Tell me your OOS public colleges you truly liked
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
USC is a private institution, not an OOS public. It's very expensive as in $76K a year, and having taught out there, I would not send a student, especially a female student there due to proximity of Watts. Cars in the parking lots routinely get vandalized. If you want OOS, look to UCLA or Berkeley but with 80% now in-state, it will be more difficult to get in as an out of state student. |
Anonymous
I am an expert on their website at this point. 
https://admissions.tc.umn.edu/costsaid/scholarships.html The main one for you is the national scholarship. But remember, these people live in America's Canada. If you have questions, call them and they will be nice to you. https://admissions.tc.umn.edu/costsaid/schol_campus.html#need Since I talked about engineering: Here's a link to the historical techncial GPA cutoff for each major. https://www.advising.cse.umn.edu/cgi-bin/courses/noauth/apply-major-statistics you should find the equivalent information at EVERY engineering school you care about. |
Anonymous
Our DC was offered substantial merit aid that made it slightly less/on par with in-state tuition at UVA/W&M. ( DC didn't go, but was tempted). The OOS publics we visited: UVM: Great for environmental sciences, beautiful campus, Burlington is a nice town. We have family in Wisconsin, so we combined family trips with a bunch of midwest visits over two different summers: UW-Madison-- Madison seemed like a vibrant but manageable town--DC was a tad turned off by the students--didn't seem that academically/culturally engaged. I think those things are often flukes and DC is in a somewhat "judgy" phase. But I could kind of see what she meant--the students mainly talked about food and got excited about food. It was a little weird. Like in a student panel people would ask about programs and it would inevitably also somehow land on students talking about ice cream and cheese. And then the tour guide talked a lot about food. And the student DC shadowed a class with. It felt we were in a skit where everyone we encountered told us where to find the best ice cream and the joys of "squeaky cheese." Indiana U-Bloomington -- DC was an absolute "no" on the idea of Indiana in the abstract, but ended up loving this school. I think there was something about driving through the empty, flat lands and then coming into this beautiful, rolling hill campus area with a festive college town atmosphere that clicked. Students and faculty were welcoming. DC did have a slightly weirded out feeling by midwestern friendliness ("Is this place like a cult?")--and it seemed amplified in Bloomington. Uof Illinois (C-Urbana)This was too remote/huge/frat-oriented for DC. And flat. DC was really drawn to a few of the faculty, but not enough to overcome the vibe. But we drove down there and it's seriously through a ton of exurbs and then cornfields to get there. And then you're in a sort of rundown city for part of it and then frat house rows. I can look past these things and focus on the school, but found DC was really impacted. In general, I recommend highly doing a department specific meeting when visiting because the overall presentations at these big schools are kind of bland and it's easy for kids to focus on trivial things like a flat landscape, too much food talk, cult-like friendliness. Also, weed out places via on-line research. |
Anonymous
Many end up in a non-engineering computer science major (e.g. general IT/business systems or cyber security), frequently making more $$$ than the engineers. |
Anonymous
Good post. Students there with strong work ethics. Used to be a real bargain even for OOS but I think that’s changing this or next year. UMass Amherst Is also a great town with lots of options, other schools you can take classes at and has an honors college. It’s not the OOS bargain it once was either. |
Anonymous
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PP on public/private, daughter attending University of Southern California.
I went out with my daughter and visited twice after acceptance; admitted students day and move-in. Obviously, it’s in LA, so urban environment. Daughter applied to NYU and USC because she wanted to experience something a little different than cookie-cutter, “Brady bunch”, suburbia. The campus is open until 9:00 PM, I believe, then you need a student ID. There is a range covered by USC security that extends outside of campus that is patrolled 24/7. I’ve asked my daughter about this and she has told me she is never out of sight of USC personnel when going from point A to point B in the DPS covered area. She has told me she has never felt unsafe. Because of the urban environment, I believe USC pays more attention than most campuses to safety and security. With 18,000 undergraduates, and 25,000 post graduates, if there were huge issues, we’d hear about it on an almost daily basis. I did make my daughter aware of general precautions to take in an urban environment. Where we live, when she was a teenager, she’d walk around carrying her wallet casually in her hand everywhere. When paying for items, she would take out all her money, in plain view of everyone, count it out, and put the rest back into her wallet. I was raised in Detroit and had to educate her on common sense behavior in an urban environment. We were all teenagers once, but times have changed. I have been surprised with the lack of common sense demonstrated by today’s youth in an urban setting. They want to believe in a social utopia, where nothing bad happens to “people with good intentions”, or “we are today’s woke, social warriors”. I admire their idealism, but they’re entering adulthood, and need to act responsibly. Anyway, she’s loving her time at USC and has never felt unsafe. She has developed a better understanding of common sense behavior and is not only getting a great education but having the experience of a lifetime. |
Anonymous
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PP again.
She didn’t consider UCLA or Berkeley OOS because it would be full pay. Once she was admitted to USC (and other schools), I told her we would evaluate the cost of attendance at each school to determine if it was practical for the OOS schools. She got enough from USC to make it comparable to the price of in state schools. |
Anonymous
Good post. I attended Columbia during the crack epidemic and the experience sounds similar to what this mom described. I can't say I never felt unsafe, but I chose to live off-campus quite a distance away. |
Anonymous
and usually a liberal arts department has a BA in computer science. for my kid, the biggest threat about what happens if he fails out of engineering would be meeting the Liberal Arts language requirement. |
Anonymous
 There are some 19k undergraduates and 27k graduate students at USC. Hundreds of thousands of students - even, gasp, females! - have attended in the past decade. If it were this dangerous cesspool where no one is making it out unscathed, it wouldn't be as popular as it is.
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Anonymous
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People have different comfort levels when it comes to safety...and risk perceptions (especially among inexperienced young adults) are not always accurate.
Posters to this board get SO defensive about negative input. The PP WORKED there. His/her input has validity and is likely useful to the OP. You can post opposing views, but you don't have to berate them for reaching a different conclusion than you. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
| My DC is looking into GT - poster who said very expensive - is it not worth it? |
Anonymous
| Really liked Pitt but couldn't justify the cost, even with some merit aid. Pittsburgh is a great town and we really liked the vibe of the school. I kept hearing that Pitt offers great merit aid but it sounds like they really decreased it this year. Going through the college application process this year, I was really surprised at how expensive public schools are getting for out of state students. |