<p>I do not know which one to select. I plan on majoring in business, so which one is the best school in terms of academics. Also is it worth the extra 20k a year to go to USD or LMU over Arizona?</p>
<p>nope.</p>
<p>Can your parents easily afford the $20k/year cost? At LMU, virtually all of your classes will be small, and there’s a sense of community that just isn’t present at UA (or almost any other flagship for that matter). Both LMU and USD students graduate and by and large they graduate on time. At Arizona, only 60% of students graduate in six years,</p>
<p>Of course, with the money you save by going to Arizona, you could afford an extra one or two year, but still, a 40% drop out rate isn’t exactly great.</p>
<p>I don’t know about Arizona’s public colleges, but here in California it is becoming utterly routine for even very smart kids to take five and six years to get the classes necessary to graduate. A family friend’s son who is very diligent and smart is finally finishing entrepreneurship/tech at San Diego State. I could go on and on. My sis in law who teaches at San Jose State in science bemoans how many students have to linger for five and six years to get classes–she takes the maximum students she’s allowed to help them out… Given that, the extra money probably balances out and is worth it for a USD or LMU.</p>
<p>Arizona public universities are not very selective, so there are a lot of marginal students at the low end who are less likely to graduate. The low end students at LMU and USD are likely much better than those at Arizona.</p>
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<p>When UC Statfinder was up, it showed an increasing trend of four year graduation rates at UCs – probably in tandem with the increasing selectivity. Berkeley and UCLA have among the highest four year graduation rates of public universities, which is not too surprising given that they are among the most selective public universities.</p>
<p>The CSUs’ four year graduation rates are significantly lower than the UCs’ four year graduation rates, but how much of that is due to worse prepared students (64% of entering frosh at CSU need remedial courses) or benign reasons (co-op jobs, part time students, etc.)? Several CSUs (Pomona, Fresno, Bakersfield, San Bernardino, Stanislaus) do offer four year graduation pledge programs, but evidently the vast majority of their students do not fulfill the conditions (such as not needing remedial courses, following the course plan for their majors, taking full course loads, not failing courses).</p>
<p>Thanks for the input! So now its between USD and LMU?</p>
<p>Actually, if Arizona is $20,000 less, then there is a very strong case to be made for attending it. Although Arizona has weak students at the low end, it also has strong students at the high end. If you are a strong student, you should be able to do well there (including graduating on time). Indeed, the top graduates of the similarly not-very-selective Arizona State do go on to top PhD programs in their majors.</p>
<p>Can your family afford the $20,000 difference out of pocket or would they be taking out loans? If they’d need to tak out loans, then the choice is made and you have to go to ASU.</p>