Northeast "Selective" Colleges

[NewRVLady]

Just an FYI, when my daughter was looking at colleges and told a professor at an open house she was planning on majoring in a science, he asked which one and told her he was glad it wasn't Forensic Chemistry.....the TV shows have led to a flood of students wanting to major in that field, and there are more grads than jobs. Things may have changed in the past few years though - just something to think about.

Good point!
At my son's Uni , in the Fine Arts division, there were 300 Interior Design Freshman, due to the popularity of all the HGTV decorating shows

 

[NotUrsula]

Few schools guarantee 4 yrs of housing because very few upperclassmen tend to want to live on-campus. Not only do they prefer their space, but except in major city-centers, it is usually cheaper to live off-campus anyway if you don't have highbrow tastes.

As an adult I've almost always lived fairly near campuses, and have for 30 years commuted through those neighborhoods. I always tell kids who want to live cheaply to get on a bicycle and start riding around the nearby neighborhoods. The best bargain places are not broadly advertised; the owners only put a sign in the yard or window so that they can impose more restrictions. In a car you are often moving too fast to see the signs, but on a bike you can see them easily. (And also get a good feel for whether the neighborhood is bike-friendly, if that is how you will be commuting.)

 

[3boymthr]

3boymthr...we also did tour Framingham. Glad to hear your son is happy there. My DD liked it a lot along with Dartmouth. I liked that they are building a new science building that will be finished before my DD would start. (Can't remember if it opens this Aug or next.) (She is thinking of Biology as a major.)

Funny for us is that my DH grew up in Framingham and we still have family there. I moved there with friends after college (couldn't afford Boston then.) My DH who went to Syracuse for undergrad wound up going to Framingham State for his Masters and it has served him well.

It will be interesting to see where DD winds up.
At this point, she isn't convinced on paying the extra money to live away. She could wind up at Worcester State and commute or get an apt. with friends in a year.

I want the decision to be hers and see the pros and cons of both. So I guess in the meantime, we will keep touring a few more schools so she has a bunch to compare from to see which is a good fit.

Trying not to stress too much over it. I figure we all turned out ok so no matter where she goes it will all work out in the end.

So far so good, but then his first classes haven't started yet.

His college choice was very much a financial decision I'm afraid, not so much the I like this school so this is where I'm going. He was very very limited in school selection because of his first desired major was Forestry which is not offered by any school in MA and only by 4 schools in New England (and one of them was Yale, which with his grades was not going to happen) and it's not offered by many more schools in the whole country (less than 20) With the exception of Yale most are giant state run universities. Even with the New England Reciprocal tuition plan the other New England schools were beyond his reach financially (cause he got no aid beyond loans). He knows what he wants to do after graduation and there are two degree paths which gave him a second but slightly less desired major (in his mind anyway). There are only two schools in MA that offer his second choice major - UMass Amherst and Framingham State. So after reasoning it out financially he went with the alternate major and the in state school where Grandma and Grandpa had prepaid his tuition (and FEES) 100% vs 50% (we convinced him that minimal bills after graduation is a good thing .) ETA - I'm also convinced that his second major opens up many more avenues of employment than Forestry - then again, I could be wrong.

 

[NewRVLady]

3Boy- what is his 2nd major??

 

[leebee]

WOW! I just looked at the New England Regional Program website and tuition in Massachusetts for residents is dirt cheap, especially at the community colleges and state schools! I was a Massachusetts resident for 28 consecutive years, and then again for another 2 years later in life. Boy, do I wish we lived in Mass. now, so DD could have taken advantage of this kind of tuition!

3boymthr… Any chance your DS could do 2 years in Mass, filling gen ed requirements and such, and then transfer to a forestry program for his last 2 years? There's a great one here in Maine, and I think it's on the list for the New England Regional program. The NE program's website is a little deceptive on the tuition rate for UMaine, as we actually pay by the credit hour and not a flat-rate tuition. Just a thought.

 

[MEG&MINNIE]

APD: I think you nailed it on the head. There is SO MUCH MORE to the college search than I think most people realize. I have heard horror stories about students not getting the classes they need to graduate on time, not from their own doing, but because the school doesn't offer enough or at times that work in that major. I have also heard horror stories about students having to transfer out because of lack of housing.

For example, I'm taking the advice of others here on the board about enlarging the search to bigger schools and thought, wth, I'll start with the UMass system and look at ULowell. Well, wasn't I excited to find out they offer a Chemistry/Forensic Science option which is originally what DD wanted but is extremely limited (same with criminology). The more I read the more excited I became that maybe, just maybe, we had a found a school she might like within the budget. Yup, its all good until you find out that only freshman are guaranteed housing and the next three years is a gamble. And not a very good one. I'm going to call admissions to find out about the honors housing but I'm not hopeful.

Then theres the 6 year graduation rate. What's up with that. Seems to be a trend now that students take only four classes and end up doing five years. Heck, we can't afford four years, never mind extending it.

Have fun with it? LOL, I'm Type A and this started out as an adventure. Its now becoming a stressor for my family. Anytime I shell out any real $$ I want to know exactly what I'm buying and that I"m getting the best value for my dollar. College shopping is no different. And yet, we push forward

As far as housing goes at UMass Lowell my son lived on campus all 4 years. No problem with on campus housing that I know of. Then as he was working on his Master's Degree he lived with a few guys in an apartment about 2 blocks away.
Now, my daughter will be a Freshman there in the fall and has specific housing lined up in a "suite style living" dorm building for those students in "Health Science" majors. Hope she enjoys her college experience as much as my son did his at UMASS Lowell.

 

[NotUrsula]

So far so good, but then his first classes haven't started yet.

His college choice was very much a financial decision I'm afraid, not so much the I like this school so this is where I'm going. He was very very limited in school selection because of his first desired major was Forestry which is not offered by any school in MA and only by 4 schools in New England (and one of them was Yale, which with his grades was not going to happen) and it's not offered by many more schools in the whole country (less than 20) With the exception of Yale most are giant state run universities. Even with the New England Reciprocal tuition plan the other New England schools were beyond his reach financially (cause he got no aid beyond loans). He knows what he wants to do after graduation and there are two degree paths which gave him a second but slightly less desired major (in his mind anyway). There are only two schools in MA that offer his second choice major - UMass Amherst and Framingham State. So after reasoning it out financially he went with the alternate major and the in state school where Grandma and Grandpa had prepaid his tuition (and FEES) 100% vs 50% (we convinced him that minimal bills after graduation is a good thing .) ETA - I'm also convinced that his second major opens up many more avenues of employment than Forestry - then again, I could be wrong.

Trust me on this, for a forestry degree, cost SHOULD be the primary consideration. It is a notoriously low-paying field on the conservation side (which most college-educated foresters tend to be; no one wants to be the Once-Ler.) Over the years I've worked with three different conservation foresters who left the field because they were burned out; they couldn't take the solitude coupled with the low pay that didn't let them travel much to escape and get around people again, or to support the SAH spouse that is the optimal situation out in the deep woods. Also, they got tired of getting shot at: growing pot or cooking meth in the deep woods is a popular pastime, and the folks doing it can have very negative reactions to forest Rangers.

FWIW, an amazing number of ex-foresters go into IT.

 

[3boymthr]

3Boy- what is his 2nd major??

Wildlife Biology

 

[czycropper]

I want to say thanks so much for this thread. As I had posted on the 2016 thread my DD is starting to look at colleges and we went to Columbia last Friday - which has now become her first choice and says that it's going to be her early decision. I'm very uncomfortable with that since even though she has a 4.0 and got the equivalent of 1,900 on her PSAT (her guidance counselor says that he expects her to get 2,200 easy when she takes her SATs-I guess since she does so well in testing).

She's also looking at colleges between Boston & DC - BU, Northeastern, Yale, NYU, Bucknell, UPenn, Cornell, Syracuse, GW & American. She's thinking of Econ & PoliSci majors with a minor in either Theatre or Business. It's going to be a very long, long, long year!!!

 

[okeydokey]

Wildlife Biology

My husband got his undergrad in Wildlife Biology at Penn State. Jobs were hard to get with a BS so he went back to grad school at Auburn University. The jobs that were open were Masters Required to apply and the pay was not great until you got up into administration. However, grad students in the the sciences are often paid stipends to teach or do research. They waived out of state tuition, but he had to pay in state rates. Not a luxurious lifestyle, but doable. This was in the early-mid 90s.

 

[3boymthr]

My husband got his undergrad in Wildlife Biology at Penn State. Jobs were hard to get with a BS so he went back to grad school at Auburn University. The jobs that were open were Masters Required to apply and the pay was not great until you got up into administration. However, grad students in the the sciences are often paid stipends to teach or do research. They waived out of state tuition, but he had to pay in state rates. Not a luxurious lifestyle, but doable. This was in the early-mid 90s.

He wants to be a game warden and his desired location would be in Maine. He also plans to do a round in the military to round out the skills needed. Based on what he's read a BS should be what's needed to score a job in the field.