30,000+ applications for 3,000 slots

[UCONNJACK]

This topic made it over to Rutgers fan forum. Rutgers received 31,000 applications for 6,000 slots. Apparently Rutgers doesn't put much emphasis on recruiting out of state students. There is talk that Rutgers might reduced the size of future freshmen classes to become more competitive.

 

[SubbaBub]

My son is starting to look at colleges. Given his grades (4.0+ GPA) and class standing (top 6%), he's being encouraged to apply to the Most Competitive colleges (he's looking at MIT, RPI and Brown) and Highly Competitive colleges (UConn, WPI and Northeastern). The guidance counselor suggested he pick a safety school, too, as UConn is not a safety school, even for a kid like my son.

I graduated from RPI in early 90's, BU was my safety school . Last I checked, it was 4x the cost of the in-state tuition at Uconn. It is not 4x the education for.most majors. If I had to choose today, it would be no contest, unless I was going to study something specific (certain Comp Sci disciples ,MechE, AeroE, BioEng) that they are very strong in.

I work with a lot of Uconn grads, some are good and some aren't, but I am of the opinion that their college choice had little effect on that.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

 

[kibblesnbits]

Students and their parents really have to look at the total cost of attendance, not just tuition rates. They should also pursue multiple options and see how the aid picture plays out, particularly for the middle class. The wealthy don't care because they can afford any option and the poor will generally get a nearly full ride anywhere they are accepted. For the middle class each school's perception of need can vary significantly and what they offer can also vary depending on their financial aid budget and how significantly they want a particular student. There's no doubt that an RPI, WPI, MIT, etc. have higher price tags, but parents shouldn't be afraid to push their case with the financial aid office if there is a disconnect. Once they know the bottom line they can make the best decision. Fortunately, all of the schools Nan listed can provide a quality education if the student makes the most of the opportunity. However, they vary significantly in the quality of specific programs, culture, environment, etc. Hopefully, students can find a solid mix of affordability and desirability based on what is important to them.

 

[Bill Sussman]

I graduated from the SOE at UConn in 09. UConn definitely provides some balance to the pure engineering (There was maybe 1 girl in my Computer Science classes so I picked up a Psych minor). All the schools listed are obviously great and you will get a lot out of them. I would say that UConn provides opportunities to obtain a lot but you have to do some of the leg work yourself. Engage with professors, apply to work on research problems, etc. UConn is also doing better at partnering with local businesses in order to apply engineering principles to real world problems. Can't go wrong with any of the schools listed from an engineering perspective. I can tell you though that I always dreaded playing WPI in Club Soccer, a waste of a drive to Worcester to beat a team 14 or 15 to nothing.

 

[HartfordHank]

I graduated from the SOE at UConn in 09. UConn definitely provides some balance to the pure engineering (There was maybe 1 girl in my Computer Science classes so I picked up a Psych minor). All the schools listed are obviously great and you will get a lot out of them. I would say that UConn provides opportunities to obtain a lot but you have to do some of the leg work yourself. Engage with professors, apply to work on research problems, etc. UConn is also doing better at partnering with local businesses in order to apply engineering principles to real world problems. Can't go wrong with any of the schools listed from an engineering perspective. I can tell you though that I always dreaded playing WPI in Club Soccer, a waste of a drive to Worcester to beat a team 14 or 15 to nothing.

From my experience most of the males at WPI would not have had the thought or motivation to have picked up a class that contained females.

 

[upstater]

I graduated from RPI in early 90's, BU was my safety school . Last I checked, it was 4x the cost of the in-state tuition at Uconn. It is not 4x the education for.most majors. If I had to choose today, it would be no contest, unless I was going to study something specific (certain Comp Sci disciples ,MechE, AeroE, BioEng) that they are very strong in.

I work with a lot of Uconn grads, some are good and some aren't, but I am of the opinion that their college choice had little effect on that.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

I got into Ivies, chose BU.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

I graduated from the SOE at UConn in 09. UConn definitely provides some balance to the pure engineering (There was maybe 1 girl in my Computer Science classes so I picked up a Psych minor). All the schools listed are obviously great and you will get a lot out of them. I would say that UConn provides opportunities to obtain a lot but you have to do some of the leg work yourself. Engage with professors, apply to work on research problems, etc. UConn is also doing better at partnering with local businesses in order to apply engineering principles to real world problems. Can't go wrong with any of the schools listed from an engineering perspective. I can tell you though that I always dreaded playing WPI in Club Soccer, a waste of a drive to Worcester to beat a team 14 or 15 to nothing.

A number of us would burn up our pass/fail options on some of the courses the Nursing School students needed to take.

 

[HartfordHank]

I got into Ivies, chose BU.

Why? When?

 

[upstater]

Why? When?

Why not? 1986.

 

[HartfordHank]

Why not? 1986.

Why BU over the Ivies? Did you prefer to be in Boston? BU offered a better financial package? You thought you would get a better education in your major at BU?

 

[upstater]

Why BU over the Ivies? Did you prefer to be in Boston? BU offered a better financial package? You thought you would get a better education in your major at BU?

Better education in the BU school (SAT scores and admissions rate were as high/tough at the BU school as at the two Ivies at the time, those being Penn and Cornell), plus several other factors. Money was better too (1/2 scholarship at Ivies, 80% at BU, but the truth is I went into some debt at BU and turned down a full scholarship at a top 5 liberal arts school so money was some factor but not the whole story).

Just t give an example, tuition was $16k, so a difference of 35% was $5,000 a year. A lot of money, but not enough to make me forego an Ivy league education if I wanted it.

 

[rich1122]

Curious what is your son looking to study in college? Seems engineering focused.

It will depend mostly on SAT scores, especially Math. The average UCONN math score for Engineering has to be close to 700. They are not interested if you have less than 1200 for Reading and Math combined.

 

[HartfordHank]

Better education in the BU school (SAT scores and admissions rate were as high/tough at the BU school as at the two Ivies at the time, those being Penn and Cornell), plus several other factors. Money was better too (1/2 scholarship at Ivies, 80% at BU, but the truth is I went into some debt at BU and turned down a full scholarship at a top 5 liberal arts school so money was some factor but not the whole story).

Just t give an example, tuition was $16k, so a difference of 35% was $5,000 a year. A lot of money, but not enough to make me forego an Ivy league education if I wanted it.

It is a complex decision. To often today it is a financial decision. The 35% is now around $20K at a private school which comes to $80K over four years. The "package" will make a significant difference in your choice. I graduated in 1979. I could save a semester's cost over the summer. With money in the bank and working during school I came out with fairly minimal amount of loans. Tough coming out with $100K+ in loans and trying to get established. Especially if you have a degree that is not as marketable or pays as well as engineering.

 

[rich1122]

Remember this. Both my kids graduated UCONN - Engineering Pharmacy. They work with others who went to more prestigious schools. The salary is the same. The only difference is mountain of student loans the other kids have.

 

[upstater]

It is a complex decision. To often today it is a financial decision. The 35% is now around $20K at a private school which comes to $80K over four years. The "package" will make a significant difference in your choice. I graduated in 1979. I could save a semester's cost over the summer. With money in the bank and working during school I came out with fairly minimal amount of loans. Tough coming out with $100K+ in loans and trying to get established. Especially if you have a degree that is not as marketable or pays as well as engineering.

The thing is, private schools amount to only 15% of the market. Only in the northeast of the country is the loan problem a big thing. IMO, $20-25k is not so onerous. Going into the $30k range and above is something students should reconsider for an undergraduate education. In fact, gov't direct loans are capped at $5-6k, so you can't even go above $25k unless you go with a commercial bank with a loan to be paid immediately.

 

[Excalibur]

With a few exceptions, I consider undergraduate education to be a commodity. Outside of a few specific trades (engineering for example), a few schools at the very top, and some of the state directional schools (not all), it's the same damn thing regardless of the supplier. Obviously, the market disagrees given the wide disparity in costs, but you're not exactly dealing with rational consumers in 17-18 year old kids.

 

[upstater]

With a few exceptions, I consider undergraduate education to be a commodity. Outside of a few specific trades (engineering for example), a few schools at the very top, and some of the state directional schools (not all), it's the same damn thing regardless of the supplier. Obviously, the market disagrees given the wide disparity in costs, but you're not exactly dealing with rational consumers in 17-18 year old kids.

I see a level of discernment today that far exceeds what it used to be in the past. Parents and students are a lot more demanding. Many of them know that schools are stronger in certain fields than in others. This doesn't mean you've closed avenues if you haven't chosen a strong school in your field, but there is definitely a difference between a great many schools. Even within the top tier, you're better off at a school that focuses more on undergrad education than schools that cater toward grad education (i.e. say Chicago). Also, some want to pay up for liberal arts college which is definitely a different product than what you'd receive at a public institution.

 

[HuskyNan]

It will depend mostly on SAT scores, especially Math. The average UCONN math score for Engineering has to be close to 700. They are not interested if you have less than 1200 for Reading and Math combined.

As an 8th grader, my son scored 590 on math and 460 on verbal. When he took his PSATs, predictors of the SAT, he scored the equivalent of 720 math and 680 verbal.

 

[kibblesnbits]

Bright kid - he'll do fine. While each school may look at tests differently, including whether they use the writing portion or not, those scores will put him in the upper echelon of most schools and in the 25th-75th percentile competitive band at even the most selective. Obviously greater is better and he should work to get the best result possible, but it's less important than many people think. I know at MIT they generally see anything over roughly 700 or so as being good (there's no fixed cut-off because evaluating scores is circumstances dependent) and they don't really put much weight into differences beyond that. I think they, and admissions officers in general, get tired of the "I got a 1540 and he got a 1450, but he got in and I didn't even though I'm more qualified" argument. The challenge for competitive candidates is to show what distinguishes them from their peers and what they can offer to the campus community. Of course, your mileage may vary depending on the school.

 

[huskypantz]

MIT is tough. A good kid who worked for me a few years back was salutatorian of his class in a public, large, fairly well off Boston suburban high school. He attended a summer program at MIT and got a letter of recommendation from one of the professors. Even with a solid resume, he did not get in to MIT and instead had to "settle" for Cornell. He heaped an unheathly level of visible stress on himself during his senior year and was devastated that he didn't get in. Wherever your son chooses to go, I hope he celebrates his achievements.

 

[kibblesnbits]

Perhaps I'm biased because I went to Cornell for grad school, but any kid that has a fallback offer in Ithaca is very fortunate indeed. The problem is that top schools accept from 6%-20% of their applicants. Even for the highly qualified its a crap shoot. That's why Connecticut kids are fortunate to have a strong public university, particularly one that is rapidly rising toward the upper reaches itself.

 

[HuskyNan]

MIT is tough. A good kid who worked for me a few years back was salutatorian of his class in a public, large, fairly well off Boston suburban high school. He attended a summer program at MIT and got a letter of recommendation from one of the professors. Even with a solid resume, he did not get in to MIT and instead had to "settle" for Cornell. He heaped an unheathly level of visible stress on himself during his senior year and was devastated that he didn't get in. Wherever your son chooses to go, I hope he celebrates his achievements.

He knows that the acceptance rate for MIT is 9.7% and that his chances of being accepted are low. He also knows there's a medical school-type competitive atmosphere at MIT that he would need to live with if he does get accepted. He wants to give it a shot, though, which is something I admire because he was pretty risk averse until recent years. He's thought about his chances and understands how he might feel if he doesn't get in and is willing to risk it. It's a very grown-up decision on his part.

My baby. It seems like yesterday I was putting him on the bus for kindergarten.

 

[kibblesnbits]

He knows that the acceptance rate for MIT is 9.7% and that his chances of being accepted are low. He also knows there's a medical school-type competitive atmosphere at MIT that he would need to live with if he does get accepted. He wants to give it a shot, though, which is something I admire because he was pretty risk averse until recent years. He's thought about his chances and understands how he might feel if he doesn't get in and is willing to risk it. It's a very grown-up decision on his part.

My baby. It seems like yesterday I was putting him on the bus for kindergarten.

He's wise beyond his age. If it helps, however, the MIT atmosphere (and, I believe, many other engineering schools - it's changed since we were in school) is not as you perceive. The workload and performance standards are obviously very high, but it is actually quite collaborative. In fact, for all but a handful of off-the-charts geniuses it's necessary for survival. Most weeks each class will have a problem set ("pset") that the students work on together. For the core classes "pset parties" in the dorm lounges with pizza are common. The only requirement is that they identify the name of each partner when they submit their work.

 

[HartfordHank]

Perhaps I'm biased because I went to Cornell for grad school, but any kid that has a fallback offer in Ithaca is very fortunate indeed. The problem is that top schools accept from 6%-20% of their applicants. Even for the highly qualified its a crap shoot. That's why Connecticut kids are fortunate to have a strong public university, particularly one that is rapidly rising toward the upper reaches itself.

Cornell is a great school. Ithaca, NY can be a tough place to live. You are pretty far from civilization. A lot of unique features but far from anyplace else. I worked for a company based in Ithaca and have spent a reasonable amount of time there.

 

[Nostical]

My twin daughters both went to school there. There's only one sunny day per year--amazingly it's the day you come to tour the campus before deciding to enroll!