college red flags

[Anonymous]

We had a lot of considerations for our '22 high schooler.

Here is what we avoided -

- Most rabidly Republican states. Texas, Florida were no go.
- Schools that had lax Gun laws as mentioned in another thread, was a red flag - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campus_carry_in_the_United_States
- Party schools and schools with a strong Greek life
- Schools that had incidents of sexual harassment, rape or violence against women etc, racist tweets by their professors, attracted White supremacist's.
- Schools that had a lower percentage of diversity - racial and gender.

We also paid more attention to the ranking of the STEM major we wanted for our child vs the prestige of the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are many, but here are two:

When a college doesn't make their common data sets easily accessible on their website.

Also, when there's a poor alumni giving rate (but more appropriate to compare private colleges to other privates and public colleges to other publics.)

Why is the difficulty in finding the common data set a red flag? It could be the website isn't well organized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a lot of considerations for our '22 high schooler.

Here is what we avoided -

- Most rabidly Republican states. Texas, Florida were no go.
- Schools that had lax Gun laws as mentioned in another thread, was a red flag - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campus_carry_in_the_United_States
- Party schools and schools with a strong Greek life
- Schools that had incidents of sexual harassment, rape or violence against women etc, racist tweets by their professors, attracted White supremacist's.
- Schools that had a lower percentage of diversity - racial and gender.

We also paid more attention to the ranking of the STEM major we wanted for our child vs the prestige of the school.

Curious:
Where do you access these sorts of stats? Also the suicide stats others reference earlier in the thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a lot of considerations for our '22 high schooler.

Here is what we avoided -

- Most rabidly Republican states. Texas, Florida were no go.
- Schools that had lax Gun laws as mentioned in another thread, was a red flag - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campus_carry_in_the_United_States
- Party schools and schools with a strong Greek life
- Schools that had incidents of sexual harassment, rape or violence against women etc, racist tweets by their professors, attracted White supremacist's.
- Schools that had a lower percentage of diversity - racial and gender.

We also paid more attention to the ranking of the STEM major we wanted for our child vs the prestige of the school.

Curious:
Where do you access these sorts of stats? Also the suicide stats others reference earlier in the thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Freshman retention rate below 90%.

Graduation rate below 80%.

Low endowment.

Top 25% of the students performing below how my kids perform

Strong Greek culture

Sometimes this is due to finances of the family. If the school is educating middle class and first gen students, many families and students cannot afford the same effortless path of those here on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a lot of considerations for our '22 high schooler.

Here is what we avoided -

- Most rabidly Republican states. Texas, Florida were no go.
- Schools that had lax Gun laws as mentioned in another thread, was a red flag - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campus_carry_in_the_United_States
- Party schools and schools with a strong Greek life
- Schools that had incidents of sexual harassment, rape or violence against women etc, racist tweets by their professors, attracted White supremacist's.
- Schools that had a lower percentage of diversity - racial and gender.

We also paid more attention to the ranking of the STEM major we wanted for our child vs the prestige of the school.

Curious:
Where do you access these sorts of stats? Also the suicide stats others reference earlier in the thread?

DP. College Navigator has a lot of information, including a section on campus security and safety. https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a lot of considerations for our '22 high schooler.

Here is what we avoided -

- Most rabidly Republican states. Texas, Florida were no go.
- Schools that had lax Gun laws as mentioned in another thread, was a red flag - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campus_carry_in_the_United_States
- Party schools and schools with a strong Greek life
- Schools that had incidents of sexual harassment, rape or violence against women etc, racist tweets by their professors, attracted White supremacist's.
- Schools that had a lower percentage of diversity - racial and gender.

We also paid more attention to the ranking of the STEM major we wanted for our child vs the prestige of the school.

Doesn’t look like you are seeking diversity, at least not in political views, but rather more group-think.

[Anonymous]

One red flag I haven’t seen is difficulty in changing major. Some schools seem like they just want you to graduate and don’t care if the degree they lock you into is worthless.

[Anonymous]

Number of years of housing guaranteed. Sure, your kid might prefer to live off campus for a year or two, but being FORCED to do it is another matter--especially if apartments in the area are pricey. Plus, many off-campus apartments rent on a yearly basis, so you're forced to pay rent for the summer and it can be hard to sublet if you don't want to stay in town.

Schools at which most students live off-campus after freshman year also tend to be very segregated socioeconomically since students from wealthier families tend to live in nicer apartment complexes than those on fin aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Low endowment. Institution’s financial downgrading by Carnegies. President if college pleading with alums for donations. Football program being canceled due to cost

Forbes ranks schools on financial stability.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/schifrin/2021/02/22/college-financial-grades-2021-will-your-alma-mater-survive-covid/?sh=6355e1234916

[Anonymous]

Can I say something superficial?

A terrible tour guide. They don't have to be perfect, but they should be a positive representation of the student body.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How this happens? I don't remember the exact wording of the first letters of college acceptance to me (and later to my nephew), but I'm pretty sure there it was something like "we are pleased to inform you that you have been granted tuition remission in full and a stipend of $xxxxx for living expenses." In other words, there was no wording about this being just for the first year, or "renewable if xyz" or anything like that. These are very wealthy private colleges so they can get away with a lot of "discretion" in their awards that publicly-funded schools might not.
I remember the thrill that my parents and I felt when I got that letter. My parents were so proud. I had a spectacular first year - getting A's, making really good friends, joining teams, finding a faculty mentor.
Then, a few weeks before finals, opening the letter from the financial aid office in front of my roommates informing me that my aid had been cut off entirely and enclosing loan application forms. I burst into tears. It was humiliating and baffling. I thought I must have done something terribly wrong. I also remember how cold and abrupt the financial aid officer was when I made an appointment to find out why it happened. He made me feel ashamed and offered no explanation or apology. I applied for the loans and incurred a huge amount of debt I had never planned to carry.
For years, I was so ashamed of losing my scholarship that I never spoke about it. Then, I discovered that it's a pretty common practice at the most expensive schools which also happen to be among the wealthiest - the very ones who could afford to extend those scholarships into the second, third & fourth years.
Sometimes I wonder whether they target kids who are so happy and productive in their first year that they know they will be motivated to take out loans and stay rather than transfer.
In my nephew's case at a different private college, he was given a full ride for year one, won an award that year for literary achievement, and was invited to receive it on stage at the graduation ceremony for the seniors. We all showed up for the ceremony, and then he was told he was being cut off after we returned home. At least no one on campus saw him crying.
I couldn't believe it happened to him too.
Someone needs to start a pinned thread here or on College Confidential listing the names of the schools that have done this. I don't think we can count on NYU (there, I said the name of one of these schools) to be honest about it.

+1

I'm the GW poster and this is pretty much how it went down. Around spring semester finals, or sometimes during the summer, people would start receiving notice that their scholarships and/or financial aid weren't being renewed and that they need to take out loans. The timing of this notification was also done at a point in the school year when transfer applications were closed, so you couldn't move to a new/cheaper school easily. I believe this was intentional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I can't believe schools screw with students over scholarships like that. At my SLAC, it was tough for some of my friends because tuition went up every year but the scholarship awards stayed the same in most instances. So it became more difficult for them to afford each year, but nothing like pulling scholarships from kids.

+1 I don’t understand the logic of pulling the rug out from under a student. You basically ensure at least one alumni who will hate the school, never donate, and will likely bad mouth it. My merit award at a SLAC increased every year in line with tuition and expenses. I’ve donated every year since graduation, far more now than the school spent on me, so it looks like their bet paid off

GW poster again. If the alumni in question graduates from a different college and becomes successful/famous in the scenario above, the original school will 100000% claim him as an alum (at least, GW will; they tout lots of people who didn't graduate from there in ads). They told us at a career session during orientation to list ourselves as alumni of colleges where we attended summer programs or took summer classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When the college is located in a state with human rights views wildly opposite of our own. That could mean different things to different people. I know what it means to mine. I'm not spending money in a state that loves guns more than children. I'm not spending money in a state that hates gay and transgender people. Other people might have different values, but those our ours.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a lot of considerations for our '22 high schooler.

Here is what we avoided -

- Most rabidly Republican states. Texas, Florida were no go.
- Schools that had lax Gun laws as mentioned in another thread, was a red flag - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campus_carry_in_the_United_States
- Party schools and schools with a strong Greek life
- Schools that had incidents of sexual harassment, rape or violence against women etc, racist tweets by their professors, attracted White supremacist's.
- Schools that had a lower percentage of diversity - racial and gender.

We also paid more attention to the ranking of the STEM major we wanted for our child vs the prestige of the school.

+100