The academic quality at both schools will be very similar. Honors at UCONN might bump up the rigor a little, but it will certainly make the school feel more personal—and lead to more access to research.
In general, UCONN does not feel like a “state school” as much as many other state flagships do. It has strong academics, a smaller enrollment than other state flagships (19K), smaller class sizes, a wealthier alumni network, and a “preppier” feel—the last two are due to UCONN being the University OF Connecticut, a state that is known to have a lot of resources and wealth.
That’s just my two cents.
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BTW, part of the reason why GWU might not consider UCONN as a peer school is because UCONN is a public school, and because of that, they naturally have lower tuition (even OOS). You might be able to bring up Carleton, since Carleton is tougher to get into than GWU, but no guarantees that they’ll bite.
Yes. YOU, as the parent and the person who is paying and the person who has probably 30 years of experience as a legal adult who makes money decisions and can make a legal contract (as opposed to your child, who might not even be 18 years old yet), should CALL the admissions office, ask for a call back from the person who can help you with appealing a merit offer, and then explain to them very nicely that while your child is thrilled with the idea of attending GW, the price difference is too much for your means, and would it be possible for them to up their offer, to match the cost of attendance at UConn? You never know what you can get by asking nicely. This is not an admissions decision; your child is already accepted. You run the money, unless you sincerely believe that your child has better maturity and negotiating skills than you do.
BTW, if your child’s goal is political science, UConn is not that far from Hartford, the state capitol of CT, so if what they’re interested in is politics, governance, etc, they could still get experience with an internship or a job in politics/governance in Hartford (to which there’s public transportation from Storrs), and that skill would be transferable to the national arena. They could also get a job in DC right after college, and go to law school in DC, and intern in DC while attending law school.
While I agree OP should call and ask for more merit aid, most private schools are not motivated to match pricing of public schools. And that’s saying it nicely…private schools generally couldn’t care less what a student’s FA offer from a public school is, regardless if it’s in or out of state.
I encourage OP to not mention UConn when speaking with GWU, and just ask for more merit aid by saying if you can get to X price my child will commit. GWU is not known for negotiating much either, so go in with low expectations.
This was absolutely NOT the case for a student I knew a few years ago. The private institution had offered merit (but so had UConn), and when the parent called to report to the private institution that the student’s cost of attendance at UConn would be lower than the private institution might have thought, based upon rack rate at UConn, the private institution dropped their price by the merit award at UConn.
Certainly, in any negotiation, if one NICELY lets the other party know that you have a specific, better offer, and you would like them to match that offer, you’ve got a better chance than just saying, “Drop your price.”
You weren’t directly involved in that discussion, so we can’t know whether UConn’s offer had anything to do with that student getting more merit from the private school, maybe they would have given more merit anyway because the private school really wanted that student. And that’s often what underlies successful appeals for more merit/discount…the school really wants the student to commit.
Of course being respectful in these discussions is necessary, nor would I communicate/make the AO feel that they are in a ‘negotiation’.
You too have reversed the institutions in your response. We’re talking about using UConn’s offer as a negotiating tool to get GW to lower their price, not the other way around!
No, I wasn’t the one on the phone. But I was the one who urged the parent to call back the private institution (RPI) and ask the private institution to improve their offer, since UConn had awarded that student merit money (and honors status) as part of their acceptance. The parent did call RPI, tell them that UConn had awarded the student merit money and ask that RPI drop their price. And RPI did drop their price.
I didn’t reverse the institutions, and nothing I wrote suggests I did.
I don’t think GWU is going to be motivated by UConn’s net COA, because it is generally true (nothing we talk about on CC is black and white) that private colleges aren’t motivated to match public college prices.
I encourage OP to contact GWU admissions and present their case, it’s up to them whether they want to use UConn’s net COA as a basis for ‘negotiating’, but they 100% should have a target price in mind, one that would result in OP’s student committing to GWU.
GWU will provide the best connections in Poli Sci/IR. It’s like Georgetown Light.
UConn is a decent school all-around and you would be in their honors college, and if you change your mind on course of study – which happens – you’ll have a bunch from which to choose. They also have D1 sports and their basketball teams are usually pretty good, so if you decided to get into sports there is that.
If money is not at all an object, I would go with Carleton probably. Day trips to the Twin Cities are available, and there’s plenty to do there.
But if money is important, UConn is probably the best value.
If Carleton is charging you full price, other institutions likely view your family as not in need of financial aid/deserving of a negotiated lower price. No harm in trying, though.
More important, as a parent you should sit back and think carefully as to why this child of yours will attend college. If it’s to obtain an education, Carleton is likely the strongest option. If your goal as a parent is to succeed in paying the lowest cost of attendance, then you already know that UConn is the choice. Utimately, though, what is your student seeking?
@prezbucky I realize that Carleton is an academic powerhouse, but considering our other two options and the fact that our D would be heading to Law school fairly soon after graduation, full-pay at Carl makes it untenable for us.
At this point, we’re waiting for her to visit GW and get a sense of yea or nay personally. I do plan to contact the AO and talk about the possibility of an increase in Merit (as advised by some in the thread). Keeping my expectations in check and yes, we did not qualify for any need-based assistance…
If you’re going to law school soon after graduation, the way the environment is today - you likely won’t be going to a top school - many today are seeing candidates with work experience.
We most certainly don’t qualify for need-based aid - knew that even before applying. But Carleton seems to far removed from the main metros along the East Coast for me to really consider it. The other two options are more attractive to us.
I’m hoping the responses to my original post would shed some light on the relative merits/strengths of the schools and the programs our D is keen on pursuing instead of wondering about what my goal as a parent is, or what our child is looking for in College. Thank you!
I have a UCONN grad and grad student. She was not an Honors kid. I loved UCONN for my daughter but it’s really hard to compare to a school like Carleton. I am taking GW out of the equation because I don’t know much about it. Although I do not believe that it’s location means much.
That said, and acknowledging my daughter’s wonderful experience and fantastic outcome, I would full sprint towards Carleton. I believe an LAC will better lend itself to the skills your daughter will need to achieve, and get into law school. She will have smaller classes which allow for more discussion, much of her curriculum will be writing based. So many kids just do not have writing skills, and it’s so important. Lawyers are thinkers and communicators, consideration should be given to the place where those skills are honed.
One of my kids considered law school for five minutes, and when I asked about admissions it came down to GPA and LSAT scores, not internships.
If your daughter changes her mind about law school she will walk away with a meaningful degree from a well respected school.