<p>I'm stuck between Loyola, UD, Penn State, and Fordham I have no idea what to chose! I'm looking into the speech pathology program but it's not like a deadlock because I know there's always the chance of changing it! I want a school that will be able to helo guide me if I do stay with it but will also offer me a lot if I do not and I won't feel stuck there socially which I've heard some iffy things about Loyola!</p>
<p>Have visited Fordham, Penn and Loyola (not UD). I can say, as a parent, that if cost is a factor, the higher rated public school would be the best choice. Penn State comes up on everybody’s list of great schools. That said, I have a niece that graduated from the University of PGH (she loved it) and has gone on to graduate study in Speech Pathology there. She was accepted at NYU for the same program BUT clinical and research are superior at PGH. Check the rankings. We have worked with a tutor w 2 Ivy degrees and lots of loans and she is adamant that a great education at a public college is the way to go.</p>
<p>Wise Foxe-Spend the money carefully and you can afford grad school! Its just like high school. Good grades and test scores get you in anywhere. Big difference in school size and activities, urban vs rural areas. good luck</p>
<p>laurenn222…DS is a junior at Loyola and had applied and been accepted to 3 of the schools you listed. He was undecided until he took a few days off in April from his senior year for some final visits. As an undecided major who wanted a small classroom experience, Loyola was the best choice for him.
I am partial to the Jesuit schools and I know it is very easy to change majors at both Loyola and Fordham. You will take a core curriculum at both schools, but this allows ample time for an undecided student to make an informed decision about his/her major and/or minor.
Academic fit and cost were factors for my DS. Merit $$ helped make the decision easier.
Please do not be fooled into thinking a small school cannot become larger.
While it is true that a large school can become smaller, a small school can offer numerous opportunities beyond its campus. DS was able to study abroad, travelling to continents and countries he never envisioned as a high school senior. Additionally, service and internship opportunities in a large city or other country can present themselves at a small school.
DS is really glad he chose Loyola. You need to make the best choice for you. You have four great choices. As hawkpop points out, all four schools are very different. If you can afford another visit, it may be wise to miss a few days of high school if it would help confirm your final selection.
Good luck with your decision.</p>
<p>What iffy things?</p>
<p>Thanks so much for all your help! They are all totally different so I really need to think my decisions through! Also I have just heard that going out of Loyola can be a bit sketchy at time and socially at night people only go to bars since it is known to be more of a bar school, I feel like this would get boring!</p>
<p>Hi, Lauren!</p>
<p>My D is a soph at Loyola & she loves it there. She does not go to bars. Baltimore has tons of interesting things to do that do not involve drinking. There is also—surprise!—homework that needs to be done and she chooses to get some of this done on weekends—her choice (she needs studio time & space for her work). No, she does not spend her entire weekend on homework (except right before exams, which you will do too, no matter where you go!).</p>
<p>Yes, there is a drinking culture at Lyl among some students – especially the freshmen who are out of Mom & Dad’s view for the first time–as there is at most colleges. You do not have to join it. The drinkers & bar-hoppers are excusing their behavior by saying “there is nothing to do” on campus.</p>
<p>The reason for the “bar school” thing is Loyola has a very strict policy on drugs and alcohol in the dorms. I live in NJ where in my county within only 2-3 years we had a freshman at Rider drink himself to death in a hazing ritual ( on campus); at TCNJ another student somehow wound up, when very drunk, down his dorm’s garbage chute & the machine turned on & crushed him to death (and his body was found months later after heartbreaking hand searching in the landfill). Looking the other way while your students drink in the dorms creates a serious liability issue for colleges – the parents of the deceased students promptly sued everyone in sight, including the univ presidents, frats, etc—and you might see why Loyola does not want to look the other way regarding booze in dorms. Princeton, having seen the nightmares their neighbor institutions went through, has now begun to take those eating clubs more seriously and is building extremely attractive dorms to wean their students away from the eating club alternative, a headache to the university for decades.</p>
<p>Loyola, being a Jesuit school, also has to ask itself whether it is Jesuit & Christian values to allow your students to engage in binge drinking on campus. And binge drinking <em>is</em> what happens when there are kegs in the dorms. </p>
<p>So, the students who are hellbent on drinking get false IDs (a Federal offense, check the DHS’ website, also in MD it is a felony) and go to bars that accept them. </p>
<p>You do not have to sit in your room if you do not want to drink—Baltimore is a city with lots of fun things going on, many of which are free–there are always festivals of one kind or another in Fells Point; there are museums and concerts; the place is full of historical sites if you like that; the Chesapeake Bay is next door (if you can get a car but there are plenty of students who have them) and DC is a short train ride away, Philly not much farther. Johns Hopkins is a shuttle ride from Loyola & they have all kinds of events there, too. If you like baseball or football both fields are right next to downtown and the Ravens are the current Superbowl champs. </p>
<p>[Best</a> of Baltimore \ Student Activities \ Loyola University Maryland](<a href=“http://www.loyola.edu/department/studentactivities/best-of-baltimore.aspx]Best”>Page Not Found - Loyola University Maryland)</p>
<p>[50</a> Free Things :: Baltimore.org<a href=“Actually%20it%20is%2050%20on%20this%20page,%20now”>/url</a> </p>
<p>Loyola has student bloggers on their site, try reading the blogs for a student-view of life at the school. You can contact the bloggers via that page & ask them questions, too. </p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.loyola.edu/undergraduate/campus-life/student-blogs.aspx]Student”>Page Not Found - Loyola University Maryland]Student</a> Blogs \ Undergraduate Studies \ Loyola University Maryland](<a href=“http://baltimore.org/30-free-things/]50”>http://baltimore.org/30-free-things/)</p>
<p>The neighborhood to one side of Lyl is “sketchy” but do remember most cities have their sketchy areas. Troubles at Loyola ensue when students have been drinking in the bars up York St and the taxi driver drops them off at the corner of York & Cold Spring (go to google maps) and they try to stagger home. The local criminals know that drunk Lyl students will be walking around late on weekend nights & so they take advantage. In any city you have to refrain from staggering around drunk late at night. Also, you don’t want to be walking around alone in some neighborhoods, but look at Fordham or any other school in a city. Yale, Penn, & Columbia have rough neighborhoods near them & they are Ivies, and I bet if you had applied to any of them and been accepted you would not be fretting about sketchy neighborhoods! : - ) </p>
<p>As to cost of state schools vs private—Lyl offers merit scholarships & if you get one of these the place suddenly becomes less expensive than Penn State, not known for aid even to Pennsylvanians. My daughter is going to Lyl for less than it would have cost anywhere else except Rutgers, and it is not that huge a difference from Rutgers. You will have to figure the costs of each school for your family. </p>
<p>Another plus for Lyl is that you can do Study Abroad for nearly the cost of staying at the school–you pay Lyl your regular tuition & they buy the airfare, pay the tuition at Abroad U, and your only additional cost is a few hundred $$ in the “Study Abroad Fee” plus the food & any entertainment or extraneous things the students spends on, at the overseas school. Your financial aid continues when they do it this way (except a Work Study job, which the Feds don’t pay for if the student is abroad). My daughter is attending Univ College Cork next semester & we are delighted. </p>
<p>Loyola has fantastic profs & as FFD says, opportunities for internships, etc that are great. The small class sizes have been very good for my daughter—you are NOT a “number” at Loyola as you will be at PSU. She was able to form relationships with profs and dept heads in her freshman year. </p>
<p>I think maybe if you can at all manage another visit to any of these schools, you should try—and especially, get them to let you sit in on some classes. Loyola needs about 2 weeks notice for you to do that so if you want to do it there, you have to call the AO right away. </p>
<p>Good luck in your decision!</p>