So far I’ve been accepted to: UNR, UMass Amherst, UVermont, Utah State, Washington State, Penn State, Purdue University, and Oregon State. I’m waiting to hear back from UC Davis and Cornell. Of these, which college do you think I should go to? I’m majoring in sustainable agriculture and I want to go somewhere with seasons and outdoorsy activities (like hiking :)). Also, I’ve pretty much decided that UNR, Washington State, and Penn State are off of the list.
Wait until all of the offers are in, then run them through the Award Letter comparison calculator at finaid.org. Once you’ve seen how the numbers stack up, some of these will fall off your list.
Where do you live? I agree that this comparison is difficult to do without numbers; it doesn’t necessarily make sense, for example, to pay full OOS price for UMass-Amherst or Purdue if you can go to Oregon State at in-state prices.
Why is Washington State off the list?
All of these places have seasons and outdoorsy activities nearby. Cornell is the most prestigious of them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should go there. Some of them are going to offer slightly different experiences - Purdue and WSU have more of the school spirit/D1 sports culture than some of the other ones. Your outdoorsy experience will also be quite different in the Midwest than the PNW.
Your other thread indicates that you’re applying for scholarships. Have you run the NPCs for these schools? Are they all affordable?
Thanks to everyone for all of the input!
Washington State is too much of a party school for me. Also, all of these schools are out of state.
No, they are not all affordable yet. I have essentially received a first year free scholarship for each school but it’s split up over the course of four years. I am also applying for scholarships outside of the schools. My goal is to get a full ride in scholarships no matter where I end up going.
So you haven’t got a full ride or even full tuition to Utah state?
Unless you have one big one from some organization that you think you have a high likelihood of winning, like Evans Scholarship, that much in outside scholarships is extremely difficult. I think you need to start working on a Plan B financial plan.
No but I applied to their ambassador scholarship, which would give me a full ride. Otherwise, I have 90% off tuition the first two years and in-state tuition the last 3 years.
I’ve applied to hundreds of scholarships…many of which are local and have a smaller pool of applicants. I will find out in March how much I won.