<p>Daughter is planning on applying to the following schools. Major in psychology or criminology or forensic psychology depending on what the school has available.</p>
<ul>
<li>Stonehill College</li>
<li>Roger Williams University</li>
<li>Assumption College</li>
<li>Quinnipiac University</li>
<li>University of New Haven</li>
<li>University of Rhode Island</li>
<li>UMASS Amherst</li>
</ul>
<p>GPA is around 3.55 weighted and SATs about 600 in each area.</p>
<p>Any thoughts on the list and on any alternatives in the New England area?</p>
<p>can your family afford each of these schools? have you run the net price calculators? Affordability is the number one criterion of college application.</p>
<p>Good question on the costs. Will plan on having around $110K available for the 4 years.</p>
<p>MA residents so we can handle UMASS Amherst costs no problem. URI would be close without a merit scholarship but likely doable. The private schools would only be affordable if some kind of merit scholarship was available.</p>
<p>EFC is on the high side so I’m not sure about need based aid, and the career area will likely require a graduate level degree so loans are very undesirable.</p>
<p>You might look at Marist and/or Siena as well. Both have somewhat lower than average tuition and offer merit aid. Perhaps Fairfield as a bit of a reach?</p>
<p>OP, that’s what the net price calculators are for, to give you a sense of what a particular school will cost your family after all the need-based aid, student loans, and work study. You find the schools npc on the financial aid webpage of the school. Bully on your family for saving that kind of money. </p>
<p>Added Providence College to the list. Going by Net Price Calculators the list, from least to most expensive, is</p>
<ul>
<li>UMASS Amherst</li>
<li>University of New Haven</li>
<li>Assumption College</li>
<li>Roger Williams University</li>
<li>University of Rhode Island</li>
<li>Quinnipiac University</li>
<li>Stonehill College</li>
<li>Providence College</li>
</ul>
<p>Between sticker price and expected aid, the last two on the list are by far the most expensive. Quinnipiac would also be on the expensive side although we just went to an open house and it was very positive. Will be attending a UMASS Amherst Open House soon.</p>
<p>Certainly UMASS Amherst would be the best value but it’s a big school, and our older son had problems there (got lost in the crowd) and ended up transferring to UMASS Lowell to a smaller program and the ability to commute from home.</p>
<p>Any other nuggets in the New England area we can consider?</p>
Daughter applied early action and was accepted to all of the schools. Only one that is questionable financially is Providence College, no merit aid offer and her EFC is high so the need-based grant is only about $7K. Will have a lot of accepted students’ day visits over the next few months…
THanks for the update, and congratulations to your daughter!
If you have time, write your impressions of the colleges and/or your daughter’s reaction to them on this thread I’m sure it’d be interesting to future applicants.
We’ve made it to Stonehill, Quinnipiac, and Assumption so far. All seemed fine but the only one that’s on our daughter’s short list so far is Stonehill. Our daughter is looking forward to the URI visit, main concern we have with URI is whether the academics will be good enough compared to the other schools and whether a bigger school would be OK. Concerns about the other schools are more about lack of diversity in the student body then academics…as parents, we liked the small size.
@hammer1234 I have no idea why URI would not be good enough. We know plenty of highly successful URI graduates. Besides the fact that URI attracts higher quality students than Quinnipiac, UNH and RW. The average SAT for URI students is 1667. The average SAT for Quinnipiac is 1640, RW is 1596 and UNH is 1550. UNH does have a great criminology program but New Haven is so dodgy. I wouldn’t let my daughter go there.
@hammer1234 Congratulations on her acceptances and it is great that you will re-visit a school or two. There is a definite difference in the experience your D will have at state school like URI and a small school like Stonehill Assuming they are both affordable, I’d go with your D’s preference. My D is at LAC and is absolutely loving her experience (small classes, chance to do research, close knit student body, ease of getting involved in activities and taking leadership positions on campus) while my older S felt that a LAC was too small for his tastes and he loved his mid-sized university. To each their own!
Guess I needed to recheck the overall stats…don’t know why but for some reason I kept thinking the academic reputation of URI wasn’t quite the same as Stonehill. Thanks for setting me straight.
I’m not as concerned about the name recognition when she goes for a graduate degree, I just want to make sure she doesn’t end up going to a school that ends up being “too easy”. Know someone who’s daughter had to transfer for that reason and while that’s doable it isn’t easy (or cheap).
Hear you on Univ. of New Haven, our daughter really liked the programs there but we’ve talked and she just doesn’t see herself there. I thought the campus itself was fine but the surrounding area did seem a bit sketchy.
We moved up the date for her URI accepted student’s day visit to this Saturday. Looking forward to checking it out again so she can rule it in or out. Also have a visit planned for Sunday to Roger Williams Univ. but we may or may not go…
@hammer1234 It’s hard for me to get a read on URI’s overall reputation because we are too close. UMass is probably the top school that you listed but you are concerned about fit. I don’t know about Stonehill. RWU is kind of known as rich white underachievers. Looking at the stats it might be true. Visit and decide that way. Our friend’s son is going to UNH for criminology and we joked about the many internship opportunities right there in NH and how you can study crime from the comfort of your classroom.
The nice thing about URI is that it is safe. It’s a pretty campus, similar to UMass as far as being a bit rural. It’s close to the beaches (there is a bike path) and Providence and Newport are fun. My son has a 1970 SAT and 3.84 UW. He will probably go there for CE with a minor in Forensics and Cybersecurity (accepted to WPI but it’s too pricey for us) Being too easy is the last thing I’m worried about. I graduated there in ME and went on to RPI for grad. I’m certainly not an expert on the criminology program though.
