<p>Have you tried comparing the schools using the college board website? Perhaps it will give you more insight into what you are looking for.</p>
<p>Well, I used the money is no object criteria. If your child is at the top of the applicant pool and in a postion to free tuiton (merit $$) or at least in-state tuition at schools where they are OOS (merit $$) then the cost of tuition does not matter. You probably have to add on another 10-15k for room and board, transportation depending on the school.</p>
<p>UConn in state $9,886 (FAFSA only)</p>
<p>University of Delaware $23,186 (FAFSA)</p>
<p>Umass OOS $23,415 (FAFSA)</p>
<p>University of Pittsburgh $23,852 (FAFSA)</p>
<p>University of Maryland College Park $23,990 (FAFSA)</p>
<p>Penn State OOS $25,946 (FAFSA Only)</p>
<p>Indiana University OOS $26,160 (FAFSA)</p>
<p>OOS tuition at Ann Arbor $35,126 (FAFSA & CSS Profile)</p>
<p>Well, because a state university is set up to educate the students of that state whose parents pay taxes, and often the hurdle to get in from out of state is higher than the hurdle to get in in-state. So if you’re asking about “accepting a 3.0 - 3.3 GPA,” whether you are in-state or not makes a difference. The better state universities have no need to chase after B students from other states when they have enough B students in their own states that they have a higher obligation to (insofar as the parents are taxpayers).</p>
<p>^^^^
That certainly makes sense.
Would you mind applying that same reasoning to the list of schools on the OP’s list and rate them assuming they are all out of state?</p>
<p>No, I wasn’t necessarily talking about whether a school would accept a particular person (this was not an admissions question) or what kind of program they have. I was only interested in people’s opinions about the quality of each school. </p>
<p>Aglages obviously took time to search my posts and came up with the fact that I have a kid with a 3.0 to 3.3 GPA who likes sports and is applying to some big schools…but he is not applying to several of the schools on the list above. This is actually more in regards to a conversation I was having at work about resumes of people who were graduated from public universities and how the partners in my firm viewed the various universities that have come across their desks. I wanted to see if parents on here have the same overall opinions. Since my own S is interested in some of these schools, I have my own opinions, but some of the schools I listed have been on resumes that have come across our desk recently and I was surprised at the reactions to some (e.g. “William and Mary? Never heard of it…must not be a very good school…”).</p>
<p>So, were you asking about “quality of each school” or “reputation” of these schools? These are not the same criteria. I’m kinda thinking you were asking about “reputation” since your example now is about how people viewed these schools if the name came up at the water cooler. So, maybe the question on the table is reputation/prestige? That is not the same as asking others’ opinions of the schools and that is what confused people, I think, because an opinion about schools is based on some sort of criteria. So, unless you clarify otherwise, I am assuming the question is about reputation or prestige of each school.</p>
<p>The only ones I can speak to are W&M, Michigan, Indiana, Penn State and to a lesser extent Pitt. Conn, Mass, Del don’t mean anything to me whatsoever. They didn’t when I lived east and they mean nothing out here in the Midwest. </p>
<p>For my money, W&M and Michigan are the two standouts, but they are the epitome of apples and oranges - both great, but in completely diff ways. If my kid were choosing, I’d prefer W&M but that’s personal taste.</p>
<p>Reputation depends in part on geographic location. Someone in Idaho looking at resumes may not have heard of William and Mary, whereas someone in the mid-Atlantic states is very likely not only to have heard of it, but think well of it.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, I’m pretty sure that was the point of osdad’s post. Without any criteria, pick the schools closest to you and put them on top – hey, they are schools you’ve heard of, so of COURSE they must be the best! :)</p>
<p>Actually I was trying to say: this question is nonsense. I chose proximity as my criteria. The OP was probably not using that but he didn’t say.</p>
<p>As I told my DS: where ever you go will be the right place for you. You’ll adjust to the atmosphere there. You’ll meet kids there who you like. You’ll meet pretty girls there. You’ll learn as much as you put into the classes. If the above it not true - you’ll transfer and try again. Bottom line: it’s not that critical - certainly not as critical as some make it out to be.</p>
<p>I could not disagree with this statement more, although I wish it were true. After sitting with a bunch of partners around a table evaluating resumes, and seeing them set certain ones aside because the college didn’t “look as good” as the next college, and having seen that many times in the past at different companies, I can say with a fair amount of conviction that it will indeed matter where one goes to college in some situations. I actually laughed out loud when one of the partners made the William and Mary comment I referenced above, but it was a reminder that perceptions do matter. And one person’s may be different from another’s…hence the original question. Sorry you think it’s nonsense osdad…and you are of course welcome to shop elsewhere for your information!</p>
<p>Here is my order…first from DS’s point of view (music major) and then DD’s (engineering).</p>
<p>University of Michigan
Indiana University
University of Maryland
Penn State University
University of Delaware
University of Massachusetts
University of Connecticut
University of Pittsburgh
College of William and Mary </p>
<p>Now…DD’s (keep in mind, she likes urban schools)
University of Pittsburgh
University of Michigan
University of Maryland
Indiana University
University of Delaware
Penn State University
University of Massachusetts
University of Connecticut
College of William and Mary</p>
<p>BTW…in my opinion…if you go out to California or Washington or Oregon to get a job, the name recognition for these schools will be because of their football or basketball teams. On the west coast…your resume could easily be cast aside because you didn’t go to UCLA, UCB, Stanford, USC or one of the other west coast schools which is “high profile” there.</p>
<p>P.S. I know that William and Mary is a great school…but I will tell you…neither of my kids would walk across the street to see the school…never mind apply to it. Both HATED the location in Williamsburg. My daughter calls Williamsburg “Disneyworld for Senior Citizens”. The school held absolutely no appeal for her. My son majored in music…nothing at W/M for him at all.</p>
<p>My daughter is attending a private school in CA that NO ONE here has ever heard of…no one (Santa Clara University). The first question she usually gets is “is that one of the UCs?”. So what if the school has no name recognition here. She is STILL getting a fine education there. And it is a highly regarded school in its region.</p>
<p>ReadytoRoll-many of us could name plenty of people that have gone to non-prestigious schools and and now have so called elite grads working for us. It happens all the time.</p>
<p>Unless you work in the industry that your son is trying to enter, why would you care what they think when the average man on the street really does not know that much about colleges? My D graduated from an Ivy and the average man on the street confuses it with umass, puts it in the wrong state and gives the you poor thing look and I don’t waste my time trying to inform them.</p>
<p>If your partners are a bunch of lawyers, your undergrad is not going to matter, your law school will matter. If your partners are investment bankers, the “elites” will matter more followed by Michigan, from the list you posted. Different professions will look at different schools.</p>
<p>RTR- but the context matters quite a bit. For employers who recruit engineers, schools like UIUC and Purdue and U Missouri at Rolla and Michigan are at the top of the heap. The guy who cuts your hair may not have heard of them, but the top public engineering programs have national reputations and their grads are recruited heavily from the “academy” companies across the country. For employers who recruit for other functions, their lists will differ.</p>
<p>So do you want to impress future employers? Then the discipline and the program/degree matters. If you’re just looking for the “wow” factor, then that will vary tremendously by region. I think Delaware has a strong reputation in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast but having lived in the Midwest and hired for companies there, I can tell you that people West of Chicago sometimes forget there is a state called Delaware.</p>
<p>U Mass suffers a little from being in a State with so many strong private Universities. I’ve been told my knowledgable academics that for many of U Mass’s departments, if it were located in another part of the country, its reputation and academic standing would be much higher… but in a state with Harvard and MIT and BU and Wellesley and BC and Holy Cross and Williams and Amherst and Brandeis and Tufts and Smith… there are so many other institutions offering such a diversity of academic experiences and at such a high quality, that the public U’s get lost in the noise.</p>
<p>So if you can elaborate on your criteria we can probably help you more.</p>
<p>I agree with sybbie and blossom that “it depends” on the field and also the geographical region. </p>
<p>I have a daughter in Musical Theater. UMichigan is one of the MT “Ivies” and Penn State has a well regarded MT program too (from your list) and Indiana has a newer MT program. The rest, forget. I agree with sybbie that it doesn’t matter what Joe Schmoe on the street thinks. People outside my D’s field would go by college name recognition and have no clue which schools have the best MT programs. My D was seeking the program more than the university in which it was located. For example, not knocking Penn State (my niece graduated from there), but people who heard my D was applying to Penn State and knew she is an excellent student were like “of course she can get in there” (academically, I agree, no sweat for her) but they had no idea that the acceptance rate into the BFA in MT program there is just 5% (while she did get in, very few do and it was very chancy odds). I work with many students applying for theater or musical theater. If I said “Rutgers” here on the Parent Forum, I don’t think I would be hearing “what a top school!” but if I were on the Theater/Drama Major forum and someone wanted Acting program, they would know it is one of the tippy top ones. Those in the field know this. Those out of the field would not be impressed by such an acceptance or attendance at that school. One of the top MT programs is at University of Cincinnati, which is not a school trumped up on these here forums. Tell someone in the theater world that you got a BFA in MT there, it would impress. There’s my own D’s university…NYU…and while it is a selective university, those who talk of elite colleges, likely would not include it. But for my D, attending NYU/Tisch was a dream come true, as it is a highly regarded theater and musical theater program and anyone in the professional audition room, which she has to go into frequently, knows her school. </p>
<p>Blossom, thanks for the chuckle that those west of Chicago forget there is a state named Delaware! :)</p>