<p>I have been accepted to Auburn, and got offered to do the PSA program at A&M (not full admittance). For those of you who aren't familiar with the PSA program, it is where you spend your first year at one of A&M's "sister schools" (I am specifically looking at the one in Commerce-near Dallas) and you must get a gpa of at least 3.0 in every class and then you are fully admitted to A&M the second year. I understand that only 36% of holistic review people are admitted to A&M and only 6% get offered the option to do "another pathway" such as the one I got. And with the cumulative gpa I had (2.6-I had a bad sophomore year but near perfect junior and now senior grades) I am super lucky to have these two options. I toured A&M last year and absolutely fell in love with it. It was my dream school. I just toured Auburn in October and liked it as well (but not quite as much...there was just something about A&M). Although, I began to gain more interest in Auburn after researching it and also because A&M took so long to get back to me I started leaning towards Auburn..but now that A&M gave me this option (which I was not expecting) I'm conflicted on what is the better option? Options: Is it worth doing the PSA program at A&M, or should I take the full admittance at Auburn? I want to be in a sorority so would going to A&M my sophomore year rather than freshman affect that? I am majoring in International Business with a minor in politics at Auburn, but at A&M I would be majoring in political science with a minor in business and just get a certificate in International Business. I plan on going to law school after I get my Bachelor's. I know A&M is ranked significantly higher than Auburn, and their business school is pretty great but Auburn is by no means bad. Also, A&M is almost $10,000 per year less than Auburn. Again, opinions on which is a better option? </p>
<p>"Also, A&M is almost $10,000 per year less than Auburn. "</p>
<p>What are your parents saying? Will they happily pay the $10k per year extra at Auburn (plus sorority costs)? If so, then go to Auburn. If you’re going to law school then undergrad doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>My parents have agreed to pay half. So it would save me $20,000 (even more with sorority costs) if I went to Texas A&M instead of Auburn. What are you basing your opinion of Auburn over A&M on? Just curious.</p>
<p>You seem to now want to start at a satellite school. </p>
<p>You’re OOS for both. How is TAMU cheaper as an OOS student??? That doesn’t seem likely.</p>
<p>TAMU OOS</p>
<p>Tuition and fees $25,126
Room and board $8,450<br>
Books and supplies $1,246<br>
Estimated personal expenses $2,349<br>
Transportation expenses $500 ( << This estimate is TOO LOW for an OOS student)
Estimated Total $37,671 </p>
<p>Auburn OOS</p>
<p>Tuition and fees $26,364
Room and board $11,555
Books and supplies $1,200<br>
Estimated personal expenses $2,678<br>
Transportation expenses $2,816 ( << This estimate is a bit HIGH)
Estimated Total $44,610 </p>
<p>there is not a $10k per year difference…especially when you correct their transportation estimates…which should be about $1800 per year for an OOS student…more or less.</p>
<p>With the financial aid at both schools there is. TAMU offers quite a bit more aid than Auburn on average. TAMU’s average aid is $16,245 while Auburn’s is only $9,889. Also, TAMU is known to be one of the best “value” schools for OOS. </p>
<p>Also, if the “satellite school” you are referring to is the sister school of tamu, I would only be attending there one year, and not by choice.</p>
<p>“With the financial aid at both schools there is. TAMU offers quite a bit more aid than Auburn on average. TAMU’s average aid is $16,245 while Auburn’s is only $9,889. Also, TAMU is known to be one of the best “value” schools for OOS.”</p>
<p>THOSE estimates are for mostly for IN-STATE students…because they qualify for Texas STATE aid. Those numbers likely do not apply to you. You probably won’t get any “free money” aid from either school since your stats aren’t merit-worthy.</p>
<p>You can’t go by “average aid” to determine what an OOS student would get at a public univ.</p>
<p>Did you use the NPCs on the websites? If not, do so. </p>
<p>This discussion may be moot if you can’t afford to go. :s
^^ “average aid” does NOT apply to OOS students. Have you received financial award letters? Had you run the Net Price calculators before you applied?
If your parents can pay $20,000,then you would need to come up with at least $15 to 16,000 to afford either one. That would probably entail the $5,500 in federal loans to which you’re entitled plus, if you’re lucky, $2,500 in work study (otherwise, you’d have to find a job off campus at a fast food place, a supermarket, or such), plus $600 from a summer job, so you’d need to have $7-8,000 in savings on top of that. Do you have them?
If not, what are your other choices?
TAMU is very well regarded for engineering but it’s not that much better than Auburn for your majors (in fact Auburn may have an edge, not sure), so you should go either where you like best (if you can afford it) or whichever one is cheapest. Starting at a satellite campus means you’d avoid the acaemic competition on the main campus, but it may be a disadvantage for Greek life, football games, etc.</p>