DD is having trouble deciding. She doesn’t know what kind of career she wants but is interested in exploring Psychology. Does anyone have any opinions on Samford, Palm Beach Atlantic U and University of South Florida? Specifically the Psych program, and also maybe for Undecideds? Cheapest would be USF and most expensive would be Samford.
Thoughts?
Well - the first thing is - two are smaller and religious. Samford is really nice. No clue about PBA. USF is fine - it’s a very well respected, bigger public school.
PBA and Samford will be conservatively bent.
Me - I’d go USF - but I’m not you.
have you been to all?
Good luck.
Seems like the decision would be easy due to the significant differences in size & location.
Most USF students live off campus. Lots of parties.
The fact that your daughter applied to Samford & to Palm Beach Atlantic suggests to me that she is comfortable in a conservative, religious environment.
Does your daughter prefer access to a beach or prefer a conservative city ?
Has your daughter been accepted to the honors program at USF? If not, then one big difference is going to be class sizes. Does the class size make a difference for your daughter?
If your daughter switches out of psychology, what fields might she be interested in? Take a look at those departments (if the universities even have them) and see what clicks with your daughter as possibilities.
How does your daughter feel about the Greek system? I’m not sure about PBA, but I know there’s a significant portion of students who go Greek at Samford and I’m sure a significantly small proportion of the study body does so at USF.
Have you visited all of the campuses? If you can’t visit, have you done the online tours, info sessions for accepted students, communicated with any students you know who attend any of the universities, etc?
Yes visited all the campuses. Not in the Honors program. She doesn’t care about beaches or parties. She’s rather go to the smaller schools but the difference in cost is a lot and she doesn’t know what she wants to major in. That’s the biggest problem right now.
In the end, we all want to eat at Flemings, Mortons, or Ruth Chris but sometimes we can only afford Outback.
With clubs or a small friend group, any campus can be made smaller.
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It’s totally fine being undecided; most college students change their majors from what they thought it would be when they were in high school, anyway.
Have you reached out to the FA offices at PBA or Samford to see if any changes can be made to their financial aid packages? Would attending any of the institutions require loans? I would eliminate any school where you would need to take out loans, unless loans would be needed for all three. If loans are needed for all three, go with USF because it’s a good school and it’s the least expensive, by what sounds like a significant amount.
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Yes USF is least expensive by a big margin.
Are smaller classes worth paying a lot extra for?
Curious - How does a significant portion of the student body participating in Greek system affect the non Greek students’ experience?
I think it depends on your daughter. Is she the type to skip class if she knows that nobody will realize she’s not among the 300 in the lecture hall? Is she likely to zone out and surf on her phone/laptop instead of paying attention to a lecture? Does she do well with lectures or better in discussion-based classes? Will she keep up on the readings from outside of class if there isn’t a regular time to have discussions? How does she learn? Does she need interaction & conversation to really master the material or is reading and listening sufficient for her? Will she take the initiative to visit the professor during office hours to discuss the coursework and develop a relationship with him/her? Does she prefer to be a bit more anonymous and blending in with the crowd, or does she do better when everyone knows her name?
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Only you and your daughter can determine that? Some like small, conversations, being known. Others like being more anonymous.
Many upper division classes even at large public schools, have smaller classes - major dependent (if you’re in a small major)
For an undecided, likely heading into a social science (it sounds like), debt should be avoided Period. In FL, you have great programs for the public schools.
Could you easily afford PBA or Samford ? It sounds like you don’t want to but that doesn’t mean you can’t.
Samford has an ok name. No one has ever heard of PBA outside of PB. But if it’s right for you, that’s ok.
Does she want the religious aspect?
Lots of questions - only you can answer when it comes to affordability or willingness to spend.
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It depends on what the Greek life is like at that particular university. Washington & Lee is one university where there is a high percentage of students participating in Greek life. @cinnamon1212 and @DramaMama2021 have children at that institution and indicate that Greek life is different there than the stereotypical Greek life because of that high percentage. I would also take a look for threads about Greek life at Furman, Wofford. Denison, and University of the South/Sewanee for other institutions with a high percentage of Greek life (Millsaps, too, but I don’t think there’s too much info on CC on them).
Stereotypically, Greek life has a connotation of being sort of like the Animal House movie where there is a lot of elitism related to which house one pledges, and people who aren’t in the Greek society aren’t invited to the parties (where there is very heavy drinking) and that there’s a big divide between Greeks and non-Greeks. That is a stereotype, however, and not all aspects of the stereotype are true at all schools (and there are probably schools where none of the stereotypes are true).
This would definitely be an area I would investigate more, however, if my child was considering a school with a large Greek student body.
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Don’t assume this. PBA is one we visited for our youngest son back in 2014. Kids seemed quite happy there and we left with a positive impression overall, but he/we didn’t feel it was the best for his desired major at the time (Marine Bio of some sort).
Samford I think I’ve heard of before, but I had to use Google to fill in a lot more info about it, including where it is.
When it comes to many smaller colleges - even “famous” ones, whether one has heard of them or not tends to depend upon what they’ve been exposed to.
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All good points for pondering, thank you all. USF and PBA would be within budget. Samford, we would need a way to bridge the gap - loans or more aid.
If Samford is one of your top choices, I would reach out to their FA department and see what can be done. But if it doesn’t come within budget for you, then I think it should be eliminated.
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Let me say it like this -
Samford is a somewhat known name - but there are schools - your W&L, Swarthmore, Bowdoin - if you asked 100 random people on the street, you’d be lucky if 5 could name the state.
Samford, especially with the religious right, is decently known. It has an endowment 4x the size of PBA too. It also has had some big name sports coaches and even athletes - which helps - like Bobby Bowden.
It also sounds like Stanford - and probably gets confused with it once in a while 
PBA - not known - even in South Florida.
But that said, we read about a lot of colleges on the CC that many/most may not have heard of, especially when they got onto the CC. And many are beloved - I read, for example, a ton of great things about Southwestern. Just because it’s not known doesn’t mean it’s not a fine school.
And your point is 100% valid: When it comes to many smaller colleges - even “famous” ones, whether one has heard of them or not tends to depend upon what they’ve been exposed to.
Interesting - I didn’t know that about Samford (being somewhat known).
That goes back to what @Creekland said.
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We need to be a little careful with saying smaller classes = discussion based. A class of 30/40 could be as lecture focused as a class of 300/400. Even smaller classes may have limited interaction unless they are taught in the Socratic Method.
I suspect it, like most small colleges, are regionally known. If I were to ask kids/parents at the school where I work I doubt any will have heard of it - maybe an anomaly here or there, but certainly not nearly as many as know the small colleges around here - like Washington & Jefferson - that other areas likely haven’t heard about.
This doesn’t mean it’s a bad college. Two of mine went to schools very few around here know about, Covenant (GA) and Eckerd (FL). Once they “discovered” them, others from the area have considered, and in Eckerd’s case, even gone to them. It’s merely a case of not knowing them by name because there are fewer alumni and not well-known sports teams.
Heck, the other son of mine went to U Rochester - ranked in the Top 30s last I knew - and because they don’t have a well-known sports presence, there are still quite a few who don’t know they exist.
If you’re wondering what prospects are post graduation for any of your schools, ask where recent grads in majors you’re considering have gone. If a school doesn’t want to share, it’s a caution flag.
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