If you open to the South, then the Croft Institute at Ole Miss is worth a look. Good merit possibilities for the right stats which they used to list on their website - you would need to check
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That answer just cost me a 4 hour drive to see the campus on Tuesday. 
Thanks!
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Hi Everyone. Just wanted to update you all. My son really likes the idea of the Cybersecurity & Global Policy program at Indiana University. He applied today and weāll be visiting on November 5th for a tour.
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Appreciate the update! IU is a great school and Bloomington is a fun town. Looking forward to hearing his impressions!
Have any other colleges made it on/off the list since you last wrote?
Apologies for my delayed reply!
The list is largely the same. Weāll be visiting Miami U on the way to IU and then possibly Purdue.
Quick update: My son was just admitted to Susquehanna University with a 44K annual presidential scholarship. Weāll see where he ends up, but this offer was impressive to us. Heāll also get a 4k visit grant for our visit earlier this year. 
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Another update for everyone. Our S25 was accepted to Seton Hall for 2025 with a 20K per year scholarship. This brings the tuition from about 48K down to about 28K. Iāve heard in some places that they match Rutgersā in-state tuition if we go back to them. Weāll see once he gets all his decisions back.
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Can I ask how you found out about the Susquehanna awardāemail or letter? We went to check S25ās portal, and there is a welcome video and link to submit a deposit, but no letter is linked, and no email was received.
Absolutely! I didnāt really remember so he just logged in again. On October 1st, he got an email from them that there was an update to his app. There was a video on the main portal page titled āWelcome to the Nestā along with the āView Status Updateā button. His letter with the details of the scholarship was there. I wouldnāt worry about it. His Seton Hall acceptance letter was posted a day after his decision was made. All he saw on the portal when he got the email was a welcome video. The next day, the letter was there with the award details.
Who knows why they do what they do? Maybe they want to build anticipation with certain kids? Maybe somebody forgot to click āattachā when they posted it? If it goes on longer, call them. I had to speak with the SU admissions folks a couple of times. Super nice people there. Hope this helps!
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Some update for you all. You were all so helpful, I wanted to let you know where my S25 stands at the moment. His apps have been done for some time now and the number is set at 27 (I knowā¦). Heās gotten back 7 decisions, all acceptances. One of those 7 includes Penn State at the main campus for the SoDA major. Other acceptances include Central Michigan Uni, Seton Hall, Susquehanna U, Drew Uni, Rowan Uni, and UNC Charlotte.
As far as Penn State, we all know how expensive it is and that the merit grants top out at 5K so weāll see what this ends up being. This is my S25ās first choice and no other school is even close for him. Iām trying to justify the cost in the my head and one of the ways Iām doing that is by considering the ROI, not just in terms of dollars, but opportunity. We (his parents) will pay the bulk of it with savings and some loans, but he will have to take on some of it at some point. It seems to me that the ROI for this school is HUGE. The opportunities on campus and the alumni network seem to indicate that the return could be really good for him.
The one thing weāre not so sure about is the SoDA major and the return for that particular program. It looks great, but heās indicated heād like to have a more focused program. The SoDA major is a collection of different sciences that donāt appear to get to deeply examined. Heās applied to the Cybersecurity program at a few other schools as heās gravitated toward that in the last 6 weeks or so. Is it safe to assume that he would be able to switch to PSUās Cybersecurity major once heās enrolled and in school? Any chance he wouldnāt be allowed to? What if we asked up front before enrolling? Would they rescind the offer?
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How are you measuring ROI, and how does Penn State compare to other schools like Rutgers in that measure?
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Iām not doing it in any kind of scientific way. It just āseemsā to me like it is and itās mostly based on anecdotal data.
I would absolutely ask whether it is possible to switch majors, and what is involved (e.g. do you have to apply to the other major once enrolled? is it hard/impossible to get in?). Use that as a datapoint in evaluating colleges. They wonāt rescind an offer if you ask the question ā but the answer may influence how excited he is about PS if he canāt switch majors. Congrats, it is nice to have options, now you just need to evaluate them all for fit and finances. (And wait for the others :))
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Thanks for this. Great advice!
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Regarding the major-change inquiry, I think I would start with the Poli Sci department. They administer both the SoDa major and the International Politics major, which includes the concentration in National Security. The info on that concentration (here) states that āthis concentration is often combined with the study of Information Science and Technologyāā¦ which is the department that houses the Cybsersecurity Analytics & Operations major. I would think that switching majors within the Poli Sci department would be seamless, and this statement implies that adding a double-major in Cybersecurity would be common, so asking the Poli Sci folks whether there are any barriers to adding that second major seems like a good starting point. (And from there, he could always drop the Poli Sci major or downgrade it to a minor if he wanted to focus more on the tech side of things.)
How did the IU visit go - will that program also be a front-runner if/when he gets in, or does he like PSU a lot better?
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Thatās a great point and makes sense. Weāll definitely look into this.
Regarding IU, we ended up not going. We instead visited Vermont. Our plan was to visit both Miami U in Oxford and IU, but didnāt want to spend that much money just to see them. We want to wait until he has an acceptance and merit aid offer and then we go if it makes sense. Regarding that, he was just accepted to IU today. He got into the CS & GP program and was really pumped when he saw the decision. This is definitely at the top of his list with PSU. He got another email today that the Miami decision will be available on Friday.
Regarding IU and merit aid, there was no mention of merit aid in his acceptance letter. Just a link to apply for scholarships, which is all well and good, but we expected to see a dollar amount of merit aid per year outlined in the letter. PSU didnāt have this either but weāre guessing that theyāre waiting for the Schreyer Honors College decision to be made (he applied) before they inform about merit aid. As I write this, it occurs to me that perhaps IU is waiting for that as well. Heās applying for the Hutton Honors College. He has until 1-1 to submit his app for that. What am I missing with IU and merit aid?
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Congratulations on his acceptance! Did he complete the IU scholarship application?
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Schreyer Honors College students receive $5000 a year. Most other students at PSU receive no merit aid. PSU is notoriously stingy with both merit and need-based aid, even for instate students.
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Not yet. He will very soon. He reached out to this really nice lady at IU that works with the CS & GP program and she replied that he might see something soon from the office of scholarships and from Luddy. Itās a different office that handles that and not the AO.
Yes they are def stingy, but āwe are penn state and if you wanna be part of this, youāll pay what we askā. Unfortunately, a lot of kids do. Even the ones that really canāt. Iāve learned that the PSU avg merit aid is between 1K and 5K with the average grant being 2500.
The SHC acceptance rate is about 8%-10% from what I could find on the internet. so weāll see.
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I wouldnāt allow my daughter to apply to PSU, knowing that as an instate Pell-eligible family, we wouldnāt be able to afford it. Some families borrow up to their eyeballs to send their kids to Penn State.
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