<p>Penny, there were things she liked and things she disliked about BC. She is transferring for her sophomore year to Smith, but if she were staying she would be staying in the new dorms that they are opening in the fall. </p>
<p>She was in a BFA Theater program, and decided that she wanted to change programs. That was what actually drove her to transfer.</p>
<p>She was in Macaulay Honors College as well, which gave her free tuition. It helped her/us save a lot of money this year.</p>
<p>I recommend that you look seriously at SUNY Buffalo. They have long had an excellent English Department. SUNY Albany isn’t bad either.</p>
<p>I would strongly suggest you look into SUNY New Paltz. While it is a 90 minute bus ride to NYC, it’s still pretty close and they have excellent creative writing and journalism programs. It’s a highly regarded school with a really friendly and down to earth student body. You would have a great college experience there.</p>
<p>Thanks guys, I will take a look at those schools.</p>
<p>I would probably be looking at CUNY schools, such as Queens.</p>
<p>You can get to all the SUNY schools’ web sites from here: [SUNY:</a> Complete Campus List](<a href=“http://www.suny.edu/student/campuses_complete_list.cfm]SUNY:”>http://www.suny.edu/student/campuses_complete_list.cfm)</p>
<p>You should also look for Honors scholarships at the each of the SUNYs. I don’t know how competitive you’ll be at any particular school, but the Honors scholarships at some of the SUNYs come with enough major merit money that the merit award plus Stafford loans should be enough to come close to covering the bills.</p>
<p>Also try to earn money to set aside for college this summer. If you can keep a part-time job during the school year without it hurting your grades, work then too, and save as much money as you can.</p>
<p>And talk to the parents: See if they can compromise at least a little. Tell them COA for a typical upstate SUNY college is about $17K to live on campus. Tell them you can take out a maximum of $5.5K in Stafford loans your first year. Tell them that with luck, you can probably save $5K if you have a job both this summer and at least a part time job during the school year. And then ask politely, could/would they be willing to pay about $7K for your first year of college? Maybe if they see that you’re not talking about them funding a $50K/year college totally out-of-pocket, they’ll be willing to meet you part way.</p>
<p>Thanks guys.
So, I got a 1860 on my SAT. CR-660, Math-580 and Writing-620. And I finished the year with a 96 GPA. </p>
<p>I plan on visiting some SUNY schools during the summer and checking out my options. Thanks for the replies!</p>