A "is this a good college" thread for all college searchers...

[tar heel]

MrsPete -- I'm not so sure I'd put UNCC's architecture program ahead of State's. State's is certainly more prestigious. I'm sure you know that both are pretty selective for admissions.

 

[Robinrs]

Agreed.

And don't lose sight of the fact that less than half the adult population in America has a Bachelor's degree anyway. At our high school something like 80-85% of all our students START college, but no one keeps stats on how many finish.

Here's some info on the percentage who finish, not sure how accurate it is but it rings true: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/coll...rads_finish_in_6_years.html?qs=FINISH+COLLEGE

Half of First-Time Undergrads Finish in 6 Years, Study Finds
By Caralee Adams on December 1, 2010 12:26 PM |

New numbers are out today on college completion from the U.S. Department of Education. About 49 percent of students who began to pursue a certificate or bachelor's degree in 2003-2004 had completed their work six years later.

The First Look report by the Institute of Education Services tracks the rates at which first-time undergraduates complete degrees, transfer, or drop out.

Highlights of the research:

• Breaking down the numbers among the 2003-04 beginning students: About 9 percent had received a certificate; 9 percent had earned an associate's degree; and 31 percent had completed a bachelor's degree from any institution by June 2009.

• About 15 percent who began their studies in 2003-04 remained enrolled but had not yet completed a program of study.

• Of the group tracked, 36 percent had left their schools without a credential of any kind within the six years of the study.

 

[Robinrs]

bump!

 

[golfgal]

Ok, how about Ripon in Wi? We have gotten a ton of mail from them in the past couple weeks.

 

[cruisnfamily]

Found this post on College Confidential and thought it was interesting so I am posting it here:

Well today I'm going to offer a different perspective on the process; this one has to do with the "weight" of college. Since September 2009 I've saved and tracked every piece of physical mail that "Junior" has received from colleges. Over the last year and a half I've had to move to bigger boxes and expand his seemingly never ending list of potential colleges.

I've learned about "couples" like Washington & Lee, Franklin & Marshall, William & Mary as well as Baldwin & Wallace. We've heard from more Technical Institutes than you can shake a slide rule at including NY Poly, Rochester, Pratt, Lawrence, Rennselaer, Stevens, Michigan and Illinois. I've met quite a few of the Wesleyans - Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and the plain old Wessy in Connecticut. Plus I got tired of counting the Saints after Louis, Johns and Olaf.

To date he's received 471 pieces of mail from 131 colleges with a total weight of 43.5 pounds. The funny thing is that the mail sent seemed to have no impact on his final list. His 6 applied to schools sent him a total of 19 pieces of (pre-application) mail with his safety school accounting for (12) of those items. Two of his schools sent him (0) pieces and a third sent only (1).

FWIW, here are the "Top 5" mailers:

1. Washington Univ. St. Louis - 27 pcs.
2. Vanderbilt - 20 pcs.
3. Chicago - 17 pcs.
4. Carleton College - 15 pcs.
4. NYU - 15 pcs.
4. Univ. of Miami - 15 pcs.

109 mailings <---> 0 applications. Not one of these schools even vaguely tickled his interest; so I'm at a loss to understand the algorithms that go into deciding who gets mail and who doesn't.

43 pounds!

You can find the thread here if you are interested in reading the whole thing.

 

[swanmom]

We're done, too! DD was accepted to Boston College and Elon. She was so, so excited about Boston College but we warned her not to get her hopes up. We knew that we could not afford BC without SUBSTANTIAL! aid (despite what we've been able to save) and we didn't want her to be disappointed. All we kept saying was "We have to wait for the financial aid package before a final decision can be made." You can imagine there were several difficult conversations with her about what we could and couldn't do. We were trying not to feel guilty but we knew how hard she had worked to get into such a selective school. And, of course, we knew how badly she wanted to go there.

Well, the aid package arrived yesterday. They have met 100% of her need and more than 75% of it is scholarship money - not loans!!! OMG !!! She just signed up for "Admitted Eagle" day and we are so proud for her!

I hope there are positive outcomes for all of the rest of our DISer kids and that the stress of college selection is behind them all soon!

 

[NotUrsula]

Found this post on College Confidential and thought it was interesting so I am posting it here:

43 pounds!

You can find the thread here if you are interested in reading the whole thing.

Now, THAT is a parent with WAY too much time on her hands.

Notice it wasn't the son who counted and cataloged all that junk mail?

 

[Robinrs]

We're done, too! DD was accepted to Boston College and Elon. She was so, so excited about Boston College but we warned her not to get her hopes up. We knew that we could not afford BC without SUBSTANTIAL! aid (despite what we've been able to save) and we didn't want her to be disappointed. All we kept saying was "We have to wait for the financial aid package before a final decision can be made." You can imagine there were several difficult conversations with her about what we could and couldn't do. We were trying not to feel guilty but we knew how hard she had worked to get into such a selective school. And, of course, we knew how badly she wanted to go there.

Well, the aid package arrived yesterday. They have met 100% of her need and more than 75% of it is scholarship money - not loans!!! OMG !!! She just signed up for "Admitted Eagle" day and we are so proud for her!

I hope there are positive outcomes for all of the rest of our DISer kids and that the stress of college selection is behind them all soon!

Congrats!!! I can't WAIT till this is over and done, too! Hugs to you and your daughter! What a weight off your shoulders!

 

[Robinrs]

Now, THAT is a parent with WAY too much time on her hands.

Notice it wasn't the son who counted and cataloged all that junk mail?

It actually is a HE and I'm shocked myself! Why would anyone do this???? Does he weigh his other JUNK mail, too?

My mail is on my counter when I come home from work. The schools I'm not interested in (out of state, etc) go straight to the trash. I can't imagine counting, keeping or WEIGHING junk.

Every college and institution of learning is advertising their wares for MONEY, that is the bottom line. It's like commercials, SOMEONE is going to buy this.

 

[jrmasm]

Now, THAT is a parent with WAY too much time on her hands.

Notice it wasn't the son who counted and cataloged all that junk mail?

Meh, I found it interesting and amusing.

 

[disykat]

Meh, I found it interesting and amusing.

I also think it's interesting and, although we haven't counted it, my son is keeping all of his. We're planning a "decision day bon fire." Hopefully his friends have been saving too.

My 10th grader is already keeping his AND counting emails. I thought this was pretty normal?

 

[Robinrs]

I also think it's interesting and, although we haven't counted it, my son is keeping all of his. We're planning a "decision day bon fire." Hopefully his friends have been saving too.

My 10th grader is already keeping his AND counting emails. I thought this was pretty normal?

I guess it must be normal for some but I just wonder why? The bonfire sounds like fun, though.

 

[MUFFYCAT]

We're done, too! DD was accepted to Boston College and Elon. She was so, so excited about Boston College but we warned her not to get her hopes up. We knew that we could not afford BC without SUBSTANTIAL! aid (despite what we've been able to save) and we didn't want her to be disappointed. All we kept saying was "We have to wait for the financial aid package before a final decision can be made." You can imagine there were several difficult conversations with her about what we could and couldn't do. We were trying not to feel guilty but we knew how hard she had worked to get into such a selective school. And, of course, we knew how badly she wanted to go there.

Well, the aid package arrived yesterday. They have met 100% of her need and more than 75% of it is scholarship money - not loans!!! OMG !!! She just signed up for "Admitted Eagle" day and we are so proud for her!

I hope there are positive outcomes for all of the rest of our DISer kids and that the stress of college selection is behind them all soon!

That's great news!! Congraulations!!!
I wish her all the best!

Now, THAT is a parent with WAY too much time on her hands.

I thought the same thing.

 

[PrincessKsMom]

We're done, too! DD was accepted to Boston College and Elon. She was so, so excited about Boston College but we warned her not to get her hopes up. We knew that we could not afford BC without SUBSTANTIAL! aid (despite what we've been able to save) and we didn't want her to be disappointed. All we kept saying was "We have to wait for the financial aid package before a final decision can be made." You can imagine there were several difficult conversations with her about what we could and couldn't do. We were trying not to feel guilty but we knew how hard she had worked to get into such a selective school. And, of course, we knew how badly she wanted to go there.

Well, the aid package arrived yesterday. They have met 100% of her need and more than 75% of it is scholarship money - not loans!!! OMG !!! She just signed up for "Admitted Eagle" day and we are so proud for her!

I hope there are positive outcomes for all of the rest of our DISer kids and that the stress of college selection is behind them all soon!

Wow! Such exciting news for all of you! Sending your daughter pixie dust and good vibes for her college years and beyond!

 

[disneylovin24]

I need to ask, I know that as parents you don't want your kids to come out owing a lot of money with loans but it seems like no one is giving their kids the option at all. A lot of people are saying that their kids are getting into their dream colleges but can't go because of not enough scholarship. Did you consider taking loans out at all Was it your decision or your kids to not take out loans and not go where they want

 

[disneylovin24]

Found this post on College Confidential and thought it was interesting so I am posting it here:

43 pounds!

You can find the thread here if you are interested in reading the whole thing.

Very interesting. The only one of those schools that I got anything from is Miami.


What does anyone know about Guilford College in North Carolina? Not that I can really go there because its so far away from home but I have gotten A LOT of letters from them and am curious.

 

[tar heel]

To answer disneylovin24 . . .

We want our sons to have a good start on life after college and starting out debt free instead of in a hole is a big part of that. I don't see myself encouraging loans for undergraduate school. If I did, it would be for a very practical major and for a very prestigious school only.

For the record, our kids can major in whatever their passion is. One of the them has a lucrative major and a great job two years out of college -- he could afford loans but is sure glad he doesn't have them. The one graduating in May is not in a practical, lucrative field. If that kid also had loans, he would be up the creek b/c he would have to produce more $ immediately than is likely to happen. That's not what I want for my children.

I don't think I've ever known anyone who went to Guilford, but it's a small Quaker school with, as far as I know, a decent reputation. It also is a perfect example of a school I would never advocate my child getting loans to attend.

 

[bethbuchall]

Meh, I found it interesting and amusing.

I did, too. It certainly is a lot of mail. I'm trying to remember which ones we saw over and over again. I do know that if Pace had called the house one more time, my daughter was going to lose it. She thanked them and told them that she had no interest many times and was getting very annoyed.

 

[bballmom56]

I need to ask, I know that as parents you don't want your kids to come out owing a lot of money with loans but it seems like no one is giving their kids the option at all. A lot of people are saying that their kids are getting into their dream colleges but can't go because of not enough scholarship. Did you consider taking loans out at all Was it your decision or your kids to not take out loans and not go where they want

Actually, neither we nor or kids ended up taking out loans and they both got to go to the college of their choice. It just depends what your choices are.

We did our research early on, determined the type of school they would want and had their major (and other majors in which they were interested in case they ended up switching majors which one did), where they would thrive, receive a solid education AND that we could afford - either out of pocket, or with additional scholarships.

So perhaps there were other schools out there that could have been "dream colleges", but we did not consider them because we knew they could not get enough merit or need based money to make them affordable, which would have meant huge loans. Neither kid chose to look toward reach schools (which most likely would not have been affordable without large loans), so they stayed with matches and safeties which are where you will get most merit money.

They each attended a college where they got significant merit and need based scholarships and we could afford the remaining out of pocket expenses. Even though it was a match or a safety, they were both challenged academically and it was not a walk in the park. DD has been out of college for 5 years now and is very grateful she doesn't have to worry about student loans. DS is graduating this year and is also thrilled he won't have that on his back. And bballdad and I are very happy we don't have another bill to pay every month! They each got excellent, well rounded educations that will serve them well.

So in our family it was a decision by ALL of us not to take out loans. We did consider it at some points because of certain situations, but it did not become necessary.

 

[Robinrs]

I need to ask, I know that as parents you don't want your kids to come out owing a lot of money with loans but it seems like no one is giving their kids the option at all. A lot of people are saying that their kids are getting into their dream colleges but can't go because of not enough scholarship. Did you consider taking loans out at all Was it your decision or your kids to not take out loans and not go where they want

One of the most important lessons a parent MUST give a child is you CAN'T always get what you 'want'.

If it's not attainable, 17 or 18 is too old to learn that lesson. It should've been part of their lives since infanthood.

There are plusses and minuses to everything we "want" in life, and a good parent makes that clear to their children. If it requires a major financial decision which may be a problem in the future, adults have been thru this already and know the consequences. Children don't have that experience so they don't see the problem. There are options if the "wanted" is unattainable, and each child needs to know their ability to be a part of the choice, and their part in the decision.

I never had a loan to go to college, I was blessed to go tuition free. On the other hand I have friends and relatives in their 40s STILL paying off college loans. I don't want that to be a part of my son's future so the financial package he receives will have to be a small percentage of loan. Since I am in the business he wants to be a part of I know from the experience of hiring for 30 years what the industry is looking for. You don't have to go to an ivy to make it in television... nope, it's not a top priority.

I know what the people inside want and need and we plan accordingly. Financial planning is a learned thing, I listened (mostly NOT) to my parents and he has to deal with me. It's life.