<p>I am from NY and will be taking my sophomore son to start seeing some of the SUNY schools over the summer. I have no idea where to even begin if I look at options outside the state. He is not sure what he wants to be like many high-school (and college) students. What he's saying lately is that he wants to take an animation course to see if he can become an animator. I don't know how to even help him pursue this. He is also interested in teaching. My gut tells me he would be great in environmental studies - something science related, because he thinks outside the box and I can see him coming up with good ideas or even an invention. He's also a member of the green club and is pretty environmentally conscious.</p>
<p>He goes to a highly-ranked high school and is about a 90-92 average student. His PSAT score was not very amazing - I think it was around 143. But I will be getting a tutor to help for SAT prep this year. I can't see paying $50K a year for college and leaving him with huge loans, especially in the fields he is interested in as it would take a lifetime to pay it all back. So I am beginning to look at SUNY schools.</p>
<p>I would like him to stay semi-close (Northeast would be great) - driving distance hopefully.
I love Massachusetts, and notice that there are all these UMass locations that seem reasonably priced for out-of-state students. Do any of you know anything about these schools or have other options that you can enlighten me on.</p>
<p>Thanks so much. I think this site is so informative and wonderful. Such smart kids here!</p>
<p>My D1 is a jr. in CA and we’re strongly looking at UMass Amherst for her. She would love to go back east for college but the privates are out of our price range. I have a soft spot for UMass because I grew up in MA and was admitted there myself too many decades ago, though I went elsewhere. It looks like they are pretty generous with merit scholarships for OOS students with good stats, up to $12k/year, which brings down COA almost to in-state rate. Suggest you check out the UMass forum on CC and go back to the 2017 admissions thread for examples. UMass also has a Honors College with brand new facilities opening Fall 2013, and Amherst is a great college town.</p>
<p>Take a look at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in the western part of the State. They advertise incentives to attract non-Massachusetts residents.</p>
<p>UMass has had regular and relatively steep price hikes for several years since the start of the recession as MA has had considerably budget problems over the years. A scholarship for a fixed amount will seem smaller over four years. I have a coworker that ran into this as an OOS student with a moderately good merit scholarship.</p>
<p>UMass Amherst is the clear flagship, and Amherst and the surrounding areas are really great.</p>
<p>If you qualify for financial aid it may be worth it to apply, as many of the privates around here offer pretty good FA. You might at least get the price down to the UMass OOS level.</p>
<p>I’m not sure there is anything compelling enough at the other UMass campuses to make it worth paying OOS costs compared to SUNY in-state.</p>
<p>Many of the SUNY schools are also into hockey ie Buffalo, Geneseo, Oswego. Most of the SUNYs are very nice- I was pleasantly surprised when we looked at them for my older daughter.</p>
<p>Tuition may be relatively cheap because of legislative caps, but room, board and fees are unregulated and may be shockingly high at some state schools. Be sure you look at total COA, not just tuition.</p>
<p>I don’t really see the value of foregoing in-state SUNY rates for the sake of going to any NE OOS public around New York State, including Penn State, Rutgers, and UConn.</p>
<p>Have you looked into NE privates that offer merit aid? They might be cheaper than OOS publics.</p>
<p>The SUNY schools are really a great deal for NYS residents. My daughter just finished her first year at SUNY and it was less than $19,000 for tuition, room and board. My younger one will also be at SUNY unless she gets merit aid elsewhere and decides to take the offer. For some reason the people in my area frown upon SUNY and send their kids to OOS that are not any better academically, just more expensive. Many people tell me that their son/daughter will not go to SUNY because he/she wants to meet people from out of the area. Then the kid goes to UConn or UDel where half of the high school goes. Makes no sense to me.</p>
<p>Find a summer program for your soph son where he can try out animation type course.Preferably on a college campus somewhere where he can get a taste of dorm life as well. My now graduate school son did this as a soph in H.S., we are from NY and he attended the program run by Penn State.It housed in a dorm, was fairly well supervised, he had a choice of classes where he mingled with regular college undergrads.He got a taste of life in a college town as well.Junior year in HS he attended a different program in Miami which was directly related to the area he was interested in.When it came time to apply for college he was well suited to doing OOS apps w/o fear of being away from home.He did undergrad in South Carolina and now is in grad school at UMass, Amherst.Great college town but I believe the undergrad experience there is not for the faint of heart…by all means visit first</p>
<p>UConn and UDel are wonderful schools. I just find it funny that people tell me that their kid won’t go to SUNY because he/she wants more diversity and wants to meet people from other areas, but then the kid goes to UConn or UDel. Many many kids from NY attend these schools. In any event, you won’t go wrong with any of these choices.</p>
<p>Thank you for all your comments! This site is the best. I asked my son to start checking it out. There is so much information. I am overwhelmed.</p>
<p>Thank you for fortifying the value of a SUNY school for a NY resident like me. I just don’t want to pigeon-hole him to NY if he tells me he wants to go somewhere else. Mind you, he hasn’t asked to go to any specific school yet. But, I am definitely not in a position to pay double the SUNY school cost.</p>
<p>I will be surfing this site for the next year and I appreciate all your help.</p>
<p>There are 62 SUNY campuses with undergraduate programs. Granted many are community colleges, but with SUNY Tech (Utica), Forestry, Stony Brook, Geneseo, New Palz, Albany, Buffalo, etc., there is a good place for your kid.</p>
<p>I think you’ll have a much better handle on what your son’s options might be once he’s taken his SATs. He should consider taking the ACTs as well. He also might want to take a look at some of the “SAT optional” schools. I agree that except for the exceptional student or for families where money is no object out-of-state publics make little sense when you’ve got the SUNY option. My biggest problem with the SUNYs is that, while they haven’t been starved of funds as badly as some state schools have, they receive inadequate support from Albany. This has led to difficulties at getting required classes at many campuses, overcrowding in dorms, faculty discontent and relatively low graduation rates. The kids I know who have navigated SUNYs in 4 years or less have been those who entered college with a semester or two of college credits earned from AP and dual enrollment courses and a clear idea of their course of study. The others have generally taken 5-6 years to graduate.</p>
<p>If your son’s test scores can be brought up 300-350 points you may discover he has a fairly good range of private school options – both in and outside NYS – that are within a few thousand dollars of the cost of a SUNY if not equal. He might also discover by the time comes to file college applications, regardless of his test scores, that he would actually prefer to attend one of his home state colleges. Good luck with the journey.</p>