<p>Visited Northeastern yesterday and Quinnipiac today. Two very different schools - NU in the heart of Boston, and QU basically in the woods. D liked them both. So now I'm confused - which direction do we head, urban or rural? But open-minded is good for now, since she's only a junior and these were the first 2 schools we looked at.</p>
<p>Lafalum84 - Please post reports in the visits section. Those schools probably should be on Son's list, but aren't. Yet.</p>
<p>We visited both Q and NEU with S #1. H and I liked both of them, but son felt that Q would be better for him, and I had to agree with him about that. S did apply to both and was accepted to both schools. We still did not find that either was affordable for us. S got a sizable merit award from NEU, but nothing in FA, and he did not get any merit money from Q (his gpa just missed their chart, though his standardized test scores far exceeded what was needed for some merit money. This is bc S was a late bloomer and did not have great grades from freshman year of hs). We did apply for FA, but Q was meeting, I believe, 65% of need at the time. My son's worst FA package came from Quinnipiac. We did contact admissions and their FA department to see if anything could be done to make this school doable, but they did not increase the package at all. My son has a friend who goes there and he had much lower stats in hs (even a few Ds in hs and finished with algebra II with a remedial math as a senior), but he is a full paying student. He is very happy there.</p>
<p>Cleared my PM, Northeastmom. It fills quickly. Had trouble with this site last night. Very slow and uncooperative.</p>
<p>We are focusing on the Catholic schools for our next son as he has been going to catholic schools and likes the environment very much. Also his high school will be valuable in assisting with such applications.</p>
<p>Thanks, Keilexandra. Mount Allison was the one I had in mind. What is a GE?</p>
<p>I've also read about a newish Canadian LAC called Quest in BC that is similar to Colorado College.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse</p>
<p>My B student son has been accepted at Marquette, St. Louis University, Xavier and John Carroll universities, all with merit aid packages (also several state universities in PA and OH). Our experience so far has been very positive and he is going to have a hard time deciding between all these excellent choices. I support your decision to focus on Catholic schools.</p>
<p>HeartArt, what are the pros and cons of St. Louis U? We aren't Catholic, but I'm still interested.</p>
<p>"Lafalum84 - Please post reports in the visits section"</p>
<p>Can someone direct me to the visits section..I can't find it. I would like to know more about Northeastern.</p>
<p>OK, I finally got the visit reports up for Northeastern & Quinnipiac. I did Northeastern's right away, but every time I tried to post Quinnipiac's, CC had logged me out! I had to save it and cut and paste it to finally get it in. Probably took me too long to type "Quinnipiac" ha ha. </p>
<p>I liked NEU a lot more than I expected, since I'm not an urban-campus kind of person. The co-op program is very appealing, especially in an economy like this. Allows kids to gain real-world experience, learn how to interview, and learn whether they really like the field they are studying or not - and finding out you don't really like this line of work BEFORE you commit 4 years of tuition can be a valuable thing! </p>
<p>Quinnipiac was.... I dunno. The place confused me. I had expected to like it. I didn't realize the school is so new, ALL the buildings appear to be less than 20 years old. And I just didn't think they had enough academic space for the number of kids they had. But the facilities they do have are state-of-the-art, and very clean. The campus was pretty but a bit remote - it's surrounded by woods, although it's only a couple miles from Hamden and beyond that, New Haven. </p>
<p>Anyway, my D and her BF toured both schools and liked them both, even though the two schools couldn't be more different. So that confused me even more!</p>
<p>geeps, look on the upper left of this page. Under "Discussion Home," click on "New! College Visits."</p>
<p>Lafalum84, one thing to keep in mind is that many schools offer co-op not just Northeastern. Northeastern just forces/encourages you to do co-op instead of letting you seek out the program on your own.</p>
<p>pierre: other co-op schools that encourage/help you? thanks......</p>
<p>rodney, Drexel would definitely be on that list.</p>
<p>Northeastern doesn't actually "force" you to do co-op. It is their signature program and 91% of last year's graduates did one. What they do require as part of the core curriculum is "experiential learning." This can be fulfilled by doing research, going abroad, or doing co-op. They maintain a data base of available coop positions in cities all over the US and abroad, so you can coop near campus or in your hometown or somewhere else. They have you go online and sort thru the available coops by type of job, or location, or whatever your criteria is. Then they help you prepare a resume, and submit it to about 10 potential coop positions. If the company wants you, they call and set up an interview. Then the company and you can decide if it's a good match.</p>
<p>I know that many other colleges these days are encouraging kids to do internships. Some are paid, some unpaid, some for credit, some not. But NEU has been doing this longer than anyone else (and most of their coops are paid) so they really know how to make it work.</p>
<p>I got the feeling that NEU students were a little more focused and serious than the average college student - reading thru some of the other visit reports I see that someone else noted that having one foot in college and one in the "real" world might affect student's attitudes. On the downside, it would seem to be harder to keep a group of friends together for 4 years, because everyone's schedule would be different as to who was on campus and who was away on coop. It's definitely a "different" college experience.</p>
<p>Missypie: Of the four Catholic schools (all Jesuit btw) I listed, St. Louis is the only one we have not visited yet. We go at the end of March. My S is interested in the sciences/premed and SLU does have a med school and nursing school. He applied on the recommendation of his GC and and school nurse who had kids that attended. We went to Marquette a few weeks ago and he loved the school, I hear that SLU has many similarities. I will get back to you!</p>
<p>Rodney - Check out Endicott -20 min. north of Boston. Students must find their own Freshman year internship but school offers lots of assistance after that. Great for B+ students, D got an $8k/y unsolicited merit scholarship!</p>
<p>I have two daughters, one graduated from SLU and the other is a freshman there.They both have had a great experience. The Department of Public Safety is very visible and they have always felt safe on campus. Professors have been great, lots of opportunities to get involved on campus, very friendly students. The only con that I've heard is they get tired of the food in the main dining hall, but there are a lot of dining options on campus with the meal plan.</p>
<p>rodney, Drexel, RIT, Georgia Tech would be other such schools</p>
<p>Rodney, my wife taught a class recently at Endicott and was impressed by how engaged and active the students were.</p>
<p>HeartArt: Interested to hear your comparison of SLU and Marquette when you visit. S1 visited and was accepted to SLU a couple of years ago, but chose elsewhere. S2 has Marquette on his list and I think a Jesuit university would be ideal for him. Not sure about St. Louis for S2, but I loved the SLU campus and philosophy (and merit aid).</p>