Help with considerations: Syracuse vs full ride at Catholic

[Anonymous]

Newhouse and ESF (the SUNY affiliate) are the best schools at Syracuse...

Check out teachers:

https://newhouse.syr.edu/news/adjunct-instructors-provide-students-with-a-link-to-the-industry-in-real-time/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My sibling went to Catholic for a B arch. My brother who went to Catholic is without a doubt is extremely successful out of all of usher went to top 10 schools.


I think it depends on majors and what your child wants. Connections at Catholic are huge, much more so than one would think.

All that being said, I'd recommend a Jesuit school over Catholic.

My friend who is affiliated with Syracuse says it is not worth the $$. No personal attention

Again, it truly depends on the program. Did I get any personal attention from Syracuse University? No. But I had extremely close relationships with my journalism professors. Most of them had excellent access to editors in New York, Washington, really anywhere. We had amazing guest speakers and a fast path to internships. Totally worth it.

[Anonymous]

Journalism doesn’t pay that well. But the schools are so different. Even $40K is a lot to pay on a journalist salary.

[Anonymous]

I would choose St Joe’s. It’s nice, perhaps not as Catholic as Catholic. Far enough from South Jersey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think finances need to be taken into serious consideration here. A full scholarship and no student debt is a huge thing. If the family has money saved to pay for Syracuse, that's one thing, but, if not, having no debt is an excellent way to start out.

Except Syracuse is down to $10k/yr for her. Not sure if that includes room & board, but even if it doesn’t, having to pay $10k instead of $55k/year is a really big deal, especially for a highly regarded degree like communications from Syracuse.

I'm on the other side of your argument but it is $10k plus the other costs PLUS travel to/from school for breaks, etc. Those little costs add up.

I'm going to go off on a tangent here and say that our family foundation awards full ride scholarships to kids and we found that we had to cover more than tuition and room/board to relieve the financial burden from the kids. They also needed book money, spending money, and travel money in order to make it so now we add in an additional stipend. Now it sounds like OP's family is in better financial circumstances than perhaps some of the kids we encounter with our scholarship program but I think we need to consider that there is more to the cost of college than just the tuition, and most scholarships do not cover room and board. It is hard to study and focus, and maintain your A average if you're hungry and you can't afford the textbook you need.

I think OP's kid has some great options. If they can swing the $10k in tuition plus perhaps room and board and all the ancillary costs then Syracuse is a good option. But if they can't then they need to grab onto the Catholic or St. Joe's full rides as fast as they can!

[Anonymous]

Syracuse costs over 10k more than the free ride schools so it is a bigger scholarship

[Anonymous]

Does your family have $10k, and how much of the package is loans?

[Anonymous]

Catholic is a great launching pad - I had a full ride there (in the '80s), loved my time there, found plenty of smart and motivated classmates, and went on to full ride at a top 5 grad school. DC is better for internships than Syracuse too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Catholic is a great launching pad - I had a full ride there (in the '80s), loved my time there, found plenty of smart and motivated classmates, and went on to full ride at a top 5 grad school. DC is better for internships than Syracuse too.

When people say Catholic is "more" Catholic than St. Joe's, what does that mean? WHat makes it "more" Catholic?

[Anonymous]

It is the official college of the Vatican I the U.S., so they follow church doctrine to a T.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think finances need to be taken into serious consideration here. A full scholarship and no student debt is a huge thing. If the family has money saved to pay for Syracuse, that's one thing, but, if not, having no debt is an excellent way to start out.

Except Syracuse is down to $10k/yr for her. Not sure if that includes room & board, but even if it doesn’t, having to pay $10k instead of $55k/year is a really big deal, especially for a highly regarded degree like communications from Syracuse.

I'm on the other side of your argument but it is $10k plus the other costs PLUS travel to/from school for breaks, etc. Those little costs add up.

I'm going to go off on a tangent here and say that our family foundation awards full ride scholarships to kids and we found that we had to cover more than tuition and room/board to relieve the financial burden from the kids. They also needed book money, spending money, and travel money in order to make it so now we add in an additional stipend. Now it sounds like OP's family is in better financial circumstances than perhaps some of the kids we encounter with our scholarship program but I think we need to consider that there is more to the cost of college than just the tuition, and most scholarships do not cover room and board. It is hard to study and focus, and maintain your A average if you're hungry and you can't afford the textbook you need.

I think OP's kid has some great options. If they can swing the $10k in tuition plus perhaps room and board and all the ancillary costs then Syracuse is a good option. But if they can't then they need to grab onto the Catholic or St. Joe's full rides as fast as they can!

OP said that Syracuse was $10K a year, not $10K/year plus Room and Board.

[Anonymous]

OP here. I have to say thank you to all of you as respondents because DCUM can go....awry...but this has been really helpful.

$40k can be handled by her family.

Niece would probably do well in an active social life relative to more cloistered environment. She is not a party girl now. How competitive is the academic life at SU? I think she would probably flourish in a more competitive environment, but some saw-toothed clown show is probably not the right fit.

[Anonymous]

So, cost is affordable and very low and she was accepted to the #1 program in the country for her desired major...

...is there any more to discuss?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I have to say thank you to all of you as respondents because DCUM can go....awry...but this has been really helpful.

$40k can be handled by her family.

Niece would probably do well in an active social life relative to more cloistered environment. She is not a party girl now. How competitive is the academic life at SU? I think she would probably flourish in a more competitive environment, but some saw-toothed clown show is probably not the right fit.

I'm not sure what a saw-toothed clown show is ...

Newhouse grad here. I was amazed (and kind of freaked out) my freshman year to see that at the football games, tons of kids would record their own play-by-play, just for practice or maybe hoping to be the next Bob Costas. The broadcast kids were very competitive. The print kids were more chill. There's a good daily paper to write for, and I'm sure by now there are more digital publications to write for as well. We often had to edit each others' work in class, and the vibe was helpful and constructive, not cutthroat.

[Anonymous]

Catholic. It's a blessing to come out of college with ZERO in student loans. Her parents can take whatever savings and see if she needs it for grad school.

If she's wanting to go into media/journalism, she can intern/work part-time for four years here in DC. She will have her pick of jobs with basically every news and media org on earth. Kids graduating from Newhouse will be reporting to HER right out of college because she will have four years of contacts and work experience.

The hustle matters more than the name brand in journalism/media. IMHO.

Also, I'm wary of price creep with private schools. It may cost her family $10K freshman year and then go up from there. Read the fine print on the Syracuse scholarship. I'd also want to know the GPA and attendance requirements for the scholarships at all three schools. What happens if she needs to take a medical leave of absence? Does she lose scholarship? There's lots of caveats to keep the scholarship. Hope for the best, plan for the worst...