my D is trying to decide on the school right now and isn’t sure what to do. Does anyone have thoughts on this. She will be a double major Music (voice) and Psychology.
Anyone got pro’s and con’s list??
@Momabear3 If I had to pick I’d choose UCONN. The honors program is nice because you get to live in honors housing and have other perks like early registration and housing selection. Plus the honors classes or smaller and you are with a nice group of kids who mostly have the same priorities as you do.
I have friends who went to Bing and UCONN honors. They were all Engineering or Business majors not Psych or Music but I will say that now that we have graduated the ones at UCONN found employment post graduation much quicker than the ones at Bing. For STEM or Business I’d pick UCONN.
If your daughter is planning to do Psych then she will most likely need to attend grad school. If that is the case then she should attend the undergrad school that she likes the best and is the most affordable and pick the best grad school that she can get into after graduation.
You would get more responses if you give more details, your own pros and cons (to have others add or correct your thinking). Personally am only familiar with Bing and honors at another large school. My son turned down Bing for honors at another large school. The honors program was not that good at his school in reality (was good in paper).
Honors advisor was not helpful. Registration difficult in his major. Gave them macbooks but then some profs required Windows for homework assignments. Sometimes being treated differently in a very large organization, while needed, is not easily accomplished. Bureaucracy can get in the way. Not saying that will happen at UConn,
but it happened at another large public school where my son attended and transferred out.
Bing is good for liberal arts, good food and dorms. Wife and brother attended years ago.
One loved it and other hated it. Visited with my two kids, neither was interested. Had worst tour, from a student who clearly was NOT happy there.
@islandgal Thank you so much for your input. She got 18,000 from UCONN in a leadership scholarship. I’m guessing partially due to her solo and choral benefit concerts? Who knows?, solid grades, 4AP’s, honors classes, 29 ACT, tons of EC (mostly music), great essay (was told), very highly ranked HS and an audition that was “Impressive”. Still, concerned about the level of difficulty in the programs and would like the smaller more supportive environment. I’m thinking the Honors community might provide that.
She is seriously torn. As an IS for Bing and the scholarship for UCONN, the difference is about 6 thousand a year. I really don’t want her to choose based on that. People seem very impressed by Bing around here even though UCONN is ranked higher. So it was good to know that the UCONN degree is regarded well.
We r going to visit both again. It’s just a feel at that point. All the inside info that was and can be provided is soo appreciated!
@blevine I PM’d you with a question.
@blevine She is worried that she heard a few peripheral people have transferred out of UCONN and one attending complained of feeling lost even though they r in the honors program. Additionally, people seem to reference the rural community around UCONN as a deficit. Someone also said they were having trouble in classes and couldn’t get help. This person down rite detested the school and transferred.
My D saw it a few months back and it was hands down her favorite campus. She loved the school spirit and hustle of activity. Also so many new and shinny buildings. So… Physically it was awesome to her. I’m more concerned about for both will the faculty be helpful, will the workload be manageable, will there be a sense of community, can she stay in on the weekend and not b tortured to go out if she wants ( she will want to do that often enough).
I guess typical concerns of will she be successful academically and fit in. Also, the reputation of the school… is it all BS or is it true. UCONN is ranked 20th in the nation and Bing 36 for Top public universities. Nationally, UCONN is 60 overall and BING 86. Does that matter?
Rankings with those differences don’t matter.
Do you live in either state ?
A student who lives instate and is considering staying instate upon graduation,
may do well to go to school instate. Their social, academic and career network are more
relevant instate, more important than rankings.
Yes we live IS for Bing but UCONN Is closer by over an hour oddly enough
Distance to campus does not impact the network as much, especially socially.
Lots of kids from NYC area go to Bing and return home upon graduation, so there is a huge
alumni network in NYC metro area. Anywhere else outside NYS the degree/school name means little.
UConn is more widely known, but because of sports. Still any PR is good PR !