My son is a good student. Not exceptional but still has very good grades. He took several AP classes but since we are in a highly competitive district and he didn’t do much extracurricular activities his college applications looked subpar compared to his classmates. As it stands these are our 2 best options. We will be paying out of state tuition. Unfortunately he didn’t get into our state university either. I am leaning towards FAU because it’s cheaper but Penn State is within driving distance. Which is the better of these options. We tried to convince him to go go CC and transfer but he doesn’t want to, if he was a B student I would have insisted but he did get good grades so I feel we should at least support him in his dream of going away.
Are the costs of both affordable for your family? Has your son visited both campuses? What is he thinking of studying? Which campus did your son receive for the 2+2 with PSU?
If your son would like additional options, you can let us know more about him (like his GPA, any test scores, interests) and what the budget is, and people on the board may be able to provide suggestions of schools that might be a good fit. But time is of the essence if he’s looking for additional options.
PSU 2+2 is somewhat analogous to this path, since the PSU branch campuses are like community colleges that focus on transfer to the PSU main campus, but are more expensive.
That is true of the smaller commonwealth campuses but not the 3 larger and most residential ones (Harrisburg, Altoona, Erie), which all have many 4-year majors which can be completed at these campuses, for those students who prefer to stay rather than moving to UP. Erie and Harrisburg, in particular, are ABET-accredited in numerous engineering fields and also have good AACSB-accredited business schools.
What is your state?
What does he desire in a school? Neither one will give the “traditional” four year campus although FAU is getting a bit more there.
I’d choose it - but if you give stats (GPA, tests) and budget, there are still large, traditional state schools taking apps - and some may be priced right.
Doesn’t sound like you love either choice.
I’d choose FAU because one school for four years. I have a friend whose kid likes it. She’s from S Carolina…doesn’t love…but likes. It is a lot of commuter types, etc…and in a dense area.
But if you don’t love the choices - let’s restart and find one he will!!!
He had a 4.2 GPA. He took some AP classes and went test optional. Our state school is Rutgers but he didn’t get into main campus. He wants to major in finance.
Have you asked for reconsideration at Penn State?
(What campus was he offered for 2+2)?
A typical request for reconsideration would be to ask for summer start+DUS.
DUS means he takes the same courses as the Smeal premajors - most start that way since only about 5% get into Smeal straight from HS.
(There’s also a Finance for the Energy Sector major in EMS, a very lucrative major but he needs solid SAT math and/or AP Calc and/or AP Physics scores, or IB equivalent.).
OK - I don’t know application dates - but did you check out schools like - instead of PSU or Rutgers. And what’s the budget. A 4.2 sounds weighted - what’s the unweighted GPA (4 for A, 3 for B, etc.
TO is doing a lot of kids in - they want tests - but we’re past that. Is there a test but you didn’t submit?
These should be safe but maybe not budget and you need to check app dates - i.e. can you still apply and if so get merit. For sure at Bama and Arizona. But again - no issues at all with FAU. Not a fan (personally) of the 2+2 but it may work for you.
Alabama Culverhouse
Arkansas Walton
Arizona
Arizona State
Coastal Carolina
C of Charleston
Colorado State
Iowa
Kansas
Maine
Miami Oh
Mississippi State
Mizzou
Ohio U
Ole Miss (U of MS)
TCNJ
UCF
URI
UT Chatt
WVU
Lots of privates too.
Really a lot of options.
FAU is fine - but just starting it’s transition out of commuter-dome I think. But fine school
If you are ok with Penn State and the distance of FAU, you’d like Alabama (Culverhouse, which is highly rated) and Ms State (a bit smaller campus) and if FAU - and these are smaller scale - Arkansas (Walton) - up and coming, great city (but not Ft. Lauderdale dense), airport and C of Charleston (small campus).
These are all true four year experiences.
Good luck
Which school does your son prefer? These are two very different options. I’m not familiar with FAU. Was he admitted directly to the finance major there? To which PSU commonwealth campus was he accepted? At Penn State, he would need a 3.5 GPA for the first 2 years to move into PSU’s Smeal College’s finance major at main campus for the last 2 years. Finance requires the highest GPA of all the Smeal majors. He could stay at Harrisburg or Erie (Behrend) for all 4 years if his GPA after 2 years is less than 3.5. (This is assuming he doesn’t decide to change his major.) Or, as @MYOS1634 suggested, he could ask for reconsideration for DUS and summer start at UP (main campus).
I know PSU and FAU are very different but he would like to be within driving distance of us. PSU is 4 hours away and we always wanted to get a 2nd home in FL so if he were to go to school there we would get a condo or a small house nearby. We applied to some other Florida schools but I am not holding out much hope after his recent decisions. We sent in an application for URI but we didn’t receive a decision yet. He isn’t hard to please in terms of a school only that he doesn’t want it to feel as small as high school, and that he prefers to get outside of our state. He is very close to his dad and they both want to be able to go to games and do other stuff together so they prefer not to be more than 4 hours away. I spoke to him about changing his major which he is okay with but the summer start is taking me a while to convince him of.
Have you asked for reconsideration at Penn State?
(What campus was he offered for 2+2)
Do you know his uw GPA (4.2 could be 3.2 or 3.7 uw!)
Reconsideration may mean he could be admitted to UP, hence solving the dilemma, but for us to help you with that we need to know if you already went through the process.
Has he looked at the Finance/Energy major I listed before? (As I said, it’s a lucrative field but he needs calculus and preferably physics - ap calculus, ap physics 1 or 2 or c, ap enviro are all important).
Note that students can add a Smeal certificate.
https://bulletins.psu.edu/undergraduate/colleges/earth-mineral-sciences/energy-business-finance-bs/#suggestedacademicplantext
Or more typical DUS+Summer if he’s not asked for reconsideration. However the longer he waits the higher the highzr the odds of DUS being “full”.
Some links on the PSU forum
Start at 3109 and/or post stats+ questions about reconsideration.
Personally not a fan of changing majors if you truly know what you want to do…i.e. major over school.
Did you look at UCF or USF - more well known than an FAU - and both have D1 football now if that’s a concern with UCF in the big 12.
But again, FAU is a fine school and is brining in people from out of state.
Whatever he decides, best of luck.
PS - would WVU be within driving range - not sure of which part of PA you are in?
That would be big time sports.
Good luck with URI or whatever you decide.
Energy finance is a specialized but lucrative major created in conjunction with the energy sector and the finance industry. It’s not a "different"major per se and I would think the results are better than from FAU (which as you know is mostly regional and not known for finance).
DUS is the "normal"major for 95% freshmen who want to be business majors at Penn State and they take the exact same courses as the 5% who are in honors/Scholar programs.
URI and WVU are good suggestions.
Wondering if UDel and Miami-OH are still accepting applications.
Yes, i was commenting to OP on discussing a changed major. I agree energy finance is good.
I’m not sure we know where they live but sounds like wants to be within four hours of home - or 2nd home. Miami is great - but don’t think it’d qualify from the distance POV.
I agree FAU is not going to be “known” although I know PSU grads who struggled (one in cyber security struggled a long time) - so there is no panacea from any school.
If the PSU DUS is a good fit (I’m not aware of it like you), then maybe it works…but the students I imagine need to be accepting of a non desired major I assume??
They’re in the same boat as everyone else: all students need to get Cs or higher in major-specific classes (ie., in Calculus and physics for Engineering, in English and Economics for Communication, etc.) And it’s the same for any business major. Then they need an overal GPA, which is very high for students who want Finance -it used to be 3.7 I think and now is 3.5. From that point of view, if the student was admitted to Altoona (4-year campus that’s closest to UP where the big football games take place) it’d be easier to get to the desired major since their classes aren’t weedout the way they are at University Park.
The links I provided discuss this and hopefully @Stacy5000 can answer questions in this thread&ask questions on the linked threads.
OP lives in New Jersey.
Has your son looked into:
- Seton Hall
- U. of Delaware
- Temple
- SUNY Buffalo
- West Virginia (2nding)
- Quinnipiac
- Towson
- James Madison
I’m unsure what the budget is, but some of these may fall within it. At SUNY Buffalo I think you would pay the same tuition as you would for Rutgers. These schools tend to have good athletic spirit, per Niche.
Seconding U. of South Florida and U. of Central Florida as possibilities for athletic spirit and Florida.
Hello,
He was waitlisted at Seton Hall and U Del. After reading this we sent out WVU, USF and UCF. Many of the other schools the deadline passed. Thanks for leading us to energy finance that’s not something he or I considered. We sent in for reconsideration at PSU, so we will see how that goes.
Thanks for the update! Are you looking for reconsideration at PSU as an energy finance major or the DUS + Summer option, or…?
Update: Admissions said will not consider revaluation for the summer program plus switching major to DUS. It was like no thought went into it. They sent the email the next business day. So we will be waiting to see if he gets into a school he likes.