<p>We decided that our application strategy would be to apply to a few reaches and then our state schools as academic and financial safeties. We have no 'matches' on our list, because the schools for which my son might be a match are too expensive and unlikely to give him merit aid (and we won't qualify for a lot of need-based aid). And, despite what a thread nearby asserts about NY state schools, I feel like our SUNYs, particularly Binghamton, have some real strengths and are populated by good students. Indeed, Binghamton could be considered a match for my son. Our GC, who is great, suggested applying to some privates bc aid from them could match SUNY tuition. He tossed out schools like BU and Tulane as examples of places that are generous. My question is, is there a meaningful difference in the education my S would get--or, dare I say it, the reputation of his degree--if he went to a school like Binghamton vs. Tulane or BU? More generally (and more importantly), why would I suggest to my son that he apply to a private when I think the public is just fine--all things being equal (possible majors are available, geography is fine, etc.)? Especially if he would have to apply to privates for which his stats would be high--what would he gain from attending that private that he would not gain from attending Binghamton? If he's not interested in climbing walls or fancy pizza, is there something he will miss by skipping a private school? Anyone with recent experience at Binghamton is welcome to chime in!</p>
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I don’t know if anyone other than your son can answer this question - it all depends on him. The question really can’t be reduced to designer pizza vs. no designer pizza. If Binghamton has the program your son is interested in, if he’d be happy and excited to go there, if it’s a good fit in the ways that are important to him, then by all means, why not go to Binghamton?</p>
<p>As to the reputation of the degree - that depends on where your son would like to live after graduation and what he’d like to do. Geography is important and if your son wants a job in DC, for instance, employers there are more familiar with the MD, VA, DC, and nationally well-known schools. He could attend Binghamton and wind up with a terrific job in DC, but while a Binghamton degree is well-respected in NY, it’s not as well known in other areas.</p>
<p>It also depends upon what you can afford and how much you’re willing to pay (not always the same thing). A merit scholarship at a private school could well mean a lower COA for you than in-state at Binghamton. At some schools, recipients of the top merit awards get amazing opportunities as part of the scholarship program (thinking of the Robertson scholarships at Duke and UNC, the Chancellor’s scholarship at Pitt, the Trustee’s scholarship at BU, etc.).</p>
<p>Reasons to not to use SUNY (esp. Binghamton) as your safety:</p>
<p>Meet a greater proportion of kids who are not from NY (or the Northeast)
Get to know another part of the country
Go to a school that is really strong in your major - even if it’s not the strongest school overall (why my younger son’s safety was American, or oldest looked at RPI and WPI)
Go to a school with amazing internship opportunities (American)
Go to have a school with less than 5000 students
Go to a school in a major metropolitan area</p>
<p>With merit money, some private colleges may come down to SUNY tuition rates, so I think they are worth looking into if they appeal.</p>
<p>That said, Binghamton is pretty good value - if a student likes it great! My younger son loved American and would have been happy to attend. He wouldn’t have felt the same way about Binghamton. The cost difference was not that large after scholarships.</p>
<p>“or, dare I say it, the reputation of his degree–if he went to a school like Binghamton vs. Tulane or BU?”</p>
<p>Outside of the New York area, it’s really rare to have ever heard of Binghamton. I only know of it from CC. Have lived in eight states and never met a grad or heard the name.
Tulane , yes. I’m guessing you mean Boston university by BU, yes. </p>
<p>So maybe the question is, does your kid want a “name” college with recognition outside New York, or is New York his world? Or doesn’t he care about the “name” thing at all?</p>
<p>"Especially if he would have to apply to privates for which his stats would be high–what would he gain from attending that private that he would not gain from attending Binghamton? If he’s not interested in climbing walls or fancy pizza, is there something he will miss by skipping a private school? "</p>
<p>Are you saying his stats are “too high” for BU or Tulane ? Or that after merit scholarships that they would still be lots more money than in-state schools and probably not worth the differential? These are different questions.</p>
<p>I can’t tell if you are a first time parent, but I was with our now sophomore (who coincidentally is attending BU - LOVES it). Many, many people think they will get FA based on their EFC. That is not correct in most cases. The vast majority of schools do NOT meet the FA on the EFC, especially for middle income parents. What I didn’t catch on to until late in the game was that there are many schools (listed on a sticky thread in this forum) that actually display a grid on their website listing how much merit aid you will be given if you have a certain SAT and GPA. For example, my DD got a merit scholarship from Seattle University because of an SAT that was high. She didn’t even apply, and we didn’t see the chart until after she was accepted. Her tour guide there was on a free ride because both her SAT and her GPA was very high in comparison to the average applicant. Thus, what you need to do is estimate GPA and SAT and consider schools where your son is ABOVE the mean. In SU’s case, the student got into Princeton, but got no aid, and a full ride at SU completely on merit. She was a big fish in a smaller pond at SU, and had a fabulous experience.</p>
<p>Thanks, all. Frazzled and mathmom, you raise good points about the location of the school. I had really only been thinking about geography in terms of the 4 years he would be spending there, not the connections for later. It is also helpful to know that folks outside of the NY area haven’t heard of Binghamton–not that it necessarily matters–before CC, I admit that I’d never heard of Grinell–but it is still useful information for planning. Dragonmom, I hope I would never have the hubris to say that my S’s stats are “too high” for anything. But as Shootformoon (great name, btw) points out, I’d need to find schools where his stats place him above the mean, and part of my question was about the significance of that in evaluating whether to pursue private school. This is all new (yes, he’s my eldest), and I just don’t know whether he’d respond well to a high pressure environment or be happier as the Big Fish. How did your child decide, Shoot? Thanks also for the tip on the grids–didn’t know about them and am going to look for them.</p>
<p>It really depends on your S, and not just for four years but where he sees himself beyond that. Going to the school with the lowest total COA is not the right answer if your S doesn’t think he’ll be happy there. Conversely, going to the highest ranked school solely because of name isn’t the answer either if it is not the right “fit” for your S. Mine turned down three higher ranked schools (at least according to most of the typical rankings). Two of them ended up having lower COA’s due to merit money compared to the school he chose. That was honestly hard for me, but it is his life and it was his choice. He LOVES his school–it fits him. I think he wanted to be a big fish in a smaller, beautiful and slightly less academic pond rather than attend a school where he was in the middle (and where fun goes to die, JK).</p>
<p>Privates often have smaller class sizes and most classes are taught by professors (few or no TAs teaching classes). That is a benefit over many public schools, where lectures (especially into classes) can have hundreds of students.</p>
<p>I don’t agree at all that people outside of the New York area have never heard of Binghamton. In the last ten years, SUNY Binghamton has done very well at drawing people from OOS. A friend of my daughters (in Southeastern PA) knew of Binghamton from it’s men’s soccer team, went there, played soccer and graduated from there. It’s certainly not unknown here at CC, which is a very National board.</p>
<p>My kids applied to a variety of public and private with the understanding that we would only pay so much. We carefully picked the privates knowing which ones were known for good merit age for kids with their stats. My oldest two attended wonderful small LAC’s that cost about the same as PSU in-state. There are many college search engines out there that will show you the avg. grant given and the percentage of students that get that money. Here’s one - [College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics)</p>
<p>A lot depends on what your student is looking for.</p>
<p>My S3 is a senior at American…he could have gone to higher ranked schools, but he fell in love with the cosmopolitan, global student body and the myriad of opportunities that are unique to DC. And yet he chose AU over GW because he wanted a traditional campus experience as well.</p>
<p>Ohio --where we live–has a variety of state schools and privates–but he chose where he is because it offered what he was looking for, and he couldn’t find it here. We are hoping that he sees the ultimate payoff in May when he graduates, but up til now we all have been very happy with his experience.</p>
<p>He has loved his experience…good friends from all over the world, professors from all over the world with unique experience and perspectives, yet willing to mentor, and he has had some amazing internships, many of them fairly well paid. He has played club sports, and intramural sports, and pledged a fraternity (he decided it was an experience he could only have once in his life–and so went for it) and sung a capella…and studied his rear end off.</p>
<p>He is the kind of kid who would have bloomed wherever he was planted, and he would have done fine at any of the schools in state–but it’s unlikely he would have had the same experiences. He would have had other experiences, though, that he has missed–I am sure that a fraternity at a big state school is different than his experience --</p>
<p>He realizes that he has been very lucky to have been able to go where he did and we appreciate that he has made the very most of his opportunity.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t assume Binghamton as a match or safety anymore. They give such preference to OOS sudents that it can be a crapshoot for even the most qualified students. As I posted on another thread, we are from NYC and in my daughter’s year (two years ago) kids who were well qualified didn’t get in. Some went to places like Swarthmore, Vanderbilt and Boston College but didn’t get accepted at Binghamton, which has also put its OOS students on an earlier decision timetable. I understand from the a school counselor I know that the same thing happened last year, as well. HOwever, to the credit of the admissions department at Binghamton, they have been incredible open and honest about the preference for out of state students.</p>
<p>Unless you are really strapped for cash, it doesn’t hurt to apply to a few privates he thinks he’ll like (and who are known for the type of aid you are looking for) to see what they offer if he gets accepted. You can compare offers and schools at that time to make a final decision. I’d hate to be burning bridges now.</p>
<p>Have you visited a few colleges locally to see which types appeal to him (large, small, city, rural, etc)? They need not be colleges he actually wants to attend - just some to get an idea about types. If you’re in NY, there ought to be oodles of colleges within an hour or two drive time.</p>
<p>zoosermom – do you think that maybe some of those qualified students who ended up at the private schools didn’t get in because Binghamton assumed they were only applying as a safety and not actually interested in going there?</p>
<p>No. Not at all. As I said, the admissions reps were very open with the families and with high school guidance counselors. The state is so broke that there is a significant mandate to increase revenue by increasing OOS admissions. The school has also placed OOS students on an earlier admissions track, unlike some states, such as Delaware, which grant preference to in-state students.</p>
<p>Something that a lot of people don’t realize is that privates are much more likely to waive application fees if you show interest by inquiring on-line or taking a tour. My kids set up separate e-mails just for college correspondence. My youngest applied to about a dozen schools, but about the only apps we paid for were the state ones. </p>
<p>My oldest son ended up attending his college because the app was free. He applied and was accepted without seeing it.</p>
<p>Kathiep, having heard of Binghamton in PA -well, that’s just one state over. I am in Chicago, have always been “into” colleges, and never heard of Binghamton until CC. And have no impression of it whatsoever. I’d have to go with regional reputation.</p>
<p>Momofnea, dh put me in charge of this process, and honestly I think it went extremely well. I base this on dd’s satisfaction as well as a more empowered kid and a better relationship. I think part of the reason it went well is we started out early early early. We knew dd had an uneven profile, so we needed to be extra careful. here’s what we did.
1- in the summer be 10th and 11th grade, we told her that she could pick any three colleges she wanted to visit. I swear she picked the furthest she could think of. Our restriction was that she had to have 3 choices near each other if she wanted to fly. So in August, we went to 3 in Boston, and then took the train to see 3 in NYC. She realized three things: she loved urban colleges, she adored Boston, and she hated NYC with an equal passion. The school she fell in love with (bu) she almost didn’t even visit. she sat in the cafeteria there, and said “I don’t care what I have to do…I want to go here.”. SCORE ONE for junior year motivation!
2- In our family, everyone does some chores on Saturday (about 90 minutes if you are motivated.). when we returned, we told her that we were absorbing all her saturday chores as she now had a new responsibility. She was to spend 90 minutes a week in the office with the doors closed doing whatever she needed to do to research colleges and do applications. I agreed to be her SECRETARY… Not her boss. I channeled my own secretary, and would say things like “what do you want me to do to help you?”. Most of the time, it was things like "find me match schools in x state that have majors in y and z number of students. I supplied the data… She evaluated using cc, college *******, campus websites, and books from barnes and noble. I spent a lot of psychic energy making sure to listen carefully and make sure she stayed the boss.<br>
3. The next trip we took was to San Francisco and San Jose to visit 3 schools. after each tour, I would not say one word…just get out a notebook and write as fast as I could what she said about pros and cons. by this point, she had determined urban/coed/ majors/ reduced Greek life/ not super liberal or conservative/ no huge football culture/ etc. each time we visited, she learned a bit more about her tastes. We also got better about reading between the lines. At one school, the tour guide clearly hated the school. At another, there was limited investment in school community or academic excellence. at another, she couldnT stand the absence of fashion ( silly, but the northwest isnT for everyone.). After admittance, we did Seattle and Chicago, but eventually ended up choosing the very first school she fell in love with, BU. She adores the culture, the attitudes, the focus on community involvement, the passion for excellence, her friends… Yes, it was expensive to tour before admission. Yes, we could have researched online only. I think we spent at least 5K visiting. On the other hand, we have a wonderful new relationship, an empowered and wiser kid, and a lot of fond memories… Like when I almost drove off the Oakland bridge because I didn’t know how to work the defroster on the rental car…the time the homeless person threw up on me and then swore at me… The time the tour guide bragged about campus security not knowing that over his shoulder was a student climbing into a first floor window…yup, good times good times. :). </p>
<p>2- when we returned</p>
<p>We’ve looked at some schools (different types) and we have at least one more visit planned. He is basically a sensible , reasonable kid and can see pros and cons to big and small schools, urban and rural. Just isn’t into Big 10 type or religious schools.</p>
<p>Posted same time as you, shoot4moon. What a great journey. I love that she learned more with each place she saw. My S has been very reluctant to tour but we do see increasing depth of understanding with each visit. Love it also that she knew BU was right for her. I don’t know if my S will have that aha moment–he can over think things. And your chore-relief plan, supplemented with secretarial help, ought to be in parenting books! Only sorry that she didnt love NYC. Thanks for sharing!</p>