My options - Penn State vs U of Oregon vs U North Florida - Arizona

Compare College Acceptances
1

Hi all,
What they say is so true - applying is the easy part - deciding where to do is the hard part!
My son has a few options and wanted some feedback from this board.
My son is looking for a school that has football (not to play, to watch as a spectator, he likes “rah rah” schools so to speak but does not want to join a fraternity but hopes there are social opportunities beyond Greek Life), has a lot of clubs to join has a lot of activities and a big fitness center, good food, and a “college town” that surrounds the school that is walkable
He got rejected from a number of schools, but here is where he got in:

Penn State (University Campus)- My question here is if he does not join a fraternity, will it be difficult to make friends/ be part of the social scene? Also, some reviews on Niece say you can be in classes of 200 people, yet online they say their average class size is 25 - not sure which one is true. This school will cost 20k more than I was hoping to spend…sigh… - as he received no Meritt money.
University of Oregon - Here he received some Merrit money and is a little bit more than we wanted to spend - the biggest con is we are in NY and it is across the country
University of North Florida- I don’t know too much about this school, but is in my budget (my son did not get into any of the other Florida school he applied to), it is a direct flight from NY which is convenient
University of Arizona - He did get some Merritt money here, but again is farther away than I would like

Any feedback would be appreciated (He did not get into Illinois Champagna which was a top pick for him and got deferred to regular application to a few other places) I would appreciate any thoughts on his options above

2

What does each cost after subtracting scholarships and grants, and what is the limit of your parental contribution?

3

There’s no school in the country that you can’t not make friends - outside of greek. So let’s throw that out.

Football - eliminate N Florida.

You can have classes of 200 (usually intro) and average of 25 - because in some majors, they might have 5 in a class - and typically upper divison get smaller. If you can see a course schedule in the major, you can see how many enroll in certain classes.

PSU gives little merit so if you had a budget, that would have been one to cut.

So budget eliminates Penn State.

Oregon - yes, it’s across the country and no it’s not cheap - but sounds cheaper.

Arizona - again, farther than you’d like.

My thought to that is - if you want to be close, then apply close. But if it’s 2 hours or 5 hours by plane, what’s the difference.

There are other schools, cheaper schools and still time to apply.

What are the GPA, SAT, and budget? What major?

Any thing he wants beyond football? PSU is in the middle of nowhere. Arizona is in a big city, a few miles from downtown. Oregon is in a small city.

A school like West Virginia might be a good fit from a cost, football and distance POV.

It sounds like you didn’t build a list taking your desires and needs into consideration. But there is time to fix that.

1 Like
4

I was hoping to stay to a 45K budget - Penn State is the most expensive - Oregon will be a little over budget, Florida the most affordable
He also got into a local school which is also affordable, but it is small and wants a bigger school ) :

5

Did your son apply to any SUNY’s?

Would you require loans to pay for the schools that your son is considering?

Are you still waiting on any decisions?

6

He wants to major in education/teaching
SATs were not great so we tried applying to test optional (school grades were very good)
The list has been tough as I want him closer to home than he wants to be

7

Yes - applied to a SUNY but haven’t heard back
We are still awaiting a handful (got deferred to regular decision)
Penn State would be very tight financially (want to avoid a loan)

8

What is the student’s stats?

GPA, SAT?

You can easily get cheaper schools.

9

I am pretty sure that a number of years ago when my youngest was applying to universities as of the end of January she still hadn’t heard back from the school that she ended up attending. It is still early.

Best wishes. Hopefully another offer is coming that will make the decision easy!

10

None of the above. I vote for in state (SUNY) in your case. We are in CA, S24 is attending one of the UC which is 1 hour away from home. So far, he only came home twice: Thanksgiving (because I offered to pick him up), Winter break (dorm was closed). Distance is not factor. I would not pay extra just because my kid wants to go farer away from home. Good Luck.

1 Like
11

The student wants football so that would be Buffalo.

12

University of Arizona is affordable, offers big-time football, and will expose him to another region of the country.

UNF is an absolute no based on your son’s preferences unless he plans on majoring in music.

U Oregon would be an excellent second choice as it will expose him to a different region of the country.

Penn State might be too close to home.

Have you considered the costs of travel ?

13

Is google correct that there are no direct flights between New York and Tucson? Not sure if that would be an issue for traveling for you - I’m also of the opinion that a 2hr vs 5 hr flight is not a big deal (assuming costs are not extremely different) but connections can add complications.
Edit: my D19 went to college across the country and usually did a direct flight. Sometimes we did connections when it was especially cheaper or we had flight credit to use up. There were a couple of times she got stuck halfway for hours because of weather at the connection (Denver was one I recall). If he’s flying to phoenix and connecting that probably wouldn’t be an issue though. Worst case it’s a drive from PHX to Tucson.

14

Many do, though, individual preference

15

I would suggest checking teaching credential requirements for your state and how transferable out of state curriculum is.

I am not familiar with your state, but where we are it is much easier and more efficient to complete an education degree/credential through our own state schools.

3 Likes