My daughter has been accepted to several schools so far but without the merit that we had hoped would be forthcoming. Our EFC is $55k per FAFSA so we are looking for scholarships and/or less expensive options as ideal budget is $27k per year and stretch (she would need to work) of $37k per year.
She wants to major in marketing/business.
Here are the choices with her COA in brackets: University of Denver ($65k, have not seen financial aid but likely minimal), Vermont (deferred so likely pulling app), Drexel ($55k, includes $13k scholarship), San Diego St (just under $40k per year), Western Washington ($23k per year plus possible merit which we do not know yet maybe another $2k per year).
Other schools she has not heard back from:
Manhattan College ($55k per year full freight, hoping for some aid as she should be a strong applicant), Ohio Wesleyan ($55k per year but she should receive an automatic $30k per year scholarship but she does not like this choice), Cal Poly (first choice probably at near $40k per year), Occidental ($70k per year and not confident she will be admitted), and University of San Diego ($65k per year, not confident she will be admitted and very unlikely aid).
Opinions? Any other schools one would suggest as last minute apps that would be affordable? She ideally wants a school near a major city, strong business program, not in Midwest and COA of under $35k per (of course ok if she has merit shot). Her GPA is roughly 3.7 weighted with 1160 on SAT.
She does not want to apply to any other schools in WA state nor any schools that are part of WUE (prefers Western Washington over those options). Thanks for your help in advance!!
I don’t think fit should be discounted entirely, so I would take what follows with that grain of salt.
Academically/professionally speaking, I don’t think any school listed here is worth the extra cost when compared to Western Washington. Given her stats the merit options will also be of a similar quality to Western Washington as well. If she’s happy attending there I would go straight for it and don’t look back. I can’t think of any schools really missing here based on the preferences personally.
The only one I’d entertain is maybe Cal Poly at 40K, but I think that money difference can mean less stress of working while in school and more time to focus elsewhere which has value in itself IMO.
I agree. Western WA is a neat little school and the right price. Cal Poly will likely net out to more than $40k. It will also be an unlikely acceptance with those stats if she chose Business Administration. They admit competitively, by major, so their overall acceptance stats are pretty meaningless. BA gets LOTS of applicants. Good luck!
Western Washington is also in a stunningly beautiful location and much easier to get to via airplane. Cal Poly seems to be more party oriented, and rather isolated. Many kids we know going to SLO have to hitch hike there, from Santa Barbara. The public transportation to small towns, like SLO, is just awful in California. If you fly to SLO, be prepared to stay overnight in SF or LAX as flights are frequently canceled to SLO. You will need to find your own hotel as airlines really don’t care that your flight was canceled. Or just sleep in the airport and wait it out for another flight. Its easier to get to Santa Barbara than SLO, can get flight from Denver, at any rate, and " hitch hike" from there, as there will be hundreds of other kids driving from there. Hard to believe, but every Colorado kid we know says this, so we crossed it off without looking at it. We know kids that were DRIVING from Denver to SLO, its perfectly ridiculous travel arrangement from a parent’s perspective.
My son is graduating from Cal Poly this year and has never had trouble with flights. That said, ANY coastal CA airport will have some issues. You can’t live by the ocean without coastal fog. The market is so small, that they don’t have equipment or planes that can land in low vis. Even San Fran with all the most modern equipment has fog issues. Like any school, nothing is perfect. All pros and cons should be weighed.
The direct flight to SLO from here is supposed to be decent. We have a friend who moved recently. However I know it is true about flight delays/small airport.
That being said, Western Washington is a 1 1/2 hour drive that is even easy 90% plus of the time during winter (very rare snowstorm can make it rough).
I think the problem is more an emotional one with my Wife who just wants to be angry with me about having “expensive choices”. No way I could know about merit for most of these schools.
I think applying to U of Denver was the right call - their undergrad marketing major would have been a great option if she’d gotten merit, and that possibility was reasonable to hope for. But without the merit offer, it’s really not worth double the cost of WWU unless your financial resources are such that you wouldn’t even feel it, which clearly isn’t the case.
The other thing to consider with SLO is that on top of the per-quarter cost, requiring additional quarters to graduate is extremely common, with the four-year graduation rate only a fraction of a percentage point above 50%. (And I think it’s likely that a good portion of that 50% took summer-session classes in order to get done on time.) SDSU’s four-year grad rate is even lower. They’re both great schools in great locations, but it’s wise to roll at least one extra quarter into the cost calculation as you weigh the options.
90 minutes from home is a great distance IMHO. I think that if I were in your shoes at this stage, I would start researching cool summer programs, study abroad options… whatever I thought my kid would be excited to do, that we would not be able to bankroll if we blew the whole budget on an expensive school. It’s really hard for 18 year olds to wrap their heads around these kinds of big numbers… but if they can look at it as Cheaper Option + COOL THING vs. Expensive Option + NO COOL THING + Summer Indentured Servitude… it can become much more tangible.
Yeah, it’s hard to feel like you’re stuck with one option because it’s undeniably the best financial choice. My D got a generous merit offer that we hadn’t expected from one school, and a much-stingier-than-expected offer from her EA school that she’d had high hopes for. It took a while before she ended up feeling that she’d really ended up in the best place for her and not shackled by the “golden handcuffs” of the bigger merit offer. The decision process is tough - for most it’s the first big experience with significant roads-not-taken. Narrowing down a universe of sparkly possibilities to one imperfect choice (and they’re all imperfect) is hard for them and for us!
@aquapt, that is true about graduation rates at Cal Poly, but it’s largely due to students dodging class times and instructors. Also, if a student goes even one quarter past, it counts as 5 years. When our son started ME, the 4 year graduation rate was 17%! Yet, here we are one quarter past 4 years and not only is he done with undergrad, he just completed his final masters courses. It can be done if a student is diligent and focused.
@eyemgh
Do you have any insight about whether it would be harder or easier for a Business Admin major to graduate in 4 years vs other majors at Cal Poly?
@taverngirl
Thanks for the suggestion but Suffolk has a COA of $62k. The calculator yielded a $15k scholarship but that would still leave a $47k net COA which is way too high especially considering there would be travel costs.
I’m not sure. It is shorter than ME by 20 hours. My son’s friend from HS was a business major and graduated in 4. A lot depends on the amount of credit they bring in and whether or not they need to repeat any classes.
A Midwest option that you should at least look at is Truman State University. It is a public LAC with about 6,000 students. Business administration is one of their most popular majors, and it will be within your budget.
My son is in a similar spot to your daughter’s (EFC, business/ marketing major, part of WUE). With the reality of cost closing in, he chose to focus on in state, WUE schools, and reasonably priced out of state publics. As a business major, he feels more comfortable with schools in close proximity to relatively large, economically thriving cities for intern and job placement.
We visited Western Washington this summer. Within the business school, their shining program is in manufacturing and supply chain management. I think they boast a 100% job placement in this program. The campus is absolutely beautiful and so is Bellingham. It is a heaven for an outdoorsy, artsy type student. Gosh, we did some amazing hiking while we were there. My son ultimately felt is was too isolated, and he would be commuting into Seattle for internships. He was also concerned that students from UW Seattle would get priority for the best opportunities in the area. Maybe totally unfounded, but its was enough to make him look elsewhere… He is also a big time sports lover and felt the college student body at WWU was primarily artsy, politically active liberal students. He really liked it, but it just wasn’t his spot.
Out of your daughter’s acceptances, my son said he would pick San Diego State for business, due to location, job prospects, and quality of business school. The cost of housing after leaving the dorms would concern me a bit.
Has she considered Arizona State? Excellent business school and good merit aid for out of state students. I know she doesn’t want to consider other WUE schools over WWU, but I just wanted to throw out University of Utah (very limited WUE scholarships, but they offer in state tuition if the student lives in state for 12 consecutive months). I also wanted to suggest Boise State Honors. My husband spends a good deal of time in Boise for work. It is a lovely, booming city with toms of outdoors activities. The college is downtown on the Boise River.
Thanks @WinterIsComing21
We have pretty much decided that the $17k extra per year just isn’t worth it for SDSU. We also live in North Seattle so it is a bit different situation to us in regards to Western (it is a bit in shadow of UW but my D refuses to stay in Seattle for college). She also does not care about sports too much. She leans liberal so does not mind the political environment, has a good friend going etc even though it is not really her first choice.
She also received a very large scholarship from Ohio Wesleyan, we are hopeful of a large scholarship from Manhattan College and maybe Cal Poly would be a possibility if she gets in. She has a few other long shots as well. I think if she receives a nice scholarship from Manhattan that it might be the choice with New York internship opportunities etc.
So no travel by plane probably likely for WW. But the other flight comments are worth noting.