<p>i am a sophomore in the honors program of my 2 year community college..ive spent the last 2 years in utter and complete indecision to where i want to spend my next 2 years. I do, however, know a few things. First of all, i know i want to go to school in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Utah, or California. I am a pretty good student and i want to study geosciences. My goal schools would be UC Davis/Santa Cruz, U of Washington, U of Colorado(among others). But these schools are all pretty expensive!</p>
<p>Meanwhile, University of Idaho, Montana State University, Western Washington U, and University of Utah(among others) are all pretty affordable...but i just dont know how to compare the academic excellence of these cheaper schools to my goal schools!! are they really that much worse??</p>
<p>i just dont want to cheat myself out of going to a really good school, especially after spending 2 years at home in an honors program.</p>
<p>i apologize for turning this into another "where should i go thread?" but im really pretty lost. id appreciate the guidance</p>
<p>Have you tried finding a financial aid estimator and net price calculator on each school’s web site?</p>
<p>Note that some schools may be in the [Western</a> University Exchange](<a href=“http://wiche.edu/wue]Western”>http://wiche.edu/wue), which discounts tuition to 1.5 times the in-state level for students from other states in the exchange.</p>
<p>that would be awesome but unfortunately i am a resident of New York.</p>
<p>and yeah ive looked at total costs and such but i havent looked that far into what i could get for financial aid. I did that right out of high school when i applied to University of Colorado but my estimated payments still came out to about $46,000 a year. So i figure its worth it to look at lower tuition schools to begin with…but i am trying not to sacrifice quality of the school…</p>
<p>You need to get an assessment of what your family can pay before picking colleges. It does no good to be accepted if you can’t afford to attend.</p>
<p>University of Wyoming Tuition/Fees/Room/Board is about $21,500 per year. I don’t believe that they offer any transfer scholarships to OOS students.
[Transfer</a> Students | Admissions | University of Wyoming](<a href=“404 - Page Not Found”>Transfer Student Admissions | University of Wyoming)</p>
<p>As for academic quality, U Washington and CU-Boulder clearly have the best reputations in your field. It sounds like you would be full pay and it is probably not worth paying double(or more) what it would cost for you to attend Wyoming.</p>
<p>Montana State, Idaho, and Wyoming would be next in the pecking order. I really don’t think that you would be sacrificing too much quality by attending any of these as they are all solid research institutions. They all have Honors programs that you could possibly join. I would consider Wyoming…low tuition as the state is using their oil revenues to help keep tuition low. Also, great connections with the oil and natural resource industry for jobs.</p>
<p>WWU would be in the third tier and probably pretty expensive.</p>
<p>does anyone have any idea how U of Utah stacks up?? i would guess somewhere in between UW and MSU?</p>
<p>im thinking that my top 3 might be
U of Washington
U of Utah
Montana State</p>
<p>just wondering by the way…i’ve seen considerably lower academic reviews of MSU compared to other similar school without much explanation. any idea why it might be getting a bad wrap?</p>
<p>im strictly uninterested in the lifestyle and landscape of new york.</p>
<p>i like to hike, climb, bike, kayak, photography and all things adventurous…and i am an obsessive skier. SUNY lifestyle has barely any of that ( all my friends go to SUNYs) and its all about parties. i just want to get away from the east coast, start somewhere new with a fresh start, new friends, and new atmosphere</p>
<p>What about the Colorado school of mines? They specialize in geosciences.
<a href=“http://www.mines.edu/[/url]”>http://www.mines.edu/</a>
They aren’t as cheap, but you might want to look into it. US News 75 for national universities. Not stellar, but on the map.</p>
<p>ive looked into it…it is a bit pricey. And i know it sounds shallow, but in not sure how if feel about such a small percentage of female students. in that sense i want to have a bit more of a traditional college experience</p>
<p>1) Academics take utmost priority
2) Recreational activities play a huge role in the locations i want to be
3) Campus life/atmosphere/social life is also important (one of the reasons im doubting utah)</p>
<p>im trying to keep the tuition price of colleges in in my scope to under 30,000 at the most</p>
<p>My school - Binghamton - has a hiking club, biking club, outdoors club (in fact I just went on a hike in the Catskills with that club this Friday) and much more. I’d research a little more, since you’d save yourself lots of money</p>
Have you not been to upstate New York? It’s no Colorado but there is tons of outdoorsy stuff to do. Plus, there are schools there that give good merit aid (U of Rochester comes to mind) and/or IS tuition.</p>
<p>Sounds like the OP isn’t very familiar with New York north of Manhattan.</p>
<p>For example, the outdoor activities at SUNY Plattsburgh are abundant. The place is essentially in the Adirondack Mountains. Also, SUNY Plattsburgh has a solid Geology department. The pun was unintentional.</p>
<p>@themandotcom Bing is actually one of the few east coast options that i am considering. i realize that there are outdoor activities but not on the level that i am looking for. I can actually afford many of these schools that i want to go to!! but the major research institutions that are renowned for geosciences (UC’s, UW, UA, UO, UCB, ect.) are all upwards of $35,000… i guess what i am trying to get at in this thread is, does the disparity between academic quality of these schools really make that much of a difference?</p>
<p>To answer your question in post no. 16, ‘No.’ It’s a distinction without a difference. But of course the schools have different specialties. For example, volcanology is a big deal at Western Washington University.</p>
<p>In geosciences, the working professional degree is the masters not the BS. No matter where you go, you will need to go to grad school. If you get great grades at any of your potential schools then you can go to grad school just about anywhere. </p>
<p>I would do undergrad at Montanu, MSU, or Wyoming. Do well and go to grad school at UA, UW, etc. Most top grad schools fund their grad students with assistantships that pay a small salary and come with at least a waiver for OOS tuition. Grad school will cost you less than undergrad.</p>
<p>i enjoy the Adirondaks to a certain extent. but they are not like the rockies, cascades, or Wasatch mountains. (especially for skiing) And i do not mean to sound aloof, but i am not spending two years at community college to go to Plattsburg when i could have got in right after high school…</p>
<p>@haystack yeah, thats the path that i will most likely end up taking. It does make a lot more sense. I like the looks of Montana State…and i also really like University of Utah and both are relatively affordable compared to their Coastal counterparts. </p>
<p>i got accepted to U of Colorado right out of High school but my parents said that it would be difficult to afford 4 years. So i guess i am struggling with accepting that i might have taken a few steps back in where i should be academically even though im doing very well in an honors program right now. do you kind of get where im coming from?</p>
<p>You won’t be taking any steps back academically by attending MSU over CU. It is true that CU has a slightly higher caliber of student going in as freshman. MSU has more students ‘washout’ as freshman because of fairly easy freshman admission standards. But you are not going in as a freshman. The weak students are gone by junior year. Geoscience is a hard major with lots of math and physics. There will not be any weak students left in geoscience by junior year. </p>
<p>There tends to be a lot of self selection at state schools. The weak students tend to gravitate towards easier majors. You have not chosen an easy major. The students at MSU with a geoscience major will probably be just as strong as those at CU.</p>
<p>Also, don’t assume that a lower ranking means substantially easier undergrad courses. I teach at a university ranked quite a bit higher than CU. I will guarantee you that there is no difference in the same course at my school when compared to CU.</p>
<p>My son is considering MSU and Wyoming. I would not hesitate sending him to either over the school where I teach.</p>