@MYOS1634 Do do you I would have a shot at the private honors programs? I think BC and Villanova are the only privates on my list that have them.
I didn’t think about the size like that. I’ll look more into those. I don’t know much about LACs but I have heard of Swarthmore and Haverfod before. I think a consortium could be a great idea.
It’s worth trying.
For Temple, the criteria are explicit, basically good GPA X test scores - 30+, 32+ (see the automatic scholarships); for Pitt, the main criterion is very high test scores (33+ preferred); for Penn State, test scores don’t count at all, what matters is curriculum rigor + essays + recs + ec’s.
Consortia (ums?)
The Claremonts in CA
The 5 Colleges in MA
Haverford/BMC/Swarthmore/Penn in PA
St Mary’s/Notre Dame
Syracuse/ESF
Less formal:
ASC/GTech/Spellman/Morehouse in GA
Goucher/JHU/Loyola MD
Wellesley/Olin/Babson
2 colleges in the same town:
St Olaf/Carleton
Kalamazoo/Western Michigan U
There are others if you’re interested
Here’s a good post on Northeastern Finance co-ops. The program works very well for Business, Engineering, and CS in particular (the highest paid and ample opportunities at least), so Business is certainly a strength of the program.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northeastern-university/1891961-investment-banking-coops.html
Northeastern’s undergrad business school ranks well too, depending on where you look of course.
Most rankings I’ve seen put Northeastern in the 20-50 range pretty consistently.
@PengsPhils Do you think NEU would be a reach for me? It’s a lot more selective that I first though it was. I’m really starting to get interested in the co op system, do any other well known colleges have something similar?
Also, could you talk a bit more about be money/finances? It’s an extra year right? But how much can I expect to make in a business co op? I don’t know how well NEU does with FA, but if it’s not good I would need a significant scholarship but it seems really competitive already. I think they “meet need” but that could wildly differ between schools.
I don’t think Northeastern is a reach - I would say very much a solid match. Your GPA and SAT are above 50% for both, probably close to the top 75%.
The two other big non-engineering co-op programs I know of are Drexel and Cincinnati - both would not be as high up for business but offer big co-ops programs (not as big as NEU’s though. Based on your profile, I would consider Drexel as a safety if you really like the co-op model.
As far as finances go, whether you do 5 years or 4 years, you are going to pay the same amount of money as going to a 4 year school. You pay by semester, which is half of a year’s price. A summer session is a quarter of a year’s price, and half a semester’s credits. So, no matter how you spread out your academics, you’re paying for in class time, which is the same as any other school. When you’re on co-op, you don’t pay for tuition, but you still need to cover living expenses. In business, you should be able to easily cover that with co-op pay, so essentially you will at least break even on co-op - especially for business, pocketing up to 15-20K per co-op isn’t unheard of. However, don’t bank on that for FA purposes - bank on the break even, and expect any extra as a nice surprise.
Business co-op’s usually make about $15 to $25 an hour, with outliers at both ends. The median is probably between $15 and $20. So, for one co-op, that’s 15K to 25K per co-op minus living expenses - in Boston, that can be pretty high, but there are ways to save (less expensive housing, not co-oping in an expensive city, etc).
I think you would actually be competitive for merit scholarships, which range from I believe 5K to 22.5K. In addition to that, Northeastern does have decent financial aid, though not the best. They meet 100% of demonstrated need, but what they classify as “need” is the X factor, and depends on many factors. That said, I received a very nice FA package, and I know many here in the same boat. It’s worth the application to see the package they offer if you get in.
If you do get in, Northeastern actually offers a great feature with the NEU Promise, which basically guarantees that your package won’t change once they offer it to you freshman year, for all of your years.
http://www.northeastern.edu/financialaid/aid/thenortheasternpromise/
Hope that helps!