She’s planning to go for the Destination USF day event in April. I’m not totally sure what happens (and unfortunately I’ll be out of town and unable to join her), but I think they get a chance to meet with profs, and I’ve heard there’s both food and swag lol
No swag yesterday!!!
SCU is also on 4/15. I think you mentioned your D applied. I didn’t want to miss out on SCU since D has a lot of questions. But she wants to go back to USF to ask about their math classes and to possibly sit in on a live class (probably not offered). There’s another half day in March, but I don’t think that will be much different. They had one on one financial counseling which was very helpful.
They went to UoP in Stockton admitted day last week. The school itself is great, but I didn’t go, and hubby is not really excited by the city. There really was no one around the outside of the school - the pictures they took looked like a safe place to be - but friends are telling us that it’s not safe.
I like USF because having been there many times in the evenings I don’t find it unsafe at all. The neighborhood is mainly family residences with some college students living close by. Lots of people use the gym right outside of the main campus. They mentioned that the new section of the library is open 24/7 for kids who want to pull an all nighter.
Yeah, both D and I love USF. The two things holding us back are cost and distance - the distance is doable for her, but Cal is just so much easier to get to from where we live. If cost and location were equal, I have a feeling she’d go for USF. But of course they’re not, which makes for a more difficult decision.
She did, but we really don’t have high hopes for getting enough financial aid to make it affordable, and that commute would be even harder than USF…So at this point I think she’s really down to Cal vs USF…With a few other possibilities that are either less desirable (such as CSU East Bay) or less viable (such as SCU).
And long distance every single day for 4 years can be difficult. I admire the kids who take the bus to the bart from sf and then walk to Cal. At my age just thinking about it makes me tired. I thought someone mentioned (could be here or one of my friends) that their kid would drive to Cal and pay for daily parking or pay the monthly parking fee. In SF downtown monthly parking is close to $400. Not sure about Berkeley.
Yeah, for us it’s that but the opposite direction - she would Bart to SF then bus to USF. But that’s gotta get old fast.
For Cal, she could bus OR Bart or on a nice day even walk.
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Attended USF admitted student day with my daughter on Friday. Campus is gorgeous and in a great part of the city. Some impressions-There were not enough student ambassadors and the tour groups were way too big (maybe 40-50 people) and really didn’t cover the campus and all its features. No visit to the recreation center. No visit to the breathtaking cathedral. We hit those spots on our own but much of the day felt like a missed opportunity. Did not feel any personal touch which I would have expected from a large public but somehow surprised me from a small private. Nobody seemed to know much about the particular program my daughter was interested in (she asked 2 different ambassadors and wasn’t referred to anyone else). The guy who runs the Career Center was really impressive and that definitely felt like a value-added feature (appropriate when one considers the astronomical tuition).
So my daughter did not cross it off her list but did not want to buy the gear either. Onward.
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Huh, that surprises me - but definitely good to hear that feedback! Thank you for sharing your experience!
I didn’t attend but hubby did only for the financial aid part. He left quite early maybe by 10 am. I was surprised that they didn’t tour Lone Mountain and the church, both of which are quite impressive, but D did a self tour as they were encouraged to do. The half day tours must be the shortened version, but I would have really liked her to have toured the new science/cs building. She loved the mock statistics class and thought the professor made the topic fun and engaging and is really considering data science major now. After she toured UoP last week, she didn’t come back as excited but the people there were welcoming and the engineering dept looked like they were very involved. Maybe it’s the town (again I didn’t go).
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I was thinking maybe D needs I go on 3/24 one more time. We didn’t get to talk with the people in the data science dept. But if the tour ends up being the same, then I rather she not take off school. I want to leave 4/15 open for now. I read that SCU has overfilled classes and it’s enrollment by seniority which makes sense. I think USF tour guide mentioned seniority as well according to D. But I’m wondering if students at USF have any hard time getting classes.
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That’s a very good question. I was assuming that they don’t, but I realize there is no real basis for that assumption.
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D used to go swimming at Koret every day for many years so I had the chance to talk to a lot of the kids, some of whom are now in their late 20s and all over the world (thanks Facebook!) When you work at Koret you make and maintain close friendships, what I noticed. And, overall kids were relaxed and no one mentioned not being able to enroll in classes. And not all stayed in the dorms even as freshman so I know that it’s possible to have relationships even if we live off campus but D would need to be involved in clubs or get a job on campus rather than just attend classes and come home.
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They claim that 93% graduate in 4 years, which would seem to indicate that students are getting the classes they need
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Everyone we’ve encountered associated with the university seems very friendly - it doesn’t seem like it would be a hard place to make friends and I love the diversity.
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SCU has a similar percentage. The post was from Reddit asking if one could graduate in 3 years. The general consensus was no due to professor shortage, overfilled classes, and difficulty of engineering courses. So even with enough AP credits it sounds like at SCU it might be tough. D won’t have enough credits and will probably want to minor in neuro. The tuition for us is high enough that I would hope that she won’t face barriers in switching majors or getting classes.
They did take large groups up to Lone Mountain after lunch. That’s where they have a sample dorm room set up for students to see. Mostly it’s just that there was nobody coming up to my student, asking her about her interests, nobody pointing out activities/clubs or buildings that might be helpful. Nobody connected personally with her. We were so impressed with the personalized acceptance letter that actually communicated that someone had read her essays, it was surprising that the admitted student visit didn’t have any personal feel.
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I just asked D what happened during the tour. She went to the library by herself but they didn’t know about the tour! Librarian called the dean to verify, and afterwards they let her in. She loved the library especially the new section where it’s opened 24/7. So there was some disorganization maybe not enough communication within the school community. But D says everyone was friendly just not aware there was a tour. I guess D must have missed the group tour to Lone Mountain. Was your D in a different mock class? I think they were later divided into 2 groups?
Same mock statistics class. Parents were separated and with the Career Center presentation. I wished my daughter was with me for that because, in my opinion, it was a big selling point. After that was a lunch break and then there were 3 different groups that made their way to Lone Mtn.
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Is anyone crazy enough to be considering paying full freight for USF? Would appreciate your thoughts…
They’re pretty generous with merit.
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