Are you in a wealthy district? Based on CDS Financial Aid data, full pay is a winner there. Not the most generous of schools.
seriously - I know people with somewhat average stats that got in during recent cycles too - and they weren’t even full full pay (though close).
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Also, I haven’t looked at Providence, but do note Fairfield remains VERY VERY regional
Check out pdf page 43..
Students are almost all from CT, MA, NY, NJ (didn’t do math but it is wild percentage)
12 whole kids from CA, 6 from FL for class of 2028 - even Vermont only has 3
nited States Headcount Arizona 2 California 12 Connecticut 183 Delaware 6 District of Columbia 1 Florida 6 Idaho 2 Countries Represented Illinois 24 Canada Maine 1 Dominican Republic Maryland 41 Ecuador Massachusetts 362 Estonia Michigan 1 Germany Minnesota 2 Japan Missouri 2 Micronesia Montana 1 Poland New Hampshire 14 Spain New Jersey 262 Sweden New York 360 Tanzania North Carolina 3 Turkey Ohio 4 Oregon 1 Pennsylvania 84 Puerto Rico 4 Rhode Island 30 South Carolina 2 Texas 5 Utah 1 Vermont 3 Virginia 17 Washington 2 Wisconsin 2 Wyoming 1
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Fairfield parent and alum here. I am very familiar with both schools with nieces and nephews attending both. Not sure why this last poster is throwing so much shade at Fairfield.
As stated above, these schools are very similar. The students are mostly from the same demographic-wealthy northeastern suburbs, many from private schools.
Fairfield recently converted its US News status from a regional to a national school and is making a big push to recruit outside the Northeast. The president of the school is the first non Jesuit president and he is extremely good at his job. Fairfield has a good pipeline to wall st and Greenwich private equity so its top alums/donors probably have a bit more money to give than the top PC donors. The school is less than 100 yrs old and its endowment is not huge but it exceeds many schools of the same size that are quite a bit older.
I attended a ridiculously expensive catholic prep school ($70k) in the northeast that publishes its matriculation each year. They send tons of kids to Providence every year and until recently not many to Fairfield. The Fairfield numbers have doubled in the last few years and will probably double again this year. I’m sure this is true at all of the Catholic preps and the Jesuit HSs.
My Fairfield student received a big scholarship and just landed a prestigious internship. She knows a kid at Providence that got the same internship. My student loves it there. I really can’t say a bad word about the place. We are getting exactly what we wanted from Fairfield.
My neice who is graduating from PC loves it and and is staying for a fifth year at the business school.
Both schools are excellent. If the student puts in the work at either school they will do great. It’s just a matter of choice. Good luck!
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You are assuming it is shade that it is SUPER regional. I find that incredibly useful information as someone looking at schools.
I have several relatives who went to Fairfield in fact, and liked it a lot.
It is a very specific kid who wants to go to school with kids just like the ones they went to high school with. That is not for everyone.
I think MOST people assume with a low acceptance rate comes more geographic diversity. I sure did. I was floored to find those stats out.
Hi, Do you have any sense about how a kid who doesn’t drink would do socially at Providence? How about someone who doesn’t play sports, either. We love the school, and my daughter really wants a tightly knit circle of friends from where ever she goes, but will she find that if she is not heavily into the party or intramural sports scene?
Your D should ask admissions if they can set her up to speak with one of the students active in the various “giving back” programs and clubs on campus. These are kids who teach English to recent immigrants; kids who are part of tutoring programs in the Providence public schools; kids who organize coat drives, visits by the mobile clinics which offer health care to the unhoused in the city, etc. That can give her a taste of the “non-drinking, non-sports” options on campus.
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Mom of current Fairfield senior boy here majoring in finance. He has loved every second of his time there. He chose Fairfield for the school’s proximity to NYC. We live in Upstate NY so he is about 3 1/2 hours from home.
He lives at the beach this year with his buddies, two of whom he met at Fairfield’s June orientation where the kids stay in dorms and set up their college accounts in a classroom setting, which I thought was a great idea. He made his group of friends through friends of friends. One is from France and just spent Easter break with us.
They never seem lacking for things to do. When they were freshmen, they would Uber to New Haven to the underaged clubs. They never went into NYC. Once they all became of age to drink, they stayed and partied at campus or at the beach. For a kid who was very involved in athletics in high school, he does not attend any games or seem like he’s missing out even though his twin sister goes to Pitt with their big football scene. We was on the alpine race team all four years which is club and enjoyed that. It was not at all time consuming as they never practiced, but they made Nationals three times.
I think the education he is getting is solid. His was one of the first classes to enjoy the new Dolan School of Business building with all the cutting edge technology and I think the finance students graduate very prepared for the real world. I would say, the kids are more center to right leaning politically, but it’s not obvious or in your face. As for wealthy, I would not say any of his friends fall into that category. All came from regular suburban (middle to upper middle class) neighborhoods, same as us. Certainly, nothing over the top.
Some people’s perception is that all the students are walking around in Vineyard Vines and Gucci. Not true. They are mostly regular kids wearing regular clothes. His friends are all polite, well-mannered, good kids. Not any different than my daughter’s Pennsylvania public school. However, the street he lives on now at the beach has multi-million dollar, single-family homes (not his house; it’s tiny..lol) and I told him the day we moved him in, Fairfield seniors are the only kids who live in an area where their college housing is nicer then anything they will be able to afford for a very long time!
His one roommate studied abroad in Barcelona Junior year and loved it. I do hear many kids go to Florence and that is an amazing experience as well.
His only complaint is the late night food scene. My kid is 6’5” and eats a lot. Before he had a car there, options were limited. That’s the only thing I ever heard him complain about.
I can’t speak for Providence, but hope this helps from the Fairfield standpoint.
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What did your daughter decide?
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