I am sorry to hear of your child’s experiences and am glad your child found a better fit. Stories of dorm life, etc., are really helpful for prospective students. That being said, I find it rather offensive to suggest that the student body of an entire university is composed of unintelligent, rich posers who are buying a fake education. Chapman is a national, accredited university with some elite programs recognized worldwide and with very competitive acceptance rates. We have talked with several students there on scholarship & others who have discussed the rigor of their programs and engagement of their professors. (None of them frat boys). I have seen your complaints on other sites as well and on various threads here. It appears this all happened quite a while ago. Perhaps things have changed for the better. Best wishes.
Not sure why you replied to my post.
Just found it useful to know the Northeastern article was ten years old. Sorry if my reply was confusing.
I wanted to take a moment to follow up here and include some information from the past month. My child will not be attending Chapman, solely due to cost. We still love the school, but wish we would have known a few things before falling in love. I can see how an experience like ours might be off- putting for some people, and maybe your counselor has known some financially disappointed admits.
First, it does seem true that Chapman is generous with aid. We received approximately 14k in merit and 16k in Chapman grants, with the possibility of 10k more after appeal. (More on that below). For us, that brought the cost to $42-52k before loans. This would be equivalent to/lower than SDSU for oos, which came in at $50k w/ a projected $2500 max in scholarships, and mandatory annual tuition hike. (Although both were much higher than CSUN (WUE) and CSULB, which ranged $20-30k. Ultimately we chose an in-state school with max merit.)
Second, the NPC was not accurate for us. The NPC consistently projected an aid package of over $50k and net cost of $30-32k. This was based on a 4.5 gpa, highest rigor & strong test scores, which yielded a projected $30-40k in merit. We were told our child did not receive that amount because she chose a competitive major, with a strong waiting list. We were not told this until 2 days before commitment day, and had thought we had a great shot at our appeal, which had been pending over a month. Merit is apparently relative. Therefore, if cost is a factor, it may be worthwhile to discuss major options/ scholarship availability with the AO before selecting a specific major. This could be only a Dodge issue, but does suggest that there may be more $ in developing programs?
Third, appeals feel like a business deal. Although there are “2 buckets” for merit and financial aid, grants and scholarships are cross-referenced. I speculate this means there’s a bottom line income formula, which can be well below need threshold. If you have need, expect loans for both parent and student plus work study. Our appeal was really drawn out compared to others. Regular communication with the AO, appeals and negotiation are part of the process. In a year when aid packages are released on time, it may be more possible to continue negotiating affordability, but we ran out of time so I am not sure. Your kid should definitely get involved in the process, and the AOs really want to know this is your top choice.
Fourth, because it was weird year I can’t say for sure, but we did intuitively feel a little strung-along so they could see if a full-pay kid would be taking our spot, and this irritated my kid who slaved over multiple supplemental apps. Also, our need based grant amount changed twice in a week, which made us nervous about whether it would really be there for four years. Between this, the lower merit $ and the info about the waiting list, my kid felt like hard work was worth less than high income. I can see where this type of business decision and the long process would bother some kids and counselors, though personally I think it probably comes with the territory at some private schools.
Hope this helps a little if you apply. Maybe think about EA so you have time to negotiate, assuming FAFSA gets fixed before next year. Good luck!
UCLA by a landslide! If she was smart enough to gain admission to UCLA, she will appreciate the students there more and it’s a huge school, lots of options for friends. My daughter graduated from a highly ranked college prep school and felt the students at Chapman were of low caliber academically. We regretted the decision and she transferred schools.
Well, given that John Eastman was disbarred for working to establish the extralegal parameters for a rightwing coup, and that his appointment as Dean would have had to clear multiple administrative reviews right up to Chapman’s President, it would appear that at least a tolerance for ultra-rightwing positions–up to and including the overthrow of constitutional democracy–is in the university’s bones. So maybe OP’s guidance counselor was onto something!
My daughter attended Chapman 5 years ago. We felt the same way as you: beautifully manicured campus and happy, well-adjusted students. Because college should be more than academics, we wanted students with good social skills too. It’s like what the old USC was, where you pay to play. But it’s worse because the Chapman administration is sorely lacking in competence. How does this affect your student? In every possible way! Anything you have to deal with: financial aid, housing, move-in day, dining hall, it’s all dealing with their incompetent administration. No surprise, many of their employees are Chapman graduates. Honestly, to pay their high tuition to be a poly sci major? I would only recommend the school for its Dodge Film department. There are sociable and nice students on other campuses. My daughter felt the students weren’t the caliber of UC students. There issues with roommates bullying my daughter and the RA didn’t help nor did the RD. They all volunteer for the free tuition but they have no negotiating skills. They made the students say things to each others’ faces. We finally went to the dean who arranged for her to move to another dorm and with all the issues with the roommates, my daughter asked if she could drop a class but not get a “W” and he denied it! Private school privileges? None. And the RA forced students to keep their dorm doors closed due to a “fire hazard.” He would tell people to close their doors. This resulted in the students not being able to easily engage with each other at the dorm. The dining hall feels like high school all over again, it’s very cliquey. There was a huge fire across the street with massive smoke but Chapman would not cancel classes. The surrounding area of the school is not nice, there’s nothing to do. If your student is interested in sports, Chapman is a D3 school, not the spirit of a D1 school. Their is a “downtown” but most people don’t hang out there. The parties were during the weekdays because there were so many SoCal people that they would go home on weekends and the campus would be a ghost town. They get their “diversity” from the commuters and from Hawaii because they offer them full-ride scholarships. My daughter knew of 6 other people who did not enjoy Chapman and a few of them transferred. It seems like the only people who really enjoy Chapman are in the Greek system.
My daughter transferred to AZ State and had a much better experience. The ASU president is outstanding. He built up the downtown and the administration cares about student success. My daughter had an issue with her lab teacher giving different information than the other lab teachers and when she mentioned to the administration, they scheduled a meeting immediately. It’s a huge school run like a small school. The top AZ students attend either ASU or UofA so there are plenty of smart students.
My other offspring attended the University of Miami and Santa Clara University and we were very happy with those colleges.
OP here, returning to this thread as the kid just got accepted with a pretty nice scholarship, such that the school remains under consideration. It’s been really interesting to read the comments here (including what appear to be 3 from the same very dissatisfied parent - thank you for all the detail!). This school remains a bit of a mystery for me so I’ve dug in a bit deeper to try to figure it out, and thought I would share in case anyone else is interested. The last two leaders seem quite visionary - bold and what appear to be thus far successful plans for significant growth and improvement. New president is coming in this year. Absolutely massive investment in capital projects and what look like more endowed chairs presumably to recruit higher profile faculty. Steady march up in the ratings for the past couple of years, again openly pushed as an intention/goal for the school. Not dissimilar to the Northeastern of some years ago which, of course, is referenced earlier in this thread - a very intentional drive to increase the visibility and profile of the school which is presumably good, or at least not bad, for students on balance though we can and should question the whole ratings game issue. On the other hand, as is also referenced earlier in this thread, I personally couldn’t quite get past the John Eastman connection - they did evidently force him out eventually, but presumably he was also a rabid conservative before January 6th. And indeed most of their very large donors who have funded the recent growth and development appear to be quite conservative indeed - not surprising, as noted, for a private school in Orange County, but quite different from a lot of higher education philanthropy. Hard to say what impact that has on students, beyond having the occasional meeting in the “George Bush Conference Center”, but I imagine it’s going to show up one way or another. This might be a deal breaker for me, though doubtful my son would be aware or think to care about it, and of course for others it might be a selling point. In any case - I remain intrigued and a bit mystified by Chapman which continues to somewhat defy my usual categorizations-- I don’t really think my son will end up going there, yet I expect I will keep watching to see what happens next. Thanks again everyone for chiming in!
Appreciate your post as we too are looking for more information on Chapman. We have done extensive research but are looking for more first hand impressions. its a mystery to us as well! With that said, a family member did attend about 8 years ago, he graduated with his own business from the friends he met there - game design company that was very successful, including some games sold to Nintendo. So that was a plus for us. They were able to use the support from faculty and campus resources to make their little company happen. Our DD was accepted with merit, visited once and are going back again soon. Was impressed with the campus, the small classes, 3 years of housing, friendly community, etc. but also wanting to make sure its the right fit for all the reasons you listed above. Our DD is looking at a couple other mid sized privates in CA so trying to compare and contrast. She is studying political science so not the more well known business or film options offered here. Please continue to keep us updated on your son’s journey and what he decides! Happy to share our DDs visit notes later this month.
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. If you’d like to reply, please flag the thread for moderator attention.