<p>What would be some good public OOS alternatives for a good student? By "good" I mean, a student who's in the top 5-10% of their class, 2200-2300+ SAT etc. I'd love to hear about all three - reach, match and safety schools, including schools which would give merit aid and schools where such a student can get into the Honour's College.This is not taking cost as a factor as the student would be OOS for everything. Is it true that public schools care more for stats so I student with good stats but not stellar ECs could get into them?</p>
<p>What do you want to study? How much can you afford to spend? What kind of social vibe do you want?</p>
<p>that is correct, while private colleges factor in essays, extracurriculars, volunteer work etc…, most public colleges just take your SAT score, GPA and class rank and plug them into a formula to see who gets accepted and who doesn’t (well it’s not that simple but they basically just look at stats).</p>
<p>Some of the best public schools are UC-Berkeley (very hard to get in out of state though), I love UVA though as well as UNC. UCLA, William & Mary, Michigan, Georgia Tech and Wisconsin are some of the match/reach schools for your son. As for safety schools and honors colleges, you’ll probably have to look at schools ranked around Miami, Pittsburgh, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Purdue, Texas A&M etc…</p>
<p>^noimagination’s questions are a good place to start in order to determine what is the best public university for you.</p>
<p>I would second Pierre’s choice of the University of Pittsburgh; they can offer great merit aid.</p>
<p>^^ lol pierre, I’m still a student myself! Well, as I said, money is not an issue except for wanting, but not needing merit scholarships. About course of study, well in general, except for engineering schools and environment doesn’t matter much at this point. I am just lookng at a list of public matchs/safeties which might accept a student with good stats.</p>
<p>LOL, sorry! I’m so used to answering to parents on this forum that I sometimes get confused haha</p>
<p>MY APOLOGIES!! but maybe someday you will have a son :)</p>
<p>Is there actually something you prefer about publics other than that they care less about ECs? It’s pretty much a myth that private colleges outside of the top ones care about ECs. So for the same price as you’ll pay as an OOS student at many publics, you can attend many fine, equally ranked private colleges with smaller classes and better services.</p>
<p>
I’m not inclined to believe your cost estimate unless you can provide some hard figures.</p>
<p>@Putturani: What area of the country interests you?</p>
<p>^well usually with scholarships and all that, private school costs with financial aid and scholarships = OOS tuition.</p>
<p>I got a $15,000 scholarship from Northeastern. Ended up to be cheaper than what I’m paying now for Clemson. Public schools rarely give out scholarship money.</p>
<p>However, if you want something such as a school with a Division 1 sports program (with the exception of Stanford, Rice, Vanderbilt and BC), you’re probably gonna be looking at a public school (well that was one of my criteria haha)</p>
<p>
Some public schools don’t give out merit scholarships. Some private schools don’t give out merit scholarships. I have yet to see conclusive proof that there is a significant difference between the two categories.</p>
<p>The only difference I see is that public scholarships are more likely to be guaranteed or based purely off scores.</p>
<p>Hhaa lol, hopefully pierre, no offense taken! @ Redroses, umm not really but I’ve only heard info about privates and the UC system so i wanted to open my horizons a little bit and know more about publics.</p>
<p>@noimagination…anything but not rural
I just made this thread to get some info about publics which might be suitable for me, or someone like me, other than those of the UC system because info about them is scarce where I live (intl student)</p>
<p>You just aren’t giving us enough to work with. I can list some public schools that I personally find notable, but I only find them notable because they fit my own personal needs.</p>
<p>Let me put it another way: how do you decide that a private school might fit your needs? The same methodology is applicable here.</p>
<p>Oh sorry, umm…</p>
<p>Not rural, good attention to undergrads (that’s why I’m weary of the UC system) and in a good neighbourhood, any size is ok, as long as the university is not over-full; and I don’t want a tech school because I want to study english/liberal arts, psych etc.
Thanks for the input everyone!</p>
<p>I think that the University Of Virginia and UNC-Chapel Hill are the best options for you (mid-sized school and attention for undergraduates is great).</p>
<p>University Of Pittsburgh would be my match/safety choice, the honors college there is amazing, Pittsburgh is a great city so definitely check it out! (I would’ve gone there if it weren’t for Clemson).</p>
<p>Another voice of support for UVA. Although I didn’t end up choosing to attend there, I still loved it and think UVA is a fantastic place. They definitely pay attention to their undergrads, and the academics are outstanding. Also, UNC-Chapel Hill is a great place as well, with strong academics and a slightly bigger size, plus the resources of nearby Duke. Both are immensely difficult to get in OOS, but with your stats I think you’d have a good chance.</p>
<p>Other schools I’d recommend you look at are the College of William and Mary, the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Illinois.</p>
<p>Putt, while there are certainly some publics that give merit aid, guaranteed and by individual, private colleges on the whole give much more merit aid. It’s called discounting. Only the top schools can attract a whole class of full pay students, more average privates need to give most some ‘merit’ aid to get them to attend. Pure fact, you can look at percentage getting merit aid at each college on the College Board web site.</p>
<p>I heard that UVA is CRAZY competitive from a current student’s friend. Is that true? So what, apart from uni of Pittsburgh would be safetys for such a student?</p>
<p>Putturani, Rutgers Honors can be a safety for you. For English it is ranked 5th in public schools and 17th overall. However, I am not too sure about their merit aid process.</p>
<p>Cool keep the suggestions coming! I don’t really care about merit aid, although it would be nice to have. Also, are any og these state unis known for unhappy students? I only know one girla t a state uni and she’s really unhappy but I know that one students does not make the norm. Are they really competitive?</p>
<p>I would say Virginia Tech and Clemson but those are pereived to be tech schools so they may not be good for you.</p>
<p>A few other suggestions of colleges I would’ve considered applying to: Indiana University, Kansas State, Michigan (match/reach), Wisconsin (match), Purdue (tech school though), UC-Berkeley (huge reach), UCLA (huge reach), Texas A&M. These were the schools that I thought had the best combination of undergraduate academics and social life.</p>