Appreciate if OOS current or past experienced Shryer students or parents can post their thoughts on whether they think academics and experience is worth the OOS state tuition?
Depends on your other options and whether you can afford it. If you’d have to take out lots of loans, probably not worth it.
Schreyer is probably the best of the best honors college in the nation. Depending on your other options, it might be worth borrowing money for.
What are your choices and what’s the net price at each?
Thanks for all the responses. UDEL (Honors) in state, around 25k/ year. Drexel (honors) - 45k/year, PSU ( Shryer) - 45k/ year.
Thanks for all the responses. UDEL (Honors) in state, around 25k/ year. Drexel (honors) - 45k/year, PSU ( Schreyer) - 45k/ year.
Drop Drexel as Schreyer is MUCH better.
Where would the 20k come from - savings, tightening the belt on discretionary expenses, HELOC, parent plus loan.
Most from HELOC and some from tightening the belt.
I don’t think Shreyer is worth $20k more than UDel honors.
UDel honors is also among the best. Save the $80K unless you can readily identify an opportunity at Penn State that you can’t get at UDel. What’s your field?
University of Delaware Honors simply due to lower cost.
Would like to know why @ClassisRockerDad thinks that Penn State Honors “is probably the best of the best honors college(s) in the nation”.
It’s selective (acceptance rates ~20%) and offers quite a few perks: housing, scholarships, study abroad assistance, etc. There’s a required yearlong honors English sequence that aims to be much more rigorous than the usual semester of ENGL 15, and that’s only part of your 21 honors credits during the first two years and 14 during the last two. To graduate from Schreyer you have to write a thesis, which means you have to get involved in research. My lab group has a paper submitted on which two current members and two past members are listed as authors.
It was also ranked highly by “Inside Honors,” a book/website rating 50 honors colleges, for what that’s worth.
Major is Biomedical engineering.
Also because it offers special opportunities to meet with important people, special leadership classes/program, mentorship/close personal advising, support to apply to fellowships, and they offer hundreds of honors classes (I was going to write dozens but went and checked…and they seem to have about 350! I was just helping someone whose honors program had only two dozens choices, some of which are at inconvenient times or already covered by AP… so it makes a huge difference.)
Basically, because these students are “not top 20 but top40” admits (or top 20 admits who can’t afford their EFC), they try to make it as close to the type of experience you’d have at a top University or college depending on the kid and their options approximating Tufts or BC or even Bucknell.
It’s one of the Rolls Royces of honors colleges, not just because of selectivity but because how much of a difference it makes compared to the regular University.
The ‘public honors colleges’ book and website are very good - you can use the “questions to ask” page to help you gauge each.
However, HELOC… I’m not sure it’s worth it.
Sorry, haven’t been back. but I concur with @bodangles and @MYOS1634.
Also, I knew a Penn State professor who said that the honors kids were light years ahead of the rest.
I also knew a graduate of the Delaware honors, who went to MIT grad school, and he said that the attention showed by professors toward honors students in research was tremendously helpful in his preparation for grad school. He said it was like attending a private college because of the personal nature.
To piggyback @ClassicRockerDad - I also have a friend who was also a graduate of UD honors, went on to UPenn law and is now a partner in a big law firm. He loved his experience at Delaware. A colleague (who I recently found out was this friend’s freshman roommate) went to Harvard Law from Delaware.
I don’t think , for a student gifted and focused enough to be admitted to both, the difference between UDel and Schreyer would be life-changing. OTOH, having a mountain of debt as you launch — that is a big ol anvil tied around your life. UDel is a great school by any measure.
Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts.