UW Seattle [$15k tuition] v.s. Wesleyan University [$70k tuition] [psychology major]

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Hello all. I am instate so the cost of UW Seattle would be around $15k for tuition vs. $70k for Wesleyan. However, my parents are high earners and can comfortably afford either choice.

I am choosing to major in Psychology, although that may change in the future. My current plan is to do social therapy work. I prefer warmer weather and realize that Connecticut weather is similar to Seattle weather and may be warmer during the summer and colder during the winter. I would appreciate being further from home and meeting new people.

With rankings/info being hard to find it is difficult for me to compare these two schools which are also vastly different in nature. Would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks in advance.

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This ranking of colleges and universities together placed Wesleyan 57th and UW 84th nationally:

Wesleyan offers an excellent psychology program and, as an opinion, would be my recommendation for your criteria.

Regarding climate, you would be dropping down six degrees in latitude if you were to choose Wesleyan, which would affect, in particular, winter sunlight.

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Declaring the psychology major at University of Washington requires competitive secondary admission after completing the prerequisite courses, according to https://www.washington.edu/students/gencat/program/S/Psychology-262.html#program-UG-PSYCH-MAJOR .

Declaring the psychology major at Wesleyan University requires a B or better in two psychology courses among the prerequisite courses: https://www.wesleyan.edu/psyc/about/psyc_mjr_admission_worksheet.pdf

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I think that you are comparing excellent (large and close) versus excellent (smaller and further away).

Psychology is an area where some form of graduate program is likely.

If you save money for your bachelor’s degree, will your parents let you put this money towards a graduate degree, such as a master’s? Getting your master’s degree with no debt would give you a huge advantage compared to someone who has to borrow for a master’s degree. First jobs do not always pay all that well.

I can assure you that people outside of Washington State (even back here on the east coast) are very much aware of how excellent the University of Washington is. Getting a bachelor’s degree at UW and a master’s degree somewhere else (even at the very top ranked schools) is definitely possible. Also, you will meet new people at either of these schools.

And a difference of just over $200,000 between the costs of these two schools (not counting the airplane flights) would pay for a two years master’s degree (at today’s prices, or even a bit more).

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You are comparing two strong and VERY different options. Talk to your parents – IF both are comfortably affordable (no debt, no hardship, grad school affordable) then pick the college that is the best fit.

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Yeah, this would be a great example of a comparison where generic rankings cannot possibly make sense. It gets very personal, including as to costs and whether the perceived benefits of the more expensive option are actually worth the cost.

Out of curiousity, do you not have any options in warmer areas? Like typically in my circles, a full-pay admittee to Wesleyan could certainly have a variety of warmer area options to consider, if they wanted them. Including options that might slot in between your current two listed options in terms of cost.

I realize it is late to be suggesting new applications, but I just wonder if you might actually have other options on the table.

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Out of curiousity, do you not have any options in warmer areas? Like typically in my circles, a full-pay admittee to Wesleyan could certainly have a variety of warmer area options to consider, if they wanted them. Including options that might slot in between your current two listed options in terms of cost.

I have been admitted to UC Davis, UCI, and UCSB. However, my parents do not think that these universities differentiate themselves enough from UW to justify the increase in cost.

I’ve also been admitted to Northeastern, Villanova, and SCU however their reasoning follows for those as well.

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I love Connecticut and lived there for four years – Connecticut weather is not similar to Seattle. Annual snow totals for Middletown are about 8 times what they are in Seattle, where snow probably melts more quickly. New England is also prone to ice storms. In the summer, yes, it would be hotter (but you might not be there in the summer). Again – I love New England and am a fan of winter (and grew up in California and had to get used to the colder winters when I went to college), so I’m not trying to sell out Wes. But you do want to know what you’re in for.

That - said – you have two fantastic choices that are also very different (I’m a fan of LACs myself and love Wes). If your family can afford either school, then you just need to envision the kind of college experience you want.

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Two great schools - neither is warm - at least in Winter.

It’s a psych degree - I wouldn’t put too much emphasis onto ranking.

I would put emphasis onto - do I want an urban, large college - with sports and all that comes with it - with close enough access to the big city.

Or do I want an LAC?

Are you parents paying for grad school too or just undergrad?

If they’re paying only for undergrad but not grad, then you might ask - if you go to UW, could they put the savings aside for grad school - or a car or house downpayment, etc.

But these are two very fine schools - but very different schools.

If money weren’t a factor, which would you choose? I’d go there - unless perhaps your parents would funnel the savings to you in another form (grad school or house/car, etc.) - then I might think differently as $200K+ is a lot of money.

Best of luck.

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This is really true, and the money may be fungible (almost certainly for grad school but possibly beyond that). In our case, with DS having chosen the state school, we have two financial changes already:

  1. he’s sitting on a CD with a nice balance to start out, and
  2. we can say “yes” to lots of other things like coming home for a weekend just because, or getting more swag, or a new suit
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If disappointed by your options, consider volunteering for a year in a social work setting while you reapply to a different set of schools.

What is your vision of “social therapy work” ?

FWIW I do understand your desire to experience a different setting and a different climate than that of your current location. In my opinion, this is an example of healthy thought.

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I attended UW, live in Seattle, and am affiliated with the university. One of my daughters attended Wesleyan, though as a physics, not a psych, major.

My D was admitted to the UW honors college, FWIW. But I am guessing most if not all of her reasons for making the choice she made, which included athletics (recruited to both schools for her sport), would not be applicable to you, so I won’t go through it.

I love my alma mater and I think it’s one of the most beautiful campuses anywhere, and people who disagree with that assessment generally have no or bad taste. But it’s very big. I didn’t know about small schools back then and for whatever reason appreciated the anonymity of the UW experience. Looking back, I may have benefited from a smaller college, but I did well nonetheless, and in a way I had a “sort of” LAC experience in the philosophy dep’t, which wasn’t then a hugely popular major.

My D loved her 4 years at Wes and made friendships that have only grown stronger since her graduation, now a few years ago. Wes proved to be a powerful launching platform for her and she’s done very well, though she gets most of the credit for her own outcome. UW has a tippy top psych department but Wesleyan has a strong department too and the LAC model provides some things that are harder, and some things that are impossible, to get at a huge flagship. One nice thing about Wes is that, though it is a small college, it is on the large side of LACs and it’s not out in the middle of nowhere. So, for a lot of people, it’s the Goldie Locks “just right” size and location. Lots going on at Wesleyan all. the. time. It’s not a sleepy little school by any measure.

FWIW, you can still be a big Husky fan if you attend elsewhere. We won’t cancel you! :slight_smile: But attending UW is a perfectly rational decision as well.

I think to nail this down, one needs to assess the pros and cons of attending a large vs. a small school. That’s it in a nutshell.

I’ll leave your finances to your good judgement, and that of your parents. We were full pay, so that’s coming from someone who actually wrote the checks.

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They’re not wrong. I assume you want to leave the state, etc?

But given their justification about NU, Nova and SCU, I’m sure they have the same thought about Wesleyan. As a parent, I would too.

The differentiator - if I wanted to pay - would be that you’d excel in a small school setting.

UW is a great school and if they’re saying, we want to save the $220K - it’s understandable.

Are they planning to cover your graduate school you’re going to need? What if it’s if you go to Wes - no. But UW yes?

For you and future debt, you’d thank yourself in years to come for choosing UW.

Good luck in whatever you decide.

But if your parents are deciding for you (and it sounds like it), be happy you’re going to a first rate school no matter what - because you are - zillions would love to go to UW.

Best of luck however it works out.

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Social work is a very underpaid profession. I would include the cost of graduate school into your considerations. If you do go into social work, you would really, really want to be debt-free when starting your careerr.

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Full disclosure: Wes alum here. They will offer you a free master’s degree, if that helps move the needle:
Five Year Program (BA/MA) | Academics

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I have a kid at Wes who is also an aspiring therapist. They initially thought they’d want to major in psychology but then realized that they were more interested in other areas of study and that a psych degree is not a prerequisite for pursuing an MSW or other graduate credential to become a therapist. So they are double-majoring in humanities/social sciences subjects (and loving it).

Just another factor to keep in mind as you choose your school. Good luck!

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My S26 is headed to Wesleyan this fall, planning a double major in philosophy and math, but also potentially interested in the (tuition-waived) 5th year MA in math.

We also loved UW on our college tours (we are OOS for UW). But we ended up feeling as though there wasn’t much flexibility to accommodate S26’s wide range of interests (for example, we worried he’d never get a studio art class as a non major, and they don’t offer a studio art minor, for example). Wesleyan is the ultimate in flexibility and that is one of the core reasons my S26 decided to ED2 there. It’s expensive—we are full pay—but we feel it is the best fit for our kid and where he is on his learning journey right now.

While I agree that debt is not ideal for starting out in a low-paying field like social work, I also think psychology is one of those majors that kids pick before truly unpacking their interests in college. And it’s also not a professional degree—you can go in many career directions with a degree in psychology and the internships this student chooses will do much to shape their future entry level job opportunities or decision to pursue further education.

ETA: just remembered your desire for warmer weather—you’re not going to get that in CT :slight_smile: Not sure if it’s a deal breaker for you, but something to think about!

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You don’t get to choose per se. You can choose which to apply to but there’s no assurance you get any.

In this case though, it seems that the parents will decide based on their desired investment.

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I disagree re: internships. The student may apply and be rejected but that doesn’t mean they aren’t in control of the types of experiences they apply for (e.g., HR internships in a company vs field social work vs research, etc) and using the experiences they do get to shape whatever careers they want to pursue.

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It feels like this point was a little glossed over in this thread. The question about graduate school funding is relevant and we should the let the OP come back and contribute to that point with information. Otherwise, I think the money point has been made. It might be worth noting, too, that people who can comfortably afford to pay their kid’s way through a private college like Wes are more often than not sufficiently savvy and sophisticated about personal finance that they can make the decision on their own.

IMO, what would be more helpful to the OP would be to discuss the differences between a UW and Wesleyan experience. I am better situated than most to attest to the fact that they are different experiences, each with their own pros and cons.

The reason the poster made the point wasn’t to assert that any student gets to pick an internship the way we choose fruit in the grocery store. That internship opportunities require mutual agreement between the student and the opportunity goes without saying. The poster is just making the point that a kid studying psychology can direct their professional future in a number of directions, and that internships will be an influencing factor. And that’s true. One of my Ds studied psychology and had internships that have, in fact, directed her professionally. That’s just helpful information for the OP.

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