<p>I have just one more month to make my college choice</p>
<p>I have been accepted into East Carolina, Western Carolina, NC Weselyen and a community college called College of the Albremarle.
,
To save money I had long decided to go to COA instead of the other two though I was looking forward to go to East Carolina I wanted to avoid some of the debt that most students incur. The particular community college I was planning on attending is a great facility with an academic atmosphere which is far beyond anything I ever saw in my A.P High School Classes, you could say I was looking forward to it.</p>
<p>Then on the advice of a college recruiter I applied to this small school called NC Weslyan college and got a full scholarship about a month ago.</p>
<p>I visited the school, it was fairly quaint.
My biggest issue with the school is the lack of diversity of majors, the location and the lack of foreign languages.</p>
<p>I am not sure what to major in but I am thinking somewhere between P.R, the Liberal Arts, Social Sciences or Area Studies</p>
<p>I am also concerned at how well this effect my chances when applying for government internships later such as that as with the department of state. Will global companies later look down upon my transcript?</p>
<p>On the other hand the community college is remarkably cosmopolitan for a community college, most of the students from their transfer to high prestige universities like Chapel Hill. </p>
<p>If I stay for four years I wonder how much I might miss if I don’t transfer to one of the large NC public universities.
Will the fact that this is a “college” and not a university reduce the worthiness of my Bachelor’s degree?</p>
As long as the school is accredited (it is, I checked) the gov’t will consider you for internships and jobs. None of those schools stands out differently to a global company IMO.
<p>Does the full scholarship include room and board?
I take it, you would live at home while attending COA</p>
<p>What would be the total cost of attending this college over 4 years, vs attending COA and then transfering.
Can your family afford both of those choices?</p>
<p>The fact that this is a college won’t reduce the value of the degree, so that is not necessarily a factor. </p>
<p>I think the school is just fine especially given your other choices. Here is the issue with going to COA: In two years you will have to transfer to get your bachelor’s. At that time, as a transfer, your chances of getting very good fin aid, and certainly any merit aid plummet. Statistically you are at your peak in terms of getting money for packages. Yes, you could do super, super well, and maybe transfer to UNC_CH and get full need met, or some other thing, but really full scholarships are difficult to come by and this one is for 4 years, not the 2. You don’t have to borrow, will have no loans. It’s a great deal. But do discuss this with your family. How do they feel? How much are they able and willing to put towards your education? A lot you can do these next 4 years without the tuition monkey on your back, beating on your for more and more money. </p>
<p>If at some point you decide that you don’t want to complete your degree at NC Wesleyan, the option of transferring from there into a different college/university would still remain. It may be worth it to you to take your first two years there for free, and then re-evaluate whether you want to stay there through graduation, or transfer out.</p>
<p>Since cost is a factor, and your choices are the community college + transfer ( at what may be full cost), it makes more sense financially to go to NC Wesleyan. I am not specifically familiar with this college, but you may end up benefiting from the small environment and personal attention rather than be at a large state school. At large universities, there is often a focus on research. From the website:</p>
<p>“Your classes are taught by professors who love to teach and work individually with students. Over 85% of our faculty members hold the highest degree in their respective field. Learn more about our dedicated faculty in the Faculty Directory.”</p>
<p>You really have nothing to lose by starting here- even if you did transfer later, as cptofthehouse mentioned, financially, you would be a transfer student regardless, and if you stay, you would get a college degree at a huge savings.ECU and WCU are also far from major cities, so the location of this college is not a relative disadvantage. If you are concerned about getting a job at a global agency compared to a graduate from somewhere else, there is also a possibility that you might get a masters’s degree a a larger state college. It would cost about the same to have 2 years of undergrad at full state cost as a master’s, and getting the masters might be the best way to spend that money if you so choose- but that’s later. </p>
<p>Looking at the website, I take it you would be in the honors program. There is also a study abroad exchange with Hollins University in England. There is an internship and career resource center. There is not a huge variety of majors, but they have many to choose from. There are a lot of classes in the catalog. </p>
<p>Foreign language is lacking, but they may have some sort of exchange with a local college, or you can take summer classes at CC. This isn’t ideal, but compared to a full scholarship, it may be something you would compromise on. </p>
<p>You could also inquire about the possibility of a “consortium agreement” between the NCW college and a school that does teach FL so your FL that is not offered at the college could be covered by your tuition. Like, perhaps do an online FL course through BYU? Yours might be a case that qualifies for a one-off agreement. </p>
<p>In addition, you can treat this as a “free” community college experience with oncampus housing and perks. if you don’t like it you can transfer next year… or, after two years, just like you would have at the community college, you could apply to various public NC schools that have more “prestige” and see if you get into them. If you do: you got two years for free plus an amazing admission. If not; you still have your scholarship. :)</p>