I was accepted into VCU’s engineering school for Computer Science (CS) and VT’s college of science for Computational Modeling and Data Analytics (CMDA). I’ve also received a $5,000 merit scholarship from VCU that refreshes every year, as long as I maintain a good GPA. I’m having trouble deciding between these two universities, so I’d like some more input on these two universities.
Have you visited both? Where do you feel more comfortable?
Are either of them affordable? Did you get any aid other than that merit scholarship? Run your numbers here: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/awardletter.phtml
Both schools have contacted me and said that it would be estimated that I would get $5,500 in financial aid
I’ve visited VCU and the campus didn’t seem bad to me. I don’t really like city driving though (which won’t be a problem for at least my first year). I’m going to visit VT later this month to check it out, unfortunately I wasn’t able to sign up for a tour of my major though.
Is that $5,500 in aid the standard federal student loan? Or is it aid that you won’t need to pay back some day?
What can your parents pay? Are they happy with the final estimated Cost of Attendance at each place?
My agreement with my parents is that if I’m get an A in the class then they will pay for the class, otherwise I will have to pay it back. As for the $5,500, I believe that is what it is, but I’m not in a place where I can double check.
The $5500 is almost certainly the federal loan amount, as it is difficult to believe that this student’s merit award or grant just happened to be the same as the limit for first-year student loan amounts.
That said, VT probably has the stronger overall name recognition, offers big-time sports, and should be strong in your areas of study (because of the, um, “T” in VT). That said, if you plan to stay in VA or the region, VCU should be perfectly fine. But as a straight-up choice, without cost being a factor: VT.