<p>We're still waiting on a few schools but as between the two above, my daughter would prefer SUNY Geneseo, especially if she gets into the Honors program. She said she wants to live farther away from home. However, even with the lower cost of SUNY Geneseo (as compared with Brandeis which she got into which offered us hardly anything), I don't see passing up Macaulay Honors for Geneseo--I mean, there is free tuition, free room and board for 2 years (and we can easily pay for the other 2), free laptop, money for internships or travel abroad...Any opinions?</p>
<p>gooooo macaulay its freee…and a good education…
I don’t see how you could turn that down</p>
<p>Tell that to my daughter…</p>
<p>What are her concerns? I know that some have the concern that the school lacks a real “school spirit” and won’t provide a real “college experience.”</p>
<p>What are your D’s concerns?</p>
<p>She’s a NMF, right? Did she apply to any schools that would give her big scholarships for that? She could get nearly a free ride as a NMF at some schools.</p>
<p>What is a NMF? She just got accepted to Syracuse and has a scholoarship but we are not yet sure how much—but wasn’t that impressed with it. She got into U of Rochester but haven’t heard on financial aid…same with Clark. Still waiting on Harvard, Oberlin and Haverford.</p>
<p>She says she really loved the campus at Geneseo and wants to have the experience of living further away. I am just not thinking it is worth footing the bill–we would have to take out loans versus having it paid for. And from what I hear, there are lots of internshop opportunities, etc.</p>
<p>My daughter didn’t have quite the same choices because she was an indifferent student in HS. She had regular Queens vs. a different SUNY. Queens we could afford, even to the point of putting her in the dorm. She REALLY wanted to go away, though.</p>
<p>The SUNY she is in gave her a merit scholarship and she’s in the Honors program. She has a private scholarship and after her first year, she became an RA, which covers room (she gets a single) and about 75% of board. </p>
<p>She loves it and I see the maturity in her. I’ve had to borrow from my home equity and put some stuff on the credit card, which we wouldn’t have had to if she was at Queens, but it’s been so worth it…</p>
<p>That said, my 11th grader is not as disciplined as she is (though he’s a better test taker and even with a writing LD, is probably going to be a commended student) and I’m thinking Queens (Macaulay would be nice, but regular Queens would be ok) for at least 2 years.</p>
<p>My DD’s friends who are at Geneseo love it. </p>
<p>I went to a CUNY college myself and did not go away. Although it was the right choice for me, my DD wanted something different. I had to fight my H to let her go away; now he tells everyone it was HIS decision!</p>
<p>Good luck with whatever you and she decide.</p>
<p>*What is a NMF? She just got accepted to Syracuse and has a scholoarship but we are not yet sure how much—but wasn’t that impressed with it. She got into U of Rochester but haven’t heard on financial aid…same with Clark. Still waiting on Harvard, Oberlin and Haverford.</p>
<p>She says she really loved the campus at Geneseo and wants to have the experience of living further away. I am just not thinking it is worth footing the bill–we would have to take out loans versus having it paid for. And from what I hear, there are lots of internshop opportunities, etc. *</p>
<p>NMF = National Merit Finalist. for some reason, I thought I remembered an earlier post where you mentioned that your D is a NMF. But, my memory may be foggy. :)</p>
<p>If she is a NMF, I was wondering if she applied to any schools that give big NMF scholarships as financial safeties.</p>
<p>I’d never heard of Macaulay before College Confidential and I was pretty dismissive when I found out what is was. So just out of curiosity, I went to the website and started reading and was stunned, thinking “My gosh - everyone must want to get this!”</p>
<p>Oh, she is an NMF but would have to change her choice of colleges if she didn’t do Macaulay Honors…she said Brandeis was her first choice for that but with the financial aid package Brandeis offered (or didn’t) she won’t be going there…but NMF is pretty limited in where you can use it. She is on the last round of finalists now.</p>
<p>^Wow, um yeah, disagree. </p>
<p>I think they’re both really good choices but the environments are so insanely different. New York City vs. Geneseo? It’s like two different planets!</p>
<p>Now, Rochester just offered a $10,000 a year scholarship but I think my daughter liked Geneseo better…I am not looking to send her to Geneseo necessarily. However, Brandeis is completely inaffordable and if she wants perhaps to continue to grad school, then money is an issue. With Brandeis the “aid” that was offered was all loans and a little work study and not even enough loans to cover everything without taking out another mortgage. Sorry,…it just isn’t worth it. We will have to see what the package that will be offered from Rochester. I also don’t see Syracuse unless they are giving her a whole lot of money. I know some kids that go there and it is not all that impressive…The question is more Macaulay Honors which is supposed to be prestigious and offers great internship opportunities. It being totally free is a real fringe benefit too. It is not like either that or Geneseo isn’t a good school, despite what JonTang2 says…especially with Macaulay Honors there are fringe benefits of being able to send her abroad that I don’t see us doing anywhere else. And it might be one thing if was it was Lehman but it is Hunter…</p>
<p>If you were asking about a lesser SUNY vs. Macaulay, I would say Macaulay hands down.</p>
<p>However, Geneseo is one of the best, so academically the choice is harder.</p>
<p>My younger D was in Macaulay @ Brooklyn College and ended up transferring out for her sophomore year. Yes it was free, and Smith is not (although we do have an excellent financial aid package). But she really was unhappy not living in a dorm (which BC didn’t have at that time).</p>
<p>IMO if Geneseo is doable - and by doable I mean that your daughter needs to have to pay a significant amount of the difference - than my vote is for Geneseo. But if doable means that you are the only one making sacrifices and she is just benefiting from that, then perhaps she needs to go to Macaulay.</p>
<p>This could be an opportunity for her to step up to the plate and demonstrating that she is not only capable of making an adult decision - she is also capable of financially making it happen.</p>
<p>Never heard of Macaulay. Where is it? What is it? Is it supposed to be a good school? Your daughter will say “I graduated from Macaulay!” and people will say “Huh?”</p>
<p>Go to Harvard.
After that, U Rochester or Haverford.</p>
<p>If by sacrifices you mean she needs to contribute more than she can comfortably make in a summer or a bit of work study, then no. I don’t want her saddled with lots of debt at this point. Plenty of time for that in grad school. I saw how much my debt was and I went to public schools. My surrogate son will be saddled with debt for community college because his mom would do a thing to help him…even give financial info so he had to declare independent status. </p>
<p>Collegehelp, you obviously aren’t in NY. Macaulay Honors is City University of NY…an honors program that has gained a great deal of prestige (lots of connections, internships, etc.). It is highly selective SAT scores of over 1300 required, 93+ average)…It is probably not know outside of NY. But then neither is Geneseo. I think she really does not want U of Rochester and we haven’t heard from Harvard or Haverford yet.</p>
<p>We sat down and started to have heart-to-heart talks with our daughter about college and her future. Right now, the careers that she is considering are teaching high school and environmental studies/science. The environmental studies/science was not news to us. The teaching was…I guess she is not I was at 18 and wanting to rebel against mom and dad and decide not to do something just because her parent do it…In any case, it confirms what I pretty much knew about her which is that she does not want to go into a high-powered, high pressured type of profession. That is her personality. We always knew that while she likes “things” she has never been about status or expensive things. If she wanted something different or was a different kind of kid, I could see going into all kinds of debt to get her the “best” education whatever that means. She has several options, all of which are good. If she might want to teach (and I think that even if she eventually does environmental stuff, teaching might well end up being what she does for a few years until she figures out the direction she wants to go in), SUNY Geneseo and Macaulay Honors at Hunter are equally situated. Geneseo and Hunter both have strong education programs. I also have the sense that if she angled more towards getting a BS in science and teaching with that, Hunter might be better (in the Honors program) than Geneseo (my impression is that Geneseo is not nearly as strong in the sciences as humanities and social sciences)…On the other hand, if she is angling toward the social sciences (I don’t know yet if she taught whether she would be more likely to teach history or science) then they are both probably equally situated…</p>
<p>My big question is, does it really make sense to spend lots of money on undergraduate education when a good low cost option is available when one intends to enter professions that are not that highly paid and will still require graduate degrees?</p>
<p>I think you made a very good point. If education is a major goal, the lower-cost school would probably be best. If anything, she could go to Hunter and start thinking about which grad school she wants to go to, while saving up money.</p>
<p>Avoid getting into debt.</p>
<p>Let her make the choice–she can take out REASONABLE loans for Geneseo, or free at Macaulay (with perhaps a commitment from you to pay $X of grad school). Would she have to do work-study at Macaulay, or would you provide an allowance? Show her the difference in financial freedom. Study abroad isn’t a big difference, IMO, because Geneseo probably covers most of the cost of a semester abroad.</p>
<p>Macaulay is the most prestigious CUNY option, but it’s really not any more prestigious than Geneseo. Both will be known by people in NY who know the best public schools, and unknown by most everyone else. The financial factor is still in play, of course, but Macaulay isn’t MORE prestigious than Geneseo.</p>
<p>The question is, how much does your D value the Geneseo college “experience”? A relatively small and residential suburban college experience is VERY different from going to college in NYC.</p>
<p>The problem is that my husband feels very strongly about us, not her taking on the debt for undergrad. She would get an allowance at either place though Geneseo offered work study. With the Macaulay Honors there is no work study.</p>
<p>^Then you’re certainly not making it easy for her to turn down her “most wanted” choice. Why not make work-study (during the summer, if you want her to focus on schoolwork during term-time) a condition of Geneseo enrollment, at least? There should be sacrifices on her part if she chooses to make you sacrifice financially to send her there.</p>