@MYOS1634 I wouldn’t exactly call FSU’s engineering program prestigious. They are a bit lost at the moment. It’s a joint school with FAMU. Its actually called the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. The facility is a 3 mile bus ride away from the main FSU campus and frankly, I tried to solicit positive feedback on the school here on CC for a whole year and couldn’t get anyone to speak highly of the program. Not one person. Don’t get me wrong, FSU is a GREAT school, a beautiful renowned school. And it has an excellent price. But the engineering program leaves much to be desired.
Not optimal, but I still think the learning conditions are better than UCF and the program better than UM. Also, UM is likely more expensive, although it’s a better overall school than FSU.
Wait and see wrt to PSU costs for the poster…
For a while, I really enjoyed the college search process. Now, I feel sickened by it. We tell our kids to work hard to achieve their dreams of going to a college that will develop them into the person and professional they hope to become. Then reality hits, you don’t qualify for federal aid, although you don’t earn enough money to pay $50,000 a year for at least four years out of your own pocket. Merit money can be very limited and competive and trying to earn outside scholarship money is mostly futile. After four years of working so hard, being so stressed and earning good grades and scores, how do you tell your kid they have to settle for a school or schools that fit your pocket book, but are so far off the track for what they’re looking for? Not trying to sound naive, just extremely frustrated and disappointed.
^Good grades and high test scores always pay off, and pushing a child to learn will not be lost. It may mean the difference between graduating from college or not.
Kids often focus on ‘colleges they’ve heard of’, which may not even be the best fits, and is very limiting. Take a Princeton Review 's Best colleges or Fisk guide or Insider 's guide to colleges, have them find 5 colleges where their stats are in the top 10% yet resemble their dream schools. Then same thing for top 25%.
Run the NPC’s. Lots of them.
Btw: Just because you don’t qualify for PELL grants doesn’t mean you qualify for nothing. About half American families qualify for Pell. However if you’re between Pell and 75k, ‘meet need’ colleges will be very generous, and top colleges are generous up to 125k.
@BirdieB You should really give UCF a second look. It really does excel in engineering, with several programs being fairly well thought off, such as it’s Industrial, Aerospace, CS, etc. As a Florida resident, it was one of the top 3 choices for both of my kids (for engineering).
He would also have the option of transferring schools, as a junior (several of my daughter’s friends at UF are engineering transfers from UCF). With the $ saved by going to UCF, you could afford for him to transfer to a more expensive school.
Good Luck!
- Who are you talking to?
- PSU does not reject people for having stats that are too high. They have an honors college. Why would they want to reject people who are perfect fits for Schreyer?
@BirdieB don’t be too discouraged – you tell your kid it’s just like buying a car, and you have to find e right combination of factors including cost. No school is perfect, and while it is normal to grieve a little, don’t get persuaded that any one school is perfection. Starting out life with a ton of debt is not an advantage. Those same families that seemed to so effortlessly pay for school are sometimes hiding serious financial problems because of debt.
If you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it. That’s nobody’s fault. Be glad your child has a chance to go anywhere at all. Take a breath, concentrate on the positives, and hang in there.
Thanks to all who were kind enough to post replies to my comment from yesterday.
@BirdieB I so relate to your situation. From Pennsylvania here and having many sleepless nights over what to do. Also stuck in that place where we don’t qualify for aid yet not much merit money is coming forward. It is extremely frustrating. Reading your posts really struck a chord. Good luck with whatever you decide…
I hate to admit this, but I am very angry over this situation. if you’re wealthy, you can pay a $50,000 tuition out of pocket. If you’re low income, there is financial aid and many scholarships. If you’re in the middle, like my family, you’re told to go to a cheaper in state school. To deny aid for a $50,000 tuition is a slap. If a student manages to get accepted anywhere, they should never have to turn down where they want to attend because of money. That rules out so many kids from going to so many schools. There is something so very wrong about this.
You’re out of state applying to a school whose first priority is educating Pennsylvanians, @BirdieB. This is laid out on their website – it tells you how much they’ll charge you out of state (much more than in state), and how much aid you might get (Net Price Calculator, usually shows only loans depending on what you put in). It’s unfortunate that this is surprising at this late stage, but your son has other options.
Welcome to the “donut hole” @BirdieB. We are the majority.
@BirdieB: actually, students whose parents make 40K get 5.5K in loans and 5.5K in grants. Penn State costs 32K instate. So, effectively, they can’t even attend their own INSTATE flagship even if they got in.
And “donut hole” families aren’t the majority, because the average family makes 56K, but a majority indeed can’t afford college and/or their EFC. It’s especially terrible for instate applicants in Pennsylvania.
@BirdieB so many of us feel the sting of college costs. It is a bit frustrating but I suppose it all boils down to the fact that there are in state options for everyone which come at a reasonable cost, although might be much to the student’s dismay in terms of where the student wants to go. My husband and I saved a lot of money over the years (many) in education accounts for both of our kids, but I am now starting to think that we would have been better off just enjoying the money. It seems as though his friends (similar stats and wage earning parents - without any money put aside because the parents enjoyed their “wealth” a little more over the years) are getting much more in terms of financial aid - in particular, out of state grant money. I guess these are just some of the choices we make and lessons we learn as we go along.
On another note, does anyone know when PSU sends out its last notices of admissions? My S applied late - just before the deadline so I have no argument here but just wondering if anyone had any idea at all?
^actually, financial aid is mostly income based. Savings, especially in 529 accounts, are not punctured quite as much as income is, and is always beneficial in that it prevents having to borrow. Money that’s spent or, worse, consumer debt, is not “excused” from what the family was supposed to save. However it’s impossible to tell what people get in terms of scholarships, as it may be related to merit scholarships, how much aid is provided, etc. PSU is notorious for being absolutely horrible even for instate applicants (way at the bottom nationally for the combination of high costs and shortage of financial aid) so essentially anyone who runs the NPC from OOS knows there’s little to expect from Penn State. Some lucky souls get Provost’s or such but no one knows why.
This isn’t a surprise at this “late stage”. It’s been two and a half months since my son got his decision. He’s supposed to find out about money at the end of this month. That’s almost too much time to think about everything. As far as having other options, the situation is the same with other schools with money. As far as what’s in state, let’s say if we were thrilled with what was offered in state, my son would not have looked elsewhere.
I meant that the fact that PSU isn’t affordable should have been known long ago, and if it wasn’t, that’s unfortunate. Most users here would have told you to take it off the list before your son even applied to it.
Public (or state-related) schools are not required to subsidize the education of people who live elsewhere. Gotta choose from your workable choices. And if none of the choices are workable, maybe it wasn’t a great list of schools to apply to, because options are out there. Alabama gives up to full tuition scholarships for a certain GPA/SAT combo. Some may still even be open: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
^UA Huntsville (great for STEM) is still accepting applications and still giving out scholarships.
There’s only one guaranteed scholarship at Penn State, 4.5K for Schreyer Scholars.
Kids who can get into Schreyer likely have lots of possibilities - Pitt or Temple or UMD depending on their stats or applications.
Composing a list of affordable universities is really difficult.
But Penn State is always a certainty in terms of high costs. 
One thing that is routinely told to students when considering which schools to apply to is do not assume you can not afford a particular school. If your stats do not measure up, then a student should look elsewhere. Get accepted, then deal with the financial aspect. See what you might be awarded or qualify for, but never assume you can not afford.
^that’s what used to be said before NPC’s became mandatory. Guidance Counselors should know better and at least mention the NPC, but unfortunately this very site attests every day that they don’t or aren’t allowed to.
And some just keep saying that because they’ve been saying it for a while and they’re not college counselors.
What they SHOULD say is:
"Never assume you can’t afford something: run the NPC on several colleges and decide what’s affordable for your family from a combination of income + savings. Look at net costs: you’ll see all kinds of numbers. Cross out any college that’s way out of budget. Remember that not all schools offer merit aid but that you have the best shot if you’re top 10% (especially for test scores) at colleges that do offer some merit. THat’s not top 10% at your school - it’s in relation to their pool. Familiarize yourself with the CDS. Investigate automatic merit schools, from UMW to UAlabama.
And ALWAYS run the NPC before you apply anywhere. "
Obviously, they don’t say anything like that.
The cost of college has skyrocketed. Literally.
Does anybody remember the hullabaloo when 5 colleges crossed the 40K mark?
That was just a couple years ago.
Now we routinely see private colleges in the 65-70K range.