<p>Ditto!!! :)</p>
<p>D never considered OOS because of cost. She is a sophmore and very happy at her in-state college. She applied to one private and several publics in-state. Got substantial Merit $$ at every school and choose the one that fits her best. It was 2 year ago and we have applied the same logic as suggested in current situation. D. graduated at the top of her HS class. Do not look down to state schools. Opportunities for top students there are awesome.</p>
<p>Our D chose in state full tuition scholarship at University at Buffalo Honors College (SUNY). She got in to Brown and Penn and told H and me that the acceptance was satisfaction enough. She's having a great experience so far. We were prepared to do significant belt-tightening had she made a different choice -- but there is no question we are feeling much more relaxed right now about college expenses as we watch our retirement accounts lose so much value.</p>
<p>(A good friend whose S is a soph at Cornell told me last spring that the giddiness and triumph of that Ivy acceptance was wearing off fast as they grappled with the reality of writing those big full-pay checks for the next several years...)</p>
<p>JL50ish asked
[quote]
Just asking.... what's wrong with the University of Maryland - College Park?
(I have no info regarding this Univ, except that it is rated well and the tuition is reasonable.)
Are your child(ren)'s stats high enough maybe to get some merit money elsewhere?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It's just too big. Size alone makes it a last resort for us. Will apply, but not enthusiastically. </p>
<p>Among the state universities, Salisbury will be the safety with the closest fit. But it's notorious as a suitcase school and therefore lacks some of the "college culture" we'd like Son to experience. The Honors Program exists, but barely.</p>
<p>As an LAC, St. Mary's College of Maryland is not part of the University System. It's a good, solid, low-match for Son. It's always been on his list and will remain so. However competition will be stiff for all the reasons previously listed in this thread. Add to that that Maryland WANTS OOS students for the extra revenue and the odds further decrease. (By law, in-state tuition cannot be raised for the next few years. Therefore OOS kids are very attractive; schools are <em>not</em> required admit a min number of Marylanders.)</p>
<p>And yes, we anticipate Son's stats to be worth some merit money. Finding a school that has it will be the hard part. </p>
<p>Silver lining - He's only a junior. (And D is a freshman.) Hopefully the financial picture will be clearer a year from now (and healthier) so we can approach the application strategy with more confidence.</p>
<p>orchestra: >>> (A good friend whose S is a soph at Cornell told me last spring that the giddiness and triumph of that Ivy acceptance was wearing off fast as they grappled with the reality of writing those big full-pay checks for the next several years...)</p>
<p>I learned the same lesson from my cousin...My cousin experienced the SAME thing as above. Her son begged to go to Columbia. He got accepted and the family was elated and bragged to everyone who would listen. They thought that they could afford it with some "belt tightening". After the first year of paying "full freight," my cousin tried to "hit up" her parents to "help" (they said, "no" because they have several other grandkids). My cousin ended up having to take a second job (her husband's job already requires more than 40 hrs), to pay for the remaining years. Because, the truth is, it takes a lot more than just "belt-tightening" to come up with $50k per year - unless you have it mostly already saved (they had about half saved.)<br>
BTW.... her second son - who is just as smart - went to flagship state.</p>
<p>JL50ish asked</p>
<p>Quote:
Just asking.... what's wrong with the University of Maryland - College Park?
(I have no info regarding this Univ, except that it is rated well and the tuition is reasonable.)</p>
<h2>Are your child(ren)'s stats high enough maybe to get some merit money elsewhere? </h2>
<p>DougBetsey response: It's just too big. Size alone makes it a last resort for us. Will apply, but not enthusiastically. </p>
<p>Among the state universities, Salisbury will be the safety with the closest fit. But it's notorious as a suitcase school and therefore lacks some of the "college culture" we'd like Son to experience. The Honors Program exists, but barely.</p>
<p>As an LAC, St. Mary's College of Maryland is not part of the University System. It's a good, solid, low-match for Son. It's always been on his list and will remain so. However competition will be stiff for all the reasons previously listed in this thread. Add to that that Maryland WANTS OOS students for the extra revenue and the odds further decrease. (By law, in-state tuition cannot be raised for the next few years. Therefore OOS kids are very attractive; schools are <em>not</em> required admit a min number of Marylanders.)</p>
<p>And yes, we anticipate Son's stats to be worth some merit money. Finding a school that has it will be the hard part. </p>
<h2>Silver lining - He's only a junior. (And D is a freshman.) Hopefully the financial picture will be clearer a year from now (and healthier) so we can approach the application strategy with more confidence.</h2>
<p>I completely understand the concern about "big colleges". We had the same concern regarding our kids (They have gone to smallish Catholic schools their whole lives. Their high school was much smaller than the publics. We were used to having entire faculty knowing our kids' names and our names.) </p>
<p>So... when we found big colleges that had well-developed Honors Programs, we considered them. I did a quick check at U of Maryland. I copied and pasted some of the site's words below...</p>
<p>University of Maryland
Welcome to University Honors
The University Honors Program is a living and learning community for students with exceptional academic talents. Highlights include:</p>
<p>intellectual challenge
small class size
outstanding faculty</p>
<p>I didn't research the program, but it does offer what my son's honors program offers - small class sizes (my son's classes are limited to 15 students), and a living and learning community (that suggests to me that they have honors res halls). </p>
<p>We have been completely satifisfied with our son's honors programs. The profs know the kids, and the director knows all of us. When I recently went with my second son to do a college visit, the director of my son's honors program greeted me by name when we ran into him in the hall.</p>
<p>If U of M has a well-developed honors program, your child could get "the best of both worlds." He/she could get the "small feel" of a small college, with all the resources that a large college can offer. </p>
<p>Larger colleges can offer more choices for majors ( if your child changes his major, it is likely that his new choice is at the major university). </p>
<p>Larger colleges usually offer full-service "on-site" medical care. This was a huge benefit for us. Our son recently got hit with a 104 fever and sore throat in the early evening. He went to the Student Health Center, he was immediately seen by a physician, given a Rx for a very strong anti-biotic (5 pills - one per day). The pharmacy is also on-site. My son took his first pill around 9pm. By the next morning, fever gone, sore throat gone, and he felt great. If this service had not been available during the evening hours, my son would not have gotten well nearly as fast and he would have missed days of school.</p>
<p>Larger colleges also offer numerous eating venues (may not seem important to you, but kids don't like eating at the same dining hall or the same few choices everyday). </p>
<p>Another good thing about larger colleges is that they have more choices of profs in each department. At smaller colleges it is often impossible to avoid some profs that you might not like since they may be the only ones who teach specifically needed courses. At larger colleges, it is much easier to avoid a prof that you don't particularly care for.</p>
<p>JL50ish, that was a great post. If I may, I'm going to send it to my daughter. She claims to want a smaller school, but when pressed for why, she aspires to pretty much everything you mention. Thank you for providing so much clarity!</p>
<p>Yup. I'm sure there are lots of good things about large schools. Plenty of people are happy at them.</p>
<p>zoosermom...</p>
<p>You are very welcome to send the post to your DD. Happy to help :)</p>
<p>I don't know if this makes a difference to your daughter, but larger universities usually also have better rec facilities. And, they are often able to provide more entertainment opportunities. When we went to "parents' weekend", my son's school brought in the singer, Daughtry, and we all got to go to his concert for $10. It was a nice "added touch" to the entire weekend.</p>
<p>
[quote]
We are thanking our lucky stars that our student chose full tuition OOS scholarship at PITT.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Me three! :)</p>
<p>By the way, if your student has a SAT of 1450 or above (CR/M), Pitt's full-tuition scholarship is a distinct possibility. It's worth looking into!</p>
<p>Wow those Daughtry tickets are nice! My daughter is something of a foodie, so we have to consider that as well.</p>
<p>I go through phases with this whole process where I'm either purposeful or defeated. Currently defeated because of the financial crisis and because she loathed Stonybrook. We thought that'd be a good option but it's completely off the table. I think her criteria are too specific for our budget.</p>
<p>zooser: I go through phases with this whole process where I'm either purposeful or defeated. Currently defeated because of the financial crisis and because she loathed Stonybrook. We thought that'd be a good option but it's completely off the table. I think her criteria are too specific for our budget.</p>
<p>What colleges are on her "consideration" list? Is she a senior? Do you live in New York?? How far is she willing to go? What does she think that she might major in?</p>
<p>I know that I've seen your screenname here for a couple of years. Is this your second child to go to college? My second son is a senior in high school, but I'm kind of lucky cuz he wants to go to the same school as his bro - so fewer college visits - yeah!</p>
<p>I used to have a different screenname, but I changed it cuz of some nut!</p>
<p>
[quote]
What colleges are on her "consideration" list? Is she a senior? Do you live in New York?? How far is she willing to go? What does she think that she might major in?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>She's considering Binghamton, Oneonta, Hunter, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Seton Hall, TCNJ, Catholic, American, Villanova and Goucher. Not truly in love at all. Will either major in Classics or Medieval Studies. She wants to say very, very close which is a major problem. So far her favorite has actually been Seton Hall. They have a five-year master's in Museum Studies that she was wild about. Loves the location, and they were very kind to her.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I used to have a different screenname, but I changed it cuz of some nut!
[/quote]
I can totally relate.</p>
<p>zooser...>>>> Quote:
What colleges are on her "consideration" list? Is she a senior? Do you live in New York?? How far is she willing to go? What does she think that she might major in? </p>
<p>She's considering Binghamton, Oneonta, Hunter, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Seton Hall, TCNJ, Catholic, American, Villanova and Goucher. Not truly in love at all. Will either major in Classics or Medieval Studies. She wants to say very, very close which is a major problem. So far her favorite has actually been Seton Hall. They have a five-year master's in Museum Studies that she was wild about. Loves the location, and they were very kind to her. <<<<</p>
<p>My kids' high school English teacher's son recently graduated from Seton Hall. He loved it there. It's nice because it's close to NYC (I think it's about 15 miles away, right???) Since your d is into Museum Studies, its location seems very amenable to that field (since NYC is so closeby). I imagine that Seton Hall probably has some pretty cool "study abroad" programs which would feature some very famous museums. SH also seems to have some nice merit scholarships. My sons' teacher's son went on a full scholarship.</p>
<p>Thanks JL50ish! There can sometimes be snarking about SEton Hall on here, but it seems a nice enough school with all the benefits you explained. Bryn Mawr is high on her list too (although we haven't visited) because they give IB diploma holders with certain scores sophomore status and they have a five-year master's in Classics. Plus right near the Philadelphia Museum of Art. </p>
<p>Me? I just want her to be happy and to not be broke.</p>
<p>Son's good friend is in that 5 year Museum program. Loves it. Chose SH over a number of more selective schools because of the program.</p>
<p>I think UMD is a great school, but for out of staters it is not cheap. OOS public unis are running $30K and up most of the time. </p>
<p>I love the atmosphere of a big university. There is so much out there to do. However, it can be a problem on an academic basis. Some kids just do better with small classes instead of the lecture halls with hundreds of kids. They also can do better with out the grad student teaching the recitations. My son is at a large university and is really enjoying all of the amenities there, but he also is in a very small department. The two courses he had to take in the lecture halls to make graduation requirements were big problems for him. He just does much better in a small classroom, face to face with teachers. That was one reason we switched him from the public school system to a private school with less than 15 kids per class. It worked so much better. All of my boys seem to want personal interaction with the prof for class. Me, I could do just fine with a thousand other students in a hall. But some kids just do better the other way. </p>
<p>Also the administrative stuff is much stricter at the bigger schools. They cannot afford the time and manpower to deal with every little problem. If you are locked out of a class because you were too late registering, tough. If you miss the room select deadline, you are out. There can be a safety net with the smaller schools. Also more people know each other and there can be more of a camraderie and watching out for each other. I remember when I was in college, a kid actually spent nearly a whole term in his dorm room without coming out, some mental problem and no one noticed. Never could have happened at my school where everyone seemed to know everyone else's business. Not that there are not problems with that situation as well.</p>
<p>Zoosermom, that's a good list you have.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Son's good friend is in that 5 year Museum program. Loves it. Chose SH over a number of more selective schools because of the program.
[/quote]
Really!! Awesome. That is such a good thing to hear.</p>
<p>
[quote]
There can sometimes be snarking about SEton Hall on here, but it seems a nice enough school with all the benefits you explained.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Zoosermom, don't let the snark get you down. Sounds like a really nice choice for your D.</p>