Rowan vs. Fairfield university

My son is deciding between Rowan and Fairfield univ in CT. He has a 4.0, AP classes, captain of varsity sports, class officer etc but unfortunately does not test well. We applied to both schools without submitting sat scores (1500) Rowan accepted him as an accounting major because he could not apply for engineering without submitting scores. He figured he can get into the school then hopefully transfer into the engineering department. Rows also gave him no financial aid. Fairfield gave him an excellent package and he got into their engineering dept. we just saw Fairfield Friday and will revisit Rowan on Saturday. He needs to make his decision by Sunday. Rowan is 90 mins away S d Fairfield is 3 hours away. Any info you can share about either schools would be very helpful! Thank you

That’s a tough call on multiple fronts. I think Rowan has the better engineering department and facilities, but he’s not guaranteed his major and it’s more money. Transferring into engineering is a lot more challenging than transferring out. The curricula are so linear, if he doesn’t start with the required classes, he’ll be back to square one the moment he transfers.

I have a bigger concern though. the SAT isn’t a foolproof test by ANY means. It tends to penalize non-native English speakers especially. With that said, it does have some validity in predicting success in rigorous programs and engineering is rigorous no matter where you go. I would want to know more about the resources each school has for student academic support.

P.S. pet peeve so don’t take this too hard, but unless you’re going too, HE, not WE applied.

Well “we” visited because my husband and I took him there - and lol yes “he” applied not"we" although I feel like " we" did help with him a bit - but none the less I appreciate your feedback. He does like accounting but it is a back up and I kinda knew about how he will be behind the eight ball transferring into the program which was why he was thinking Fairfield may be a better choice. And just to make matters worse just now on the news was about an intruder at Fairfield who taped a student / so much to think about…Thank you again for responding and for your input - greatly appreciated

*raped not taped