<p>My son is a current HS junior and we're looking for colleges that have Information Science or IT major which would be a match, safety or slight reach for him. He is a B student and is in mostly honors and AP classes. His highest grades have been in computer programming classes and English. I've found that schools in the South have generally lower costs then ours in the mid-Atlantic states and am thinking of a road trip to North Carolina in the Spring or early summer with a friend. My friends child would probably major in English and is an A student.</p>
<p>We're both looking for merit aid so will probably not be visiting UNC in Chapel Hill, Wake Forest or Duke. </p>
<p>My friend's daughter is interested in Elon (it would be much reachier for my son, I think) and son would like to see Guilford and High Point. My daughter loved Elon and was accepted there but that was several years ago before it became so popular. If we concentrate on colleges within an hour or so of the Greensboro area, are there any other colleges that we should look at?</p>
<p>UNC Asheville. It’s probably nearer to 21/2 hours from Greensboro. We to did the Elon, Guilford trip and then went to UNCA. My D justed started there.</p>
<p>We might be interested in VA schools. My oldest son is a senior at Roanoke so my younger son knows that school pretty well, and likes it. We visited James Madison on the way South this summer but son was not at all interested and said that he wanted a smaller school. Funny thing though was that when we visited PSU (He loved IST major) he didn’t say one thing about the 40,000 undergrads. Visiting colleges, IMO, is all about figuring out what the priorities are.</p>
<p>We’ll take 81 south so if we look at any VA schools, it’s going to be something along that road.</p>
<p>BTW, both kids are pretty adamant about the colleges not having a big party atmosphere or Greek life. I’m not sure if they have an idea what qualifies as “big”.</p>
<p>I think your son should apply to Elon, if his SAT is good, he may very well get in. My d was a B student and was accepted there.
My d took summer school at UNC Asheville and it was a very pretty campus. It’s not large and is much like a private liberal arts school.
If your son is into sports, consider Appalachian. It’s a beautiful campus with great sports.
It’s in the mountains and students snowboard and hike the Appalachian trail for recreation.
Boone is a great college town for the out of doors student. The trick to admissions at App State is to apply early we found.
Investigate the financial state of Greensboro College and U High Point before commiting.
Some of the small privates have had to make drastic cutbacks.</p>
<p>Appalachian State has a high quality IT/IS program. They also have a business program in Chinese or something like that. I remember reading about it a couple of years back. The program graduates were in high demand. Not sure now.</p>
<p>checkbook,
My son’s a Junior so we’re just looking right now. Son is not into sports, either watching or participating. It’s amazing to me that the UNC’s OOS price is about the same as PSU in-state! Can a B student get in to them? I’m guessing that some are harder then getting into then others, true? </p>
<p>I’m also a little concerned about the lack of diversity. One of the reasons to go out of state is to meet a more diverse group of kids and going to public OOS will more then likely mean that the bulk of the students will be from the area surrounding the college, won’t it? Sort of like if he attended one of our Pennsylvania public colleges where 90% if the students are local.</p>
<p>I’m from NC, and yes a B student can get into the UNC system. Yes others are harder to get into than others, but UNCG, UNCA, UNCC, App State, and Elon (even though not part of UNC system) like others have suggested would be good schools to look into. I don’t think lack of diversity should be a problem. There will be a good deal of diversity in the UNC system. Yes most of the UNC schools are 85-90% North Carolina natives but that doesn’t mean that they all live in the same area. NC is a big state and people go to the instate publics from all over the state, whether it be the mountains or the outer banks. Have fun on the road trip!</p>
<p>Since you will be in G’boro might as well check out UNC-G. UNCG has high female to male ratio. I know a few kids who have gone there and liked it.</p>
<p>So are the bigger NC state schools too big for consideration? If not, there’s NC State,UNC-Wilmington and East Carolina University. THe competition for merit $ at the big schools is tougher. </p>
<p>Western Carolina University,like Appalachian is in a beautiful mountain setting but much more rural. It’s about 30 minutes fr. Asheville. WCU is one of the smallest UNC schools </p>
<p>Small privates in NC…Queens University Charlotte, Catawba College (small town school),</p>
<p>In VA, Randolph-Macon, Lynchburg, Emory & Henry all are small schools and offer significant merit to B students with good SATs. I can’t speak to what they have in terms of IT studies though.</p>
<p>I completely agree about visiting different schools to see what is important to you. I was focused on big state schools when I was applying (back in the day!), and I regret now that I didn’t investigate some smaller schools. I was not unhappy at my big school, but I think I would have gotten more out of the experience at a smaller school with more opportunities for interactions with professors and extra curricular activities.</p>
<p>My youngest brother just graduated from UNC-Charlotte with a degree in Computer Science and got a great job with a national bank making $55,000 year starting salary. He loved the campus.</p>
<p>“We’re both looking for merit aid so will probably not be visiting UNC in Chapel Hill, Wake Forest or Duke.”</p>
<p>Davidson is probably out as well. And, while I agree with other posters that a B/B+ gpa is probably sufficient for OOS admission, I’m not so sure about getting merit aid. When I checked PR, a 3.0 gpa would put a student in the bottom 25% at most of the UNCs mentioned (UNC-A, UNC-G, UNC-C, UNC-W); students w/ gpa above 3.3 fare better.</p>
<p>We were told by admissions at UNC-A that merit aid in the past went to OOS students (could be instate too, but I do not recall if there was a difference because we are OOS) that had on average a 3.4 and an ACT score of 27 or 28 (do not recall the SAT score).</p>
<p>I suggest either Guiford, possibly Warren Wilson (if that particular vibe has any appeal), or looking beyond the south to other “Colleges That Change Lives”. I’m fairly familiar with Guilford but prefer Earlham among small, traditionally Quaker schools. A B average should be enough for admission there but may not be enough for significant merit aid unless his SATs are quite high or he’s in an especially rigorous HS program.</p>
<p>SportsGuy had it right. NC is a big state. I live in Chapel Hill and I can tell you. Kids come from busy Urban centers like Charlotte. They also come from islands like Orackoke where they are college firsts in their families. NC state school students come in all colors and faiths. They are working hard here to make college accessible to mountain kids and inner city kids and students of all colors and faiths. In the Piedmont region of the state you will find a lot of diversity due also to the Research Triangle, which has enticed employees from all over the globe. Most of their children go to college here and have created a good mix. It was evident in my daughters high school.</p>
<p>kathiep, Check out Queen’s University of Charlotte. It has an IT program, beautiful private school in one of the coolest areas of Charlotte. Offers guaranteed merit money based on gpa/SAT. Your S and your friend’s D would both get $$$. There is a chart on the FA/scholarships page of the website that shows what your S would be eligible for.
Queen’s is def. worth a look. </p>
<p>Also Belmont Abbey College might give merit $$. It is a small Catholic sch. right outside of Charlotte with an IT major. Don’t know how big the religious influence is there (if that matters).</p>
<p>Have heard that HPU is stingy w/ merit. Elon gives a Presidential Scholarship but it’s not huge. The students chosen as Honors Fellows get an extra 10K. My friend’s D tried for that but was not chosen. She was a good student w/ 1470/1600 SAT.</p>
<p>Another neighbor’s kid just transferred to Guilford. She got a merit scholarship but I don’t know how much. My neice was offered really good merit $$ there but she was a recruited athlete.</p>
<p>Not to mention, NC is a state that many have flocked to recently(the NE, Cali) so even if they’re ‘from here’ they are already diverse. And why are people outside of the south afraid their kids won’t fit in? It’s not ‘My Cousin Vinny’ here. I came here from south Fla 25 yrs ago and had no problem.</p>