Not sure what the tuition is under the new framework, but if seeking a small, private school (about 1,700 students), Elizabethtown College just reduced tuition for everyone. The school offers business, engineering, health professions & biology plus other areas of study. Won’t be the lowest cost option, but might be of interest to you.
3 kids.
2013 DS - Engineering major. State schools were not an option and didn’t apply to any. PASSHE didn’t have ABET and Pitt and Penn State were out of the budget. I couldn’t convince him to consider Temple He was NMF and he cast a wide net both geographically and in size of school. Got nearly a free ride at an SEC public university.
2018 DS - Engineering. Applied to Temple. Most schools applied to were within 6 hr drive. Merit offers from many small privates where his ACT score was in the top 15%. Widener university and Ohio University came in cheaper than Temple.
Ohio was going to be it until he was awarded a ROTC scholarship and took it for OOS flagship.
2019 DD - Liberal Arts type major. Applied to 2 PASSHE schools, 2 OOS public flagships, 1 OOS LAC and 5 privates.
Kutztown came in cheapest and no merit offered. Her top two choices were both small LACs and she has committed to a LAC in Virginia.
Given the state of the PASSHE schools and the merit offers of the 2 top privates, the price difference is worth it for our family. We know very few kids who graduated from PASSHE schools in 8 semesters. That and the 4 and 6 year graduation rates weighed in our decision.
OP, being in Western PA, I strongly encourage you to consider Ohio University. The merit was generous, scholarships can stack and tuition rate is held for 4 years.
@Trixy34 , how long ago was the Temple full ride? My understanding is it was only offered to high school graduation 2014 and 2015. Temple had a financial mess right now and pulled back on generous scholarships
Hello all it’s the OP checking back in…thanks for all the comments! The majors of interest are architectural studies and engineering - they are running about even right now. Kid wants a big university and is more pre professional and less liberal arts. Stats for my student (2020) are changeable with u w g p a at around 3.75 and SAT around 1440. Planning a retake this spring. A day’s drive for us is eight hours tops… we like to drive. I think VT would be ok but NYC or Boston are too far
@dallastxmom
4 year all in costs for the PA schools where my DD applied. I assumed 2.5% increases so this is probably a little low for Penn St since they seem to be at about 4%.
Pitt - $147,000
Temple - $154,000
Penn St - $174,000
@Longhaul - Temple’s biggest scholarship is full tuition and living off-campus should not even be considered, so a long way off from a full-ride in my opionion.
@thingamajig VT is awesome for both architecture and engineering, but I seriously don’t know that they would offer a lot of money for a PA resident if cost is a consideration. Their Top 10 (Top 5 in some places) architecture and Top 15 engineering rankings mean they don’t have to offer a lot of money to attract students. If cost is not an issue, it’s well worth checking out the school with those interests. Run their NPC to get an idea of cost.
@Longhaul - you’ll have to take my Temple assertion with a grain of salt - this is info passed to me by my 17 year old about his friends’ options. But we’re talking about current seniors. I’m thinking of 2 kids - one wanted to go to Shippensburg but was then offered “basically a full ride” at U of Scranton, so he’s going there. The friend that might be going to Temple would be very high stats (at least a 1530 SAT, not sure his class standing, but it’s very likely he is top 5% or higher, decent ECs since he’s had his eye on an acceptance to Penn since middle school) - applied ED to Penn, but denied and offered a great package at Temple. I don’t know if it is full tuition, I just know it was a very generous offer “almost full ride” is how it was described to me - enough to take some of the sting away from being rejected by his dream school. I’m sure compared to Penn, even if it wasn’t full tuition, it would be a huge bargain. Commuting could possibly be an option for this kid.
I’ve heard several seniors talking about “full-rides” when they really mean full-tuition.
OK - full tuition. Still a great deal.
In our area students that can’t get into Pitt main or don’t get merit there, often go to PASSHE schools.
I know several students that are going there for nursing, pre-med, speech pathology and pre-professional studies. They often can get their BS in three years with AP credit and then go on to med school or physical therapy school, or grad school.
The PASSHE schools also used to be the teacher colleges, so they have good education programs.
For architecture and engineering, I would look at Ohio State, U Cincinnati, Kent State.
Pitt Arts and Sciences instate tuition stayed the same last year compared to previous year, about $18,000
Fees and room and board run about $12,000
So about $30,000
You could try to see if Pitt would give merit, but apply early, like August. There is also the Nordenberg and Stamps leadership scholarships for instate students.
IUP charges tuition by credit, it runs about $5,000 for 15 credits and fees another $2,000. Only suite style housing with one year on campus living requirement runs about $12,000 with meal plan. So about $26,000.
Cook honors college might be a good option for higher stats students seeking merit.
Temple offered full tuition for Act 32 and 3.8 GPA in 2015. Now it’s not automatic and more competitive.
Ohio State offered $18,000 merit in 2015.
If you have financial need and your kids can get into schools that meet need, that may be less expensive than any state or state-related colleges. That was our strategy, and it worked out. If my kids hadn’t been at that level, they probably would have gone to Pitt and ended up with mountains of debt, same as a lot of other kids in the state.
@RichInPitt Ohio State’s merit scholarships are no longer truly automatic. There are many posts from students who meet the noted SAT/ACT and class rank criteria but are awarded a lower level scholarship or no scholarship at all. So there is some level of objectivity to the awarding of those scholarships now.
Regarding the PASSHE schools…they actually do a better job then most would like to believe or admit on CC…
Out of the top 727 colleges based on Money Magazines ratings(basically a ROI)…I used the three most discussed on CC(Bloom, SRU and WCU). Not the top 100 but certainly formidable for many majors and when you break down the true cost versus (Pitt, PSU or Temple) you are saving approximately $40- $50,000 over a 4 year period.
Money Magazine
Bloomsburg is 438
http://money.com/money/best-colleges/profile/bloomsburg-university-of-pennsylvania/
SRU is 397
http://money.com/money/best-colleges/profile/slippery-rock-university-of-pennsylvania/
West Chester is 246
http://money.com/money/best-colleges/profile/west-chester-university-of-pennsylvania/
Forbes ratings out of the top 650:
Bloomsburg is 543
https://www.forbes.com/colleges/bloomsburg-university-of-pennsylvania/
West Chester is 454
https://www.forbes.com/colleges/west-chester-university-of-pennsylvania/
IUP is 631
https://www.forbes.com/colleges/indiana-university-of-pennsylvania-main-campus/
I am not saying that these are Ivy or anything like that. Excellent for nursing, education, accredited business schools, exercise science, PT and other majors…there are some real bargains that will keep costs down, loan repayment more manageable and a comprehensive college experience. The PASSHE system has a new dynamic leader from the Gates Foundation. I see some very positive changes…
http://www.passhe.edu/inside/Pages/Chancellor%20Greenstein.aspx
http://chancellorgreenstein.blogspot.com/
http://www.passhe.edu/News/Pages/default.aspx
At the end of the day, there are sensible options that might fit both your rational need and budget.
If the stats are good College of Wooster and Denison in OH are generous from what I have heard.Also, Miami Univ in OH has generous merit based on stats. This was one of my favorite schools. Prettier than most privates. In PA, Dickinson was very generous with the merit.
Students from our school who choose PASSHE schools definitely tend toward education or nursing majors.
With education, of course schools within our state recognize the schools - many teachers have already graduated from them! I know our school also doesn’t care where one graduates from. No one gets an extra check in the “pro” or “no” column for their undergrad name.
With nursing, the main one to compare in our area (cost and course/exam scores) is York College of PA. Several choose to go there - excellent job placement and lower than typical cost of a private school with opportunities for aid.
In general, PASSHE schools attract a good number of our average scoring college bound students. It’s those above average (not meaning solely top students) who find they often do just as well or better at private schools. Have an SAT of 1200+? Shop around.
Our school can’t be unusual. I just looked at the 75% SAT scores for both West Chester and Bloomsburg. A quick look on the front search page says it’s 1170/1150 respectively. Plenty with those scores and lower choose PASSHE schools. Some higher do, but most higher probably get good options elsewhere just like our students.
Perhaps not what some folks are looking for but the PASSHE system does have ABET accredited programs:
ABET/PASSHE
http://main.abet.org/aps/Accreditedprogramsearch.aspx
Bloomsburg
http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=469&ProgramIDs=
CALU of PA
http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=429&ProgramIDs=
East Stroudsburg
http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=821&ProgramIDs=
Edinboro
http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=830&ProgramIDs=
IUP
http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=36&ProgramIDs=
Millersville
http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=405&ProgramIDs=
Shippensburg
http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=357&ProgramIDs=
Slippery Rock
http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=404&ProgramIDs=
West Chester
http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=792&ProgramIDs=
Best Nursing Programs in PA
https://www.pennlive.com/life/2019/03/what-are-the-best-nursing-programs-in-pa.html
This lists Bloomsburg at #5 followed by many PASSHE and other schools. Penn State is 16, Pitt is 33, York is #39.
There are bargains out there that make a lot of sense once the kid graduates and moves away from the cafeteria lunch table discussion. I know my kid was involved is a lot of those discussions and it was easy to get confused.
I always think it’s fascinating when kids say they’re interested in architecture or structural engineering. It’s hard to think of two fields that are less alike. Yes, both degrees have to do with buildings, but one career is involved in art and from, where the other uses math to make sure the structure stands. My major was actually architectural engineering, meaning the structural design of buildings (I wasn’t interested in learning about roads or wastewater plants). I had to take two architectural design classes and barely passed them, although I graduated with honors! So I would suggest job shadowing a couple of professionals to see where the real interest lies. That’s important because if you go into engineering you have to hit the ground running as a freshman in order to meet all the requirements to graduate in four years.
And yes, occasionally you’ll meet someone who has engineering and architecture degrees, but they are unusual, talented people!