I’ll take a look. Thanks!
Do check out the B student thread for 2023: Parents of the HS Class of 2023 3.0-3.4 - #144 by JBSeattle
I think Oregon State may be within budget. OP should run the calculator. But a non resident with a 3.0+ GPA can receive the Provost Scholarship. A student that adds to the diversity of the campus can qualify for more. The average cost of attendance for nonresidents as reported on Niche, etc., comes in within budget, so I think it is worth exploring past the sticker price.
Oregon, by the way, if OP likes the PacifIc Nw has a larger Jewish population. OSU…small.
Oregon would be a great option, but I suspect tougher to get within budget. It also felt bigger than OSU to us, despite having slightly fewer undergrads.
Oh - i get it - I think a lot of choices either will be:
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Less Jewish life - and that’s a question for OP - how much Jewish life do you want - hence I submitted KU and actually Mizzou too - and give $$. Is a minimal presence ok or needs to be substantive
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Will the student really want engineering, etc.
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We can see if OP has need - won’t help with OOS publics but there are low cost schools - but may not have engineering or Jewish life.
There’s a lot of great choices out there - we just have to see the OPs priorities. I just mentioned Oregon after you brought up OSU because Oregon has one of the bigger Jewish populations. It’s on Hillel’s list of top 60 schools.
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I just would like there to be some Jewish presence. It doesn’t have to be huge. My tourist based business has had a drastic drop in income from previous years due to COVID and the loss of conventions, cruises, festivals, people traveling, etc.
Honestly, my son’s not sure what he wants to major in. He just says he likes working with numbers. He’s 16. He seems to be really interested in his friends, sports, girls and foodI. I wish he gave me more to go on! It’s a lot easier when a kid is super passionate about one thing or always knew what he wanted to do since a child.
Engineering is not a passion. It’s just a suggestion by one of his friends that he mentioned he might want to explore.
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Oregon was discouraged by his college counselor because of the grey rainy weather that really affects some kids….
OK - I get it - so it opens up schools.
But again, you need to run a net price calculator. The fact that your income is down doesn’t mean you’ll qualify for aid. It’s really a necessary step.
The reason it’s important is -
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We can see if you qualify for aid and maybe how much
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We can eliminate schools based on budget
The engineering is the last piece - engineering, business, etc. means you have to include really, mainstream schools - and that’s fine. Some schools have engineering physics or non ABET engineering - like Elon. Some would say - don’t go to those although I’m sure one can find a job regardless.
CU and Va Tech will be admission reaches (large reaches) and won’t come in $ wise.
Does he like nature and if so (mountains, just outdoors, beach) - take a look at FAU - it’s large - but within budget. But KU, Mizzou - might both work. Mizzou has a scholarship calculator on the website.
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I was thinking Wyoming until the ‘frigid’ (or not frigid) requirement. It has the rest, including size (~10,000), outdoor activities, football (D1, and no charge to students to go to games); Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills went to Wyo. The engineering school is very strong especially in civil, petroleum, and other hard rock areas. But it is cold a lot of Jan and Feb, although I’ve seen kids heading to the gym in shorts and hoodies when it is 10 degrees out. Or riding bikes with 5" of snow on the streets.
I don’t think he’d get accepted at CU with a 3.4
Colorado Mesa is about 25k students. It has D2 sports. The engineering school is part of CU system and grads get a diploma that reads CU (and one that reads CMU too). It is in Grand Junction so lots of skiing, snowboarding, hiking, etc.
These colleges all offer business & engineering majors, have football teams, and have between 3,000-15,000 students, and seem highly likely to hit your budget.
- Harding University (AR) appears near some wildlife refuges & management areas, and not too far from the Ozark and Ouachita National Forests. About 3500 undergrads with around 70% from OOS. Cost is around $30k sticker.
- Mercer University (GA) has 3300 undergrads, but only 13% are OOS. It’s near the Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge and not much farther to the Oconee National Forest. 97% of freshmen without need get merit aid averaging almost $23k, bringing the price of tuition, room & board to around $29k.
- Missouri University of Science and Technology about 6000 undergrads with 18% from OOS. I’d suggest looking to see if there are any automatic scholarships that your son might qualify for, as the OOS costs are going to run over budget, but they might be interested in a Louisiana grad. It’s near Mark Twain National Forest and some conservation & recreation areas. And @Blossom is a huge fan.
- Louisiana Tech should definitely be under consideration as a safety. Your son will probably qualify for TOPS, and as an in-state option, it will fall within budget regardless. There are a few national wildlife refuges that would make easy day trips for some hiking. 12% are from OOS, but since this is at nearly the opposite end of Louisiana, it’s practically like leaving the state, and there are around 8,000 undergrads.
- Thirding or fourthing Western Carolina
This one’s not a medium university, but it’s going to hit a lot of your checkboxes: University of Arkansas (22k students). Because you’re a Louisiana resident, there’s a scholarship program to discount the different between in-state and OOS tuition. If your son has a 3.6, then it’s a 90% discount, a 3.4 gets an 80% discount, and a 3.2 gets a 70% discount. All 3 options are going to bring tuition, room & board under $30k. Lots of spirit, athletics, etc, and there’s tons of mountain biking, hiking, etc. And 48% come from OOS.
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I am going to throw in Ohio University. It is in the Mid American Conference which is Division 1 and has good school spirit. It has around 18k undergraduates at their main campus so it rather depends on what you consider “mid sized”. The foot ball stadium is within easy walking distance to most places on campus. It’s in the Hocking Hills of southeast Ohio. Lots of hiking, rock wall climbing etc. in the area. It’s a beautiful campus which would be an academic match for your son and it has all of the majors your son might be interested in. They have OOS scholarships which should put it within your budget. Most graduates I know from OU say they loved their time there. I can’t speak to the Jewish life at OU other than to say I know there is a Jewish presence there. There are many schools that fit your description to some degree or another. In my opinion OU fits better than some of the other Ohio/midwest schools mentioned.
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University of Utah is a commutable school, but it’s also a very traditional university with a ton of school spirit. Downtown Salt Lake is actually a much different vibe from the suburb community. The Mormon population is around 30-40% in downtown with a growing Jewish community. It’s definitely outdoorsy, and the dry air makes the snow perfect for snowball fights.
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how about Georgia Southern.? I am not sure about OOS rates though.
Do you find ASU too big? He comes from a small high school.
The reality is that Salt Lake County is about 50% Mormon (but only about half of them are active members of the church). Sure, if you want to look at smaller residential areas, such as The Avenues, you could come up with lower percentages of Mormons, but you’re really just massaging the numbers by gerrymandering the boundaries. As for the number of Jews living in the entire state, it’s less than 7000. Most of those Jews are not undergraduate students at the U of Utah! The U has <0.6% Jewish undergrad population, and of those few 150 persons, over 80% are from in-state (essentially Jewish kids who grew up in SLC area and who for their own reasons stayed home for college).
Yes, the powder tends to be light with low-moisture content - which is exactly why it is NOT perfect for snowball fights! Dry powder doesn’t pack into snowballs. But it is the best in the world for skiing… when it actually snows. Climate change is leading to decreased snow along the entire Wasatch front. It hasn’t snowed (or rained) for over a month there. This is what much of the winter can be like: National Weather Service
You see that visual of “haze”? That’s not haze. It’s smog. A thick, poisonous, pea soup smog, the kind you see portrayed in The Crown’s episode about The Great Smog of London, December, 1952. It’s at the point that I bought and sent my son last year two high-capacity air purifiers to use in his little apartment, to try to decrease his hours of exposure to breathing the poisonous small particulate laden air.
SLC has a lot going for it. Vibrant, growing urban center with proximity to mountain recreation. The U is a decent flagship state U. But it’s no place to be a young single Jew, most definitely not to be a Jewish undergrad. The biggest drawback at this point, in my opinion, of moving to SLC is the horrendous air quality. Unless there’s been a very recent good storm to clear out the valley, there is always a pollution haze resting in the bowl of the valley, and in the wintertime, one can have weeks and weeks of inversion, with the pollution so bad that you cannot see more than a block away.
Definitely NOT the place for a Jewish kid who has any interest in developing connections with other young Jews at college.
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One can always find a smaller social group based upon shared interests and shared residence within a large university. The hard thing is to find that in a small school, if one doesn’t happen to “fit the type” of that school.