Posted: 9/13/2015 11:48:31 AM EDT
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We live in Pa.
My daughter has decided to go to college in Maine. We have vacationed 2 or 3 weeks in the Belgrade lakes area for all of her life so Maine feels a little bit like home. We just got back from a week of college tours. It seems like she has narrowed the list down to 2. Thomas College in Waterville. University of Maine in Farmington. At this point she favors U Maine Farmington Her major is going to be marketing. Any plus or minus you folks can provide would be great Hard for me to get my head around that the baby I carried around is now 17 and going to be going to college next September |
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One of the benefits of Thomas is they try extremely hard to keep debt down for the students. Don't know if that is a consideration or not.
Thomas has also expanded their campus a number of times in the last few years. It is a much bigger campus now than when I moved up here 6 years ago. I also move up to the Belgrade area from Pa. Tell her to dress warm. It takes a couple of winters to get used to it. 
ETA I just graduated from UMaine at Augusta so I have no loyalty to either of those. |
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I've worked in higher ed for years and have degrees from the Maine Comm. College system and the U. of Maine System. Why is your daughter wanting to go to a state school out of state? It's like throwing money away to pay out of state tuition. I'm not saying that any of the schools listed are bad, but it's like buying breakfast at Denny's; toast, eggs and bacon are the same at any restaurant. You are not talking about fine dining at the Four Seasons, but you are paying Four Seasons prices at Denny's. Seriously have her consider a state school in PA if you are paying the bill or if she is taking out loans. Higher ed. is kind of a scam and a commodity degree like marketing from a commodity school is not reason to go into debt or pay out of state tuition.
Just FYI, UMF has no business program so no marketing and Thomas College while a nice campus, does not have a business program that is AACSB accredited. Use the college scorecard tool and look at the Thomas College graduation rates (43%), 6 year salary ($36,600) and typical Federal debt ($23,000). Once you do that look at schools in PA that are similar and then use the Net Price Calculator at both schools to see how much it's going to cost you. BTW, have her finish her FAFSA on time and do not miss any Financial Aid deadlines at any school she applies to. They are all different and missing the deadline means you get screwed out of money she may have had coming to her because they dolled most of it out to the people that made the deadline. B |
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Quoted:
I've worked in higher ed for years and have degrees from the Maine Comm. College system and the U. of Maine System. Why is your daughter wanting to go to a state school out of state? It's like throwing money away to pay out of state tuition. I'm not saying that any of the schools listed are bad, but it's like buying breakfast at Denny's; toast, eggs and bacon are the same at any restaurant. You are not talking about fine dining at the Four Seasons, but you are paying Four Seasons prices at Denny's. Seriously have her consider a state school in PA if you are paying the bill or if she is taking out loans. Higher ed. is kind of a scam and a commodity degree like marketing from a commodity school is not reason to go into debt or pay out of state tuition. Just FYI, UMF has no business program so no marketing and Thomas College while a nice campus, does not have a business program that is AACSB accredited. Use the college scorecard tool and look at the Thomas College graduation rates (43%), 6 year salary ($36,600) and typical Federal debt ($23,000). Once you do that look at schools in PA that are similar and then use the Net Price Calculator at both schools to see how much it's going to cost you. BTW, have her finish her FAFSA on time and do not miss any Financial Aid deadlines at any school she applies to. They are all different and missing the deadline means you get screwed out of money she may have had coming to her because they dolled most of it out to the people that made the deadline. B The suggestions above bear repeating, though on the cost analysis do note that the out-of-state tuition in the UMaine system is darned near the same as in-state tuition at some public schools (like Penn State) nowadays. I'm not intimately familiar with the situation at UMaine, but perhaps the low tuition charged is part of the reason that the UMaine system has been getting so much news recently for its budget woes and program cuts... Just this morning the local news ran a story about Maine state schools desperately trying to boost enrollment numbers of out-of-state students to try and get back on track budget-wise. |
| That's a toss-up. Both schools have decent reputations in the state. Thomas College is known best for business and accounting, whereas UMF is known best for its teaching programs. Waterville is a bigger town, and is also home to Colby College, so there is going to be more going on there than in Farmington. |