I am an international student and am really confused between UT Austin, UMD college park and Drexel.
Drexel is giving me a $40,000 scholarship for the freshman year with a co-op in the 3rd year.
UMD accepted me into their LEP.
Nothing special in Austin except that it is considered to be a very good college and has the best international outlook of the three.
(There’s UCI, but I’m not really keen on it. But if you guys have any inputs on it then please do tell.)
Major: Biological sciences and maybe a double major with Sociology.
bump
Literally so many people don’t know how bumping works. You don’t bump a thread right after posting it. That’s redundant. This isn’t even the first time I’ve seen this, either. Just…wow, lol.
Go for Drexel. You were offered a wonderful opportunity through the co-op and the scholarship is hard to pass up. It’ s agreat school where you’ll get a great education.
Agreed, go with Drexel. It’s a great school in the middle of Philadelphia. They’re offering you a scholarship, plus, besides Northeastern, Drexel is known for its co-ops.
@minohi Haha… Sorry, don’t really know how it works : P Umm, I did read in a couple of articles (including some on CC) that Drexel is not very good. And because I am an international student, I have to rely on what I read and see through the internet. Also I just have a confirmed scholarship for the freshman year, so no guarantee for the subsequent years and it is costliest college of all the three. So that’s a other there. But thanks for the opinion @TheDidactic : D
So that’s another thing
Does Drexel guarantee that an International Student will receive sponsorship for a U.S. co-op job?
Good question there from LakeWashington. Find out whether or not you are guaranteed that co-op. Where you can work will be restricted by your student visa. Also, ask Drexel what you would need to do in order to keep that scholarship in future years.
You can use this calculator to compare costs: http://www.finaid.org/calculators/awardletteradvanced.phtml For your major, it is OK to choose the cheaper place.
Ignore what you read here about Drexel being “not very good”. Most of those comments are written by people who are still applying to college themselves. Grown ups would tell you that Drexel is a fine educational institution, and that you can get a good education there.
@LakeWashington Thank you for drawing my attention to that. I just emailed them regarding it : D
@happymomof1 The cost calculator did prove to be a very good help. Thank you!
If we look at all the colleges JUST on the basis of education, would you still recommend Drexel over the other two?
Hm, I don’t think Drexel is that good - it’s good but not that great a value (often too expensive for what it provides/compared to other choices). From what you wrote, it sounds like you’ve got a scholarship for the first year only.
Northeastern is another private with Co-op and it offers much better value, or UCincinnati, the original co-op university.
Instead of listing scholarships can you list the costs once you’ve calculated (tuition, fees, room, board) - (scholarships/grants)?
@MYOS1634 Yup. Just for the freshman year. The scholarship can be renewed,but there is no guarantee about. And without the scholarship I am looking at about $70,000 for Drexel which is way too high. (It’ll be $30,000 for the first year)
Texas has is about $55,000 including room and board, tuition, personal expenses and insurance and UMD is about $50,000 for the same. But a lot of people told me that Texas is cheaper than Maryland in a lot of ways because of no taxes and stuff.
I don’t think you’d save more than $5,000 by being in Texas, especially considering that flight costs might be higher (depending on where you’ll be flying from). You wouldn’t pay most taxes that residents of Maryland pay, only on some items like restaurant food or clothes. Most high taxes only affect working adults. I don’t know whether cost-of-living would save your $550 a month, unless you plan on spending $1,000 a month on clothes and restaurants. In which case you wouldn’t really need a scholarship.
LEP at UMD is very good, BTW (it’s the equivalent of direct-admit into selective majors).
@MYOS1634 Haha. I definitely wouldn’t spend that much (though i wish i could :P). But since the costs are just about the same, it’s the other factors that I want to know about, like the one having a better education reputation or a better international outlook and stuff.
Thank you for all the help : D
Did you get into your chosen major at UT?
@MYOS1634 So sorry for the late reply. Yes I did get into my chosen major 
I’d choose UMD LEP over UT, but that’s subjective at this point. I’d choose whichever is cheapest if costs matter.