Brag about your "lesser known" school!

[somemom]

Olymom: My D1 went to a UC, so ranked top 50, more prestigous, etc, she ended up taking about a dozen classes at WWU for various reasons over the years and loved it- waay better experience than she had at the UC, because even the science profs taught the classes and they all spoke English as a first language at WWU- she chose it for grad school. Not that she is disdainful of her UC experience, more that she would have disrespected WWU back in HS- not enough of a reputation and all that, but it is really an interesting place.

[historymom]

can I ask which UC ?

[mootmom]

My son will be attending Fairleigh Dickinson University, in Madison NJ, in the fall. He will be on the "Florham" campus, which is mostly residential, while its twin "Metropolitan" campus in Teaneck is more commuter. The vast majority of students at this small liberal arts school are from NJ, with sizeable minorities from NY, PA, CT, and DE. My son has so far met one student each from VT, MD, TX, CO, and India, and we're told he's the only incoming freshman from CA (although there are 3 or 4 others in the other classes). FDU states its mission as one of "Global Education" and has a required core of 4 courses dealing with various aspects of global culture, history, and understanding. There is an online distance-learning component of these core courses.

FDU Florham is a gorgeous bucolic leafy green campus with mostly brick buildings, on the grounds of a former Vanderbilt mansion. Founded in 1942, it is known for its business and education schools (especially its MBA program) and psychology department, but also has an exciting animation and graphic design department which intrigued my son. It is also known for its Regional Center for Students with Disabilities. FDU has a campus in Wroxton, England, which offers study abroad, and has just opened another campus in Vancouver, BC. There is a flourishing Honors program, and four special Florham Scholars programs (in Art & Humanities, Global Studies, Business, and Science: my son will be in the Art & Humanities program, where they will go into NYC as a group monthly for visits to galleries and meet-ups with the artists, visits to musical or theatrical performances and meet-ups with the musicians or directors, etc.). There are about 2400 students on the Florham campus, which is a quick 30-min. train ride into NYC (there is a rail stop at the edge of campus), with about twice as many students at the Metropolitan campus; from what we can tell the campuses are pretty independent. The proximity to NYC allows excursions into the City for cultural and other learning, and allows interactions on campus with many UN delegates who regularly visit campus. Students are invited to sign up for talks and dinners with UN representatives who visit campus; these talks/dinners are held in a former ballroom in The Mansion. We were told that the NY Giants train on the grounds and in the athletic center during the summer.

Drew University and the College of St. Elizabeth are both within a mile of FDU Florham (St. Elizabeth shares a border). FDU has both Division III (Florham) and Division I (Metropolitan) sports teams. Applying before Jan. 15th and including two letters of recommendation put applicants in the running for a large pool of merit aid. My son was invited to Scholar's Day in early March and afterwards offered a very large merit award. He's received phonecalls from his dept chair, personalized mailings from the Admissions Office, and emails from faculty and students: all interactions he's had from afar or in person have been warm, welcoming, and very positive. He signed up for his classes last week at a 2-day orientation, and in a move that I would not have thought likely, he tried to sign up for too MANY classes and had to be talked out of some of them this semester.

We know people who've attended FDU and are happy people with fabulous careers. I can't comment on his education there yet, but I *can* assure you he is really excited about moving out there in 6 short weeks. From what I can tell, FDU is a sleeping gem that will offer the right student a supportive environment with lots of opportunities, and likely some pretty nice merit money, too. Tuition next year will be $27,620, plus room/board for residential students. (With scholarship, the cost for us will be below that of a UC school in-state.)

www.fdu.edu

[Mudder's_Mudder]

Mootmom, FDU was my "dream school" throughout most of HS. I especially liked their program with the UN. Somehow the dream fell by the wayside and I never applied. With the amount of information available to kids today, many of these "lesser known" schools are finally getting their due. Hooray!

Congratulations and best wishes to your son.

[Debruns]

My son is at Drew, FDU's neighbor, and also got a good scholarship and had an easy adjustment freshman year. Although I get smiles and nods when I tell people my son is a Drew,some say, "where is that??", which is an opportunity to give a smaller school a plug.
I have also heard and read on this board that FDU has excellent facilities for any learning disabilities a student might have if you have documents to support it. That can be hard to find sometimes even at more well known colleges.

[galwaymom]

mootmom- my mother graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson in 1950. She became a special education teacher, and got a fabulous education there!
I hope your s loves it now as much as she did 57+ years ago!

[JHS]

My niece is about to graduate from WWU with a BA in writing and a BFA in dance. It is the fifth college she attended, but the first that really engaged her and met her needs. She has done exciting things there and learned a lot. It's definitely worth checking out for students that don't quite fit the standard mold.

[gadad]

Gee, this is refreshing!!!

[zoosermom]

My beloved nephew graduated last year from FDU with his master's in finance. With the generous aid he received, he has no debt and a wonderful job making serious bucks in the financial industry in NYC. He met his lovely fiancee who is a teacher and they are both poised, educated and wonderful people. He made a great choice and I hope as much success and happiness for your son!

[gbesq]

Here's my plug for Kansas State University. Although K-State is ranked in the USNWR 1st tier for national universities, it's near the bottom of that category. My daughter was a stellar student in high school (4.0 GPA, 31 ACT, magnet high school program, equestrian athlete, over a year of college/AP credit in high school, etc.). She could have gone just about anywhere, but she chose K-State because of the strong reputation of its college of agriculture, preveterinary program and vet school. Additionally, the campus is beautiful, everyone we met was incredibly friendly and helpful and it's very inexpensive, even for non-residents. To top all that off, the academics aren't bad:

K-STATE'S STELLAR COMPANY
K-State ranks first nationally among state universities in its total of Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall scholars since 1986. Our students have won more than $2 million in those five competitions and have earned K-State a place among the nation's elite universities.

Rank among the 500 state universities
1. K-State (#1 in all-time Truman and Goldwater scholars; #2 in Rhodes scholars since 1986; #3 in Marshall scholars since 1986; #5 in all-time Udall scholars)
2. Penn State
3. University of North Carolina
4. University of Kansas
5. Arizona State University
6. University of Virginia
7. University of Michigan
8. University of Illinois
9. Montana State University
10. University of California at Berkeley

Rank among all 2,400 public and private universities
1. Harvard
2. Yale
3. Princeton
4. Stanford
5. Duke
6. Brown
7. K-State
8. Chicago
9. MIT
10. Cornell

So I second your toast to "lesser known" schools, OP. Go Wildcats!

[abasket]

It is THRILLING for me to see all these posts! College is all about choice - whether you choose a local college, a large univ, a small private, a well known, or a lesser known - it is your choice and decision and hopefully a FIT for you (the student!).

There are many great choices out there - we as a family received a lot of flack when we left our Catholic private ed - D attended there preschool - 8th grade - for public high school. A choice we believed was good for her because we know she would be motivated and we felt we then would have more $$ options when college time came. I don't know how many times she was told "I hope you have a good head on your shoulders" as she headed off to public school. Obviously, she did!!! But ANY of the choices she had then, could be good if the fit was right and the motivation was there.

I hope others will continue to post, so we can celebrate ALL the choices available - and celebrate all the great kids at great schools EVERYONE on CC has in their family!!!

[jaso9n2]

Georgia State University. If you're looking for the same quality education as UGA, minus the whole "bulldog tradition" thing and over-selectivity, go here. It's not as expensive as UGA in terms of tuition, but housing is around 5k a year. The only real drawback is it's not just in a city...it's the city. But they recently built brand new dorms like two minutes away, and they have a SotR rec center.

[Rachacha]

Similar to what mezzomom mentioned about Methodist scholarships at Otterbein, Westminster College in PA has a Young Presbyterian Scholars program ($12,000/yr) that is worth looking into if you are a member of that denomination and are looking for a smaller school with great academic programs.

http://www.westminster.edu/spiritlif...s_overview.cfm

[melman]

Great to see this thread! I'm getting 'flack' from some of my friends about considering Clark University, Ursinus, College of Wooster and Juniata. Some people can be so dismissive of schools they've 'never heard of'.

[silverpebble]

I chose not to attend, but I have to brag about the school my dad attended: Kenyon College in Ohio. It has a very community-oriented campus, cutting-edge programs, and artistic disciplines. It's worth looking into.