<p>I started this thread to give information about Grand Valley State University in Michigan. Unfortunately, GVSU does not have a page on CC. I am trying to change that since "lesser" colleges have pages on CC. Anyway, I'll give some information about GVSU. It is located in Allendale, MI about 12 miles from Grand Rapids, MI. Grand Valley State University was established in 1960 and has around 25,000 students. Therefore, it is one of 100 largest colleges in the United States. </p>
<p>Some of the most popular majors at GVSU are business, health sciences, and education. For the Fall 2011 incoming class the average GPA was a 3.51 and the average ACT is a 24. The main campus in Allendale is around 1,300 acres and is beautiful. Furthermore, Grand Valley State University has a downtown campus in Grand Rapids. Currently, GVSU is building a $70,000,000 library and a new $40,000,000 Seidman Business College building. </p>
<p>In addition, GVSU is generous with scholarships and financial aid for incoming students. The scholarships start at a 3.5 and 23 ACT and increase based on GPA and ACT. Any questions or comments feel free to post on this thread.</p>
<p>Thank-you for starting this thread. My S is a sophomore, and Grand Valley is definitely on our radar. We will probably plan on visiting sometime next fall when he has a random day off from school. I don’t have any specific questions at this time, but hope that others will post because I do enjoy reading about the schools we are interested in.</p>
<p>Does your name mean that you are an alum from '89?</p>
<p>I hear you about the “lesser” known schools and CC. I understand that they can’t have a million different pages but if you didn’t know better there are only 4 states and 100 colleges in the US :D. Our kids got some information from GVSU not too long ago. Sounds like a nice school but too big for them.</p>
<p>SteveMA GVSU was too big for your kids? Usually people say that about MSU and UMich but not Grand Valley. I hope your kids ended up at a smaller school then. Also, CC won’t create a page until there is a thread and a decent amount of interest for GVSU. </p>
<p>UMich8790 actually I am an alumnus from 2011 but was born in 1989. Definitely visit the campus, I find people can make better college decisions when they visit the school. Some people like to visit GVSU in the summer, but there aren’t many students there in the summer. Any questions feel free to ask on this thread.</p>
<p>Yes, they want a smaller school–looking around 4000-6000 students or smaller even. I tried to get them to consider Iowa State, about 25,000 but nope, no way. :D.</p>
<p>I wish CC would at least have a State Page for each state so you could ask questions about schools in each state–not a specific page for each school but one for each state would be nice.</p>
<p>As far as I know SteveMA, the only states that have pages are New York and California. It would be nice but I think it would take a while to give every state a page. Plus, does a state like Wyoming or West Virginia really need a college page here on CC?</p>
<p>Grand Valley State has an awesome trumpet studio. Players from there have won numerous awards at the National Trumpet Competition, and have gone to great grad schools in music performance.</p>
<p>Well I figured I would add to the forum by adding new about Grand Valley State University throughout the summer and beyond. GVSU just had their graduation yesterday for 2,500 kids. Furthermore, GVSU had 5,340 students receive a degree in the 2011-2012 academic year which is an increase from 5083 students from the 2010-2011 academic year. That is an increase from 5%, which should help the graduation rates for GVSU. I’ll try and post other information such as amount of applications and other information as it becomes available later in the summer.</p>
<p>Some more good new from Grand Valley State University. GVSU had their graduation back on April 28th and once again had a record number of graduates. They had over 2,500 students graduate on April 28th, 2012 compared to 2,154 graduates on April 28th, 2011. That is an increase of 16% in one year. For the academic year there was a 5% increase in graduates. That should increase the graduation rate a decent amount in the future. Also, Grand Valley State University came out with the new graduation rates which were posted on their website. The new six year graduation rate is 63.3% which is an increase of 2.2%. The new 4 year graduation rate is 32.8% which is an increase of 1.4%. Those numbers might seem a little low but they are 4th in Michigan for public universities. Michigan Technological University is about 65% and Michigan State University is about 77%. The Michigan average for public universities is about 52-53%.</p>
<p>Once again, I’ll post more information about Grand Valley State University as more information is available throughout the summer.</p>
<p>Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids offers service from 6 US based airlines, including American, Delta, and United Airlines. It doesn’t offer as many flights daily as a major airport like Detroit Metro, but has easy access and connects through major hubs such as Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas, and Atlanta.</p>
<p>And for those of you with a taste for chicken wings (like me) Grand Rapids is home to the first Quaker Steak and Lube franchise in the state of Michigan. Hey, it may not be the top reason for choosing a college town, but it certainly can’t hurt!! People have chosen colleges for a lot stranger reasons!!</p>
<p>Since we have a few University of Michigan Wolverines on here, I’ll put U of M’s 6 year graduation rate as well. It is currently 89% and the highest in Michigan. As for the GVSU to the University of Michigan connection, there are some programs to connect the two universities. GVSU takes some University of Michigan undergrads for the GVSU O.T. program, and University of Michigan takes some GVSU undergrads for a program in the University of Michigan Medical School.</p>
<p>I took ANT 204 for dual enrollment and the class was interesting but very easy. My friend dual enrolled for Calc 2 and the class was also very easy.</p>
<p>GVSU is the “hot” school for many in our area these days. D graduated in 2007, and when she visited a friend at GVSU, her comment was that she felt like she was back at (high) school! It’s a good, solid school that appeals to a cross-section of kids.</p>
<p>The only bad experience I know of is a young lady who got stuck in an off-campus apartment freshman year. She had to take a bus to school … she felt like she missed out on the freshman experience. Get those deposits in early!!</p>
<p>Well it’s been a long time since I posted (a month or so), but there has been a little bit of news at Grand Valley State University. First, they lost the Director’s Cup (top sports program in Division 2) for the first time in 9 years. Second, there was a 4% increase in applicants to GVSU so far, but GVSU decided to admit more freshmen. So GVSU decided to copy UMich and MSU and I’ve heard that they have over enrolled the freshmen for next year. On the GV 2016 Facebook page, apparently a lot of kids got their 3rd choice/traditional. Traditional style at Grand Valley is not that bad, and if I could do it over again I would have picked it for for freshmen year. Like Kelsmom said, if you apply to GVSU get those deposits in early. What area are you from Kelsmom?</p>
<p>Sorry to hear the latest, gvnee89. We just got a beautiful envelope in the mail today that read, “You’re Almost Here” (My son is a rising senior). The good news is that he opened the envelope, something he rarely does with mail from colleges. I think it’s still on his list.</p>
<p>I’m old enough to remember when they built Grand Valley…and old enough to remember when it was “4 colleges”…the uni has come along way very quickly. The connection to Medical Mile with the Grand Rapids campus, the integration with area business and philanthropy and the Allendale original campus are all appealing. The quality of life and proximity to the beaches makes it a desirable location for profs. West Michigan has a thriving diverse economy and is best described as wholesome with a high quality of life. The internship program is extremely robust. Statistically the entering freshman class approximates Michigan State passing the directionals in the last two years statistically (GPA/ACT ranges). It is strongly regional (Michigan, Illinois, Indiana etc.) in the student make-up but for any university that is not their state flagship I suspect you’ll see this.</p>
<p>My daughter would have attended GVSU as a freshman last year (2011-2012) but she ended up going to Pitt instead because she did not get direct admission to the GVSU nursing school. (A real disappointment and hard to understand when she got direct admit to much more selective nursing schools, one being Pitt.) Anyway I just wanted to post that GVSU is an amazing value for out-of-state students. We are from NJ and GVSU would have been significantly cheaper for us than any of our instate public universities! So if anyone is looking for an OOS public that may actually be cheaper than their instate public, check out GVSU. It is pretty easy to get merit scholarships, too. My daughter, is a very good, but not amazing, student and she got two separate merit scholarships, one of which was eligible to OOS residents only. Also, the campus is really quite attractive and the dorms were some of the best we saw in our many campus visits. GVSU has a lot to offer.</p>
<p>First of all thank you for all the positive press Parent100. As for Pitt’s nursing school being more selective than GVSU, that is a good question. However, at GVSU the nursing school is tough to get into for many reasons. First, one of GVSU’s popular majors is health sciences so a lot of freshman coming into the college want to go into nursing. Also, with the Michigan economy a lot of kids major in nursing for better job opportunities. Really, most schools in Michigan have highly selective nursing schools. Therefore, I do not think that Pitt’s nursing school is more selective than Grand Valley State University’s nursing school. </p>
<p>As for the cost of attendance at GVSU, it is very low for out of state students. For students in Illinois for example, it costs the same being OOS at GVSU as their regular in state colleges like Northern Illinois and Illinois State. Also, GVSU is way less in price than UIUC, though UIUC is a fairly highly ranked school. As for New Jersey schools, I looked up the cost of attendance at Rutgers, and GVSU had a much lower price than Rutgers for NJ residents. Also, I know for a fact that Pennsylvania schools have higher prices than GVSU. If anyone is wondering, GVSU is about $18,000 or so in state and $21,000 out of state without any scholarships.</p>
Hey, it may not be the top reason for choosing a college town, but it certainly can’t hurt!! People have chosen colleges for a lot stranger reasons!!</p>