@toast18 my son is a current freshman. Costs will vary because of the housing - my son has an old dorm, so about $1500 cheaper I think? Holly Point Commons is brand new and costs more (my son didn’t want it anyway so I was glad). Also, you can pick between 2 meal plans 1st semester, then 2nd semester have some cheaper options (we went cheaper 2nd semester because he is not a big fan of the cafeteria food and doesn’t eat breakfast anyway).
Tuition covers up to 17 credits; he’s taken 15 each semester. Our bill both semesters was just under $13k so under $26k for the year.
I also don’t count transportation costs since it’s only a couple of hours from home so a tank of gas here and there. Books have thus far been very reasonable - he’s had a couple of profs who don’t use them, or make copies of what’s needed and post it on-line so you don’t have to buy the books. I haven’t kept track, but we’re definitely under $500 for the year on books (he’s not in engineering or CS - those majors may be different).
Sophomore year most of the apartment options will be more money, but you aren’t required to buy a meal plan, so I’m counting on that being a wash. He’ll have a full kitchen, so we can stock that up and will probably just buy a minimal meal plan.
@NJWrestlingmom That is very good news for us about your real life costs. A huge relief really. Those are the kind of numbers I was hoping for.
@toast18 My D was accepted to biomedical engineering.
I think she wants to apply to the honors program but she is very burnt out right now and does not want to write any more essays. Hopefully, she will get over it. But I understand because she was dealing with lingering concussion symptoms before Christmas and now that she's better she has committed to her classes and an EC project that is very important to her.
I don't know if D will ever get a better financial offer than Rowan. But there are are a few things she needs to think about.
Rowan has grown a lot and she had hoped for a smaller college. Relationships are important to her. She needs to make sure the biomedical engineering program can provide the smaller environment and support she thinks she needs to be successful. Frankly, she heard someone voice concerns about that.
She also needs to think about her commitment to engineering because it might mean risking her scholarship since Rowan has a gpa requirement of 3.0 to keep scholarships. Most engineers I knew in school did not have high gpa’s, in fact, in my time, most kids I knew dropped out of engineering by the end of freshman year with damaged gpa’s. That was not Rowan, though.
D has to work through this herself, but my basic question would be, do you want to study engineering enough to pay full price for it if you lose your scholarship?
The experience my two are having is a small school experience, however neither is an engineering major. I can ask for feedback from friends of theirs who are engineers if that is of interest.
I asked my daughter and she said 35-45 kids in her business classes. There is apparently one chem class with 100 kids, and that the labs for that class were smaller (from one of her friends who is a bio major).
I went to TCNJ, and my biggest class was 100 kids (Fundamentals of Art, a gen. ed class). My classes were in the 35-45 range.
My kids are both doing exceptionally well grade wise, so I don’t know how it is handled if a student does poorly. I would think you get a semester to turn things around, but I don’t directly know that. Best of luck!
@NJRoadie I would really appreciate it if you could get some feedback about the biomedical or even any engineering program to see if professors seem to care about students and are willing to help if a student needs help? Are their any tutors available who understand the engineering material and can truly be helpful?
Thank you for the COA info, helped put my mind at ease! @MACmiracle I have SO many concerns about school choices overall, I worry about the possibility of him changing his mind about or finding engineering too hard. I guess that would be the case at any school though, and at a private school, if they lose the $20k merit, the debt will be piling up at a scary rate! I really think our choice will come down to Rowan or TCNJ (not that he’s been accepted there yet, but I’m hoping)
I didn’t realize your daughter was recovering from concussion. I find her accomplishmentseven more impressive knowing that.
Check out the posts written by @MechE13, a former student at Rowan. Reading this really made me and my son feel very positive about Rowan engineering.
I’m sure you are aware of this, but TCNJ is listed as a best value school in biomedical engineering.
He hasn’t finished that honors application yet either! @NJRoadie Thank you for the info, please keep us posted with any engineering feedback!
@MACmiracle Please take a look into the Biomed Curriculum below, you will notice that curriculum is math & physics heavy and has 8 engineering clinics.
I’m not an engineering major, but I did get a 16k scholarship per year (64k total) as a biological sciences major. My uw gpa is 3.45, which is quite low, but I have a 1540 SAT and 9 AP classes.
There may be some missing information to complete your application. It does NOT hurt that you call and ask if they have all the info they need and when you can expect a response. @anxiety000 @nikolateslaxi
My son received $13,000 merit 1450 SAT 4.2 w/gpa Computer Science. He applied on 1/15/18 & was accepted on 2/03 (snail mail) Merit notified via email today.
I called about two weeks ago and they told me we would get that email for Accepted Engineering Students, but haven’t heard yet. I believe it’s on 3/24, so hopefully we hear soon.
@toast18@MACmiracle March 9th is accepted students day for SWE (Society of Women Engineers) . I think next accepted students day for Engineering is March 24th
