attend next year. My options are:
Ohio State University- Main Campus (in state)
Major: Data Analytics
Cost: 25k/yr
Waiting on Scholars Decision
Miami University- OH (in state)
Major: Business Analytics
Cost: 19k/yr (w/ 13k scholarship included)
Possible 3+1 BS/MS
Arizona State University
Major: Business Data Analytics
Cost: 34k/yr (w/ 15.5k scholarship included)
Barrett Honors w/ W.P. Carey Leader’s Academy
Purdue University
Major: Integrated Business and Engineering
Cost: 40k/yr
Honors College
Denison University
Major: Data Analytics
Cost: 45k/yr (w/ 25k scholarship included)
What I want in a college is a more traditional college campus with lots of green space, a good program in Data Analytics, lots of activities to be involved in, and a diverse student body. I don’t care much about size or weather. I would also like to have good networking and career services.
My preferred budget is anything under 30k/yr, and the highest is probably around 35k-40k/yr. I really like all of these schools so I’ve been somewhat struggling to try and make decisions. Opportunity for internships/professional development is also important to me, so any information on that is helpful. Any thoughts, feelings, personal experiences, or whatever you feel I should know is very appreciated.
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Well there’s more to it than cost. Which school do you like? What are some of your preferences? You have to think about that too.
I know it’s a lot more than cost, I just wanted to include all of that info since people on here tend to to ask for it. I mostly wanted people to look at my list and say which school they thought was the best opportunity and why since I’ve been struggling trying to make decisions. I also wanted to know more about people’s personal experiences with the schools since that helps me gauge how satisfied people are with their choice/ their kid’s choice. I’ll add more to the original post about what I want in a school so other people can see that too.
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Congrats on having some really great choices. My daughter is a sophomore at Denison and absolutely loves her school which has been transformative for her. With that said, for the cost OSU seems like a no brainer to me. OSU is a great school academically and has a social scene is second to none. Best of luck!
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Thank you for the info on those two schools! I’m definitely leaning more towards OSU for the reasons you pointed out, but want to make an educated decision.
All of your options seem to be good options in terms of Data Analytics.
ASU seems to be the outlier in terms of location and landscape. It was more green than I was expecting, but I was expecting almost none, and is different than the Midwest (visited in January). I am originally from the Midwest and now live in the SE. Have you had a chance to visit ASU?
There’s an ASU dad, @sbdad12, who has offered to answer questions about ASU on another thread. His daughter is in W.P. Carey and Barrett if you want to reach out to him with questions.
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I haven’t visited ASU, but know people who live in the Phoenix area and liked the school from what I could see online. It seems like a nice school, just don’t know how comfortable I am choosing a school from 1500 miles away without having been there before.
Yes, that is a challenge.
My D21 felt strongly about setting foot on campuses before deciding. FWIW ASU has been tied for #1 ever since the visit (with a rotation of two others) and that’s despite our general tour being weak (it was just our particular guide) and originally wanting to stay 1-5 hours from home. Currently, D’s basically deciding between adventure and comfort (UNC, in-state legacy). I suspect you are facing something similar.
Have you done a Barrett virtual tour? Barrett tour was one of the few virtual events my D21 found entirely worthwhile because while the guide was walking from stop to stop, other Barrett students were on the virtual meeting sharing personal experiences. She finds she gets more out of that than just “this library has 5 floors that get more quiet as you go up, and it has a Starbucks.”
I will try to find my post about impressions from our ASU visit and link on this thread.
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I just realized the description of impression was a response to you on another thread 
.
The good news is that as all the options are good, you can’t go wrong.
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@ohioansenior2021, congrats on acceptance to all of these schools.
As @GetCollege19 mentioned, my daughter is in Barrett and WPC. You may want to check your numbers for ASU. It is closer to $39K that $34K when you consider that the cost of attendance numbers are off for the Barrett dorms (room is closer to $10K than $8,600 for the regular dorms and food is another $1K or $6,600) + another $2K for the Barrett fees. If you have the $15.5K scholarship, it is approx $54,500-$15K or $39K.
While I really like the Barrett program, I question if it is worth an additional $14K/year or $56K for four years at OSU (and I’m a Michigan grad) and $20K/year or $80K/ 4 years over Miami of Ohio. These are both great schools. It also sounds like you are leaning towards staying in state.
For us, we are in SoCal, so traveling to Tempe is super easy (1 hour flight or 6 hour drive). For you, it’s more of a challenge. If you want to work and settle in the Midwest, OSU and Miami are better. If you want to make a big change, and settle in CA or AZ, then ASU is a better fit.
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Denison will be quite different: smaller, so smaller/more interactive classes, a full residential experience. You’d have to really want that since it’s more expensive than the others, although if it were your first choice you could always email and they “Denison is my first choice but tOSU is 25k and my parents have said 40k is the max they’ll pay, is there work study to make up the difference?” But you can ONLY email that if its really your true first choice.
After that, you have larger public universities and among all excellent choices on your list, it’d really be tOSU V. MIAMI I think. Either one is good, so it’d be dependent on fit: very large v. medium sized, big sports v. Not, preppier, etc. I assume you can easily go and walk around campus even if no official tour is given. Have you already visited either one?
You have two great programs in Miami and Ohio State and two that are vastly different.
You have a budget and you will realize later in life how smart you were to spend less.
Choose from them.
All listed are equally fine schools - yes, ASU is huge and Dennison is small although it’s campus isn’t…we looked there.
But cost is king - all the names are solid.
Thanks all for the responses. I definetly agree that OSU and Miami are going to be much more affordable and provide the same level of education or better, so I’m glad that others think the same.
@sbdad12, Thanks for all of the info! I didn’t realize the room/board was that much higher for Barrett, so thanks for pointing that out. I really don’t care where I end up geographically for my career, but it will definetly be easier for me to be closer to home while in college. ASU is probably going to fall off my list then, since it will be well over my budget once you add in all of the flights.
@MYOS1634 I do really like Denison, but I don’t think I like it enough to pay almost double the cost of OSU. I haven’t officailly gotten to visit OSU, but I have been to basketball/football games and driven around campus a little bit in the past. My parents were planning on taking me up there so we could walk around campus one weekend, just so I could see more of the academic part of campus. It’s only 30 minutes from where I live, so no big trip. I visited Miami last year on March 5, 2020, just about a week before the world went crazy. I liked campus a lot, but I don’t know if I like it more than OSU.
@tsbna44 Very good point, all the schools are solid options with good recognition, so cost can make the decision. I think that means I have my top two, so now it’s just a game between OSU and Miami.
So now I have some questions. How would you all compare OSU and Miami? Do you think one has more opportunities than the other? What school would you choose between those two and why?
I think you go and see how you feel. One is humongous and in or near the city. The other isn’t humongous, is in the sticks, and doesn’t have much near it.
Both, I’m sure are superb. Which is right for you??
I agree, if you’re not 100% into Denison, then your real choices are Miami and tOSU.
Go visit: the “feel”, the “vibe”, is very different.
It’s hard to beat Miami’s campus - it’s designed after top private colleges’. Greek life is important, the Honors programs within the Honors College are impressive and you’d likely have guaranteed access to research, it’s not as diverse, it’s in-between Dayton and Cincinnati.
tOSU is of course Ohio’s flagship. It’s got everything. It’s large, very large, meaning you’ll find about anyone and anything you can think of in terms of peers, activities, classes, spectator and intramural sports, research labs (but you’ll have more competition to access them).
There’s no wrong choice, each is excellent and a different fit, so they’d appeal to different students.
If you go visit each, one should “feel right” immediately. If neither “feels right”, why not go for the least expensive?
Do return to this thread to report on your visits since I’m sure other students have been in your position and will learn from your experience.
When do you hear about Scholars at tOSU?
I’m supposed to hear from scholars by “no later than mid-April”, so hopefully sooner than later. I think that, at the moment, I’m leaning more towards OSU anyways. I looked further into the programs today and like how OSU allows for a choice of concentration built into the major. This would make it so I wouldn’t have to do business if I changed my mind, and could instead do something like public health analytics.
Sounds like solid reasons.
Fingers crossed for Scholars!!
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Update:
I recently received my scholars decision and I got into International Affairs Scholars!! I have now officially commited to Ohio State!! My mom and I drove up to campus this week and I really loved it. They also opened up in-person tours for admitted students in April, so I scheduled one of those. Very excited about it all!!
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