<p>Historymom, a young man from our school district went to Coastal Carolina as they made him an offer he couldn’t refuse-he was quite a golfer! I heard he enjoyed it there!</p>
<p>historymom, Don’t know anything about Coastal Carolina but if interested in NC schools, East Carolina University has an active Scuba Diving Club that takes diving trips off the coast of NC each semester.</p>
<p>ohhh packmom. that sounds inviting doesn’t it? It’s all for fun now; my little research game so there is no harm in having a look.</p>
<p>thanks SLUMOM I can see where the golfer would have a blast. </p>
<p>nemom thanks for the search advice.</p>
<p>The only two kids from our area who went to Coastal Carolina went specifically for the PGA Golf Management Program, which is offered through the School of Business. Both thought highly of the program, and the golf and warm weather were definitely plusses. Can’t speak to the overall quality of the academics, however.</p>
<p>Anyone have any thoughts on this school. My son is a B stident, SAt in the 1100 range, ACT 23. We live about 1.5 hors away in central NJ. He liked the campusl, will probably major in accounting . He was also accepted at Scranton, Sacred Heart and Rowan</p>
<p>Ftaylor, check out whether DeSales kids stick around on the weekends; I heard that was not the case. This is also an issue at Rowan, although generally I have heard positives about Rowan otherwise. Kitty56 on CC I believe sent two boys to Scranton and was VERY happy with the school, which is also a popular option at our NJ school. I have read CT people speak well of Sacred Heart.</p>
<p>What is the “Average percentage of need met” at Desales?
Many smaller Catholic schools do not meet a lot of need, usually only Boston College, Georgetown, & Notre Dame meet a high percentage of need. Another one might be Holy Cross in Worcester, MA. This would be worth checking into, if Financial Aid is a big factor. But in my personal research the FA of the smaller Catholic colleges has not been particularly outstanding! 
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<p>I live close to DeSales and work at the public library that adjoins DeSales U. I know kids from our HS that attend and have graduated from there and none of the locals even go home on weekends. It’s a great little college that is building up it’s reputation. The theater program is excellent - I have a subscription with friends to four performances a year. Their Physicians Assistant program is also excellent. I know two kids that did the finance program, one graduated three years ago and got a job immediately and the other is a senior. Both did well and their parents have told me that they were very satisfied with their education. My son, won’t look at it because it’s too close to him.</p>
<p>I’ve never read an article in the paper about any problems with the kids and the ones that come into my library to get cards (mostly ed majors) are always friendly, nice and often from OOS.</p>
<p>DD received the most generous FA and scholarship offers from the two Catholic schools she was accepted to, Catholic University and Fairfield University. +/- 25% of tuition.</p>
<p>Catholic University of America: 525 offered aid, number who had need fully met = 258 or 49% had need fully met. Average % of Need Met: 86% </p>
<p>Fairfield University: 484 offered aid, number who had need fully met= 107 or 22% had need fully met. Average % of Need Met: 92% </p>
<p>Desales University: 294 offered aid, number who had need fully met = 51 or 17% had need fully met. Average % of Need Met: 51% </p>
<p>Don’t forget, that some applicants will get a great FA package & may have their need fully met, but many applicants may not! It is worth looking into before spending the money to apply to, to drive to, to spend money on a motel/hotel! Be sure your applicant is in the top 25% of the college’s applicant pool, before putting up these expenses!</p>
<p>Good advice, Slumom. If you’re on this GPA thread, chances are those Catholic colleges and universities are not going to offer much. My son applied to 3 Catholic colleges, and they offered by far the lowest in financial aid and merit with his stats. One even told me that while on their website it says one thing about Ave. % need met, they use a GPA and class rank grid, so my son’s need met was less than 43%. These schools often have very high tuitions as well.</p>
<p>Hmmmmmmmm Last year one D did not receive merit money at the Catholic school she is attending but they did give her need based aid in the form of a grant which made the school doable and in the same ball park as her UC acceptance. Less if you factor in the fact that most kids are not graduating from UCs within 4 years </p>
<p>My point is you just never know for sure unless you have the aid package in hand. Looking at the FA data on college board I was sure that we would not be able to swing this school and told my D so when she decided to apply but in the end they made it doable.</p>
<p>We had this experience with a rural school in the northeast. When I think of college in the “northeast”, I tend to think it is not going to be financially doable. This school offered my son the same package as 2 schools located outside of the northeast. Additionally, this school is a solid match school, and the other 2 schools are safety schools. When I say package, I am including merit aid and financial aid combined, so the bottom line. All 3 of these schools offered merit aid and financial aid grants.</p>
<p>NEMOM, I htink th ekey is “rura’” Northeast. Prices drop a lot as you come off the Boast-Washington corridor, as real estate and labor cots drop.</p>
<p>Still waiting to hear about our package Historymom. They said it would mail out this week. Seems late when all the people on CC know already.</p>
<p>yabeyabe, I would have thought that too. I did not find that this was the case in our experience. There were plenty of schools that were rural and still very expensive. We intentionally stayed away from cities (ie: NYC, and Boston) partly because we knew the bottom line in advance.</p>
<p>NEmom, there are certainly not as many rural bargains as I had hoped. I recall Lycoming, either on its website or in a brochure, listing the costs of about a dozen rural PA schools to show it was over $10,000 less than some (I think Dickinson, Ursinus, etc) and I am certain that Bard is not cheap any more than Colgate is, despite lower rural costs.</p>
<p>I think some rural schools feel they can have a high sticker price because some parents just do not want their kids to go to public schools for whatever reason and will pay it without blinking and others feel they have enough cachet that they can get away with it. Certainly, small school with top facilities suffers from not having a lot of kids or rich alums to spread the cost around. But I do think the schools closest to the major ciites are even worse.</p>
<p>Overall, I agree with your last post, yabeyabe2. I also believe that overall, city (near city) schools in the NE are worse IF they have a name and are not considered a lower tiered school with a solid stat applicant applying to it. In my experience Bard is VERY expensive, even if one has financial need. I know a recent graduate from Bard.</p>
<p>I never fail to be amazed that the most expensive decision other than buying a house that a family ever confronts has produced so little comparative financial information.</p>
<p>There are a few articles of “best buys in education”–which tend to tell you little more than state flagships are good values. I have not seen such an analysis which advises you on the likelihood of merit aid or factors in 4 year graduation rates or which would, for example, point those upset at Bard’s (or UVM OOS or St. Joe’s) sticker price to similar, but less expensive schools, especially within 150 miles.</p>
<p>We are down to the final days. My Son’s final four - Marist, Scranton, Iona and Salve. I will be glad when the deceision is made. Any input would be appreciated. He is deciding between business and biology (not helpful).</p>