I’m starting a fresh thread on University of Nevada Reno to see if anyone can provide feedback, particularly on the honors college. We toured today for the second time and each time we’ve had excellent tour guides and have been impressed with the campus setting and the resources they seem to offer. The surrounding area of Reno isn’t fabulous IMO but the proximity to the Sierras/Lake Tahoe area and not too far from where we live in Sacramento make this an attractive and very affordable option given the WUE offering. Anyone have current experience or other perspectives we should consider?
While I don’t have any experience, you might google UNR and Niche and read the reviews…but go a few years back (pre-covid). You’ll see good and bad…but you’ll also learn more about the school.
hopefully you’d get some guidance on here but Niche can be very helpful if you can suss out the authentic vs. non-authentic.
You might also join a UNR parent group on facebook - and even find a student on linked in an area of interest (i.e. engineering)…shoot them a note and ask if you could ask them info.
One last thing - if you go back - while the tour guides are great…stop people on campus and in the surrounding neighborhood (if there’s a business street) and simply ask them…most will be glad to answer you.
I’m sure it’s a solid state school like any other - and it’s a growing area for business.
Good luck.
Thank you for the input. We spoke to a few students today but neither were in honors, but one is trying to get into honors because the benefits are very worthwhile - smaller classes, early reg, exclusive study and living areas. Was just trying to vet that out a little further. Was also trying to revive the school’s thread page since there hasn’t been any activity in quite some time. Appreciate your tips for further research ideas - those are good ideas. Cheers.
Have you read this thread?
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I hadn’t seen this one. Thank you sooo much for posting this. I enjoyed reading the entire post. UNR is a safety school for my D22 (first choice Cal Poly SLO) but yes it’s so important to have a back up that you can get excited about. My D22 is a 4.0 unweighted/ 4.18 weighted, lots of ECs, excellent LORs, etc but she’s not that competitive and only wants to apply to 3 schools. Reading this just warmed my heart. Thank you!
You should try to contact her. My recollection is that she thought about transferring after the first year (and there was another thread on that), but decided to stick it out.
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If she wants to apply to big schools and you are looking for a good cost, with a 4.0 you might look at Arizona - which is a solid school, great Honors dorm with a cafetaria on the bottom and a gym/counseling center adjacent. It’s not as close to Sacto but it does have mountains - mount lemon for skiing is nearby. The other would be Utah where you’d get a wonderful scholarship and is in snow, a bit closer to Sacto and non-stop flights. Both would be safeties as would be UNR…just thinking, if cost a factor, she’d get $35K off at Arizona and tuition is $38K so your out of pocket with room/board/travel and other expenses that happen that know one plans for would be sub $20Kish.
Good luck.
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Arizona would be way too big. She’s not a party girl, doesn’t care about college football games and greek life and she would like to stay somewhere with under 20,000 undergrads. The cost is not so much a factor. Her brother is going to a somewhat more expensive private school on the east coast so we will offer her the same but she’s keeping things easy on us with in state and WUE schools so far. She’s not too motivated to look beyond Cal Poly and UNR although she did get in to Montana State in Bozeman for engineering and we are heading there next weekend to check it out. I’ve been eyeing Utah too and if she’s willing to do the common app and an essay then I’m going to suggest that one but so far she’s content with the 3 she’s got and we might just leave it at that. I appreciate you taking time to send more ideas!
The 4.0 stood out - is all. Of course any school will have parties and one can find a crowd anywhere.
I’ve heard lots of good stuff about Montana State - and Iowa State too 
Sounds like the mountain are her things - so Montana State is probably a good choice.
My friend from works lives in Bozeman and she said Bozeman is the home of the billionaires and Missoula the millionaires - so if she ends up there, she’ll be in great company.
Good luck to her - no doubt she’ll get into UNR and since Montana State is already done - it’s all good.
If you get last minute jitters as a dad and she doesn’t want to do more essays but you decide she should apply to more, there’s lots of schools - no application fee even - where she can apply, do no work than the 5 minute app, and not even pay for the fee and self report the test score.
But hopefully she likes Bozeman and it sounds like UNR is a winner - so it must be nice to be done so early. Congrats!!!
Good luck to her!!
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Utah is probably worth an application, it’s pretty straightforward (essay only needed for the Honors college). My D has loved it there, it’s great for outdoorsy kids. It doesn’t feel significantly bigger than CalPoly to me.
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@college_cal
My cousin graduated (MS - Computer Science) from UNR a little while ago. I understand you are looking to potential UG - Honors program. My DC applied UG- Honors at UNR and was accepted for the Fall 2021 admission cycle. There are many in the Sacramento area who preferred UNR to take advantage of WUE tuition fees and also because UNR is within drivable proximity. Per my cousin, UNR has a doctoral program, several professors have research projects, campus jobs, and there is a medical school, etc, all these overcome the negatives in the proximity area. Not sure if research opportunities are open for the undergrads, this is something you can research or check with the UNR admission counselor there. From my cousin’s experience, I highly recommend applying for UG - Honors program at UNR. Did you check the honors program at Arizona State University?
Thank you for this input. We are holding off on ASU although I see a lot of recommendations for that program. Feels too big. She’s a low key kid. I feel like she would get lost there.
ASU is huge and multiple campuses. I kniw you said U of A is too big but it’s much smaller area wise and more traditional campus wise. To me if you look at SLO and UNR it’s worth the app. But that’s me. She’d get $35k and Honors if she applied.
But you can go a little smaller - NAU
kidding.
If she likes Montana State then you’re good!!
Good luck.
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