Help! Son is not sure which school to pick.

College Search & Selection
1

Hi everyone,

Perhaps you remember our situation from my previous posts. My son has good stats (2250 SAT + 3.94 gpa) but we are really strapped financially, and at the same time don’t qualify for FAFSA aid. So we applied to 14 schools, many of them sort of middle-tier, trying to get merit aid and affordable offers. I felt that the strategy paid off because he has received a few really good offers, and others that are a stretch, but still somewhat do-able. Here are the options:

U of Richmond - full ride (wow!)
U of Alabama CBHP - cost to us = $3500/year
U of Arizona Honors - cost to us = $10,000/year
Arizona State U Barrett Honors - cost to us = $16,000/year
U of Miami - cost to us = $20,000/year

I thought he had settled on U of Richmond, but now he’s concerned that they might not have a great Computer Science program, and he’s considering ASU or U of A instead. This is kind of a shocker to me, because he had previously said he would “rather die than go to ASU,” and we both agree he might be bored at U of A since it is right in our hometown. He is another student who is kind of reeling after being denied by all the ivies this week. I wasn’t expecting acceptances at the ivies, but apparently he was, and now he’s coming to terms with his real choices. :frowning:

The truth is, he is really good in computer programming. He is currently working on an app with his good friend (who was accepted to Rice :() and he spends literally hours every day writing code on his laptop. So I can understand wanting to go to a school that is strong in that. It’s just kind of a hard for me to imagine him picking U of A or ASU (and me paying 10k-16k) over a full-ride at a wonderful school like Richmond. But I will accept that if need be. The issue right now is just what to do.

Any thoughts?

2

Now he’s even talking about taking loans out so he can go to Georgia Tech. :frowning: The cost to us is 32k so even if he took loans, I’d be in way over my head as his parent. :frowning: And he’d be turning down a full-ride a really nice school! Ugh!

3

Now he wants to call Georgia Tech and ask for more money. I told him to go ahead, but I think the chances of that happening are close to zero, since it’s a public school and we are OOS. But he’s suddenly got the idea that he has to go to a school with a very strong CS program. GT would be a financial disaster for me, which is why I didn’t even list it as one of the affordable options! :frowning:

4

How advanced in computer science is he? University of Richmond seems to have quite a few faculty members in the field, and all of the requisite courses offered. Could he talk to a current faculty member or student in the program to find out how difficult it is? Chances are the school has an admitted students page where he could post the questions and his concerns.

5

Ok thanks! He is pretty advanced I believe, but I really get the feeling that U Richmond supports the students in whatever their field is and makes sure that they have all the resources they need to succeed. I did get input from one other CS student on this board about a week ago and he said the program was good. I copied and pasted that comment into an email for my son, and fortunately he is keeping Richmond on the table. Also, we are headed down there next week for a visit so I will find out if we can spend time in the CS department.

6

He gota full ride to the spiders! Lol

7

I know, and I’m thrilled! I think he will come around. :slight_smile:

8

I’ve heard mixed things about U Richmond. One thing is that they let undergraduates teach undergraduate courses; it is a special program but I know very few schools that would allow such a thing. We don’t even allow grad students to teach undergraduate courses - they just assist a professor!

I would very much lean towards the schools with honors programs - he would enjoy it much more, and if he got hung up on transferring to an Ivy, it would be better for him to be in an honors program (or in terms of getting into grad school).

9

That’s so funny. Remember all the worrying about the essay. What is he specifically interested in?

10

@gearmom‌ I know! He actually wrote something like “spiders are horrid little things,” not knowing that’s their mascot!
But the award came from competing as a Richmond Scholar and getting really lucky. :slight_smile: He wants to major in Computer Science. However I still think that could change over the next four years.

11

I remember. They were probably tired of students kissing up. What in CS? U of A as cyber security which is big.

12

Hmmm, you know I’m not really an expert on CS. But he spends a lot of time writing code. He has been working with a friend writing an app.

13

Frankly I think this all comes down to a discussion between you and him on what you can afford. Are you prepared to pay the freight for GT? If not then take it off the table. If you’re really strapped financially you should put the limits on now that the FA offers are in.

14

he can’t take loans to go to GT unless YOU cosign for them. So, you’re in the drivers seat with that.

Has he told CBH at Bama what his other offers are? Did CBH give him anything? Or is Bama off the table completely? If not, then he needs to contact Dr. S and Mrs. B and politely see if more can be offered to him. CBH is such a wonderful experience. If CBH didn’t offer him anything, and they knew that a full ride was on the table elsewhere, then coming up with $3500 would not be difficult for them.

I have no idea what Richmond is like CS-wise.

15

^ I looked at Richmond’s course offerings and Bama seemed better. I don’t know why he wouldn’t choose between there.

16

If you don’t want to pay or sign for loans, a sit down reality chat about costs and finances are in order. We told our kids what we could pay, and they just swept off the table any options that required more than that contribution from us. End of those schools in terms of consideration.

17

No, I can’t. It would be like 32k a year, and that is just not affordable for us. He wants to call and ask them for more funds, but I know that is extremely unlikely, given that GT is a public, out-of-state school for us.

@mom2collegekids‌ Bama and CBHP gave him a fantastic offer. It would only cost me $3500 per year for him to attend there, so the money is not a problem at Bama. He really likes the CBHP, but he’s never been sure that overall Bama is a good fit for him. (This sounds trivial, but it was cold and raining both times he was there, and I wonder if that influenced him.)

The purpose of giving him several schools to choose from was so that he could make a choice and feel ok about wherever he ends up, so I’m trying to support his decisions. But you are right, he’s been given a budget, and he needs to stick with it. Only the five schools mentioned above (U Richmond, Bama, U Miami, ASU, and U of A) came in meeting the budget, so he has to pick one of them. (U Miami is actually a bit of a stretch, but I could make it work if necessary.)

Part of what happened is that when we were choosing schools to apply to, he was not planning to major in CS! He was thinking of pre-law at that time, so looking at taking economics, history, international relations, etc. So we did not exclusively apply to tech schools like G Tech, Cal Tech, etc. Instead we applied to a lot of schools that offered a diverse range of classes, to allow for the possibility of him switching interests and majors. By the end of the college app process, he had already switched his main interest to CS, so now he feels like he has to go to a good tech school. But realistically he could switch to something else at any time, so I still don’t think that a tech-heavy school is totally necessary or even the best idea.

I think he’s just reeling from Ivy Day and the harsh realization that he was shut out of the ivies (he was really hoping for Stanford, and I guess he expected to get in :frowning: ) and now he’s coming to terms with his real choices. Hard lesson, but that is life.

Thanks ya’ll, for your input. :slight_smile:

18

Alabama definitely has more course options . . . but that doesn’t necessarily make it better. Other considerations include class size, teaching quality, and the overall happiness of students in the CS program. CBH is an excellent program - but it is a completely different entity from the CS program, which is where the OP’s son would have to major if that’s what he decides he’s interested in.

19

^ I was talking specifically about the CS course listings.

20

If you are going to Richmond to visit, could you go to Bama again, and have him talk to the CS department?

Free and $80,000 or more is a big difference, he also has choices inbetween!