@hannah1789 yes I think you still are! I applied regular and was offered a little bit of money to cover the expenses… I am out of state though
hey guys, I hope you guys get your notifications soon! I am an out of state applicant and got my reply on February 4th.
Did you apply Early Action?
still nothing yet - feel like i’m just waiting on a rejection letter tho @AJC
ok, I got in early, was accepted into honors college and FRI (with a handwritten letter praising my common app essay) but NO AID??? I seriously don’t mean to brag about that stuff but what?? Any way to leverage offers (univ buffalo gave me $3k a yr… lol nothing I know) or negotiate?
Multi-racial female, in-state, 34 ACT, 1530 SAT (800 Math), 800 Math II, 780 Physics – top 3%, GPA like 99ish weighted (my school barely weights) like 8 APs/dual enrollments, lots of honors classes… good ECs (student council, started a club, varsity ice hockey, ) ~ applied for engineering
[not eligible for need based aid at all]
@bella246 I think Binghamton rarely if ever gives merit to in-state students. I believe the merit is used to offset higher OOS costs to attract top OOS students. (We are OOS and my daughter received merit, so Bing is a top choice. Otherwise, would not have been in the running.)
@bella246 I have to agree with @DumDeeDummm.
The price for a SUNY education is so much lower than any other state I’ve looked at with my kids. NY students are already getting the best bargain around.
You got into Bing with all the bells and whistles (honors, etc.), looks like those are what they are offering you to bring you in.
Both of my kids had a ‘good on paper’ school that offered surprisingly low merit. I felt that was a sign they weren’t a fit for us and our needs and we dropped them and moved on. If you are that disappointed, maybe Bing is your ‘good on paper’ school.
@bella246 It is frustrating, but Binghamton does not give any merit aid to NYS students. They know they are the best SUNY school and every NYS student applies to Bing whether as target or safety school along with million of out of state students. Therefore, unlike Buffalo, Bing does not have to try hard to attract students.
@Sparcky That’s an interesting thought. What schools did your kids choose instead of “good on paper” schools? Did they end up going to safety schools which offered better merit aid?
@AJC - we are OOS, my DD actually chose Bing over a full tuition scholarship to Temple. I will admit- she got good merit money from Bing, but was also offered scholars and FRI, which pushed it over the top for her. She is currently a freshman and loves it, she is sure she made the right choice for her.
@AJC My first son’s good on paper school was Worchester Poly. When we visited we loved it. He was easily a top applicant based on the criteria presented at the info session and graduated from one of the top STEM high schools. He was accepted EA. But they offered only $15k, the smallest of all of his private schools (by average of $10k), and all of them were more competitive than WPI. I was really surprised. Looked into their website more deeply and discovered that they want valedictorians or salutatorians and NM scholars. My son didn’t study for the PSAT, so he did well but not a scholar. He went right for the SAT and nailed it first time with a 1560. The HS doesn’t rank, but trust me the top students are not at WPI, they are over at MIT. It appeared to me that even though his stats might have been higher than others, he didn’t have their brag stats. They couldn’t make time for us to have an accepted visit on a school day and frankly, it was an inconvenient location. I told him they were off the list. He ended up at Delaware, which had the perfect program for him, and relatively speaking (state v private) offered much more money. All is good there.
Current kid applied to five and hasn’t decided yet. He has ruled two out, Bing and the good on paper school. He really liked good on paper when we visited last summer. We showed all the demonstrated interest. We learned that they wanted to visit his HS and couldn’t get an appointment - but here he was, clearly interested! He was in their top applicant range. He was easily accepted EA but offered much less than other schools. Turns out their brag factor is how much volunteer work was done, how many clubs or teams were lead, etc. He has a job and lead his scout troop for a year, but didn’t have much volunteer work or earn his Eagle. It appears to me he’s not their ideal candidate. His finalists are schools that are actually more competitive and will cost us significantly less (one private, one OOS, one IS). And after visiting each private a second time, he found to his surprise that he liked the other better anyway. All good.
So net net, my experience is that students need to cast a reasonably wide net because you don’t really know what they will offer in the end and alternatives are good. I told my kids from the start not to have a dream/favorite because college is too expensive these days to get too emotionally invested before seeing the offers.
Totally agree about casting the wide net, and I am glad we did (we applied to 9 schools). Turns out your point is accurate, schools can be all over the place. For example, Binghamton gave us a chunk of money even though it is difficult to get into (rated an A by Niche, and well in the US news top 100). Meanwhile, we got deferred - and finally accepted - to UVM, where DD is above the average. And - as of now they offered not a penny of merit. This would make UVM 20+K more per year than Binghamton, and UVM is a lower ranked school, and is an A- per Niche. Clark, ranked 66 by US News, gave DD a large scholarship offer as well, where as UDel only gave 3k in merit.
A lot of factors go into this process, and let’s be honest, most of the time your kid is being evaluated by a single individual, along with some broad ranges (i.e. SAT over x, GPA over y). It can be very subjective. Casting a wider net reduces margin of error. Like in our case, if we only applied to 3 schools, UVM would have likely been one of them because they were considered a more likely school to get into and get merit, and the fit seemed good. But now, after applying to 9 schools, UVM may end up being the absolute last choice with a net cost of 55K+. Even Penn State with no merit, a superior school to UVM, would be much cheaper. Glad we cast that wide net.
@Sparcky
"I was really surprised. Looked into their website more deeply and discovered that they want valedictorians or salutatorians and NM scholars. "
For some years WPI has awarded merit money to selected Valedictorians and Salutatorians. To my knowledge they do not participate in the National Merit program’s automatic award system although they do give out some merit awards based on their own decision process.
WPI was one of the first STEM Universities to announce their commitment to “test optional admissions” as they believe test scores have weaknesses in predicting an individual’s university performance in the absence of an holistic review of all the available information.
As you know, your son’s potential is not defined by his standardized test scores. Not even all admissions offices function on that assumption.
For a discussion on holistic admissions see another thread at http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/2084255-why-test-optional-admissions.html#latest
@HankCT If you want more evidence that UVM is your good on paper… my friend’s daughter, who I understand is a B student with average SATs, got a pretty healthy scholarship to UVM. I forget exact amount, $20k plus. Could be ECs, but I’d bet on location. Not a lot of central Jersey kids want to head six hours north into the cold.
Cold but beautiful! Just dress warmly and stay active. Go VT!
Maine Resident!
@retiredfarmer Thanks but this was three years ago with my older child.
After I made three attempts to schedule a meeting with a professor and was told by admissions that no one would respond to the request, we moved on without a look back.
@Sparcky
I appreciate that this was three years ago, but also feel badly that your scheduling issue was not dealt with better.
Traditionally, many faculty know they have their job to do and that admissions has theirs. As an alumnus who worked there for ten years, I hope it was because they were all busy advising students! This really is not a standard program as it is very project oriented from day one and has been for over fifty years.
The WPI three projects minimum requirement (MQP, IQP, and HUA) requires more faculty involvement into person to person program planning. This tailoring process is part of the “hands on” learning. Students have a better understanding of how and of why they are involved in an activity. It is a way of more directly committing a student’s interests to the activity and encouraging an attitude of exploration. This team approach to planning brings about a higher level of personal involvement. This is very different from working off a flowchart once you have selected a major. Many traditionalists feel this approach is inefficient as they do not see the pedagogical value.
Even though the undergraduate program has grown by 52% over the past ten years, the student to faculty ratio has actually improved from 14/1 to 13/1 in the same period.
@bella246 UB is a better choice for engineering anyway. I wouldn’t even bother negotiating.
@retiredfarmer The project based curriculum was part of the draw. We thought it sounded great. The woman I spoke with several times said she emailed the department more than once and never heard back. Maybe she should have picked up the phone? At the end of the day it didn’t matter. They did us a favor. We were looking at an annual cost to us (cash plus student loan) in year one of about $48k. At UD it was $35k. With annual increases that’s over $50k savings. It was a no brainer. He’s doing great, top of his class, and has a fantastic summer internship lined up.
There was one other thing that was a turn off. He had an interview and he said it was very ‘check the box’ and not at all like his other interviews. She didn’t really seem interested in him at all. He just wasn’t what they wanted and that’s ok.
About OOS
Acceptance rate OOS=51%
Number of OOS applicants=2930
Number OOS applicants accepted=1500
Number OOS who enroll=173
(of 13,507 In-state +OOS-applicants accepted-freshman enrollment=2736)
OOS scores and grades low than in-state averages
374 students accepted from wait list (after yield established-resulting in conversion of lounges to dorm rooms-see link below-current motto: 20,000 by 2020. Unlikely to be matched by more resources- cutbacks instead. Read about budget issues!)
Students have a right to transparency!
https://www.bupipedream.com/opinions/102688/editorial-welcome-to-binghamton-heres-your-lounge/
Compare the Admissions office to the other buildings on campus.'nuff said!