Just watched a youtube tour of Bama. Good lord that is a nice campus. Not sure junior will be excited about it given their clear focus on greek life, but those houses are pretty darn amazing for college kids.
I wouldn’t say a clear focus.
It’s well under half.
But yes, it’s in your face if you’re looking at the houses.
But the campus itself is gorgeous and not sure if interested, but I put up the McCullough program b4 which is a pre med cohort.
UAH would be smaller - not as nice - but nice.
Miss State is very nice too but not near as big. You drive in on a road - like going into Disney - so it’s a bit more removed from the city.
This is all cost basis - if your student wants small, hopefully there’s an LAC with enough merit to get him there - there’s so many LACs that maybe a Kalamazoo, Depauw, Juniata, Wooster, SUNY Geneseo or another will get there.
I was just giving schools that are “assured” to get there.
Good luck.
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”The University of Alabama has held the coveted honor of being the largest fraternity and sorority community in the nation with regard to overall fraternity and sorority membership.”
No judgement either way but the school seems very proud to have such a vibrant Greek Community. As a point of reference the NMF community on campus is less than 3%.
If my son sees that he definitely won’t consider Bama. He showed me some stuff about the greek system at Vandy that turned him off, but also showed how there is a very large movement at Vandy to eliminate all greek systems. I was never in a frat so I don’t have any reference point, and went to school at MSU where the greek system was not that big of a deal.
Better to have his eyes wide open in advance.
We know a young man that transferred out of UA because he was uncomfortable with the social environment. He really enjoyed the academic side but ultimately went to Binghamton. According to his parents he “felt like a fish out of water” as someone from the NE that didn’t want to be in a frat.
Only one kid so impossible to generalize but a data point. We know other kids that have loved the experience. Good luck.
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Ohio University was on in Season 6 of The College Tour which can be watched online or on some other apps/streaming services. It’s a relaxing way to check out a school. Miami and Cincinnati were also on in Season 3. I see Akron (season 6) is on there, too.
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I’m a proud Ohio University alum. That was wonderful to watch. So nice to see that things really are still excellent over the many years since I graduated.
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Hey group. Thank you all for the help in this process. It lead to my son digging into quite a few additional schools that were no originally on his radar. I wanted to update the thread with his results so far - even though it is not finished just yet.
Here is where he applied, the results, scholarships, and Net COA, in order of lowest Net Direct Costs to highest (as of today). Note: I’m only using direct costs (tuition/room/board) since every school has different estimates for travel and personal expenses.
Kenyon College - Accepted; full tuition scholarship; Net Direct Costs $17,730
– high on his list, needs to visit again to make sure he would fit in.
Xavier Ohio - Accepted; $44k; Net Direct $23,530
– struck from the list; just liked other schools better, did not apply for honors
Albion - Accepted Honors; $45k; Net Direct $24,160
– struck from the list due to financial struggles
Miami Ohio - Accepted Honors, Biochem and Music; $11k; Net Direct $24,794
– top of the list, checks all the boxes, feels like he fits in, very flexible scheduling.
Cincinnati - Accepted Honors and Medical Sciences and Music; $5k; Net Direct $25,896
– high on the list for MedSci, but harder to do anything else with MedSci.
OSU - Accepted Honors; $2k; Net Direct $25,982
– really never was interested in OSU
Dayton - Accepted Honors; $32k; Net Direct $35,340
– struck from the list due to cost
Kentucky - Accepted Honors and HHS; $12,500; Net Direct $37,656
– struck from the list due to cost, and really bad responsiveness
Loyola - Accepted; $31K; Net Direct $38,718
– struck from the list due to cost; did not apply to honors as it’s more intense
CWRU - Accepted Biochem and Music $28k; Net Direct $61,574
– struck from list do to cost, but waiting on scholarships
Denison - Accepted $25; Net Direct $63,400
– requested them to match Kenyon, otherwise off the list due to cost
Vanderbilt - still waiting.
He only auditioned for music at Case, Miami, Cincinnati, Denison and Kenyon. Denison and Kenyon is for a scholarship not admission into the program. He was very excited to gain acceptance into the music programs at Case and CCM at Cincinnati as they are not easy admits. He has decided to try for a dual major in Biochem/premed along with a Music BA and a Spanish Minor. Yes, it’s a load, but several of the school counselors have reviewed it with him and determined he should be able to achieve it without overloading, and he can always drop to a music minor. I’m happy he wants to continue with music as it will be a good mental escape for him. When he is stressed, he goes and grabs his saxophone.
As of today, it’s between Miami, Cinci and Kenyon. I think he actually is leaning toward Miami as they check just about every box and have been very responsive and flexible with what he is looking to achieve. But, Kenyon is $30k cheaper over the four years. He really liked Cinci and was happy to get into their selective MedSci program, but doing MedSci and Music together would be much harder.
He also reached out to Denison to see if they will match the full tuition scholarship. He has waffled between preferring Denison or Kenyon. If they did, I think Denison might win as he really liked the jazz prof there. He was a bit surprised he didn’t get a music scholarship from Denison after talking with the professors during the audition.
He still really likes Case, especially the jazz prof, but it’s too expensive. He is waiting on additional scholarships from Case that seem not likely to happen. We also have no expectation that Vandy will work out.
He looked into many of the schools you all mentioned and ruled them out based simply on, do I like this school better than Miami if the price was the same.
Hope this helps provide some data points for others trying to find their path.
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Congratulations to your son on all of the wonderful offers he has so far! It sounds as though he’s being really thoughtful throughout this process and I’m wishing him the best!
Miami is a terrific choice and especially since it checks HIS boxes!
Congratulations!!
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