Did someone in this thread talk about Temple University and crime? I can’t find it, but I thought it was here… At any rate, I could use some advice. My daughter’s boyfriend’s parents just dropped the bomb on him that they may not be able to pay for college and he may have to move with them to another state and go to CC. This is not the story they were giving him a few months ago when they were encouraging him to apply to top tier schools and indicating they would pay. He’s got a 4.3 GPA, 34 act, 6th percentile in graduating class of 800 students, wants to major in computer science. He applied to an ample list of schools at the reach, match, and safety levels and what he thought were financial safeties, the cheapest being 21k a year in state, but even that won’t be doable with no parental support. A lot of his schools could give him merit, but maybe not enough to do on his own. I’m encouraging him to throw in a few apps to some automatic scholarship schools still accepting applications. He and my daughter don’t want to look in the south at all, they’re a young, interracial couple with an irrational fear of red states. Yes, I know this is silly. Temple came up when I searched automatic full tuition scholarships, can anyone tell me anything about the school? Is it safe? How’s the reputation? Any other suggestions?
@socalmom007 Honestly, no Temple is not in a safe area at all. That being said, most students I’ve spoken to say they feel safe as they have excellent security, etc. and most students also choose to live off campus in a more desirable area where they can walk around at night. There was a thread a couple of months ago after an incident on campus where a large group of local teenagers tried to attack temple students resulting in some injuries. I’ll see if I can find the thread.
Personally, I would have not let my daughter apply there, though, if I had a son, I may have been more likely to let him apply. I have family members and friends that attended and loved Temple so I’m not knocking the school at all. Did your D’s b/f apply there?
Where are they looking to move to exactly? Philly? Obviously most deadlines have passed by now. Drexel is a great school, expensive, but with his stats, he could get significant merit aid. They are known for their co-ops - many business in the tri-state area recruit from Drexel.
http://drexel.edu/cci/departments/computer-science/
It’s in a nicer neighborhood and borders U Penn campus. D was offered significant merit with much lower stats than the b/f. But where does he think he might have to move to? And I guess at this point a lot will depend on where he actually gets in and how much $ he gets? Wasn’t your D and b/f trying to go near each other?
DD was recently accepted to Temple Honors with the Presidential award – full tuition. Temple is a very strong candidate for her. DD really likes urban campuses.
Temple did away with automatic merit this year but based on the Temple admissions thread, many applicants with 34 ACT and higher are getting full tuition, and those with 33 and under are getting lesser scholarships. I don’t know if you’re too late to be considered for merit or not, but the general admission application deadline is close - Feb 1.
As with many city campuses, you have to make smart choices. Earlier in the year there was an issue off campus. I think this is the thread you are looking for.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/temple-university/1930415-safety-at-temple-p1.html
If you read the above thread (it’s only a couple of pages), the general consensus from those students actually at Temple is they love the school and the city, and as long as you make good choices, you will be safe. Temple has a huge security force on and around campus. There are some Temple parents that commented on that thread, if you want to PM them for additional info.
@Fishnlines29 She is doing better, went to school today but is still sore. Tried her best to stay home but yesterday was a new semester. Thanks for asking about her.
@Testingearly That’s great to hear your daughter can eat the same dinner as he rest of the family.
@socalmom007 That’s sad about the change in your D boyfriends plans. You seem so suporrotive of them going to college together. My son and his GF might end up at the same school even though I don’t think they set out to. It is somewhat awkward because her parents don’t know they are together (1 1/2 years) because she isn’t allowed to date and my S doesn’t drive lol.
Congrats to all with great news!
They both applied to Drexel, he applied to U Penn and she applied to Bryn Mawr. He has an exceptional list of schools he already applied to, many of which he will likely be accepted and many likely to give him good aide. The problem is now good aide may not be enough, he may need full tuition. They would like to be in California where we live, or the northeast, my daughter has always wanted to go to school in New York and they’ve applied to several schools there. They also applied to a variety of schools with particularly strong computer science programs including UIUC, U of Washington, Purdue, etc…
This was out of left field, we’re moving out of state and we may not be able to pay for your college anymore. The family is Indian and they just don’t discuss anything with their son. They expect him to just go to CC in their new home state if they tell him to. He has no interest in doing that. They pushed and pushed for him to have the stats to apply to elite colleges saying they would pay, now they’re saying they may not. West coast, east coast, Midwest maybe, no south would be their preference- a few schools he could throw in apps before Feb 1st with automatic scholarships. The family EFC was 33k, so need based won’t help him.
I tried to sell them on Alabama Huntsville and they both looked st me like I was insane.
Thank you for the input @Fishnlines29 !
@twoforone99 same. My daughter and her boyfriend have been together a year. He tried to tell his parents and it did not go over well at all, they are not ok with him dating a white girl. They threatened to move him out of state last summer. He is an excellent young man, we think he’s great. They are very much in love. My husband and I have been together since we were 17, so we get it. All of the drama has caused them to bond even more, as a mom it’s frankly pissed me off. I think they would have had a lovely senior year of dating and taken things slower if not for all the Romeo and Juliet angst. Now I’m trying to keep them from eloping when they turn 18. They are both very academic, smart, and driven. They want to get excellent educations and be within an hour of each other, though they would prefer they’re st the same school.
Thank you so much @stencils and @Fishnlines29 !!!
@socalmom007 I’ll also throw out another possible last-minute full-tuition option for CS near NYC: NJIT in New Jersey.
High stats students (even OOS) get full tuition to full-ride through the honors college.
NJIT sometimes gets bashed here on CC, but it’s a rapidly improving school and the average SAT for the honors college students is now over 1400, so there are some smart kids there.
It looks like the application deadline for the Honors College is Feb 1:
http://honors.njit.edu/admission/apply-hs-students.php
That’s a great suggestion, thank you @stencils ! My daughter got a generous scholarship to Seton Hall, so that’s not too far away. I just want to be sure this young man has options, he feels like his parents just pulled the rug out from under him.
I feel the same about NJIT as I do about Temple, I actually thought I mentioned that earlier, but re-read and had not. Seton Hall is a great choice (it is very Catholic if that matters.)
We are Catholic @Fishnlines29 , so my daughter is reasonably comfortable with that.
This kid was anticipating going to the best school he got into, his parents made it seem his EFC was going to be ok. Now that’s all in doubt after most app deadlines have passed. I’m trying to keep the panic to a minimum.
@socalmom007 I don’t think their fear is irrational. I’ve seen some pretty disappointing things in my uber liberal area recently
Do you think any of this is happening, the abrupt change of story, to try to keep them apart? It sounds really fishy to me. Did he file FAFSA?.
21K all in, can be doable. 5500 student loan, 3400 saved over the summer, 2400 work study or part time employment during the year. If he starts working now he can save more. That leaves 10k on the parents. CC would arguably cost close to that in the new state as he will not have residency yet (do they even realize that part?).
I am SO sorry.
@socalmom007 It sounds like perhaps if they were so focused on prepping him for a great college, once the acceptances start rolling in, maybe they will come around. Any insight as to why the move? Maybe there was an unexpected job loss or something… in that case, it could be a legit problem.
The dad took a job in another state and it seems like the mother has some heath issues that are more serious than they are telling the children. There’s a cultural thing I’m trying to understand, they do not talk to their kids. They won’t fully disclose what the issues are, they expect the son to just do what they say.
They have been suspicious the kids are still dating on and off for the last year, but I don’t have any reason to believe they know the kids are planning colleges together.
They did file FAFSA and CSS. There very well could be a legit problem, but they won’t disclose what it is. Had he known the finances were going to be a problem he could have applied to more financial safeties from the beginning, but he wasn’t given that information until yesterday.
@CA1543 In reference to your concern that USC might not “fit” your son because he’s sort of nerdy, I have an anecdote you might like! Around 7 years ago, my younger daughter had a class assignment to interview someone whose job was what they wanted to do when they grew up. We’re talking 7 year olds here, so the local fire department got hit up annually for this assignment, along with teachers. My 7 year old at that time wanted to work with robots. I think this came from our DVD of Wall-e. In any case, I live in Los Angeles so I looked up robotics professors at local colleges and on at USC emailed me back that she’d love to be interviewed about robotics by a little girl. We went to the robotics area of USC, and there were all these rooms with undergrads messing around. She was watching around 5 students who were mucking around, hacking Roombas for fun. These 5 guys were DEFINITELY hard core nerds. And happy. 
And the professor was just wonderful to us.
@JenJenJenJen --I must have missed that comment from @CA1543, but could have written the same thing myself!
@socalmom007 --so sorry for the BF and all the turmoil. What terrible timing. He is fortunate to have your support.
Temple: When I was in grad school in Philadelphia, I heard a friend describe Temple’s neighborhood as “Beirut, on a bad day” (and this was the mid 90s). It’s improved a bit since then, but IMO only a bit.
Yikes @dfbdfb !!! And we were worried about our daughter’s New York City choices 
Though I will soften that by saying that Temple’s campus is decently safe—it’s just when you step off campus…
Penn used to have the same sort of issues—though never quite as bad—but they seem to be clearing up there very nicely. Basically, Philadelphia went through a quite bad patch in the 80s and 90s, and it hit the poorest areas (read: especially North Philadelphia, where Temple is) the hardest. Temple’s neighborhood dropped hard, and is still climbing out of it.
@socalmom007 sorry your daughters bf is having issues. I just want to say we looked at NJIT last spring as a safety and came away impressed. The honors college is doing a great job and the students were enthusiastic. Very diverse student population too. My son didn’t want urban, but it could be a good choice. Not a great atea though.
Also what about Rowan? It is in NJ near philly and doesn’t have automatic scholarships, but gives lots of money to high stats kids. It is a strong stem school. I am sure there are other schools like that too, that are more regionally than nationally known and would welcome a kid like him, the issue is finding them at this late date.