A lot of the full -tuition automatic merit scholarships I’ve heard about have been for unis in the south, so I’d have to balance it with the added costs of insurance and travel.
But today I found what looks like an automatic full-tuition scholarship that D would qualify for in a major of interest as part of a five year BS/MS program that is in-state.
But the school and location are…meh…at least in my limited experience.
Am I being too fussy?
Does anyone have nice things to share about Kean?
“Meh” about sums it up! I’m not a college snob (my son will be going to Rowan next month) but Kwan was never on the radar. It doesn’t have a great academic reputation. Our football team played for the state championship on their filed and the area is just not where my son would ever want to live. But a full ride might sway me!
Your son is not going to get full ride scholarships to the best universities, sorry to say. Colleges offer those to attract top students with financial incentives. So if full ride is needed, choices are limited. Having said that, a colllege is what you make of it, and a top student might find plenty of opportuntiies at such a school.
@Lindagaf , Ouch! I don’t think I ever said full-ride. I have never been expecting one, nor for D to go to a prestigious college.
We have always been looking at less selective schools that offer automatic merit for her stats or competitive merit full-tuition with published criteria showing she’d have a reasonable shot.
Kean would offer full-tuition for her stats in a program of interest to her, but I think she has better options in terms of academics and quality of life for a few thousand more, all in our budget range.
Sorry, I misread that. Even full tuition though is hard to come by. And I apolgize, I don’t know about your child’s stats at all. Because I thought you were asking about full rides, I was trying to calrify that the best universities are not going to offer them.
Have you seen this:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com
Sorry for being touchy. My grandma isn’t doing well and I’ve been sitting here with her for hours. 
I started looking at the yolasite when I started visiting CC, but over the last month or so I’d become clear that it might be easier for D to stay closer to home. She and H seem to prefer that, too.
Even with good merit, once you add in travel expenses and health insurance, it seems better to stay in-state or nearby because the costs become comparable.
D will get very good merit at Stockton and Rowan, and she likes both and could be in their honors programs. She also looks very safe for TCNJ admission, but merit will be lower. I think all of these would be much better for her than Kean.
I sometimes think it would be nice for her to apply to higher ranked colleges that offer need-based aid, but the NPC’s don’t look good and it would affect our retirement and what we would be able to give our younger kids.
Sorry about your grandma.
It sounds like you have isolated some choices that will work both academically and financially for your D and your family. I would cast as wide a net as makes sense – there is no harm to applying to Kean (to have the full tuition offer in hand even if it is doubtful she will go there) as well as your other choices such as Rowan, Stockton, and TCNJ.
And as a random comment, I don’t have any firsthand information on the school nor do I know if it might be a fit for your D, but one of my D’s grad school friends went to Drew University in NJ undergrad and did very well.
@happy1 Drew would be great but their top scholarship only brings direct costs down to the mid to high thirties.
She liked Lebanon Valley in Pa. And there are a few more Pa LACs that she might try for the chance of their scholarships. There would be more of a personal touch there, but she might get that anyway at the instate options if she does Honors.
@NJWrestlingmom , I feel the same about the location. I asked my mom about Kean and she said it would hurt D’s job prospects.
Kean isn’t good. It’s not received the upgrade that other NJ publics have received over the years (even Stockton did) and its location is (looking for euphemisn) unfavorable. If it comes to that, NJStar at CC plus two years at a university would be better, but TCNJ, Rowan (especially for Stem), NJIT, or even Montclair or Stockton would be better than cc foe a decent student and would likely end up cheaper.
Drew is worth applying to.
If she liked Lebanon Valley, look at Lycoming, Muhlenberg, Susquehanah, Juniata, Arcadia, Moravian, Albright. I’d pick West Chest U, even Millersville or Bloomsbury over Kean.
@MYOS1634 , you are just amazing!!! Thank you for sorting all of those schools, especially in relation to the CC route and the PASSHE schools!!! It gave me a great picture of how they fall. So helpful.
I know it sounds crazy but D would be eligible for great merit at Lycoming, but even though I’ve never seen it, it seems depressing to me. I think she’d get good merit at Albright, too, but I feel the same.
If D wants to apply to Muhlenberg, I would say ok and fill out the stupid CSS Profile. And if I go through the trouble, I might ask her to apply to a couple more Profile schools to make it worthwhile. The NCPs on Profile schools haven’t been too kind, but you never know.
Susquehanna, Juniata, and Allegheny, and maybe Moravian, would be excellent schools for her because she’d be in the top percentiles but still have a very solid academic experience. I just don’t see the merit being that great and getting anywhere near what the price of Rowan would be, and that has become my basis for comparing different schools.
@MACmiracle we visited Lycoming with my son and I loved it! I was hoping he would pick it but in the end he decided he wasted something bigger. The dorms weren’t great but we met a bunch of students and everyone was very nice and welcoming. Then again, we came away with a great feeling after Rowan orientation. There’s so much goin on there, I think it’s a great choice!! Lycoming, Millersville and Bloomsburg all cost about what Rowan will cost us (we got nothing from any of the NJ schools). Good luck!
@NJWrestlingmom Thanks for the feedback about Lycoming…I should look into their sciences more.
I’m disappointed to hear you didn’t get anything from Rowan.
What do you find depressing about Lycoming? It’s town is a decent size for the area, there’s a good shopping area (excellent Wegman’s), the little league museum, the paddle wheeler, you can zip to Lock Haven easily, a bit further you have Elmira, Corning, and major college town State College. It’s not the most exciting but I wouldn’t have thought “depressing” either, and certainly better than Union/Kean in my opinion.
@MYOS1634 , It’s a completely irrational perception. :-/
I agree that Union would be much, much more depressing.
Thanks for the nice description of the area around Lycoming.
@MACmiracle don’t let our lack of aid get you down- my son’s stats are less than impressive! And not in a CC “I only have a 3.7 and 1550 on the SAT” way! Lol. We were just thrilled at the acceptance and knew going in he wouldn’t get anything from the in state choices. I’m sure your results will be different!
Doing some light CC research on Lycoming and ran into this thread. Had to smile at @NJWrestlingmom comment of the CC stats. Another parent emailing me nicely asked if when I said DD2 had “normal test scores” did I mean normal in the real world or normal in the CC world. I knew exactly what she was referring to since sometimes the rarefied air of the GPA and Scores here on CC gets a bit much…
@DoDEAMom18 I’ve been following your other thread because it includes many we may look at for my daughter. I loved Lycoming! My son decided it was too small but it’s a pretty campus and lots of individual attention.
@NJWrestlingmom feel free to message me directly and we can compare notes. I love that other thread as it has loads of great info and leads — tooooo many colleges to explore. We are stuck in a long list of 2000 student colleges… DD2 wants bigger but then it jumps to way over 10k students. Open for more ideas… on our route…