What's going on at Akron?

College Search & Lists
1

So after an 11 year hiatus, kid #4 is going to be a HS senior. I admit I was a little overconfident with my previous experience at getting the previous ones through. So I am late to the party. S wants an engineering program less than 3 hours from home. We live near Pittsburgh. Akron kept coming up in searches and it looked really good. We went there last week for a visit and I was surprisingly impressed with the whole engineering department. The FA is good and it is actually significantly cheaper to go to Akron OOS than to go to even PSU Behrend or Pitt in state. Like over $12K cheaper a year.

So we come home and I look some stuff up and it seems that Akron is in the midst of a lot of turmoil. Financially and administratively. Engineering though seems to be solid and the bedrock of the school.

Any OH people out there, other than articles online, what’s going on with Akron? Should we be cautious, or look at it as an oppportunity to get a little more than we may be able to get normally elsewhere? Son has 3.8 GPA with the typical APs and Honors. We are behind on testing. 1220 SAT in June first try. ACT scheduled in Sept. So far taking two of the old official ACTs, we’re expecting about 28-29 there so better on ACT. Reading and Science sections he’s scored well on both times. We have a list with some other schools too, but UA seems to be ideal - a safety that he likes and can afford.

2

Here is an active thread on University of Akron: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/2131930-university-of-akron-offers-buy-out-to-47-percent-of-faculty.html

3

My D went to HS in Akron and we lived in the general area. The university is trying to restructure themselves as STEM school. As such, they are culling a lot of positions in non STEM majors, offering early retirement, etc…

D has many friends studying engineering at Akron and they are all doing great. My husband’s last company recruited almost exclusively from Akron as they felt the kids coming out of engineering were well prepared for the job force, were hardworking, and go getters.

I think where you could run into trouble at Akron is if your child decides they don’t like engineering and wants to transfer to a different major.

So far I haven’t heard any insider information about the administrative changes.