Hi OP, fellow U of M grad. Pitt and Penn State are not interchangeable. I have attended all 3. If your kid likes cities and liberal arts, go Pitt. If classic college campus and more of a social/partier/Greek go PSU (or MSU). Based on my recent travels and things I've read and heard about, look into Syracuse. Agree with SUNY Binghamton and Minnesota. WVU? OOS may not be worth it financially. |
| Go Blue fellow wolv! I love Pittsburgh as an easy and affordable city and U Pitt campus. However as u mention, for OOS, I just don’t think it is worth it financially. |
| FYI Purdue is test required. |
College admissions has become somewhat of a lottery the last couple years, IMO. My kid, who is now a freshman in college, had these stats while applying to college as a senior in HS. 3.875 gpa UW with 35 ACT score was rejected from Colorado, Michigan, Texas and Wisconsin during EA. Never applied to OSU because of no interest. My kid wanted to go to a big state school with all the big sports and school spirit. It's hard out there. Nothing is a given these days. |
Where did he end up? |
Calm down. A bunch of these have automatic merit aid based on GPA & SAT or ACT that brings the net cost down significantly. Miami of Ohio, Kansas State, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa State, West Va, etc. Oklahoma & Ok State too. I’ve been to both & they feel more “western” than “southern.” Most of these are in locations that coastals sneer at even though they haven’t been to them. |
You have clearly never been to these places! |
Good to know! |
Yeah, that's just for the Music, Theater and Dance School... |
| Utah is actually a good option if he’s outdoorsy. Great political science program. Just really deteriorating air quality. |
Any insight on SUNY Cortland? They have what seems to be a sports focus (football games are a big student draw, etc). Might have the state flagship vibe? |
Oops, good catch. Here is the arts and sciences info, where the median entering gpa is 3.9. Still that means plenty have 3.8s: https://lsa.umich.edu/content/dam/lsa-site-assets/images/images/About/College_Overview/220167-LSA-at-a-Glance-Fall-FY23-Update_v13.pdf |
Penn State should be a safety with DS stats. Purdue also a safety for non-CS or engineering. VT out of state has a high acceptance rate, esp. for non-engineering. |
| Op, apply widely. You are not going to be able to pinpoint where the student will get merit aid. Not unless the U has a chart on their website. DD got a huge amount of merit aid from the University of Connecticut. We never would have been able to anticipate it. It made the most expensive OOS school the least expensive. Do not waste time on trying to figure-it-out. It looks like big state Us, generally, are not tracking interest. Visit once they get in and you know the final cost of attendance. Apply to any mentioned here that are of interest. Maybe add University of Rhode Island. |
In Madison, you might miss out on cultural enrichment like the recent extracurricular activities at St. Louis Park High School, which would be a shame. |