<p>I need an unbiased opinion here, because I am very conflicted between these two schools. I can either go to Sewanee or Lipscomb. At Lipscomb, most of the tuition will be covered by the University, but at Sewanee, I will have to pay significantly more per year. My parents have agreed to pay the tuition for either university, but I feel guilty to take their money. Sewanee is the better university, but I am concerned about the cost. My main concern about Lipscomb is that it is very strict and religious, requiring chapel credits. </p>
<p>Also, I plan on majoring in Pre-Pharmacy at Lipscomb and going on to their Pharmacy program; Sewanee does not offer programs like this, and I would major in chemistry, biology, or biochemistry and then go on to grad school in the subject. The pharmacy program at Lipscomb is really the only worthwhile degree I could get there, and I am afraid that I might end up changing my mind.</p>
<p>Sewanee, especially if you’re not extremely religious. Go to the better school, the one with a much higher caliber of students, more demanding coursework, and more per student resources. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that Sewanee has a much more prominent drinking scene than most other schools in the country. </p>
<p>In this case, Sewanee. The two schools just aren’t comparable. If on top of it you’re not entirely sold on the religious aspect, then Lispcomb is a poor fit.</p>
@myos1634 thanks for asking. We have three children and one is special needs. Our medicals were 25K last year, of course that’s not considered in the federal analysis but it should be in the institutional analysis. If we didn’t have those medicals, we could pay that amount to Sewanee per year. Sewanee didn’t seem to care. D got the Wilkins scholarship and a couple more thousand. We would (she would, with us co-signing) have to borrow 24k a year. Is it worth that??? Honestly I feel a little bait and switch with Sewanee. They courted her fairly aggressively then…this.
She’s in Rhodes w/presidential scholarship, Belmont w/faculty scholarship, UTK Chancellor’s scholar (very affordable), UK Heritage scholarship, Maryville College. Find out Vandy tomorrow.
She wants Sewanee. Feeling sad, thanks for asking. 34 Act/4.0 GPA can’t go to Sewanee.
File an appeal or a review of financial aid, including the child with special needs’ medical bills and a detailed explanation of those. Indicate they’re your daughter’s#1 choice and show Rhodes’ offer if it’s higher (and/or Vanderbilt’s.)
Among the above, I’d say Rhodes is the best college, and if the presidential scholarship makes it affordable, would you be able to visit to have your DS see that’s a great choice too?
Hopefully Vanderbilt will offer you sufficient financial aid.
Sewanee has details of our medicals because i filed a special statement with CSS profile, but I do plan to appeal. She’s also a good shot for the Bonner ’ s program. She could not stand Rhodes (not sure why) and the money wasn’t a whole lot better.
Even if it was just a little better, see if you can leverage it. And good luck with Vanderbilt!
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for your appeal. I hope they see you can’t just “cut off” your special needs child!!! What kind of a nightmarish world would that be, that would essentially validate such an idea?
Perhaps a college visit tour is in order…
Congratulations to your daughter for not getting denied!
On the other hand, unless you magically got 65K for each year of college, Vanderbilt is unlikely to happen.
So it’s time to plan for a trip to Rhodes…
(Your daughter could try and apply to Hendrix? They still accept applications and I know a student who could only pay 28-30k who got enough in scholarship/work study to make it work even though he applied around this time in the year.)
Hopefully the appeal will work!
Thanks for the advice! We will definitely appeal. In addition, I researched several loan forgiveness programs that she might take advantage of after PhD. But …in case she does get pulled from the wait list, VU still provides 100% of demonstrated financial need, using the institutional profile, not the federal profile, which takes medical expenses and secondary school tuition for siblings into account. Something which I wish Sewanee did!
This is the first year Sewanee has used the Profile. I think they are still tweaking the model. Good luck with your appeal! And congratulations on the Vandy wait list!