I hope I have a HEA when this is over @mamaedefamilia ! Her list of acceptances is so strange, and so varied… I don’t even know what I think she should do. UT Austin, Sarah Lawrence, Purdue, Cal Poly, U Mass Amherst, Manhattan College, Ithaca College, Seattle U, Duquesne, Drexel, Mills College… I just want to take a nap. My husband said, oh… no… U Mass is a big state school, she doesn’t want that… um, so is your top choice amigo. Lol.
@socalmom007 LOL! As I was reading that I was going um…so is Cal Poly.
Is that her short list? I thought it was
Cal Poly - UC Irvine for BF
Manhattan (or one other I thought) - NYU for BF
Seattle U - UW for BF
and now the UMass Amherst wrinkle.
Or did I miss a combo?
How likely is she to be solid on her major? That’s my only concern with SLO. No clue what the others are like.
@socalmom007 - UMass is big, but the campus seems very manageable. It’s our state flagship so I know many kids (and their parents) who are very happy there. Their computer science department is supposed to be top notch (isn’t that the bf’s major?). Not much street crime in Amherst, but it would be quite an adjustment from SoCal in terms of weather. It is not very convenient to a large airport, but I am sure there are plenty of buses to either Boston or NY because there are so many colleges in the area. It could be the perfect solution!
No, that’s correct @eandesmom … that’s my list of where she’s been accepted. Right now it’s down to Cal Poly, Seattle U, Manhattan College, and now U Mass. I think her major is very strong at Cal Poly. I’m telling my husband to let the other parents be the bad guys, CS reputation notwithstanding, I can’t see them letting their son choose U Mass. I “think” they will make him go to Irvine, though who knows. He seems to have opened their minds to UW, but as I keep reminding him, he was not a direct admit to his major. That could be very bad and reason to drop that school down the list.
Hey @jmek15 as a local, what’s your perception of the reputation of U Mass? I’ve heard some mixed information. On the one hand it is the state flagship and has a very solid rep for CS, on the other hand it seems many students talking about it are disappointed to end up there.
@socalmom007 We looked at U Mass but my daughter ultimately did not apply because she wanted a smaller school. That said, there were things we liked. The Honors Program looked pretty good. The food is outstanding. Its academic reputation continues to grow, especially for STEM fields. There are some vestiges of the “Zoo Mass” of the 1980s-90s, but it sounds like there are certain dorms/parts of campus where the partiers tend to congregate and they can be avoided. Town is nice and access to the four other colleges in the consortium is a plus. If either kid likes outdoor recreation, it’s easy to access. You can get a cheap Mega Bus to Boston and a couple of other major metro areas, I believe.
@socalmom007 UMass is a very good school. It might be the top state flagship in New England and they have many programs that are held in high regards. Their business school is excellent, nursing program is excellent and I think they are dong a great job with computer science.
Most kids are not disappointed to get in, especially to those programs. I know several kids that wanted to go to Umass next year and did not accepted, and some that got accepted but not to their desired major. My next door neighbor was flat out rejected.
The issue with Umass is that for kids in the areas surrounding Boston who attend some of the top public and private High Schools in the nation, many of them seem to want to “strive” higher than UMass. Or they don’t want to go to Mass because they think 1/2 of their high school is going there. Or there are literally hundreds of colleges within a few hours that might be smaller and more focused on what they want to study.
UMass is kind of the default if you are a normal non superstar student, or if your parents don’t feel like paying a bazillion dollars for undergrad. So there are some very good students there, especially with the recent added focus on their honors program.
It’s a big school with a big campus. The area is decent for college kids, plenty to do and pretty safe. I think the schooo still struggles with the party hard rep, but so do many state universities. The campus is not very close to a big city. It’s a 2 hour ride from the Boston airport. I don’t know how great their internships or co-ops plans are, say compared to the schools closer to Boston ( BU, NEU, Bentley, Babson, BC etc).
I know several kids from my son’s school going next year. They were excellent students and got into the honor’s program there. Their parents seem happy, especially with the price and value. In state kids can attend there for less then 30k total. That’s a good deal.
I wish my son liked it there. He didn’t hate it, but it just wasn’t what he really wanted. I’m sure he would’ve done fine there, and had a good outcome upon graduation. He really wanted to be closer to the city.
@socalmom007 ugh I didn’t realize he wasn’t direct admit at UW. For me that would likely take it off the table.
This all helps quite a bit, appreciate the feedback!
We don’t even know how much of a scholarship the bf got, D17 got 10k, bringing it in the range her dad gave her. The bf got his acceptance so long ago we truly assumed she didn’t get in, he never checked his financial aid award. Unless the financial aide award is big I can’t imagine his parents being ok with U Mass in comparison to the other schools he was accepted at, but we’ll see. Preferences for school size, urban/suburban, etc… have gone out the window at this point. When we started this process D17 wanted medium to large urban, with some opportunity to dance. Now I don’t think she even cares. Their priorities are down to academics and being together. I’m still hopeful some decision will be reached this week. Dad was ready to buy the Cal Poly shirt and I made him wait.
@eandesmom no, he wasn’t. His acceptance says presciences. He tried to tell me everyone had that, but they do actually direct admit a select few. Of the students accepted wanting computer science only 25-30% will get it per the department website. I do not think those are good odds at all, that’s 25-30% of the many excellent students already accepted.
@socalmom007 We went on the UMass engineering department tour in February and they have a poster highlighting their engineering internship companies, most large regional and national firms.
It’s a state school, and we live in a very competitive state so many high stats kids think they are going to go to Harvard. As we know, that’s not how it works IRL, so there is sometimes initial disappointment when financial or other circumstances chart their path to Amherst. But I’ve seen local kids “resigned” to attending UMass who end up singing its praises. And they look pretty darn happy in all their FB photos!! I’ve also seen local kids go to OOS schools and hate them, then transfer to UMass and love it.
There is one area (called Southwest, I believe) that tends to be more party-central, but there are other housing villages to chose from.
@socalmom007 U Mass also had a decent dance program, in consortium with the other schools. There are some videos on youtube if your daughter wants to check them out.
@socalmom007 they are terrible odds. Rule around here is if you aren’t admitted to your major at UW period either go elsewhere or 1) have a backup major and 2) assume you may not graduate on time and 3)have a transfer plan if 1 isn’t an option.
My favorite cousin and her H are UMass Amherst grads and loved it but that was a long time ago lol.
S17 accepted to BC Carroll School of Mgmt and Northeastern business school… having a hard time deciding, both so different. Got money at UCONN, Fordham and Bentley…
@socalmom007 Hartford Bradley airport will be most convenient to UMASS located in about an hour. If you have direct flights with Southwest, that is even better.
I took my boys to Amherst College and UMASS on a spring break day while in the NE tour to contrast a small LAC and a large state university. Both hated Amherst College and liked UMASS much better. Go figure. There goes my sales pitch for sLACs. X_X UMASS does seem to have nice Honors College and Program and Living Learning Community that one can join later on. The library was about 20 stories high so the it was alternating quite/talk floors (unlike the gradually quieter library floors in other colleges - Campus Tour Bingo item.)
I suppose the question is how much the kids want to leave CA.
@socalmom007 and everyone else too - Our GC said not to let one visit (or even two or three) keep kids from liking a liberal arts college since they can be so different from each other. If the student and parent thinks smaller might be better, you might have to do a lot of legwork to find the right match. If I brought our son to Oberlin, I think he would say no way, but he just might like Davidson or Middlebury. All three very different.
@mizuno22 those are some good choices to have. My son was accepted to Bentley, and Northeastern. I’ve taken him to BC a few times through the years and he thought it was just OK. He did not like the fact that it wasn’t in the city like BU and NEU. He thought the kids were kind of preppy kids from the burbs ( what he has had forever). He thought Bentley was ok too, but he never loved it. He thought he might like a smaller school at first, but decided that being in the city was the number one factor.
UConn business school is decent, so if you get some $$ there I’d keep it in play. I don’t know a lot about Fordham.
I think NEU is better for kids who want to learn and experience co-op. I think BC might be a better traditional college feeling, but I’m not convinced you are going to come out of BC with a better job than had you attended NEU. I think the co-op thing will really help my son figure out what he wants to do and gain an understanding of what it’s like to have an actual job before he graduates.
Good luck with your decision,
Haven’t checked in for a while, but the journey is finally over. D17 has put in her enrollment deposit and now must wait the seemingly interminable 4+ months until move-in day. To go back a little bit in the story, D had already been accepted to Kentucky with the Patterson (NMF/full ride) and Chapman University with the Presidential Scholar award($29k merit), but was still waiting to hear from Emory, Penn and USC (her #1 choice). She wants to be a business major, but would like to pursue the business side of the entertainment industry. We flew on a red-eye to Kentucky for one of their Merit Weekend presentations and while I was impressed with everything they had to offer, D was less so. She liked the new dorms, but was overwhelmed by the size of the student body and campus. She also felt like most of the students she met at Merit Weekend were already from Kentucky and/or already knew each other. Kentucky also didn’t have an undergrad business major, so she would have had to choose management or econ. They did throw an awful lot of info at you in a very short time, and I think it just made her realize just how far away from home she would be. On the plane ride home, D said that she understood what a great opportunity the Patterson was, but that she didn’t think she could possibly be happy there.
The night we got home was also the night the USC decisions were coming out, so she stayed up, along with all the others USC applicants, frantically logging in at midnight to try to get their decision. She finally got it to load around 1:15 AM with the crushing news that she had been rejected. D tried to put on a brave face, but when it was followed by a waitlist at Emory and a rejection from Penn, she was pretty down.
This past Saturday we went to Chapman’s Preview Day, so she could get a feel for the campus, but she was also smart enough to bring along Grandpa, who lives about 45 minutes away. We were all very impressed with the campus and the direction the school is heading. They have about 6,300 undergrad and another 1,800 grad students, with a 140,000 sq ft Science and Technology building under construction now. After the general introduction, the Business School had a presentation about their rising rankings and employment opportunities. D also sat in on a mock class on Behavioral Economics. Class sizes are generally small, and are never taught by TAs. We also had a small reception for the Presidential Scholars where they got to meet the president and several faculty members, as well as current Presidential Scholar students. D and Grandpa went on the residence hall tour, while I waited in line to talk with financial aid staff. Once the numbers were crunched, we came to an agreement. D will take out the $5,500 student loan max amount, and between us and the grandparents, we will cover what remains. Deposit has been paid, apparel purchased, D is a Chapman Panther.
Congrats @TimEnchanter I live very close and it’s a cool area and campus.
@TimEnchanter – sounds like a great fit! And a sweet grandpa!