Our daughter was admitted for Neuroscience to South Carolina Honors College, Pitt Neuroscience (hopefully HC, will know this week) and UGA (not sure when they announce HC) for Biology or Cognitive Science. I included the planned major for reference, but practically, I could see her changing once she starts college.
For background: We are OOS (NJ), Pitt is about 5 hours away (driveable), UGA and USC require flights. She is coming from a small magnet STEM high school where she focused on Biotechnology. She is a varsity athlete, started a pet-sitting biz at 12, has significant research through her school and Waxman Institute at Rutgers and service: Peer leader, Advisory Council for her school, tutor and has interned at a small Biotech startup. She is on the quiet side, but typically makes friends easily and is self-advocating for her age (according to her Biotech mentor).
I know both UGA and Pitt are higher ranked universities, but not sure how much the South Carolina Honors College might make up for the discrepancy in rankings. In your experience, how much does HC add at South Carolina as I know it’s top ranked, but practically, not sure how much that translates to in actual graduation results.
We’ve visited Pitt and South Carolina - headed to UGA next month.
Honestly the cheapest unless cost is not an issue for you. Neuroscience undergrads will need a PhD or MD to pursue anything that makes a decent amount of money.
My S19 was a double major at Pitt, Neuro and Philosophy. He is applying to med schools this spring. He works in a neurology unit in Pittsburgh and his current full-time, patient facing job does not even require a college degree. Just to put that in perspective.
Thanks for the insights. For UGA, she may look to double major in cognitive science + artificial intelligence to be more marketable with a BS in case she doesn’t want to take the PhD/MD pathway. Or, go the Neuro/Finance pathway towards hedge fund management.
Ironically, I work in pharma alongside Neuroscience PhD’s who are leading digital products who went this path to make $ as lab work/academia isn’t lucrative. So they suggested to combine with something marketable like neuro/AI or even Biomedical engineering.
I’m really most interested as she may change her mind on major how much SCHC enhances the degree vs. going to UGA or Pitt?
All those combinations will require more than 8 semesters. She could minor in neuro at Pitt but that would still require more than 4 years. My S19 did 2 summers in between junior and senior years. Ended up with 150 credits, 2 degrees, BS and BA but completed in 4 years. Neuro/AI would be a good combo at CMU but holy moly it’s $82K a year!
This is true. Georgia offers this (5 years but guessing with her incoming credits, may be less:
Double Dawg BA Cognitive Science/MS AI.
CWU is ridiculous…
How important is class size to your D? How important is her peer group in college classes to her? If she’s seeking small classes or wants a consistently high percentage of high-performing, intellectually engaged peers in her classes, then the honors college option is huge, to my mind. If she doesn’t care about class size, and doesn’t care if everyone in her class is on the high-rigor train, then I would make the decision based on other factors. All of this, of course, assumes that all options are affordable.
All are viable options from a financial perspective, but South Carolina is the least expensive of the three.
She definitely wants a more intimate experience as she’s coming from OOS and wants the advisement of Honors so she finds her people ideally through Honors (or at least some of her people).
I guess my followup is: If she gets Honors at UGA and Pitt, so Honors across the board, would you still choose U of South Carolina over the others that are higher ranked?
I would look at all the honors colleges and see what differences they have. At some schools honors classes will replace distribution requirements or have more offerings deeper into the major, whereas at other schools honors classes can be requirements on top of other ones for the university (rather than instead of). How do they compare with respect to housing, registration, activities, etc?
If after looking at all three programs and they’re still all neck-and-neck, did into the neuroscience and bio/cog sci departments. Are there faculty whose research interests she finds more compelling? Look at the frequency of classes being offered…does she like the classes being offered? (Don’t just depend on the class bulletin/course catalog…those can list classes that won’t be offered a single semester while your D is on campus.) Talk to faculty about what year undergrads need to be in to start working on them with research. Some places it might be first-year, while others want undergrads to be at least juniors.
As your D is coming from out-of-state, I would also look heavily at what kind of onboarding happens for first-year students. If there is a program that has some kind of an immersive orientation, that would get a big plus in my book. Some schools might have students take a class prior to the start of school where they get used to the campus, rigor, etc. Others might do a camping trip. Others may have a 3-5 day orientation (vs. a 1/2 day or 1 day orientation). Having a more in-depth onboarding can make a big difference in how students can feel when they’re on-campus, even if they’ve only started to build the flimsiest of social networks through that onboarding, which can be very important for students who don’t know anybody else.
I don’t think this decision is going to come down to rankings…at least not from an employer/grad school perspective. I think they all are respected as flagship-quality schools and your D can get a great education at any of them.
Depends upon various factors that often differ based on personal preferences.
Priority course selection and honors only housing are typically significant benefits accorded to honors students at large universities.
I have been involved in reviewing honors colleges/programs since 1993 and still cannot definitively state that one program/college is the best. Why ? Because there is too little feedback regarding honors colleges/programs from participants.
One of the honors programs with which I have had direct feedback for decades is the (now) Honors College at the University of Georgia which is composed of bright, motivated students with strong qualifications. It is truly a well run honors program/college. Research can be done in one’s first year if that is an interest.
Is quiet housing a concern for your student ? If so, then investigate the availability of such housing for each program/college and whether or not honors students are guaranteed on-campus housing for all four or five years.
OP: It would help if you asked more specific questions as broad based questions are not individualized to the specific student so any answers may be focused on factors that are not a concern of the prospective student.
Just updated my original post to give some background on her, which might be helpful to respondents. In terms of questions, housing is a concern but from what I can tell, the schools in question have housing for at least the first 2 years for HC students.
All 3 schools will provide a good education. Given her chosen majors it appears that med school or some type of grad school could be in her future, and she can achieve this from all. I know somebody who recently graduated from SC (received a large scholarship) and is now in a competitive grad program.
If all 3 schools are affordable I would dig into what is important to her, maybe visit/revisit is possible, talk to current students, compare the honors colleges and majors, research opportunities, discuss location - urban, south, etc.
If she does not make honors at UGA and Pitt, I would compare that to honors at SC. The advantages might make the school more desirable to her. It is my understanding that S.C. has an outstanding honors college.
It looks like research is a requirement for neuroscience at the U of S.C. I am sure she can do research at the other 2, but I do not see it as a requirement for the major. How does your daughter feel about that?
I should have added our S19 was in the Pitt Honors College. The honors classes are super small. He took a ton and loved them all. Also, he had no problem getting on campus housing for all 4 years. He graduated just last spring.
Not true. My D who majored in neuroscience works in investment banking. Clearly that path may not be desirable for some neuro majors who want to do lab/research science.
Depending how strong of a possibility this career goal is, I would lean UGA, then Pitt, then SC. Of course she can design an AI type major at Pitt and SC too (or do minors).
I agree with austennut on the various honor college considerations.
Agree. We talked to her about Hedge fund/investment type work. Actually discusses this with the Darla Moore folks at USC.
Practically, business is important to understand, particularly Finance.
given what you have described about your kid, I would probably choose USC Honors over the other schools if she is not offered a spot in their honors programs.
If she gets into UGA honors, then I would say it’s really up to her which one she likes more. where we live in NY/NJ, USC (honors aside) doesn’t have quite the same rep as UGA is getting for academics, but it’s moving up and catching on and any difference there is prob not going to affect her future.
Pitt is very different from the other 2 in its urban setting (and colder weather). I don’t think the Honors program at Pitt changes the experience as much as it can at the other 2. But if she loves the environment at Pitt, then I would choose it over the others even without Honors there. I love the city of Pittsburgh- my kids applied but never gave it a real look. Pitt’s rep, especially for Biology-related fields and pre-med, is way better than its USNews ranking would make it seem.
my kid is a freshman at UGA and in Honors (she got the honors acceptance at that annoyingly late date, I think it was in March). she is thriving. she opted to live in the freshman high rise, NOT the honors dorm, because she wanted the full social experience. I think this has diluted her honors experience a little but it was her choice. she has taken 4 Honors classes so far and they have been great. she definitely prefers the smaller discussion-based style to the larger lecture halls. the opportunities for honors kids are really amazing- I’m not sure she fully takes advantage yet.
Thank you for the feedback - much appreciated.
She just heard back from UGA’s Honors College, who let her know decisions will be out on Mar 15th, so before we go to New Dawg’s Day on March 18th. So this is the good news…the bad news is if she doesn’t get into Honors, she will be much less interested, but I will hope for the positive.
We saw Pitt in November (it was snowing while we were there!) - she liked the school/city, but not so much the cold. We saw South Carolina earlier this month, and it’s actually also in a city (Columbia) but felt relatively compact compared to the way folks describe UGA. I will say there was an awful lot to like about SC, and I was looking for red flags, equally excited to visit Athens.
