TBH, Spelman and Howard are both better schools than USF and they are both less expensive when you take travel costs into account.
@juillet got her degree from Spelman and then got a PhD at Columbia University, I believe.
“If I went to Howard, I’d be constantly fighting for FSO internships between Georgetown students, GWU students, American students, and Catholic University students.”
Summer internships are somewhat competitive, but it has been my experience that there are plenty of internships to go around in WDC if you’re working it part time during the school year. It seems like you may have other reasons to place Howard third, but this shouldn’t be one of them.
Is your dad willing to pay just for your tuition, or all of your tuition PLUS room and board? There’s a difference.
My daughter is finishing up her freshman year at Howard right now. I think you have great choices, but you don’t have to worry about the opportunities available in your major and at Howard in general. My daughter is a science major and has found an unbelievable summer internship in a research lab at a USNWR top 25 ranked school this summer because of the plethora of opportunities that come to Howard’s campus along with a successful 1st year. The opportunities for students in the DC Metro are top notched and DC would definitely fit into your long term goals. I hope you get to choose your 1st choice school, and congratulations on having such fantastic options.
Sometimes you have to think as this as the "price’ you have to pay for free college.
Also we don’t know anything about you…is there a reason your parent wouldn’t want you 3000 miles away? Do you neeed more support?
Who pays for the flights back and forth?
ALso you have to be able to convince then why USF is better…not just because SF is cool. Remember that when you graduate you can go live whereever you want, including SF!
@younghoss
None of these colleges will be affordable without the parents completing the FAFSA application…and helping with coats. So really…the student needs to work WITH her parents, not at cross purposes.
With respect to convincing your parents that your “heart” is in San Francisco…I think you need to reframe the conversation with them a bit. Going to college across the country is going to stretch you in big ways beyond just the college transition itself. Are you really mature enough and ready? Look deep and be honest with your parents. If you’re not ready, how could you be more ready between now and the start of the fall semester? What steps can you take? I think you have to put your heart aside for a minute, and think about how you convince them that you are ready to grow in this big way. Propose a plan that shows you want to put your brains and maturity in San Francisco, and not just your heart. You also need to think about what you give up by not attending a hbcu and have a frank conversation with your parents about how you plan to fill that gap at SFU or with the experience being so far away from home. Sometimes parents take notice when they see their young adult really thinking through a big decision and proposing the steps to get there.
I agree that Spelmen is the better school. Did your parents know you was applying to USF? If so why would they let you apply of they didn’t want to attend?
Sounds like a lot of people are suggesting you re-think going to Spelman.
You can always do what I did. Leave home, and work your way through school yourself. They say it builds character.
^This is not possible anymore nowadays. Students can no longer “put themselves through college” the way it was possible 15, 20, 25 years ago (I’m not even talking back to when Pell grants covered tuition, room, and board at a public instate university). There’s no college that’s affordable without parental help, just from working, because public college typically costs more than one year of full time minimum wage, and you need to actually pay rent, eat, and get to work on top of that tuition (if the minimum wage had grown as fast as college costs, it’d currently be $50 an hour).
Kids can work their way through college…but it’s not going to be a four year time frame, and it’s not going to be living in a dorm.
And it’s going to take a lot of time and hard work.
They can take a few years off during which they get a full time job…hopefully living at low or minimal cost. Save every penny. Save that money…then start at a community college taking general education courses. Continue to work full time while doing so. Keep saving except what you need to have to pay for community college costs. The student probably would need to work full time and go to college part time.
Then after two years of credits (that likely will take longer than two years) at CC, transfer to an instate public…hopefully within commuting distance. Keep working…and keep paying.
OR get a two year degree someplace that will net you a job…
OR apply for a job at a college…anything…that gives tuition remission to full time employees after a certain amount of employment.
OR there are still some companies that give tuition assistance to employees…UPS, Starbucks, I’m sure there are others.
Back 35 years ago when I moved out to the Bay Area, USF tuition was around $6,000 a year and there were mostly commuters who worked part time and full time to pay the tuition. Nowadays this is almost impossible, with tuition alone at $45K a year and most kids opting to stay on campus or near off campus instead of dealing with any hassles of commuting far away.
I’m wondering if you could suggest a compromise - you’ll go to Spelman and put your energy into it and make the most of your time there. But maybe to help get over the disappointment of not going to USF, they let you go to SF for spring break or all of you come out together for a family vacation or something like that. I know it’s not the same as moving to the city but honestly unless you can finance it yourself it kind of sounds like that’s already off of the table anyway.
I disagree with most on here that Spelman is ‘better’ than USF. Jesuits have an awful lot of connections in other countries (there is that Pope guy they all know), offer good language and classic courses, great study abroad programs. My niece went to USD (and why were there several posts about USD and how it is not that great? Post #2? Is USD even one of the schools you are considering?). Anyway, she was in Int. Rel. and had a wonderful education (not Jesuit), has two languages, traveled all over Europe on her semester abroad (even though her area of interest was the middle east). The catholic schools are really wonderful.
If I were trying to convince my parents, I’d outline the program I was interested in at USF, the courses, the groups, the languages, and show them my plan and why it is the best for me. I’d try to find some success stories and how USF launched them. I’d set out the costs, including travel back and forth as few times (flying coast to coast can actually be cheap) Basically show them why you love it so much. If they need to see the safety items like the dorm security system, get all the information you can about them. Stop telling them and SHOW them.
It wouldn’t hurt to let them know they can visit you in SF for Thanksgiving!
If the family has any issues with finances, this Thanksgiving trip could be quite over their price point. Where would they all stay? Hotels in the Bay Area are not a bargain. And a dinner out for Thanksgiving…not cheap either.
Our CA college kid never came home Thanksgiving week…and she has the full week off. It just wasn’t in our budget to fly her home…then fly her back for one week of classes and exams…and then fly her home again.
I’m not sure “offering” the parents a Thanksgiving visit at their expense will convince them USF is the right choice.
yes, thumper, your post 25 shows you understood my post. Hopefully the student will too. When someone else is paying for one’s dcision, the one paying has a say in the decision!
Flying coast to coast during holidays is never cheap. I did the three thousand mile trek. Flights were difficult to arrange around exams and the holidays whether it was Thanksgiving, Christmas or summer. You do miss out on things. Being so far away your friendships fade. Then coming home your friends are too far away and they fade as well. I recommended strongly against this with my children.
Are you from NYC? Spellman College in Atlanta Georgia is 873 miles from home, and a plane flight away. I would go over with your parents what they believe is better about Spellman. They may believe you should go to an all women’s college and/or a historically black college. Did your mom go to Spellman? She may be looking forward to you following in her footsteps. Do you want to go to an all woman’s liberal arts college in the south? ( Atlanta is
a much more liberal city than the surrounding area, and really would be a big change of pace for a NYC student too. )
Clearly their objections are not due to distance from home, as neither college is close to your home. It may
be their familiarity with Atlanta, Spellman or other factors.
You should try to understand your parents hesitation about California, or USF or what they believe is better about Spellman.
Its better to keep friendly with your parents. They probably have your best interests in mind, but they may not
understand your goals.
We also requested our son turn down a small LAC in California and PA, due to price, but not distance.
There is probably more to it, than distance.
My kid went across the country to college (with our blessing) and her friendships at home here didn’t suffer. The reality is…all kids see a change in their high school friendships during the college years, unless they are living at home and commuting.
I agree with the above poster. Travel to SF is going to take just a little longer by air than travel to Atlanta. Our kid is now in greater Atlanta…so we know this.
I would discuss the reasons USF is higher on your list and have your parents give their reasons for Spelman.
If they really wanted you close to home…you would be heading to a SUNY school…right?
Hey OP @sovereigncara - I did go to Spelman, as someone else mentioned, and then to Columbia for grad school. I’m happy to answer any questions about it if you have them, via here or PM. That said, I believe that each person’s experience should be largely their choice, barring cost issues, especially if your parents didn’t voice distance as a problem before you applied.
Often, parents’ reluctance to let their kids go far away has to do with their own perceptions of your maturity and ability to conduct yourself well across the country. So the best way to convince them - if that’s even possible - is to show those attributes in your attempts to convince them. “My heart is in San Francisco” doesn’t really convey that, especially if you’ve never spent substantial time in SF - how would you know? Instead, laying out some clear reasons you want to go there - some that are academically or professionally motivated, and some personal - can help. Also, acknowledging the realities of your financial situation also helps. Spelman and USF’s costs of attendance in terms of tuition and fees might be similar, but San Francisco is a much more expensive city than Atlanta. (Both are nice, though!)
That said, I would like to point out (again) that Spelman is excellent for international relations/studies. As someone mentioned, we’re one of the few schools in the country with a diplomat-in-residence on campus. The DIR serves a regional area, but if you go to Spelman you have direct, in-person access to them. So many of my classmates took the foreign service exam and entered some form of international relations or foreign service careers because of the influence of having a DIR on campus. They just went to her (at the time, it was a she; it’s not the same person forever so don’t know who it is) to ask any questions they had.
Spelman also has a pretty strong study abroad program. What I can also say is that Spelman lets you use all your academic year’s financial aid to cover study abroad and works VERY hard to find scholarships to support any overage, and has connections with all the big study abroad programs to help facilitate that process. The study abroad director at the time told me “don’t worry, pick your program based on where you want to go and we’ll make sure you can afford it.” And she did. (My program was more expensive than a semester at Spelman, but she found me scholarships to apply to and I won one to cover the rest.)
It’s not that USF doesn’t have these things, but I wanted to put concerns you had about these at ease.