quote:

Originally posted by Amanda: State College is really an island, politically.

Having spent my whole life in college towns in red states, I have found this to be true-ish in all of them. By true-ish, I mean to say that my original hometown is probably red, but it has a more purple hue than the rest of the state. Gainesville, Florida, and Norman, Oklahoma, lean more definitely to the left.

I don’t have any experience with any of the colleges that you listed and there’s a lot of them listed. He’s going to have to make his mind up which college to choose by making a priority list. It’ll be hard to do but it’s a highly personal decision and priorities are different for everyone.

I was a mathematics and computer science double major at a large state university in a big city. Mostly I chose it because I was eligible for a very generous scholarship there so it was an easy decision for me. I can tell you this much: With a science as a major, there’ll be lots of studying. Included with math and cs, physics and electrical engineering courses were required. They were time consuming because of the labs. If he’s in a liberal arts college, a foreign language might be required. It was at my univ. I took two years of Spanish. It was easy for me because I had some in high school.

Oh, and here’s one item of advice for him: Don’t take a course if a syllabus isn’t handed out on the first day of class.

Good luck to him.

Thanks for all the feedback. To address some suggestions:

Mary Anna - that chart is hilarious. I sent it to both my kids.

Nina - DC is relatively close and might be a good suggestion. I can look into what's offered by the "big 3" in DC - American, Georgetown, and GW. My understanding is "lowly" George Mason has a very good CS program where the FBI and NSA do a lot of their hiring, but given LL#2's fairly radical political views, I'm not sure he'd want to work for the government even if he could manage to pass their background checks, LOL.

Mik - I've heard good things about Belmont and while LL#2 is anti South, he could probably be ok with Nashville. But I went to their website and as soon as I saw that they were a Christian school imparting a faith based education that was a dealbreaker. We aren't particularly religious and while I think he'd be ok with like a Jesuit type school where the religion is just there in the background (ala University of Scranton), any place that touts its faith based education and has a "spiritual life" menu on the landing page of its website is right out. Thanks for the suggestion though - I am bummed because I have heard nothing but wonderful things especially about their music business programs.

Pique - as an Ohio State alum, I'm horrified at your Michigan recommendation. OK, not really - I never gave a flying crap about sports, LOL. I admit that I have heard wonderful things about UM and Ann Arbor. My concerns are that I believe it's pretty large and from what I hear, almost impossible to get into anymore if you are from out of state. It's also probably a pretty long drive. I will double check though.

Jack - I have heard wonderful things about the Claremont schools, but I'm just not sure I'm up for flying him across country. My daughter has had nightmarish experiences trying to fly back and forth from Ohio (she spent 48 hours sleeping in the airport because of a blizzard going home from Thanksgiving) so I'd really like to stay within a reasonable driving distance. Good to hear about Northeastern though.

Quirt - thanks for the Northeastern feedback. Ironic you should suggest UR - when we went to see RIT, we arrived in Rochester the night before the tour and decided to just drive around. We were horrified by how ugly and isolated the campus was -- it was literally like an industrial park in the middle of fields about 6 miles outside of Rochester and from the loop road around campus, which is all we drove, it looked desolate and run down. Our hotel was across the river from UR so we took a drive through their campus, decided it was way prettier, and booked a tour for the next day. But the tour guide we had was awful - he was a data science guy but didn't seem to know much about the program or anything else really - he didn't seem smart at all, actually. Overall, we didn't get a great vibe and he decided not to apply. It's the only school we've seen that he flat out "rejected" and honestly, it was probably just an off day for them but since I have to winnow the list somehow, it's as good a reason as any.

Beelady - that is interesting. I'm glad all your kids are doing great. What does the one who didn't go to college do?

Amanda - yes, I went to Penn State undergrad so I am familar with the long drive from pretty much anywhere. And how colleges are dealing with the pandemic -- whether they are requiring masks and vaccines -- is going to be a big factor in where he goes. It is disappointing about Penn State...especially given that my daughter's state school in Ohio is requiring them.

Mary Anna and Amanda - I am all too familiar with the "oasis of blue" factor - LL#1 goes to school in Oxford OH - her college town is liberal but man, drive 5 minutes outside of town and you'd think you were in Q Anon headquarters. And since it's a state school, a lot of the parents on the parents facebook group are from the redder areas and spout nonstop nonsense -- you should have seen the heads explode (they're still exploding a week later actually) when the college announced they are mandating the vaccine in order to register for spring classes. And a lot of the kids have the same beliefs as the parents -- there aren't many kids who are taking the pandemic seriously. So that's the reasoning behind my no red state rule. I actually didn't have that rule when LL#1 applied (obviously since she's in Ohio) but the way kids and parents at her college are acting with the pandemic is the reason I have it now. (Though, in fairness, it's not like blue states are always better - look at Penn State, or heck, our local school district is full of anti-maskers and Q-Anon adherents and they are basically flaunting the governor's mask order.)

Q-L - thanks for the feedback. Yes, I know he will be taking tough classes - he's going to have to figure out better study habits etc. I think he'd actually like to take a foreign language - he's actually quite good at German already from just his high school classes and he has expressed interest in learning ASL, which I think he could pick up very easily at RIT with the support he will get from the NTID. And if he wants to live in Europe eventually, it would behoove him to get fluent in something other than English.

I have heard good things about University of Maryland - their comp sci program is supposed to be top notch, rivaling those at MIT/Stanford/etc. I know we have some Maryland residents here - anyone with experience? I think they are pretty large and I've heard they don't give much merit aid and OOS tuition is over 50K which is why it's not on his list already.....

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Pique - as an Ohio State alum, I'm horrified at your Michigan recommendation. OK, not really - I never gave a flying crap about sports, LOL. I admit that I have heard wonderful things about UM and Ann Arbor. My concerns are that I believe it's pretty large and from what I hear, almost impossible to get into anymore if you are from out of state. It's also probably a pretty long drive. I will double check though.

I never went to a single game in my 8 years in Ann Arbor. Hated that scene. Ann Arbor is not too far from Toledo, if that helps with orientation. SE Michigan.

It *is* huge, which is why I suggested looking into the Residencial College. The RC was created in the 60s by a former president of Bennington College, to give UM undergrads the cohesive, intimate experience of a small, liberal arts college, where they get small classes and individual attention, yet have the virtually unlimited resources of a major university right out the door. Look into it and see. I had been admitted to Bennington but didn't like how limited it was. This was the perfect solution for me.

They have quotas for out of state. But you can get around that by getting admitted and then attending starting the summer semester after high school graduation. That way he's in the quota for the previous academic year, where invariably there has been some attrition. Check it out.

quote:

Originally posted by Lisa:

Beelady - that is interesting. I'm glad all your kids are doing great. What does the one who didn't go to college do?

He has been working at a high end restaurant for a few years now. Started as a busboy,then table service. Started staying late to help the chef in the kitchen for prep and clean up and has learned tons.

He started making up drink recipes that are featured on the bar menu, and now if fullfledge bartender making fancy cocktails.

And he has become quite the cook..Brought over truffle risotto cakes this past weekend..wow they were delish!!

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Though, in fairness, it's not like blue states are always better - look at Penn State

Hmmmm. I wouldn't call Pennsylvania blue. There is a reason that the region between Pittsburgh and Philly is sometimes called .... Pennsyltucky.

quote:

I have heard good things about University of Maryland - their comp sci program is supposed to be top notch, rivaling those at MIT/Stanford/etc. I know we have some Maryland residents here - anyone with experience? I think they are pretty large and I've heard they don't give much merit aid and OOS tuition is over 50K which is why it's not on his list already.....

My eldest got into Maryland. He was interested in aerospace at the time. They have fine programs. Maryland offered him a "Presidential Scholarship." Fancy language for pushing the price down to just a few K over the cost at Virginia's public universities. If you don't apply because of the list price, you never get to see what kind of package they'll offer you.

Both Mary Anna and I have had the experience of a kid looking at a campus and just saying, "Nope." It really doesn't matter why, and logic won't necessarily change their minds. Ultimately, there are a lot of good schools, and it's their choice. Ruling out one that would seem to the parents like a good fit is ultimately not a problem.

Echoing what PD said, almost every public university one of my kids applied to offered her a scholarship. Net of scholarships, the public and private places were in the same ballpark, not wildly different ... except I think Belmont was a lot cheaper, and definitely Oklahoma was cheapest of all. By a large margin.

To echo everyone else regarding scholarships--for many universities (not so much the private liberal arts schools) there is a panic about low enrollment due to covid, and a huge competition for students. While some of the elites may not be hurting, most are. This means they may be willing to give you much better financial aid than you might expect. Just make sure the package is scholarships, not loans.

And make sure it's continuing, not a one-year deal.

I did not notice there had been updates to this post....thanks to everyone who responded. LL#2 got his first acceptance yesterday - to Pitt, which was one of his top choices. Won't hear about scholarships or the honors program til March-ish though. But at least he knows he's in somewhere he really likes.

Now if he'd just get motivated to finish his other apps. We have a virtual info session at Northeastern this afternoon so maybe that will inspire him.

I'm going to go back and look at UMd again - I think when I researched them over the summer, parents were saying that very very few kids got money from them....for OOS they were saying it's either the tippy top full rides that you have to interview for and they pick like 3 kids out of hundreds of interviewees or you got nothing. Seems like Covid has devastated a lot of these school's budgets along with their enrollments and they don't have as much money to throw around. But I will check again. It probably wouldn't hurt to send the app and see what happens.

My niece got into UMD several years ago, but they didn’t have enough dorm space for the frosh class, so she did her first semester abroad. Then she broke her ankle skiing before the second semester, and never went to UMD…

In the end I spent a lot of time on this for each of my three kids. I can say confidently that each ended up in a perfect school for him or her. Credit to Kathy for suggesting Cornell for Peter. I suggested Cooper Union for James and supported Sophie early love for Pitzer. I loved the process of looking at schools and my kids had great choices among their acceptances. You never know what will resonate with them. After Sophie and I visited and love Ed Pitzer I insisted she visit at leas one other school to compare. We went to Middlesex. “Daddy the buildings are so far apart.” Go figure!

If free speech on campus is of interest you might want to peruse this ranking. It's eye opening.

https://rankings.thefire.org/rank

As an alum who follows the reporting on recent events at Ole Miss, I am automatically leery of anything that ranks that institution at #11 in terms of free speech.

Even the major alumni donors who get professors fired for their speaking their views do so through back channels. They don't just yell, "Hey! Racism is awesome!" right out in public.