My son was accepted to Marist and really likes the school. They gave him a decent scholarship. He also applied to Fordham, Northeastern, and Villanova - schools that are all $15-20K more than Marist. Are these schools worth the extra money? He wants to major in Business. He has a 97 weighted average and is in the top 15% of his class. A lot of great ECs from Community Service (President of the Club), Theater (Director and Lead), several musical performing groups, various Honor Societies (leadership roles in some). Fordham only gave him $5K (on a bill that’s around $65K). He hasn’t gotten replies from Villanova or Northeastern yet. His SAT score (1930) hurts him a little. His ACT is a 27. We live on Long Island. Any thoughts?
My son also applied to Northeastern and Fordham with Northeastern being his first choice. I think though i’m not sure that Northeastern may give more money than Marist so that may be an option. However, like you said his scores are a bit low for that school. I think he’ll be a match at Fordham though they don’t give any money from what i’ve heard so i’d have to say no that’s not worth it. He didn’t get any money from Villanova?
We didn’t get the answer from Villanova yet. He was deferred from EA into Regular Decision. Some of the local schools - Hofstra and St John’s gave him excellent money.
Marist is better than Hofstra or sju but not quite in the same category as the others.
What’s your budget ?
His scores are a little low for Northeastern, so even if he gets in I wouldn’t expect much money. My D was 1st in her class, 4.8 w gpa, and 30 ACT and got no money from NEU. That was the only school to give her nothing. Villanova gave her about $8,000. She got some very large merit awards from WPI, Stonehill, and Loyola Maryland .
Thanks CrazymamaB. He got turned off the Northeastern after we visited there a few months ago. He spent a night with two friends who are current freshmen and whole party vibe turned him off. While my son is no choir boy, he is focused on school. Still waiting to hear from Villanova, Bingamton, BU, and Northeastern. I think Villanova is still his first choice, but Marist and BU are probably close behind.
The party vibe at all those schools is about the same. It depends on who your friends are.
@CP3rdTimeAround Northeastern has a bad party vibe but BU doesn’t? My understanding is that most of the college parties are at BU and MIT frats. NEU students generally go there for parties…
I don’t know about the party atmosphere at BU. Just going by what he saw at Northeastern. What you say could be correct.
Not to mention villanova… he really needs to do an overnight at all colleges that admitted him. And there’s always the option of a substance-free dorm or quiet dorm (check “student life/housing”.)