Now that all my sons college application decisions are in, we are strongly consider Utah…but simply don’t know anyone that attends or has recently graduated. Here are our dynamics and what we are trying to better understand. OOS (wa), accepted toEccles Business Scholars and freshman academic achievement OOS scholarship. Questions we have:
what is value/importance of Business Scholars?
Keep hearing it is easy to gain in-state status after 1 year. What are the details to qualify for this?
My son keeps hearing U is a) commuter school; b) not a vibrant social scene.
I’m sure all of this info is in this thread, but thought I would ask. Thanks
@bjm1122 I don’t know much about business scholars, but as far as questions 2 and 3 go, gaining instate status requires a full year of physical presence in the state, with no more than 29 days of total absences, other than for permitted purposes (such as university sponsored study abroad programs). Generally that means only going home for a couple of weeks at Christmas and then either taking summer classes or doing something else like working as an orientation leader (both of which allow you to get on campus housing for the summer). Note that summer classes are always charged at instate rates and you can take a relatively full class load in many subjects because the summer session is almost the same as a regular semester.
With regard to social life, yes there are a lot of instate students, and many of those come from the greater Salt Lake area and commute. And I wouldn’t describe it as a “party school” as some might characterize Boulder or Arizona (for example relatively few students are in Greek life). But there’s a rapidly growing number of OOS students and for an outdoorsy kid it is great, especially if you have access to a car (which a lot of people do), because there are so many places to go at weekends - amazing skiing in the winter, national parks in the summer and fall. Driving 4-5 hours in almost any direction gets you to some stunning places - Yellowstone and Grand Teton to the north, Dinosaur to the east, Moab to the southeast, Capitol Reef to the south and Bryce and Zion to the southwest. And some drive much further - my D has been skiing in Mammoth (8 hours) and Banff (15 hours) and even with the abbreviated season she had nearly 20 days of skiing this winter (the Ikon Pass is great).
That means campus can be quiet on Fridays and weekends (at least outside football season, which does attract a lot of people because there’s no NFL team in Utah). And it means that you tend to form a tight knit group of friends who all travel and camp/rent AirBnBs together (logically, the best way to be at the center of one of those groups is to have a car). So you need to think about whether that is a structure that appeals to you.
Hi all-
Just want to say a quick “goodbye” and thanks especially to @Twoin18 for all the great info. When we started this process I was sure Utah would be in the running at the end of our journey. It’s funny how things don’t always turn out the way we plan…daughter is down to a full ride at a small school in Boston, full pay at a top LAC or her top school going into this with or without the Regents’ scholarship ( we find out Thursday if she was awarded it!). Anyway, Utah is awesome and will be keeping it in mind for D23 who wants to study astrophysics and be in the marching band wherever she ends up! Best wishes to all of you!
Glad your daughter has some nice options for next year. I went to school near Boston and it is a very fun and lively area for young people.
This is a very tough process for 12th graders (and families) considering everyone is stuck at home. My son’s best option is still Utah (as his other choices presented very disappointing financial packages and that was BEFORE the markets all went down 30%!). Still very hard to make this big decision without even setting foot on the Utah campus!
@jd7777. It is amazing how the change in the economy has swiftly altered the college selection process. We had both planned for and encouraged an out of state college experience with our son to broaden his horizons in a different part of US. He was accepted to some great out of state programs that we were all excited for. In fact, had we not been waiting on one more application response, we likely would have sent a deposit to U of Wisconsin Business School. Then COVID…now all bets are off for OOS. I guess that a silver lining is that they are seniors, and not college freshmen. I think it must be more discouraging for freshman parents that are paying OOS tuition and R&B while their kids are sleeping at their house and taking on-line classes. Ugh!
So that leaves us with a choice between Utah Business Scholars and an attractive financial offering or U Washington (in state tuition) but not accepted to business school.
Like all businesses, universities will take a substantial financial hit here. I suspect they could see their OOS enrollment decrease by 50% or more abruptly…and without much contingency pre-planning. I suspect this could be a $20-40m or more annual tuition reduction depending on OOS enrollment qty and %. I wonder how universities plan to handle all this?
Is there any chance large public universities will try and entice OOS students with some sort of financial package? Maybe offer OOS tuition at 150% of in state tuition (reduction from 200%) for year 1… maybe with a four year ramp back to normal rate. Just a thought.
I would think it takes a very rare “customer” that would be willing to pay full OOS Tuition right now with the economic downturn, the uncertainty of COVID, and a looming presidential election. Definitely not this customer.
“Is there any chance large public universities will try and entice OOS students with some sort of financial package? Maybe offer OOS tuition at 150% of in state tuition (reduction from 200%) for year 1… maybe with a four year ramp back to normal rate. Just a thought.”
I don’t think they will have room for that in the near term, but I could imagine a couple more states might join programs like WUE over time (and possibly a few more schools might opt in too). As you say, more students will stay in-state rather than going to OOS or more expensive private schools, so actually I’d expect in-state yield and total enrollment at many state flagships to grow significantly this year.
I agree it will mean budget pressures for many colleges due to lower contributions from OOS fees. Fortunately Utah doesn’t rely on that as much as many other state flagships at the moment, though the U was hoping that there would be strong growth in OOS students over the next few years as they look to expand. I do hope that some of the rumors last year that they might change the residency policy so it takes two years to gain in-state status are going to be off the table for now (I don’t believe that is something to worry about for 2020-21 as they would have had to clarify the policy by now and alter the scholarships).
@Twoin18 and others “in the know”
My son has to select a room tomorrow AND select a meal plan. He has not prepared (shocker), doesn’t have a roommate and is lost about meal plans. I’m wondering if we could hear experiences about meal plans. My son will live in the new dorm (without cooking facilities) so will need a pretty robust plan for year 1 (that includes weekends and such). Any tips about any of this as the last minute would be great.
@JD7777 Honestly, most people think the food is very poor. Maybe that will change in the new dorm but I’m not particularly hopeful. My D has been to the dining hall precisely once in two years (fortunately she was in the MHC in the first year and could cook for herself). So I would take the Block 150 plan (since you aren’t eligible for Block 40) - you can at least then use it for transfers and have more flex dollars for things like sandwiches, bagels and coffee. Eating out in SLC is pretty cheap (at least compared to here in CA) and there are plenty of places that are actually less expensive than the average per meal plan cost.
Agreed that the food in the HC is not too great. We had the Block 150 plan for our daughter. She ate breakfast at the HC and sometimes dinner. She had a refrigerator in her room and shopped at Trader Joe’s and Smiths to supplement her meal plan. She couldn’t wait to get back to having her own kitchen by the end of the year!
I’m excited to say that my OOS son is excited to attend University of Utah, and continues to plan to do so, despite getting off a waitlist this week at another school that used to be his # 1 pick. Since he will be coming from California, I am a little concerned about the process of establishing residency and also health care.
Does anyone know of good resources for OOS students/parents to make sure we don’t miss anything?
@pickledginger congratulations to your son! We are from CA also. You should get a lot of information about residency and other important topics during orientation (I assume they’re doing virtual orientations). I’ll share a few links to get you started on your research:
It was cheaper for us to put our daughter onto the health insurance offered by the U compared to adding her as a dependent but it’s still pretty pricey. We’re going to look into other options for her this summer.
There’s a very helpful Facebook page for U parents called “University of Utah Parent Discussion Group”. If you’re on Facebook it’s worth a look - very helpful group and lots of relevant topics have been discussed. There’s a search option, too!
I want to bring this thread back to life as I know how much we benefitted from reading about the previous year when we were going through the process.
If you are a 2021 parent or student, please ask questions. We don’t know much as our son has only been at Utah for 3 months but there is a lot of expertise on here and I’m sure many would be happy to share.
Thanks for trying to get this sub active again. Our son is very interested in the U. We had a visit set for last spring break but it was canceled due to COVID. I know they are doing campus tours now but you can’t go into the dorms or see the inside of any of the buildings so it doesn’t seem worth a trip out there yet. My biggest fear is COVID rages through the spring and he will need to make a decision without ever visiting the campus. We live in Texas, he’s been able to visit Texas A&M and UT-Dallas but he’s really interested in the CS degree with an EAE minor, and neither of those schools offers anything like Utah.
I thought the best part of the tour was walking around the campus. It was a very long tour, nearly 3 hours in total. The buildings are impressive and new and the views over the city are great. The dorm tour was fairly quick and at least our tour showed a very basic room, not the Honors college dorms and other special rooms (eg Lassonde) which are much nicer.
Also seeing SLC itself is worthwhile if you’ve never been there before. But above all I think the wow factor is from the mountains all around., which are particularly impressive if you get a clear winter day.
HeadHunter, well, COVID put us in that exact spot- picking University of Utah without anyone in our family ever setting foot on the campus. We had plane tickets for last spring break- COVID wrecked that and then never made it back. It was tough on our nerves but you know what, he ended up at the right place. His freshman year is kind of a bust in some ways socially, and the online classes are a struggle, but he is meeting people, likes his teachers, enjoys the area and that plus the nice financial deal they offered him (ended up being less expensive than our state flagship) have really ended up being a great deal.
Hi JD7777,
Where is your son living? We hear good things about Lassonde & Sage Point but would love to learn more about Kahlert Village. Since it just opened this year, there is not much info out there. Our son has a 3.78 UW GPA and a 33 ACT. We are hoping for a decent merit package. We know he’s not going to get the top there but anything in the 10K-12K per year range would be awesome. From your perspective, how reasonable is that expectation?
HeadHunter,
Our son lives in Kahlert Village and it is very nice. It is flashy and new and kids enjoy it. The attached cafeteria looks fantastic but the students report the food is really lousy. It looks like a food court at an upscale mall- very eye catching.
I don’t know how the out of state scholarships work but the other poster TwoIn 18 knows this stuff and hopefully will respond.
I know for our son Utah ended up less expensive than our instate flagship. I might suggest 1 more crack at the ACT just to see if your son might bump up 2 points (or even 1). My son took the ACT twice and in his second shot went up 2 points and I believe that made a difference in his merit award.
Glad this thread s back too as my son applied to the U. I didn’t know about the limited WUE scholarships, though. I guess we will have to see what the cost is when the the time comes.
The U looks like a great school. The one thing I’m wondering about is its physics program. It doesn’t seem like the program is that strong. Does anyone know anything about it? If my son gets accepted and decides to go there, I might advise him to pick a different major. He’s also interested in math, which looks strong.
Regarding the scholarships, I thought I saw the they aren’t using test scores for scholarships this year. I thought I saw that it said gpa and course rigor.
The math department is strong but I don’t know anything about physics. I know a couple of former math professors at Utah who’ve gone on to prestigious positions. And as far as students are concerned the very best math students often end up in top graduate programs (they make a big push for the Churchill scholarship each year which pays for a masters at Cambridge, often that is Part III math, which is probably the most famous taught math PhD prep course in the world).
It is hard to know where the cutoffs will be drawn for merit aid, but in the past there has been a big difference between a 4.0UW and anything less. Typically OOS full tuition for 4 years needed 4.0 and a 33-34 ACT score. Slightly less and you would get one year full tuition (or lower still a fixed merit award) with the expectation that you would get residency for year 2 onwards. I think WUE had a cutoff at about the 75th percentile of admitted students.
How they will judge merit based on course rigor is unclear, presumably 4.0 plus a lot of APs, perhaps with high AP exam scores (though that is hard to know given you won’t have senior year AP scores and junior year AP scores may have been impacted by COVID). NMF status could potentially be considered as well since that was taken pre-COVID. I think there may be a lot of disappointed people with a single B on their transcript and the drop off in merit for that may be even more dramatic than in previous years. Not sure whether they are truly test blind, if you do have a great test score then it may still make a difference.
The auto merit doesn’t consider ECs or major, but the Eccles full ride scholarship does. That now seems even harder to win as an OOS student after they cut the number awarded each year from 30 to 25 last year (previously 30-40% went to OOS students).