I actually have this same question. There’s something contributing to the logic that I’m missing. If a school is going to meet one’s need without work, why would one ask them to meet need by including work? Not that there’s anything wrong with working. I did work study and liked my job. I just wonder how/why.
this jogged my memory; sitting in a computer lab in the late 80s in the midwest; and hearing people talking about connecting to a school in Boston; and i couldnt quite comprehend it all. Wow - did things change rapidly right after that!
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Work study doesn’t count in the financial aid calculation for subsequent years. But IIRC, my kid did have to include it for income purposes on her tax returns.
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It’s always good to have work experience, in my opinion. I had one kid who worked off campus and another who worked on campus. In both cases, their supervisors wrote LORs that were used for future jobs.
Plus, we were very clear with our kids that they needed to earn money for all of their discretionary spending.
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The clock is ticking and there are five schools still in the running. We are making two visits in the next three days, thankfully all within driving distance.
UMaine
TCNJ
Hope College
SUNY ESF
Ursinus (thought this was off but it’s not)
And maybe LSU honors college…
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Can you start doing head to heads - vs. looking at six at once? That often helps.
Hope is the clear outlier here - does she want a Christian school?
LSU is also an outlier. We visited and took it off for lack of Jewish life but my daughter loved it. The campus is compact enough and very nice. Note - even when you’re in an Honors College, you’re still on a large, SEC campus with all that entails.
So it stands out, like Hope, as an outlier vs. the rest.
Not sure if that “helps” - but if you’ve been to a larger public and didn’t like it, you might not like LSU.
One thing about Honors colleges is that they are used in essence to replicate in some ways a smaller school experience. So while a Ursinsus or Hope won’t have one, they don’t really need one - if that makes sense.
We did the Head to Heads - and it eliminated a few - so you love the pedigree of UGA but you told me the campus is too big. So UGA or U of SC - is there a preference for one. Yes, I liked U of SC more.
Took UGA off the list. Then U of SC vs. Florida State - same thing - etc. etc.
Anyway, good luck.
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I know several current students at Hope. They seem to love it. FWIW
Good luck!
I appreciate your thoughts. The head to head is a good strategy.
LSU was purposely picked because she wanted to include a big school and a southern school. He GC thinks this would be great for her even though it’s far from home. She thinks D23 needs to have things to do.
Hope was my pick because I read about it years ago in the Colleges that Changed Lives book and I like the opportunities for research. We have family in Michigan. We are Catholic and the school has faculty and students of a variety of denominations which I like. There is an active Catholic presence on campus but D still has some concerns about fitting in. She may want more diversity.
Ursinus is like a smallish honors college by itself. TCNJ is like a really big honors college.
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Hope has the happiest students that I’ve seen.
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I start my quote right there - which I like
But you are not the student and she has concerns. So unless Hope is far cheaper than the rest and you have financial strain, take it off. It’s on your list - not hers. You need to start cutting until you have one winner so it’s no time for let’s leave it on just in case. It’s April 27th.
In your student’s mind, it’s not right for them.
If she wants football and big Greek houses, then yes LSU is your choice.
It’s not impossible to get to but not easy. There is an airport in BR and an hour away in New Orleans.
It is not a huge campus like a Penn State but BR isn’t the nicest of cities - including right outside. It is a very nice campus.
If she needs action then likely LSU and Maine would be the top 2. But that action is “likely” 180 degrees different.
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Team UMaine here 
… D22 just finishing up freshman year.
Happy, successful, challenged, + having fun.
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That’s great - maybe you can describe for @MACmiracle the kind of activities being done by students on campus.
My “perception” might be off - but I see / perceive, more the outdoorsy - hiking, nature, winter sports type crowd then you’ll have at an SEC flagship.
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Thank you so much! We are so excited for her (and SU just gave us MORE money last night! WOOHOO!) Best wishes to your kiddo as well.
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There definitely is an outdoorsy vibe, various outdoor clubs, etc… but also as a significant focus on the D1 athletics as anywhere… also, the club sports get a lot of love at UMaine.
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It sounds like you have sources to get good information about Hope College, so that’s good. My brother’s family lived in Holland, Michigan about 15 years ago. Although they were Christian at the time, they found the atmosphere there oppressive. And they say that their experiences with people and religion there are one of the things that started them on the road to abandoning their faith.
I’m sure that the experience of being a college student there is very different than the experience of raising a young family in town, but it would definitely give me pause about sending my child there.
I heard there was also a write up within the past week in the New York Times about the county. It was a description of how the already extremely Republican & conservative county government was pushed out by an even more conservative far-right faction, and their attempts to remold the county and county government. Again, I don’t know how much impact that would have on the experience of a student at the college, but there’s definitely some turmoil in the county.
The reason I included the “which I like” is exactly because I’m aware it’s my own opinion, my appreciation of open dialogue on controversial topics within different Christian groups…which is not a concern for D.
D wanted to visit Hope and she liked it. There’s a lot to like. But she still has concerns about fitting in. If she’s far from home, I also tend to think fit could even be more important.
I’m not sure how she’d fit at LSU either. She won’t know herself unless she visits.
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Thank you. I’m interested in reading the article.
Since we were only there a short time, I wouldn’t have necessarily been able to pick up on that kind of thing. Everyone we met in the community was very friendly and helpful. H kept talking about it after we got home.
In terms of the college, I didn’t pick up on an oppressively conservative vibe at all and the student groups didn’t reflect that.
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On the head/head consider the College Combat, although I don’t know where the data is pulled, maybe it makes you feel better with this approach →
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BTW- we came down to UGA and U of SC. We selfishly chose U of SC because, its closer, more affordable, and a little smaller cohort. Does that make U of SC better than UGA, absolutely not, but its better for our family. Good Luck!
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I actually have not read it, my mom just told me about it. When I went looking for it, it turns out it was in the Washington Post (not NYT) which I have a subscription to, so here’s a gift article:
https://wapo.st/3HjNrLj
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