My daughter was accepted into the honors program at FSU and honors college at LSU. Majoring in chemical engineering. Cost for tuition, fees, room, board (after scholarships) =$8332 for FSU and $14,814 for LSU. We live in FL, but it would be a five hour drive to FSU or a five hour flight to LSU. Major differences? Pros and cons?
The food is better in Baton Rouge. That’s one difference.
Otherwise, have you visited both schools?
We will be visiting soon, but my daughter is trying to get out of the LSU visit. She thinks she won’t like it, so I thought I’d ask the masses.
Kids that go to LSU and FSU tend to love both schools. She’ll do well at either school.
LSU has a larger, older engineering department. It has a very large chemical engineering department and they offer petroleum engineering (which is very popular major at LSU). The state has had a serious budget issue, over the last few years. That’s impacted LSU. You may want to research the current situation (I haven’t been keeping up on it), but if it continues, I would expect they will be raising OOS tuition, etc.
FSU-FAMU department is much more recent and they are in the process of building it up. The engineering building is a bit away from campus, and some don’t like that. It does, however, have an excellent chemical engineering department.
LSU is going to have a better engineering program. It places well in Texas and of course in Louisiana. But if your daughter is already reticent, and if she wants to live in FL after graduation, then FSU may be better for her. You should get her to visit both though.
How much does the cost matter to you? Debt?
@Masparent Baton Rouge is not the best of places to be. One good thing is LSU is sorta isolated from the city. The engineering is nice, state of the art. The engineering building is fairly new and like I said state of the art. My daughter got a personal tour from the head of diversities for engineering (had a hook up, hs cousleor’s sister in law) they want female students there. And they do offer big scholarships. My daughter doesn’t like Baton Rouge but liked the campus. And she just didn’t feel right there. And the dorm rooms are larger than most and well kept. Visit both.
Update for anyone else in the same boat: as Gator88NE said, the engineering department is far (far, far) away from the campus at FSU. This is almost a deal breaker for my daughter- as if the engineering dept. is an afterthought. Also, very old facility compared to the new one at LSU. After visiting both, LSU wins (after some final spreadsheet studying also).