My son was accepted to ASU WP Carey. We have not visited yet and I am thinking about doing a day trip. I know we can get to Tempe by rail from the airport. Is this a good idea or should we rent a car? We can do this trip during son’s spring break and it happens to be ASU’s spring break as well. Will there be some students around or will be empty on campus?
For the current students and/or their parents, is it easy for you/ your students to register for the classes for the degree plans? Are there long waitlists for the popular classes? I understand to maintain most ASU scholarships; there is a requirement to take at least 30 credit hours per year. I am curious for those who are on scholarships have difficulties to fulfill the 30 hours/year requirement while not wasting credit hours on unnecessary classes.
Thanks!
@sunnydayfun
Whether you want a car or not depends on where you want to go. It is very easy to get to the campus by the light rail and there are some restaurants on the NW side of campus around Mill Avenue. You can also easily get to downtown Phoenix via the light rail.
Campus will probably be quite empty on spring break. If I had to guess, I would say there may be a few more undergraduates around the last weekend of break than the first but I think campus would still have a pretty abandoned feel to it.
I can’t really answer about the class availability because my daughter is in Barrett and they get to register the first day regardless of class standing. However, my general sense is that there are usually classes available late in the process but they may not be exactly the class you wanted with the professor you wanted at the time you wanted. I did see on the ASU website that registration will start on February 26th for Fall 2015. At that time, you can go to
https://webapp4.asu.edu/catalog/
and see all the classes offered. You can watch how quickly the classes fill up. Even now, you can select previous semesters and see what classes are/were full.
My daughter has had no trouble with the 30 credit requirement. She has taken 17-18 hours all three semesters so far with good grades. She hasn’t had to take any credit hours that didn’t count or that she didn’t want to take for other reasons.
@stemfamily-Thanks for the reply! It sounds like your daughter is getting a great education at ASU!
We don’t plan to go to any other places other than ASU-Tempe campus so I wonder if we need a car and/or stay overnight. Is the light rail station close to the admission office? Any place near campus that is worth exploring?
We are evaluating ASU vs. Univ. of Okla in terms of job placement and graduate school post undergraduate degree. WP Carey offers a good Supply Chain Management program and that is son’s intended major.
Any thoughts or comments will be appreciated.
If you look at Google maps, the light rail station is at the very northeast corner of campus. I think the admissions office (Student Services) is closer to the southwest corner but any part of campus is walkable. Probably about a 10-15 min walk. We have flown out and back on the same day but we are also an hour direct flight away. It is about a 25min lightrail ride from airport to campus. And there is a direct overhead rail connection from the airport to the nearest light rail stop.
Tempe Town lake may be an option to explore. Never been there but looks to be about 1/2 mile north of the ASU rail station. You can also walk up to A mountain NW of campus. Downtown Tempe is there also. Also less than a mile. Depends on how much you want to walk.
Except for downtown Phoenix, I don’t know if there are any hotels near the light rail.
I don’t know anything about WP Carey. My daughter is in computer science and yes, I do think she is getting a very good education and has had great opportunities working with professors even though she is still a sophomore. I will say though, that because it is a very large university, the student has to have the initiative to go for what they want out of it.
Carey is a lot better than OU’s Business school. But if OU is cheaper by a lot I would recommend just staying in state. Be sure your son wants to go to grad school a lot of business degrees do not require an MBA to get a job.
Both OU and ASU are OOS for us. OU is 3 hours away by car while ASU is 2-3 hours flight time away. I agree Carey is a better Business school than OU-Price, but OU maybe a better fit for my son. On paper ASU is cheaper because of the merit scholarship he got.
My S is seriously considering ASU for computer science as well. He applied to Barrett late in the game so fingers crossed that he gets in. If you don’t mind sharing what would be your D pros & cons so far attending ASU for incoming cs and Barrett students? Can you explain in a little more detail what you mean by " The student has to have the initiative to go for what they want out of it." Thank You for any info.
@IsItOverYetMom I meant that more in the context of my D’s opportunities to do research and to work with professors. In a program like CS at ASU which has nearly 1000 students, professors are not going to reach out to students to offer these opportunities. The student has to initiate the contact and ask the professor about opportunities in their groups. ASU’s Fulton School of Engineering also has the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative, but again that is something the student has to submit a proposal for and seek out a faculty member for mentorship. But having taken the initiative, my D has had great experiences and made good personal contacts with professors. This is also important for recommendation letters which have already helped her obtain a summer internship.
Barrett students get to register in the very first group from registration during their first freshman semester on. That is a huge perk. We also went to an early orientation so she was able to get all the classes she wanted when she wanted them. ASU is also pretty good about opening new sections as the summer progresses so maybe that didn’t really make a difference.
One thing I am less than thrilled about is how CS does advising (not that they are necessarily unique in this). They have a group of office staff that know the degree requirements very well but are not CS professionals or faculty so they are not qualified to advise on upper division electives. Again the students should talk to professors. She has found that professors are pretty accessible during office hours which the university requires.
My D really loves all the choices for sections and classes that are a benefit of a large program. However, even upper division classes in CS are often quite large. You can see the class offerings and max sizes for multiple semesters here (CSE is the code for computer science)
https://webapp4.asu.edu/catalog/
One other thing my D likes is the classes (she has had 2 math and 2 music history classes) that are offered online. She loves the flexibility but she has always been the type to keep herself on track to do the work.
Thank You very much for responding. It was very helpful. My S intends to work in the video gaming industry does your daughter know if there is a decent gaming community or internship possibilities at local game companies? I’ve dug through so many posts trying to get a feel and idea of the college as far as the local video gaming industry opportunities but no one knows better than a current student. I’m aware she’s in Barrett but I’m sure she has friends outside of Barrett. Does she know which dorms outside of Barrett are quiet dorms to live in for cse students that want to avoid the parties?
My S1’s engineering department at his school (UT-Austin) also hires non-engineering professionals to advise students. They are familiar with degree requirements but not the courses. My S pretty much had to do his own research and/or talked to upperclassmen about the class selections. He is now a senior and belongs to a honor engineering society. They have an office in the engineering department that he and other upperclassmen can advise other students.
CS is not a big or growth industry in AZ, I was at a WP Carey careers fair in the fall and there really were no CS/Gaming companies hiring to my recollection, AZ is not big on gaming, some big not as an employer.
Latest on ASU funding doesn’t look good, more cuts, $40+m reduction for ASU, AZ has such a low respect for the Universities it ranks third worst for cuts since 2008. More cuts and less faculty my adjunct job may go too and others.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/laurieroberts/2015/02/26/crow-ducey-university-budget/24087045/
@sunnydayfun My wife and I went with my D to Honors day and more2explore events a couple of weeks ago. We were very impressed with WP Carey and Barrett infrastructure and student support. My D is quite happy with it. We are also from TX and I think ASU will be better for your child from a job placement perspective, specially for Supply Chain Management. We met few students that were recruited by Frito Lay in Plano not only for internships but full time jobs in that major. Good luck!
@ PhaseNoise- My S2 has not been accepted to Barrett yet. I don’t know what his chance is going to be based on his stats. ASU has been his top choice on and off. He likes a traditional school in a college town setting so OU or KU is his top choice right now. OU or KU is also not as massive as ASU. I read your post in another thread and I am curious as what educational quality of WP Carey (not Barrett) other than job placement attracts you and your D?
@sunnydayfun, frankly speaking, I am inclined to WP Carey not for educational quality only, I did a “holistic” analysis on some colleges and ASU was one of the few that offered my daughter full tuition scholarship, due to her National Hispanic Scholar status.
Of course there are other schools (where my D was accepted) that are more prestigious, but less attractive on a cost perspective, but don’t get me wrong, I truly believe that WP Carey academic offering is great! Let me list some of those quality aspects:
- WP Carey Rankings: 29 in the country (US News) (BTW, is 3 in the country for supply chain management). In fact I believe is the most selective school in ASU.
- Support Scheme: they have a dedicated career center for undergrads that is managed by a former industry recruiter for top corporations in US. Their advice could be from day 1.
- Infrastructure. Nice facilities (classrooms, offices, etc) and the WP Carey Honors undergrad students have a lounge with free printing and study area only for them in the amazing McCord Hall that is used mostly by graduate programs.
- Major offering: there are nice number of programs offered there. My D wants to double major in Marketing and Economics and this is quite straightforward at ASU since both majors are inside WP Carey. Majority of other schools have them separated (Econ is part of Liberal Arts) and this double major could be more challenging and demanding.
- Instructors Quality: When I visited the school I had the chance to talk with few profs of both departments, MKTG and ECON and they are really well prepared and well balanced for research and teaching. I believe I can assess this since I have advanced degrees in Engineering and Business from good schools in US. WP Carey even have a Nobel Prize winner in Economics as faculty member that teaches the undergrad honors students. You could take a quick look at their research,in the link http://research.wpcarey.asu.edu/
There are other aspects that make WP Carey even more attractive, but may be too long for this post. As some other parent mentioned, is up to your kid to take full advantage of all these resources and support schemes. That is true for any public large school. Hope this helps.
@sunnydayfun & @PhaseNoise We are kind of the mirror image of you two. We live in Arizona. My oldest son was admitted to ASU Barrett in Engineering and as a NMF. We would have loved for him to stay in-state, but he wanted to see another part of the country. He is a freshman at Texas A&M in the Honors Program, studying Aerospace Engineering. The costs worked out about the same, but he really liked the A&M vibe. Overall, he loves A&M and does not regret his selection. He does have several high school classmates at Barrett and reports that they love it there. Our son is not much of a partyer, but he also said that ASU’s Mill Avenue is more active than Northgate in College Station.
@Beaudreau A&M engineering school is awesome, the quality of education there and their NMF scholarship is overall a fantastic package. Congrats to your kid. And this is the beauty of US universities, so may great options for different personalities. My D is quite social and outgoing and found College station little quite, on the other hand, she liked Tempe so much, most likely due to the weather and the “intense” activity at Mills Av.
@PhaseNoise We stopped to get food with his brothers over Christmas break. It was a Friday night, before classes resumed on Monday, and Mill Avenue was packed. Of course Mill Avenue pulls in folks from a metro area with 4.3 million people; its not just current ASU students having fun. By contrast, College Station/Bryan’s metro population is only around 225,000.