Ok, so the school likely offers merit to all to flatter and hope that the student enrolls. That just means that tuition is inflated to accommodate these “everybody gets a trophy” awards.
Next question: what is the GPA needed to keep those merit awards? And when is that evaluated?
A student with such modest stats attempting CS may end up with a GPA that would lose that merit if the req’t is too high.
3.0 and I believe it’s evaluated annually, not per semester.
It is worth noting that while Riddle basically accepts anyone, they are very aggressive with weed-out courses. Most of the freshman class is gone or has transferred major by second year. So it is definitely common for students to drop below 3.0 (the average is, I think, below a 3.0 for the department that houses cs – at least, for underclassmen levels)
That can be a rough gig for a student who had a 3.4 GPA in HS. I’ve seen 4.5 GPA students lose their scholarships.
while Riddle basically accepts anyone, they are very aggressive with weed-out courses. <<<<<<<<<
Exactly why a 3.4/1150 kid should not bet the farm on CS of all things. It seems unlikely she would be calc 1 ready, and the school cites 4 yr graduation at under 30% IRRC.
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It would make sense that they would aggressively weed. Many folks can’t handle the math/sciences/etc needed, so the plan may be to encourage those students to move onto their business or communications majors.
There are many schools that give scholarships to most, if not all, students. Berea and Cooper Union do, and neither school is considered a bait and switch school. ERAU is mainly an engineering school and it is not unusual for those students to take more than 4 years to graduate, especially if they are also getting flight certifications and doing co-ops. Georgia Tech has a 4 year grad rate of ~37%, and no one thinks that odd.
My daughter just went to a similar school, Florida Tech, that has a ‘low’ 4 year grad rate. Five out of the 7 kids she started school with (teammates) graduated in 4 years (one of the others needed ONE more class). The schools (both) have a lot of engineering and science majors, and a lot of foreign students. I think more than 50% of students do co-ops.
At D’s school, the gpa to keep the school merit aid was 2.8 and D never came close to losing her scholarship. Her test scores weren’t all that much higher than OP’s daughter’s (gpa was higher) and she had not taken AP calc or physics in high school. She studied HARD at school. Not everyone going to college has a 4.0 or 1550 SAT but they can be successful if they study.
However, I don’t think OP will get the funding needed at ERAU. The way the FA at the school is structured is that the best students get the most merit, and even then need outside money. Most Florida residents are bringing in $7000 from Bright futures and $3500 from the resident grant.
The numbers have changed. For instance, when your daughter was applying a M+CR SAT of 1250 was equivalent to an ACT 28. Now a 1250 SAT is only equivalent to an ACT 26. So while your daughter’s (old) SAT may have only been a bit higher in number, it actually would be significantly higher.
You’re certainly right about Berea and Cooper Union, but they’re set up differently.
The other schools that are giving merit to everyone have artificially upped their tuition rates just so they can flatter applicants with awards. It reminds me of a rather pricey summer music program for high school students offered by a private university. It wasn’t getting enough students, so it increased its cost by $1000 and then gave accepted applicants a $1000 “scholarship”. It worked. People were flattered by the award and felt that they couldn’t say no.
Georgia Tech has a 4 year grad rate of ~37%<<<<<<<<<<<
Plenty of those students are earning $40 an hour on multiple internships/co ops with a pay as you go kind of approach, most CS/eng students at GT have AP calc, the average ACT for GT is 32, if anything, this is why CS for OP’s student at any school that costs more than CCC is ill advised… Even GT has weed out and they start with top students.
Plenty of student at Florida Tech and Embry-Riddle are earning $40/hr working too. Most earn about $25/hr after their first year, but it goes up. Most jobs do not pay different rates to interns from different schools so if you get a job at Boeing, you’ll be paid the same as the MIT intern. One of my daughter’s friends took an entire year off to do 3 co-ops at NASA, Johnson & Johnson and one other space place. I do not think anyone will even notice that it took her 5 years to graduate because her resume is solid.
@Sybylla @mom2collegekids Luckily, my 3.4/1150 kid is good at calculus, economics and LOVES science. Competed in the LA County Science Fair competition for 3 years in a row. She was actually entertaining the idea of Pharmacology. Her high school is a private, College Preparatory school so they are tough on their kids. I always joke with her that if she had attended a Los Angeles Unified Public School, she would be an A+ student. I guess what I am trying to say is that I feel she will excel in College unlike others not so prepared. Her two older siblings thanked this H.S. for preparing them for their University which they breezed through, while others struggled. Also, since before she got accepted to Riddle, we pretty much decided that she would attend Community College thus she and I weren’t as focused as we should have been. Now, things are a bit different.
OP- what does it mean to be good at calculus, economics and Loves science?
Colleges don’t care what you love. It’s all about how you perform. I’m sure your D is terrific, but her stats don’t suggest that she’s going to excel in CS without a very significant “stepping it up” on her part.
How is her core math prep? That’s going to matter. She needs to be “college ready” in the basics-- algegra, trig, geometry. What was her SAT math score and did she take an SAT 2 in math and how did she do?
Loving science is terrific but CS is going to be math, math and math until she gets to the more advanced courses.
math, math and math until she gets to the more advanced courses.<<<<<<<<<<<<
Right. weed out won't care about your love, it will care how many students need to be culled.
Worth noting that ERAU CS only requires you go up to calculus 2 (and a statistics course). Not that I agree with that (it’s why I double majored), nor does it suddenly make Riddle affordable.
EDIT: blanking duplicate comment
@CourtneyThurston Well, just got the financial aid package in the mail today and it is NOT going to help pay for ER and there is no way either her or I will take out loans to fund the balance - that is where MY math skills kick in and see how counterintuitive this endeavor would be. Plus, she has hesitations about ER in that although she loves coding and the engineering aspect of CS, but she is also interested in the “artsy” part of CS like game design (sorry for my lack of CS lingo she was explaining it to me and my eyes glossed over. Her stepdad is an IT guy and he gets it). She will probably attend a local Junior College or California State University for 1/4 of the price and get her feet wet. Too bad, I was looking forward to moving to Florida. :((
What is the breakdown of her SAT?