@KevinFromOC I’m sending you a message.
Her top three are all good choices. And they are all within your budget.
Has she visited small schools already to know for sure she could be happy at a school of just 2000 students? The size differences are just so great between Rose and the other two, I almost think that has to be weighed first. We had a lot of wonderful small schools on our potential school list, and after visiting a handful my daughter knew without a doubt she needed something bigger to feel like she could really spread her wings so to speak.
I live somewhat close to both Rose and Miami. If she’s certain about Engineering, Rose is going to put her in a better position for jobs over Miami almost assuredly. Rose is really only known for breeding engineers, at least locally, I was actually surprised to learn they even had other majors. If she’s not 100% sure on Engineering I would be very leary of sending her to Rose, I think the percentage of non-engineers has to be so small on an already small population, it seems like she would not get a lot of variety in her “circle.” An engineering degree from there will be known and respected anywhere in the industry, Miami’s engineering program on the other hand, particularly chemistry, is fairly young (less than 20yrs old as it didn’t exist when I was looking for colleges) but certainly on the rise, its just that Miami was such a strong liberal arts school for so long that its been hard for the STEM degrees to develop a solid industry reputation. Also not sure how much of a concern it is for you but Miami has a strong “party school” culture (its on my D21’s list as a safety so its something I’ve been looking into, the school is trying to address it, I’m just not sure how much of a difference its made yet).
Didn’t realize the date on this thread. Good luck to your daughter with her decision.
I have not toured RHI but I know 2 students there now and 1 that transferred out. Very small, mostly male, excellent reputation for UG engineering but not any other majors, in small town Indiana.
I know many past and current students at Miami. I have been on campus many times. It has a beautiful traditional campus, well known for hockey, Cincinnati is a decent drive away, mid-size school, definitely has a drinking culture, prominent greek life, not well known for engineering in the region except for paper science but building their programs, well regarded business school.
I know both grads and students here as well. I have toured recently. UofSC campus is in Columbia, decent engineering, football is popular, largest of the 3, wide variety of majors, well known for International business and Public Health, strong honors program.
Three very different experiences. Since all are affordable it is time to weigh fit. It would be a shame to turn down a great scholarship at a better fit school over a few more dollars. Also, my guess is that UofSC would be easiest to travel to, but I could be wrong so please confirm.
Although I haven’t toured Rose Hulman, your daughter’s positive experience at the Explore USC event might suggest she likes a larger and spirited campus which might lend UofSC a better fit.
So the good /bad on Rose Hulman. We went 3 or 4 years ago. I wanted my son (who’s at Michigan for engineering) to see what a smaller engineering school would look /feel like.
It’s small. My daughter has been at 2 Lacs with less then 1800 and 1300 students currently and this campus felt smaller. Nice but small. Like a big high school feel. The classes felt that way also.
The town was far away and unless they have a shuttle now, not walking distance like 15 minutes away driving (unless we went the wrong way ??). It was was Ok. Not much there unless it’s changed.
The person taking is on the tour was like the deans daughter. We had a one on one tour. Besides being really cute (yes my son noticed) she was in engineering and very intelligent (yes my son noticed ?). She was a pro at this tour. She asked my son what he does in his free time and came back “You can do that at Rose”. He played football prior to high school and this would be the one school he “could” play football at. Michigan and Illinois aren’t putting him on their team… Lol… But he did intermural Flagg football in college. ?.
She said the engineering fair is extensive and since they are so small the companies really get to know the applicants. Nice. She also said most applicants get several offers. Double nice!
Kids are from all over and they do get a decent amount of Westcoast kids. Maybe if kids apply to like Harvey Mudd they also apply here.
As stated I know kids that went there that gave up on Michigan and other highly competitive programs in engineering. My son was offered basically as half scholarship for 4 years. Similar offer from other schools that if they gave merit. Not all do as you know.
From current females going there now and in the last few years the Male/Female ratio is 80/20 or 70 /30. The person I know who’s there this year stated they will give money to highly regarded females, like your daughter. This girls sister is at MIT and she gave that up for Rose. She wanted small.
So, she said that there is not much going on, on campus. Being female is not an issue. She lives in the female dorm. She has close friends both male and female. Her attitude is at any university she would meet a handful of people. She would find her people which is everyone at Rose. It’s basically the engineering department of any college on campus. But for the whole school.
Nights are spent studying. But like everybody is studying together. It’s a very tough school. That is sorta what binds the students together, if that makes sense.
She has gotten great internships and actually has a job offer as a junior.
Rose is recognized everywhere. The little school that could ?.
I don’t know a lot about Miami of Ohio except that in Chicago lots of kids go there for the merit. Wealthy families sending their kids there.
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My only issue with Miami and hope someone that knows the school much better (don’t know if there’s a thread on CC), is if it will be challenging enough academically for your daughter looking at where she got accepted to. Rose is very academic. Not sure what the culture of Miami is?
But engineering is generally hard. Physic 2 is physics 2 just about everywhere. Think how it’s taught makes the difference. But they do have the hockey team. So maybe that makes her experience more enjoyable. The kids that go there really like the campus.
I have a family member who currently attends the University of South Carolina honors college. She was waitlisted at Duke, her first choice, and was accepted to a few Ivy caliber schools. She chose SC due to some family issues…she wanted to be closer to home.
She is a very smart girl …on the level of Kevin’s daughter. She’s not a partier and is a bit quirky (more than a bit).
She loves it there. She has her friends, has developed close relationships with profs, is challenged, etc. She could not be happier if she tried.
I think the first step is to try and determine if RH is the right fit.
You might want to look at the financials of the schools in question, can they even follow through with the $$ on offer? Compare endowments. Especially look hard at a tiny school with less cushioning.
Goodness, I’m reading this with my incoming freshman (class of 2020-2024) D in mind. Your daughters stats are top notch. I can not believe she wouldn’t get in anywhere and with a top scholarship. Really puts my D in perspective, when wondering why she didn’t get full tuition merit aid with her own high level achievements, which don’t match your Ds. It would be really interesting where your D landed and with what scholarships now that enough time has past and I"m sure she’s been accepted and has final offers on the table. Care to respond?
@“24@college” read the last few pages of this post. The OP gives details of final offers.
I thought I would share my vastly different experiences with talking to the financial aid representatives at Johns Hopkins and Princeton.
Just to recap, I initially indicated that we would have 2 in college on all financial aid forms, and this gave us a FAFSA EFC of just under $22K. However, it appears that our older disabled daughter (D2) will NOT be able to attend college full time, and will instead either take just a couple college classes, or possibly attend a residential rehabilitation program to help her become more independent. I haven’t re-run the numbers but I know this will nearly double our EFC.
Of all the colleges that offered financial aid, Johns Hopkins was the most generous. Their aid amount gave us a tuition, room, & board cost of just under $22K. However, the financial award letter stated “Please note that your package may be revised due to … number of undergraduates in college …”. I knew that our costs would increase significantly with only 1 in college, but I sent them an e-mail explaining the situation just to see how bad it would be.
It took awhile, but they finally got back to me, and I had a very nice half hour conversation with them on the phone. The representative told me that they view our situation as a special exception, and determined that as long as D2 was either taking college classes or in the rehabilitation program and was financially dependent on us, that they would consider her to have a “comparable college career” and would not reduce our financial aid offer because of it. Wow, that was pretty decent of them! She then went on to ask me other questions, looking for ways to justify increasing our financial aid even more. She also offered that JHU would probably be able to match any other financial aid offer from any other school. The representative seemed sincerely interested in helping us as much as she could.
Princeton, on the other hand… Their initial financial aid offer gave us a tuition, room, & board cost of $28.5K, which was significantly higher than what their NPC gave us. I therefore sent them an e-mail asking about the discrepancy. It also took a while, but they finally got back to me and explained that based on the information we gave them they determined that D2 would not have any educational expenses. I replied explaining the current situation with D2, and that she would indeed not be attending college full time. They responded with just 2 sentences, the first of which was “At this point in time, there will not be any adjustments to D1’s financial aid.”, and the second said to let them know if D2 incurs any educational expenses and they will look at D1’s FA again.
I interpret this as “That’s our offer, take it or leave it, and don’t bother us with anything else”. It was a totally different tone than that of JHU.
So anyway we’re giving JHU a second look, even though it seems difficult to justify spending $22K a year there vs spending $9K at Miami, nothing at Rose Hulman, or spending a negative amount at UofSC… Speaking of which she’s still no closer to making a decision, and the clock’s a tickin’! I actually had to have a discussion with her that she doesn’t have to pick the school that gives her the most affordable offer and that we can at least consider JHU and maybe a couple others.
I’m still voting for the McNair at SC. It’s a great award…and not just the money part.
Isn’t JHU’s offer, while very generous, still above the cutoff threshold that you set for OOP costs?
Thanks for the update!
A word of caution about JHU that I am sure you are aware of…the offer is only for year 1. If your income or your wife’s income increases (not sure how realistic that is these days, sadly), your FA would be reduced. $22,000 for the first year…may be higher by the time she reaches year 4. Merit money is guaranteed.
Does your D want to study abroad? If so, does she have a particular country in mind? Some study abroad programs are actually “cheap,” while others can be quite pricy, even with aid. Taking the merit won’t limit her options.
Would you have money to cover a summer internship if it did not provide room/board funding? Again…taking the merit won’t limit her options the way FA might.
Will your daughter live off campus at any point? What if her friends want to live in an apartment that is $100 more per month than you want to spend? Will you have the money, or will she need to find a new group to live with?
Just a few things to consider…
I thought Princeton had changed their focus to be more inclusive and helpful to more middle income type families. They seem to think you should be willing/are able to spend more than you want to spend so sounds like that one isn’t going to work. Good luck with the decision. Lots of good options.
It’s great that JHU was willing to work with you, and as long as income doesn’t change significantly, it seems like the most important factor is your other daughter. Since they are being flexible about her program, it seems you can count on a fairly consistent award over the four years. Was your D able to visit JHU? If she really prefers it over the others, it seems like she would be able to earn $1000/semester on campus and $3000/summer (maybe more depending on what she is studying). There might be some other ways to cut costs as well. Good luck!
@KevinFromOC my D had 3 summer research positions. All 3 were paid, one provided a fully furnished apartment in addition to a generous stipend.
Each position had added expenses…the one that also provided the apartment cost us a few thousand dollars extra …that summer alone.
- D needed a wardrobe ...shoes, specific clothing requirements, etc We shopped in cheap stores...but still spent money.
- We helped her move halfway across the country....and had food and hotel expenses, etc.
- My H helped move her from this city...back to school (I suppose she could have done this alone)
- We flew down twice....once in July and once in August...to watch her presentations. There was no way I was missing those. Hotel, food, etc.
Will you be able to handle these added expenses which will inevitably show up? A total COA of $22,000…isn’t “just” $22,000.
Can you cut costs to bring the numbers down to $18,000…if you are fortunate enough to keep the same aid for all 4 years? How will you handle internships etc that might not cover rent?
And if your DD has earned income during the year or over the summer, won’t that get calculate in in the following year’s FA? @thumper1 ?
Right there with you… Daughter is NMF, ACT 36, but she doesn’t have the EC profile. We applied to reaches figuring it’s worth it to find out options. Unfortunately she was accepted into none, and waitlisted at at least one target school we had hoped for aid from. I think you’re smart to have far more target schools…
I would look more into that NHRP designation. I will admit I did not read all 69 pages of this thread but just recently, from this site, we learned about the amazing programs offered for NMF. I had perused the book cover-to-cover but I didn’t know certain schools offered more or less free rides.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/1972661-2017-nhrp-scholars-scholarships.html