That’s exactly it. So few schools seem to be under 30 these days, even if you are in state! Our experience has also been even the generous merit offers seem to magically match our EFC, which is more than our instate flagship at 28. Problem is, a B+ kid is very unlikely to get in to our flagship. There are other options though for which I am grateful.
The University of Alaska system universities are all under $30k out-of-state.
Just mentioning it, not because we could use the tuition money or anything. 
As is Wyoming
D19 could probably squeak in to PSU or Pitt or Temple because even though her stats aren’t sky-high, she’s at a rigorous school. But we simply can’t give half our net income to a college every year.
I feel so helpless - we are supposedly in upper middle-class territory.
@MrsSouthJersey18 I’m curious about the Stockton scholarship. According to the Stockton website it seems like your D should have been eligible for $9-11,000. https://stockton.edu/admissions/scholarships.html
Are they offering less than they state on the website?
@Gatormama The Stockton housing situation is a little weird right now. They don’t have enough housing on campus so they are putting students up in unusual housing arrangements. Look at the bottom of this. https://stockton.edu/residential-life/housing-options.html
Students have to take shuttles between the college and the campus, and they are not that close.
I’ve been to the Seaview for a conference in the last couple of years. It’s not been kept up well at all, and anyone can walk in and out of the “resort” buildings. They must make some arrangements for the safety of students, but still, not ideal.
Also, Atlantic City, including the beachfront areas are gritty. Locally, I’ve even heard of human trafficking issues there besides the typical crime stuff. That’s fine for families who are comfortable with that, but kids need to be prepared. I think the hope is that Stockton’s presence will help to turn the area around, and for kids interested in community service there are lots of opportunities to help.
My D really liked Stockton when she visited. She wound up not applying and I was disappointed, but I was relieved at the same time because of the housing situation.
The main campus is in a nature preserve with a lake and trails. It’s lovely. And they are opening a beautiful new science building and turning a parking lot into a quad.
Another point, to me, Stockton fell into the category of colleges without a lot of places to hang out or study. We saw a lot of kids sitting on the ground in hallways when we visited.
Thanks, @MACmiracle - yeah, I know all about AC - gritty is a great word. One block off the boardwalk and it’s Camden-by-the-Sea.
I read some more about the housing, and it seems like they guarantee housing but don’t have enough of it, hence the renting of an entire Clarion a few years ago - the latest stopgap is a former office complex turned into housing. That doesn’t seem appealing!
The lack of study space - I guess that’s why the library was packed?
@Gatormama I went to Rutgers and had to take buses between four campuses many days of the week. I lived on one, worked on another and had classes on two others. So having places, --other than a dorm room you don’t have enough time to return to during the day-- to hangout study, whatever, is perhaps more important to me than the average person. I also think it’s crucial if it’s a college with a lot of commuters.
Some colleges stood out in my mind for either having places like that or not.
Stockton- no
Mount St. Mary’s - no
Immaculata- no
Ursinus -no
TCNJ- yes
Susquehanna- yes
St. Vincent’s-yes
All of these are small but the colleges with yes at least had little lounges or groupings of comfortable chairs and sofas in academic buildings or buildings other than a library on campus. Kids having to sit in hallways with laptops to work is the worst.
And I have to plug Elizabethtown since I visited again recently. They have started breaking ground on a new “wellness” center that looks amazing and includes a variety of spaces for student use. It just seems to fit with the way they care for students, rather than just a marketing ploy. I just hope it doesn’t overstretch their financial resources. It’s too bad my Etown graduate didn’t have anything like that but maybe my next one will…
Study space is a really good point. I hadn’t thought about it but we are learning part of S17’s homework issues are in fact, doing it at home.
He just wants to be home. Without the work.
Stockton is 8k-plus students and D has flat-out said no to smaller schools like E-town, Susquehanna etc Despite all the LACs on the list, she just wants a bigger school.
@eandesmom, plus Wyoming and the Universities of Alaska are pretty easy to get into.
@MACmiracle My daughter as of the start of her Senior year she is only in the top 18% of her class. Stockton looks at GPA, test scores and rank. Her class is quite large almost 600 kids.
^top 18% should make Stockton easy. Only 20% were top 10% and only 51% were top 25%, with 10% in the bottom half. In other words, your daughter is above average for Stockton and a very likely admit.
@MrsSouthJersey18 I’m sorry, she didn’t get more. I didn’t realize that rank was so important at Stockton
This whole process is frustrating as hell. I had D19 convinced to go look at Frostburg mostly for its cost. It could be a fit being only a few hours from home, cheaper than our budget, and 5K students. Unfortunately, while talking about it at school some friends started absolutely trashing the school. So annoying. I told her to make her own decisions and not worry about other people’s opinions but it has absolutely colored her view and she is very negative about it now.
Our price range is set so our options are limited by her desired criteria (big school-over 5k students, drivable, affordable, and she can get into). I wish she had stats for our public (UMDCP) but she doesn’t.
Hadn’t heard of Stockton before really may look into to.
Anyone know anything about IUP? Is it having budget problems?
@Gatormama - aren’t these colleges costs insane? I’m not a big fan of our MD options and keep wishing I lived in VA or NC for their colleges. I can almost throw a stone over the VA line from where I live in MD.
@Cotton2017 The same exact thing just happened to our D19. We signed up for a tour this upcoming weekend but now has no interest. We have toured Salisbury and UMC-CP (she does not have the stats). We will also visit Towson and UMBC.
I think we are going to go to Shippensburg on Saturday, only about a 90 minute drive for us and I have heard good things.
D19 is attending a presentation tonight about the CTCL schools. Depending on how that goes (she is not sold on the small schools since her high school is about 2,200) we may go to McDaniel College (70 minute drive).
Have you been to Salisbury yet? D19 was surprised and actually liked it, just wish the surrounding area was a bit nicer.
Our flagship (Mizzou) is $38K for OOS tuition +R&B BUT Truman State (which is a better school in many ways) is only $23K for OOS+R&B
Truman in-state costs are only $16K and my D17 got enough merit to get it well under $10K. HOWEVER I couldn’t even get her to visit because “only weird kids go there” …ughhh
@DCNatFan - we haven’t been to Salisbury but did go to Towson. My D19 actually liked it a lot so I will be curious what you think. Were you planning on going to the Frostburg open house this Sat? Mine has no interest either now. She went to a camp at McDaniel and did not like it at all. It’s small, hilly and the dorms didn’t have air conditioning (it was July) so she was miserable. She doesn’t want small either so the CTCL don’t seem a good fit. Mine wants big sports and lots of people but nice dorms (great priorities, I know). She says that Salisbury is like 13th grade at her school since a lot of people go there. I explain that everyone that visits seems to love it so I will make her go check it out.
@stlarenas - ‘only weird kids go there’ - is how my daughter thinks of Frostburg now. Its obviously not true (and the cost would be so great for us) but she is hesitant. Peer pressure is real, I guess.
@Cotton2017 Yes, we are scheduled for the Open House at Frostburg. We are not schedule for Towson until the 5/4 Open House. We did a drive through of Towson and UMBC on our own coming back from Thanksgiving. She seemed to like Towson, not so much for UMBC.
Thanks for the tip on McDaniel. I think I will scratch that one off the list. Maybe we will do Shippensburg on Saturday, not too smal (about 6300 students).
We are heading to visit family for easter in the Philadelphia area so we are going to do a drive through of York College, Millersville and West Chester. We are then doing an official tour at Delaware on the return trip (reach school and likely too expensive).
I think we will also make a trip down to JMU (little over our budget).
Mine also wants the big sports program and nice dorms. Although I think she would be happy at Salisbury (D3 sports but they are very good in lacrosse).