Anonymous wrote:Hard to justify an OOS public if you live in Virginia...unless you get substantial financial aid.

Hard to justify an OOS public over any instate flagship U

Mine liked UGA, UNC, Clemson, and surprisingly, WVU.

Anonymous wrote:Hard to justify an OOS public if you live in Virginia...unless you get substantial financial aid.

Funny, I find it hard to justify Virginia's in-state tuition cost. 4th most expensive in the entire country. Many out of state tuition options are only $5,000 or less higher and that doesn't include merit aid packages that can go from $5-30K. Plus room and board varies and Va seems to be really expensive on that end too. So you can get to many out of state options for less. And many kids can not get into UVA and many don't want Tech. And you have to be a fit for William and Mary. I agree that it has a lot more options that Maryland, but it doesn't hurt to look and apply elsewhere. Admissions have been extremely tough for in-state kids this year. Top notch kids getting rejected.

Iowa State in Ames was our biggest surprise. Beautiful campus and Ames was picturesque and open minded. Diversity and gay friendly. The people were wonderful. I didn't realize what a huge engineering school it has. Pretty decent merit aid and with their low OOS cost, made it the same as in-state.

Indiana has a top business school. Decent merit aid.

Purdue was fantastic. That was a another big surprise. Felt more urban than I thought it would. Great college town and only 1 hour from Indy and 2 from Chicago. Half the kids are OOS but they don't offer too much merit, since so many are willing to come and pay full price.

Georgia has a great honors program and merit aid. Pretty campus, but far from an airport.

USC is really nice and gives out merit aid that can makes it less than 20K a year to go there including R/B.

Arizona State was another massive surprise. Beautiful updated campus. Palm trees galore and sunny warm days all year round. Honors college is top notch. Dorms are all huge and have their own bathrooms. Journalism, business, and engineering are huge there. free bus system and only 15min to Phoenix or Scottsdale. Tempe has a lot going on, on it's own though. Fantastic merit rivals or is cheaper than in-state options.

U of Arizona was nice too, but I wasn't as big of a fan of Tucson. The airfare was always more and the merit wasn't as nice as Arizona. It felt more commuter since they don't have as many OOS or international.

Washington is gorgeous, but the weather is just so cloudy and rainy. My daughter's good friend is there and the snow, fog, forrest fire ash, etc... on top of the copious amounts of rain has been hard this year. She does love it though.

Michigan and Wisconsin are very popular for east coast kids, but my daughter didn't want the snow and they don't offer merit that makes them worth the cost in my opinion. Sticker shock on Michigan costs.

University of Florida is another campus that feels like you are on vacation. Happy kids, great school. Coming up quick in the rankings and getting tough to get into OOS. Not much merit since in-state is dirt cheap ($6,500 a year!) and they take a lot of instate kids.

Texas-Austin is wonderful. The city of Austin is the enclave of democrats and diversity in an otherwise pretty miserable state. Very hard to get in since they take up to 85% in-state and they offer little to no merit.

I have yet to visit Minnesota but my daughter's friend is there and loves it.

And Pitt is great too.

DD applied to UMN after liking it during a tour. They have rolling admissions and accepted her quickly. They offered honors college and a scholarship. We felt the love but she ended up picking a SLAC that has also been cold and snowy.

Hard to justify an OOS public if you live in Virginia...unless you get substantial financial aid.

Anonymous wrote:We have no regrets about Minnesota.

Daughter is thriving in the engineering school. Access to major seems probable, which is about as good as you can hope with a big ten engineering school (it is pretty hard, and my daughter is middle of the pack right now),

Yes, it is cold.

But I should add...

She gets out and about around town in her good boots and warm coat -- to performances, the magnificent science museum, biking along the river, and more.

The light rail goes everywhere, Southwest Airlines makes the trip home fairly easy, and she is friends with nice kids. Advising in the engineering school has been first-rate. Big intro engineering classes are just about the same anywhere, but that should ease up next year.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know... I generally find OOS public is a dumb idea unless you are talking Berkeley and other schools at that level.

In some ways I agree, but I suspect for a very different reason. I agree that there are plenty of fantastic OOS public universities. But, in this area, I think in-state options are at least as good in nearly every area. In most cases, it would be hard to justify paying much more to go OOS, unless admission to flagship is an issue (which is a valid concern), or even IS tuition is too high for a very high stat kid who might be able to get serious merit elsewhere.

My DC is considering choosing Pitt over UMD-CP, in part because of its location. Pittsburgh is a wonderful city and Pitt has a nice campus in a great neighborhood as well as a lot of great majors.

DC's merit aid brings Pitt down to just a few thousand more than what UMD-CP would cost us in-state.

I have mixed feelings about it but I do think that wanting to go to school more than 10 miles from home (and possibly wanting to live elsewhere post-graduation) is a valid reason for choosing Pitt over UMD.

My daughter loved Pitt and we stopped only because they were on the way to do some tours in Ohio. Unfortunately they did not have her two top majors or she would have applied in a heartbeat. I loved the campus, the friendly kids, the free bus service all over the county, and the urban atmosphere. Lots of fun places to go in walking distance and only a 10min bus ride into Pittsburgh.

Miami University. The original Public Ivy.

Virginia Tech grad here needs to point out that the comment about confederate loving garbage are misplaced. The current elected officials struggling with accusations of racism are UVA grads and grads of VMI. Virginia Tech has enough horrific baggage to carry around but that isn't a Tech problem.

The location of Tech is a plus and minus. It was OOS for me. Grew up in Maryland and the close proximity of College Park was a huge strike against it for me. I wanted to be a good drive away but something that could be done easily in a day. I really live UVA but it is as close to the DC area as I would want my kid to be. I want them to be "away." I don't want them coming home with bags of laundry every weekend. Every couple months--yes---but not every weekend. Of course, my kids aren't there yet so I may feel differently when they are...

An important thing to consider about Virginia Tech is that is has a huge sense of place. If you have visited, you will understand. It isn't like you get there and feel isolated. And having gone there, it was so great to go tubing on the New, go mountain biking at Pandapas pond, and to have a fun college town. For a confirmed City Rat, it would be dreadful but I would argue UVA and UNC would be as well. City Rats should probably go to Georgia Tech or Pitt--those are near real cities. The rest of the schools I mention are really more country schools. Some want that and others don't. I never regret going to Va Tech from out of state.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know... I generally find OOS public is a dumb idea unless you are talking Berkeley and other schools at that level.

In some ways I agree, but I suspect for a very different reason. I agree that there are plenty of fantastic OOS public universities. But, in this area, I think in-state options are at least as good in nearly every area. In most cases, it would be hard to justify paying much more to go OOS, unless admission to flagship is an issue (which is a valid concern), or even IS tuition is too high for a very high stat kid who might be able to get serious merit elsewhere.

There are OOS schools that it costs cheaper than in state, when offered merit scholarships. Virginia in-states are no where near urban areas and UMCP is the only decent in-state option and it is in thugville, has moldy dorms, and cost of off-campus housing is outrageous.

There are so many really nice OOS options in urban areas (Arizona State, UCLA, Minnesota, Washington, Pitt, UT Austin, CUNY Barnard) nd many in areas with places you would want to visit on weekends. This generation wants more to do than the typical frat party vibe all weekend in the boonies. Having urban areas, culture, weekend trip options, etc... is really nice. And going to another area f the country is a positive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know... I generally find OOS public is a dumb idea unless you are talking Berkeley and other schools at that level.

In some ways I agree, but I suspect for a very different reason. I agree that there are plenty of fantastic OOS public universities. But, in this area, I think in-state options are at least as good in nearly every area. In most cases, it would be hard to justify paying much more to go OOS, unless admission to flagship is an issue (which is a valid concern), or even IS tuition is too high for a very high stat kid who might be able to get serious merit elsewhere.

My DC is considering choosing Pitt over UMD-CP, in part because of its location. Pittsburgh is a wonderful city and Pitt has a nice campus in a great neighborhood as well as a lot of great majors.

DC's merit aid brings Pitt down to just a few thousand more than what UMD-CP would cost us in-state.

I have mixed feelings about it but I do think that wanting to go to school more than 10 miles from home (and possibly wanting to live elsewhere post-graduation) is a valid reason for choosing Pitt over UMD.

My kid chose OOS for precisely that reason and we are happy with that choice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know... I generally find OOS public is a dumb idea unless you are talking Berkeley and other schools at that level.

Right, you don’t know. You don’t know much at all.

My kid just didn’t want to be in Appalachia. Nothing wrong with Blacksburg, but you cant call it urban.

VTech will always be hampered by their location.

And their confederate-loving population that surrounds them.

Hey. Let's stop harshing on Tech,. I'm the one who made the original comment. My only point to the ignorant OP is that no school is all things to all people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know... I generally find OOS public is a dumb idea unless you are talking Berkeley and other schools at that level.

Right, you don’t know. You don’t know much at all.

My kid just didn’t want to be in Appalachia. Nothing wrong with Blacksburg, but you cant call it urban.

VTech will always be hampered by their location.

And their confederate-loving population that surrounds them.

A+ for the close-minded bigotry. Believe it or not, there are people out there who are attracted to the outdoors and rural settings. Not everyone wants to live or go to school in an crime-ridden urban environment and , that's okay.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know... I generally find OOS public is a dumb idea unless you are talking Berkeley and other schools at that level.

In some ways I agree, but I suspect for a very different reason. I agree that there are plenty of fantastic OOS public universities. But, in this area, I think in-state options are at least as good in nearly every area. In most cases, it would be hard to justify paying much more to go OOS, unless admission to flagship is an issue (which is a valid concern), or even IS tuition is too high for a very high stat kid who might be able to get serious merit elsewhere.

My DC is considering choosing Pitt over UMD-CP, in part because of its location. Pittsburgh is a wonderful city and Pitt has a nice campus in a great neighborhood as well as a lot of great majors.

DC's merit aid brings Pitt down to just a few thousand more than what UMD-CP would cost us in-state.

I have mixed feelings about it but I do think that wanting to go to school more than 10 miles from home (and possibly wanting to live elsewhere post-graduation) is a valid reason for choosing Pitt over UMD.