Looking for some comparative advise on the relative merits of SIT and Syracuse,
son will apply ED engineering to one of them. I know SIT has a great co-op program
and the advantages of being a smaller school and proximity to NY, while Syracuse
has the advantages of being a large university campus with probably more freedom
and activities.
Thanks.
As a graduate of Stevens, I can’t say enough good things about my personal experience there (which was a long time ago.) Stevens graduates are highly marketable in the NY/NJ area, but I’m not sure about the rest of the country. I selected Stevens over other colleges based on their job placement statistics. At the time 95% of all students graduated with job offers or were accepted into Grad School. I believe the statistics hold true today. Hoboken is a fantastic town to live in and yes, it’s proximity to NY is a big plus. My Stevens friends have all gone on to be quite successful in their careers. The only downside is the current cost of Stevens. I believe it’s reaching $67k? If you can afford it, I’d highly recommend it.
Thanks for your reply. We finally decided not to apply ED anywhere. I think an ED should be a school like MIT or Stanford. The obligations and liabilities involved make it too risky to apply ED to a 2nd tier school for financially challenged applicants. What if they make an offer but the funds are insufficient? The onus is on the applicant to prove this, if I have read correctly. It would be a disaster.
My son applied ED because it is our understanding that the agreement is only binding if we receive a financial aid offer that makes it possible for him to enroll. It has always been his dream to go to Stevens but he had some GPA issues as a lowerclassman, so he applied ED to increase his chances of being accepted. My understanding was that if you can’t afford the offer, you are not bound to enroll. I hope that’s true because he sent his app in!
@dpro From what I understand, it isn’t as simple as saying you can’t afford it. You will need to somehow demonstrate that you cannot afford it with evidence. Do you know your EFC? Ours was MUCH higher than I thought it would be - basically full pay. We could not risk applying ED anywhere. If my S were accepted via ED no school would be bound to give him financial aid, based on our FAFSA EFC.
ETA: I just realized that I am helping to derail the thread…sorry OP. We visited Stevens and loved it. Its truly a hidden gem right outside NYC. If we could afford it, it would be very high on S’s list.
@STEM2017 That makes sense. Our EFC is pretty low, much lower than the COA. That said, I do expect Stevens to be out of our reach financially,unless we rely heavily on private loans, which I don’t want him to do. But he wants to go there so badly, we had to at least try. (Fingers crossed!)
Thats what we figured too. There is just too much legalese in this whole ED acceptance business which makes it a high risk thing unless you are applying to a genuine 100% needs met college like Stanford or MIT.
Stevens has a good co op program and the location is great if you want to gain work experience in the NYC area. Coursework is challenging. In general, the students seem well spoken and kind.
Biggest drawbacks: Stevens is expensive and it can be stressful finding housing/roommates each semester, as many students are on/off co op. Meal plans are expensive and meh, but takeout is easily available and probably cheaper than a meal plan (for upperclassmen). Although Stevens is ‘small’, they are admitting more freshmen every year, so the experience of 10 years ago may not compare to today. Parking is expensive and impossible. Best to plan on using public transportation and avoid having a car on campus. There are some very good instructors, and some that are not good. Probably the same as any other place, but it is harder to avoid the bad ones in a small school because that may be the only class that is available.
It is hard to give a full picture of a place in a few sentences. The student should enjoy the city life or else they might be happier at a more rural/typical, larger college campus. Stevens is usually generous with financial aid, especially so for the highest quality applicants.