He applied for CS but is now reconsidering. He may pivot to math+premed. The co-ops and location are a plus for us. A little concerned about the switch from quarter to semester, but we know a parent there and she thinks it will be an improvement, and since it will only be that first year with quarters, it won’t impact the class of 2030 too much.
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We have the same reservation about the switch. Also, new leadership and the recent acquisition of Salus University, and most importantly, the financial viability of the school. It’s a lot to think about. However, TE plus admission to the BS/MS accelerated degree is very appealing. Have you heard anything about the financial situation there?
Financial situation not great - rated a C- in that financial health piece (I found the list on another CC thread, will have to look for it). I have spoken to employees there and it is clear they are desperate for tuition dollars. I’m guessing they will do more consolidation across schools. I guess worse case scenario (for schools overall) is they might close some programs, but I would think that would not likely to impact engineering. Also worse case scenario there could be less support for students, though not sure. I calculated the net revenue per student from the CDS data (as Jeff Selingo suggests) and it was $40,321 using 2024-2025 data and $37,309 using 2023-2024 data. I’m not exactly sure how to interpret that number – need to check that book out again. Selingo also says to look for declining enrollment (Drexel has declining enrollment), which is not a great sign of financial health. This site is super helpful: Drexel University
Thank you so much. That transfer out rate for bachelor’s is a bit alarming.
Fantastic news! Congrats to your son!
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Congrats on the Drexel offer! Drexel is definitely experiencing some financial issues but it is not going to close. I would prefer to send my kid somewhere where budgets aren’t tight and they aren’t in the midst of restructuring (if I had an equally good place with an equally good offer but no financial issues I’d send them there), but Drexel is an excellent school so if the offer was right, I wouldn’t cross them off my list due the financial issues they are currently undergoing. Besides, the issues are not unique to Drexel - if you pulled up any list of 10 names randomly I’d expect 7 out of 10 of them are experiencing financial issues (in part due to the hangover from Covid, but also due to systemic drops in enrollment numbers due to declining population size).
Just my 2c though!
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My kid is a similar profile. Will graduate with 60 college credits and an associates degree. 3.6 unweighted, 3 years of model un, 3 years of varsity sport, part of a special diversity cohort, 2 summer precollege programs. Pusuing engineering. We are in NYS. The TE schools he applied to:
Syracuse - no TE but merit equivalent
Pitt - top choice, denied te and no merit
Delaware - $15k merit, waiting to hear about TE
RIT -$32K merit, no TE
Stevens - $33K merit - waiting to hear about TE
Drexel- initially $40K merit, waitlisted for TE, notified of TE yesterday
I wish the stats had been posted like the are now. We may have expanded the search. It has been a dosheiand frustrating journey and ultimately, his top 2 schools (Pitt and Delaware) are public OOS flagships that are more expensive than the rest. The TE from Drexel may shift his thinking. Very thankful for that, but it’s been rough.
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Agreed and it’s definitely on my radar. They have fantastic awareness and supports for kids on the spectrum, which is a plus.
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This is a super helpful breakdown and a great reference as D27 will be targeting some of these same schools. I have a freshman at Pitt currently and my college was not apart of TE when she applied but I know Pitt is notoriously super difficult for TE and merit as well. We are in-state and she did receive a small merit award but since your son has so many college credits as well, it may be helpful to know Pitt accepted nearly all of my daughter’s credits as transfer credits. I have no idea how your son’s credits will apply to his engineering degree but if he has his gen eds completed and it allows him to graduate in 3 years vs 4, that $$$ saved across the last year may be a factor in making his overall COA at Pitt more in line with some of the schools he received more merit/TE at. Just a thought!
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Also, the STARS Scholars program looks fantastic, so check it out if you have not already. Takes the summer internship guesswork out of play.
Yes, they invited him to apply to that. Just waiting to hear back.
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Yes that is a big factor for us. How does your daughter like Pitt? I was all of our #1, but recently U Del has moved up his list. Wondering if the reality of Pitt is a good as it seems.
My daughter loves Pitt. We felt like it was urban enough for what she wanted but still felt like a campus, great school spirit activities etc. She’s enjoyed venturing out to other parts of Pittsburgh to explore as well. Housing there was wild this year (but I think was the case at most colleges). She and intended roommate didn’t get any of their top 3 dorm choices and ended in a 5person (triple/double suite) which was formerly a sophomore dorm. They had tons of space, a living room and kitchenette and each bedroom had a private bath and close to Towers/heart of campus so she lucked out but others were placed in a converted hotel about a mile from campus and parents/students less happy about assignment that but I think the students there seemed to be OK with the setup as per my daughter with some friends there. I think Pitt had its largest incoming class this past year with approx 5900 new students, up 1200 students from the prior year. Food is also maybe the only downside of Pitt with the 2 main cafeteria options (1 on upper and 1 on lower campus) just not being super appetizing and/or even running out of food at some stations or closing early etc. in the beginning of the year making some parents see red. Kids can use meal swaps and panther funds at the restaurants in Oakland but there’s alot of rules/restrictions surrounding that and it gets expensive quick. With having a full fridge and mini kitchen/microwave my daughter would instacart groceries and fresh produce/veggies alot so she was able to make more than the avg student in a traditional dorm. Overall its been a great work/play balance for her. She’s found great friends and is living off campus with them next year and studying abroad this May for a may-mester term.
She was admitted w merit at UDel but it fell further down her list in the end although she has friends there who also love it!
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This was my feeling about Pitt. And the students were all lovely. We live in Manhattan, so Pittsburgh seems very small and way less urban, but still enough of a city for him.
obviously, Delaware is a small college town, but closer to home and the Northeast corridor. Pitt has my vote, but we’re leaving the choice to him and just decided that we all figure out the financials. He’s had some serious mental health struggles, so fit (as much as we can ascertain that with visits and our own due diligence) is the most important. if he chooses Pitt, I hope he gets into the engineering LLC. It will really help him connect.
Thank you so much for the feedback!
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My husband went to Pitt for grad school and loved it. We met in Pittsburgh as I was at Duquesne for grad school so I lived there for 6 years. It’s an awesome city. It might feel overwhelming if you were from a rural area but coming from NYC he would find it quite cozy I think! My husband also went to Delaware for undergrad and loved it. Did your son get into the honors program? My husband did that and found it to be a great experience - it made the large school more manageable to him.
I am also worried about schools with financial issues, but since I am working at one of those schools 
I also know how it may and may not affect the students’ experience. For the most part it really depends on their major. At our school we try to shield the students from it as much as possible, although these days it is starting to effect them like not having funding to go with us to conferences. I wouldn’t necessarily panic about it. As someone said, it’s pretty much every school at this point. I was surprised even Syracuse is downsizing (I don’t work there but it’s our nearest college by location and they have so much money so it has been surprising that they’ve been making cuts).
Also my son is also ASD with mental health problems, so if you ever want to chat about that I would love to. I am so nervous about how he will do with this transition.
So I have been following this thread a bit as there seems to be more activity on it the last couple of weeks, and we are in the final decision phases here. IMHO, (I have no insider intel, just a hunch) the fact that U Del has moved to your son’s #1, may end up working out very well for you (cost wise). My daughter has a higher UW GPA than your son, decent rigor, a pretty high SAT after fall retake, strong essay, part-time job, volunteer work, lots of school involvement: music, arts, sports, theater, clubs, etc.; she got $10K merit from U Del OOS, making it one of our most expensive options. I believe you said your son got $15K merit - I think that is the top of their OOS merit awards. They might be prioritizing Engineering majors (?) Also, as they have a waitlist for TE (and Pitt does not), I think TE at U Del looks pretty conceivable for your family. Did he apply to Honors there? Honestly, if U Del is currently #1 and he has been to admitted students’ day there, etc., he might want to reach out in a week or so to inquire about waitlist movement and mention that the school is in his Top 2 too.
Also, we are local to Pitt, it checks a lot of boxes for a lot of kids, but it’s not perfect, and they may be a victim of their own success right now a little bit with respect to housing crunch and course registration crunch, etc. My daughter is still weighing it as one of her options, but it’s likely not the best fit for her, and while she put it on TE list, she knew she had about a 1% chance of getting TE there or getting merit there; (she has a friend who graduated #10 from a fairly large, fairly competitive local high school and got $0).
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Your son’s 60 college credits thing is a big deal. I think as you are waiting for the final TE decisions to roll in, or for your son to make up his mind about his top picks - contingent on costs working out for your family, one of you has to do a deep dive on transfer credit acceptance situation at his top picks. This could really impact TOTAL (not annual) costs.
My daughter had a similar profile with very good extracurriculars. She got full tuition at Seton Hall. Room and board was more expensive there than many places, but she moved off campus for junior year and the costs were cut in half. She loves it there! You might want to look at Ursinus, too, or other small liberal arts colleges.
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Interesting thoughts about UDel! I haven’t seen anyone on this thread mention getting TE there yet. Last year decisions went out like 3/13. I thought I saw on FB TE site that someone got it, but now I can’t find it. So, fingers crossed for those hoping for it! Fabulous deal!