best of luck with your decision
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My oldest was accepted to Umich and CMU. She did not get merit there, so they were crossed from the list. She wanted to go to Case but for BME it was kind of iffi vs. UMD even with big scholarship. Only when she landed within budget and cost/benefit analysis we said yes.
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Admission without a scholarship bringing the university costs within budget is the same as a rejection.
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Costs are always the through line and if that stresses the issue, it has to be prioritized. If you can swing it in any way, I would pick UMD because of location combined with reputation but of course all are great choices! Best of luck!
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I would suggest Rutgers for cost and UMd
Overall. Both have very strong business and science.
Both are very rah-rah and have passionate Alumni. Both are fun to attend and not commuter schools. With B1G sports, their national recognition has risen.
Both are close to major cities that are important business centers with both private and public employers. Both have mass transit that would allow you to intern during the school year which gives you a better chance against summer only interns.
Neither is known for great advising and can be frustrating to deal with the admin. But those are often an issue at large flagships
I’d give the nod to UMd on the more integral campus (Rutgers is disjointed with business and science across the river from each other). I’d give the nod to Rutgers on cost
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Looks like most of the listed schools are effectively rejections due to being too expensive.
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Smith has a staff of dedicated advising and is very good, especially if in a specialized program.
It all depends on whether the family can afford 45k at the utmost, in which case 57-62k is impossible no matter how good Smith is, or whether it’s a matter of “comfort”, ie., cutting down on eating out and family vacations (in which case the family can decide to use the restaurant/vacation funds for each child’s college); another element to keep in mind is that if both children want to attend college, the younger one should not be forced to give away part of their college funds because Older Brother wants a specific college.
In terms of big rah rah schools where he’d likely get enough scholarships to be within budget if he’s got solid stats (+ ask about Barrett Honors because it’s a great program)
Arizona State has openings
Contact: Kelsey Singleton kelsey.singleton@asu.edu
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I liked a comment about younger siblings. It is a very important one!
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Do you have a student at Smith currently? And if so what is their experience and what are they studying. What is included in a specialized program?
Rutgers is a rah rah college. My oldest is a business school graduate (CPA).
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FYI, Smith would no way, no how wind up cheaper than 45K for your daughter, quite probably will be >60K, or even full fare of >85K/yr, unless your financial need were to hugely (and I mean HUGELY) increase, retroactively, based upon your 2023 tax return for acceptance to college beginning in the fall of '25, for her.
I didn’t show my kids schools that we couldn’t afford or were unwilling to pay for, because I didn’t want to get their hopes up that we were willing to pay retail for private schools, to the tune of nearly 400K for college. And by “show” I don’t mean take them to visit them - I mean suggest them as being a possibility, because frankly, they weren’t, if we weren’t willing to pay rack rate for them.
If you don’t qualify for anywhere near enough fin aid (and you can get an idea from the NPC’s on the schools’ websites), then you look at in-state publics. If your kid is an academic superstar, OOS publics which give merit money to OOS students to attract them, since they leaven the dough, and pay more than an in-state student would for that seat (you’ve seen that with your son, who got offers of a bit of merit for OOS flagships, although still substantially higher than their in-state cost, and certainly way higher than your best in-state offer). Just make sure they submit in time to be considered for merit, which for many of these schools in Nov 1.
Another option is 3rd tier private liberal arts colleges, which might offer a student with very high academic stats a very substantial merit scholarship, even full tuition, bringing your cost down to <20K/yr. Think places like Bard, or U Hartford, places that might offer what the student wants, but that are not very selective, where they’d consider your student a prize.
But unless the college that you’re looking at has massive merit scholarships (and for anything more selective than 3rd tier LAC, that would mean that your student would have to have amazing stats and ECs, certainly good enough to get them into a T20 or even a tippy-top school), and you’re shooting for one of those huge merit scholarships, you’re unlikely to find a T50 school that gives enough merit to meet your budget with no/low financial need.
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I believe OP is referring to UMD’s Smith School of Business.
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Oops. Red-faced apology for inappropriate righteous lecture.
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Here’s a free link to a very useful article about the financial implications of college choices. And when your child says, but this doesn’t apply to me, since I won’t have to go into debt… because you guys are going to drain your savings, not contribute to retirement, and drain the resources that would otherwise be going to my younger sibling’s college tuition! See, no debt for me!
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Thank you for your sage advice. Yes did get merit from UVM, UMASS all great schools. UMD very little … Kelley very little. So this is how it goes …
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Yes!