Narrowed down to four schools: UCSD (in-state: 37K), Puget Sound (46K), Lewis and Clark (42K), Ursinus (29K, but travel with be $$)
Undecided major. Kid wants no big sports or Greek life and loves a pretty school, but all seem to fit this criteria. Likes the idea of smaller classes, but also the options available at a big university. Has visited all but Puget Sound and likes them all. Student is LGBTQ+ and Jewish (and would like to be part of a Jewish or interfaith community).
For a totally undecided student, how to help them decide?
Would any of these prices require debt?
For major, is there any general area, such as physical and mathematical sciences, biological sciences, social sciences, or humanities, that may be more likely to be of interest to the student? If there are any possible majors of interest that are unusual, are they available at all of the schools?
Some majors at UCSD are capacity limited and may require another admission process to declare or change into: Capped Majors
The UCSD residential colleges have different characteristics, including general education requirements: http://compare.ucsd.edu/
Great questions. No debt, though the more expensive options will be a stretch.
At UCSD they would be in Sixth College.
No capped major issue. They are interested in religious studies, math, psychology, neuropsychology (I know, not an undergrad major), etc. See, all over the place.
They like that UPS has biomedical ethics and Mediterranean studies, but would they really major in that??? At Ursinus they would be a Smith Quest Scholar. They don’t love the lack of diversity at the SLACs. Family live near UCSD and L&C, but not UPS or Ursinus.
Something like bioethics may exist as one or more courses (e.g. under philosophy or other departments) at various colleges, even if there is no specific major or minor in the area. Mediterranean focused courses may exist in various departments like art, literature, history, political science, etc…
Yep. We are having a hard time distinguishing between options. I would love them to just stay closer to home. They want to weigh all options, but are overwhelmed. I thought they’d just visit the schools and “know” but that didn’t happen.
UCSD is the outlier - big school.
If it’s about price, then Ursinsus - it’s not $13K worth of travel.
If it’s about Jewish life, call Hillel and ask to meet with a student or two - and have your student talk to them.
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