I am trying to decide which university to attend next year. I intend to major in Communications/Political Science (possibly journalism)
University of Pittsburgh (Honors) this school gave the most merit money and would be the cheapest to go to by about $15k
University of Michigan LSA (applied to honors but haven’t heard back) received some merit aid, but not a ton
Northeastern (Honors) again, received merit money but not enough to make it a no-brainer
Boston College (Morrisey) received merit money
Boston University (Comm school) received merit money
Syracuse (Newhouse and Honors) received merit money. tempted by this because Newhouse is an amazing program, but i don’t want to commit based only on that since there is a definite chance i could change my major.
As of right now, I attend on planning graduate school. It may be for political science, political economy, communications/journalism related, or possibly law school. I would like to attend a highly competitive school for graduate studies, so I want to definitely make the most of the next four years. I am not firmly set in my choice of major, but I am fairly sure that i will remain in the realm of politics and journalism. I love all of these schools and feel very at home. Price is a definite issue for me, but i don’t want to make a decision based solely on a price tag. I would say I feel the strongest personal connection to Pitt, Michigan, and BC, but again, I really do love all of these schools. I’m just having major difficulties trying to narrow this down, so any input/advice would be greatly appreciated!!
Congratulations on all your acceptances. I’m a Newhouse student studying journalism, so obviously I’m biased. However, Newhouse is an amazing school with incredible facilities. faculty, and courses. This school seeks first and foremost to prepare you to get a job and even after leaving Newhouse will help you because the alumni connections are so broad. Seriously, no matter where you go in the communications field you’ll probably come into contact with a lot of Newhouse grads. I got guerenteed transfer to BU and ever since coming here there hasn’t been 1 doubt in my mind that Newhouse was the right choice.
That being said, if you’re not sure about going into communications AND you want to go to grad school it might not be worth the money. SU is a great school in general and I’m sure you’d have a lot of fun here, but leaving school buried in debt isn’t fun for anyway. If you’re sure about journalism, I say take Newhouse into serious consideration. If not, definitely consider your other options and other aspects of the schools available to you outside of the programs themselves.
Let me know if you have any questions about SU/Newhouse!
You said you received merit money from BC. As far as I’m aware, the only merit they offer is BIG merit, i.e., full tuition through the Gabelli Presidential Scholars Program. Is that what you received? If so, I think that would be hard to turn down.
@suzy100 I was actually mistaken, the information i received just said it was a scholarship, so i assumed. then i found out information similar to what you just said, so i asked my financial aid officer for clarification and it turns out what i got was actually an institutional grant. Still pleased with it, but i definitely would have loved the gabelli!
It’s hard to say w/o knowing the net costs for the other schools–what will you have to pay per year to attend each of them? Is it your parents paying, or will you have to take out private (co-signed) loans to cover it? You have some amazing choices, and I think it needs to be the intersection between cost/value for prestige but how much of a burden the cost will be is an important factor.
just heard back from Michigan on financial aid!!! I had gotten a Presidential Scholarship, but they also gave me a grant which brings it to about $23k/yr!! With the loans they offered, plus work-study, it’ll be $14k per year!! Ecstatic right now! Looks like I will most likely be a wolverine, go blue!
