<p>As an aside TV4caster, if she goes into psychology and focuses on the quantitative side, she can virtually write her own ticket. My husband’s training is in clinical psychology and he specialized in statistics. He now has his PSTAT, which is very unusual for someone in the behavioral sciences. He is always being sought out to assist on grants and to analyze human subject relevant data. He directs a center for a research firm and does pretty well.</p>
<p>Just wanted to toss that into the mix. She can look for psychology graduate programs with quantitative tracks.</p>
<p>As a health and child clinical psychologist, I could not agree with you more that it is a very competitive environment and even more so without a PHD.</p>
<p>I haven’t read through the entire thread, but I ahve no problem sending my son to a 2nd tier school. He’ll fit in to a less competitive but still challenging environment much better and will more likely earn merit aid.</p>
<p>Regarding major, she may want to double psychology with statistics, or at least take some some additional statistics courses. Psychology research studies make a lot of use of statistics* and statistics by itself can help in opening up backup job and career options in case psychology does not produce much after graduation.</p>
<ul>
<li>In addition to statistical analysis of result, some research studies (such as those described in popular books like Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow and Ariely’s Predictably Irrational) use simple probability and statistics problems to induce irrational responses from the test subjects.</li>
</ul>
<p>Beware, though, that not all science majors have good job and career prospects. Biology and chemistry would not be a big improvement in job and career prospects over psychology, if one believes career surveys (see below).</p>
<p>tvcaster - I would have your daughter do an overnight and class visit at C of C. The offer sounds great. I wouldn’t force her to take it just because of the $, but it sounds like it is a nice fit. Definitely worth an in-depth look.</p>
<p>My daughter has this same decision as she has been accepted to UVA as an OOS student and has also been accepted to the CofC Honors College with approximately $80,000 in scholarship money also. She likes both schools and I could see her being happy at either of them. UVA OOS is @47,000/year vs CofC @ $14,000. We are able to pay for UVA and have told her she can go wherever she chooses. Her decision is based on planning to go to medical school so she will be attending CofC and we will be able to help her with a large part of medical school costs. She really likes the CofC but if she wasn’t planning on medical school I think she would have probably picked UVA.</p>
<p>D1 graduated with math/econ majors. She was pretty sought after by many finance companies because of her majors and her gender. One interviewer did recommend for her to take some psych courses because they would be helpful in business.</p>
<p>Someone who studies math, statistics, economics, and psychology should have a strong foundation in the liberal arts subjects that are what business (the academic subject) is an application of.</p>
<p>Undergraduate: 10,461 students Graduate: 1,188 students Total: 11,649 students
Female students: 63.6 percent Male students: 36.4 percent
Students living on campus: 3,290</p>
<p>FRESHMAN CLASS (FALL 2011)</p>
<p>Average SAT Range: 1120-1270
Average ACT Range: 23-27
Average GPA Range: 3.46-4.2 (rounded to 3.5-4.2)</p>
<p>While you must think about fit in college you must also think about a college’s reputation.So: Will your daughter who seems very smart be happy with those academic numbers? Will she be happy with the male/female ratio? Especially since the overwhelming majority of the females will be cute, studying fashion design and everything one can infer (dont go jumping down my throat people, its serious decision for the OP). With only one third of the students living on campus you can guess that it’s only freshmen, and a sprinkling of transfers, and a sprinkling of people not falling into cliques to find housing.
Finally - what are your daughter’s future plans? Is she planning to come back home after graduating town, is she planning on moving to a major city, work for a major company? In my community (NYC private schools) CofC is the school of last resort for someone, and we wonder if they really messed up their grades or have learning issues if they attend it. This is a very one sided and wrong way to look at a college. However, as a hiring employer, that is often the way. I would definitely hire first from a well known and reputable college. (Dont say its not true, and it does sometimes work in reverse - someone I know who is a head of hr for a major multi-national will hire from the midwest before they will hire from Harvard, all else being equal)
The honors college looks great - but they are building their reputation on your daughter and others like her. I think that if ultimately your daughter will choose CofC, I would hold out for more money.</p>
<p>An employer may not bother recruiting at the Ivy League schools and the like because of poor yield – too few students in the major(s) being recruited, and/or too much competition from investment banking and consulting employers that lure away many of the graduates.</p>
<p>However, a big state flagship will likely be attractive to any local or regional employers to recruit at, and may attract out of area employers if it has a national reputation (as Virginia does). College of Charleston’s smaller size and smaller reputation likely puts it at a disadvantage in terms of students being recruited by employers.</p>
<p>You have to try to learn about the psych department at the 2d t school as well as more about its social climate.</p>
<p>Given the sat score differential, she is going to be spending 4 years with kids who are far less scholastically inclined and are probably more inclined to party than study or who are basically not especially bright.</p>
<p>Would you want to spend 4 years living and attending classes with people who have little in common with you? Would you want to listen to students who say nothing in class or say trivial things? </p>
<p>Do you want to hear your kid complain that all they do is drink on campus or that most are commuters and have no relationship to the campus?</p>
<p>UVA is a great school and its great for lots of reasons. You daughter will make friends, connections, possibly find a spouse, use the career services office and alum opportunities forever.</p>
<p>One more update: D today got a “likely letter” from W&M which they say they send to their “outstanding applicants”. So now we have a smackdown battle- W&M vs UVA vs Clemson w/ money vs College of Charleston with even more money</p>
<p>I think my enthusiasm is wearing off on her Someone asked her today, even before she got the letter, where she was considering and she said UVA and maybe W&M. I was very surprised, and now I think she was impressed to get the handwritten note and to find out that they don’t send a lot of those out.</p>
<p>That’s good then ,TV4caster. She may not be saying but she may also be getting comments from peers and teachers questioning why she would be looking at Clemson and College of Charleston when she has good affordable instate options. Who knows. Congratulations though. She’ll have good choices.
Agent, A visit could fuel enthuisiasm but can also go the other way. My instate sons would not even apply to William and Mary (although it is a fantastic school). They just wanted a bigger school, bigger sports scene. My older son came away from visiting with nothing but complaints about the school ( and the bow tie wearing ,backwards walking tour guide-cute to me but not his thing-he just said he could not see himself there so that was that). You never know what can happen after a visit!</p>
<p>She toured the campus and wasn’t thrilled, but she is going to do an overnight and spend time in classes. I figure she will like the more intimate setting and smaller classes, and realize it would be conducive to her learning style. Then she can make a decision between the two. I really don’t have a preference since they are both such wonderful options.</p>
<p>Great that your daughter’s keeping an open mind, TV4caster. Hope she enjoys the overnight.
You’re right,geeps, lots of these guides seem to have mastered the backward walking thing. If it had been just that, I may have pushed him more to keep William and Mary in play but he already really liked UVa and William and Mary had a smaller ,quirkier vibe than he was looking for. Most kids luckily do seem to have a good sense of where they belong. When the finances also fit, it is great.</p>
<p>We have yet to go on an official tour so I can’t wait to see if our guides are backward walkers. </p>
<p>It’s possible W & M isn’t for her, but she may also find on second viewing that it is more to her liking. I think so much depends on the type of students they have contact with. But there is a feel to different campuses and W & M just may not jive with her. Glad she’s giving it another shot tho, because this way she’ll have a much more definitive view of campus life.</p>
Someone asked her today, even before she got the letter, where she was considering and she said UVA and maybe W&M. I was very surprised, and now I think she was impressed to get the handwritten note and to find out that they don’t send a lot of those out.</p>