Would I be unhappy at a school where the average GPA and SAT scores are well below my own, where the students aren’t as driven? What are the downsides to going somewhere like this?
need more info…
Some schools have modest “averages” BUT they have a strong upper quartile.
What is your major?
What is the middle quartiles range?
What are your test scores?
What is your GPA? Where are you seeing what the avg GPA is?
What school is this?
My kids both got into “reach” schools. They had an adjustment from being one of the best and brightest in HS to being average or below average at their colleges.
Meanwhile, I worked at a local public university in our hometown, and top students from our local high schools who attended tended to be top students/superstars at that college.
Does the school have an honors program?
Downsides might include being bored by easy classes, where some instructors might have to lower the level to the lowest common denominator. Upside would be the potential for a high college GPA.
If you can remain motivated, you could get a great education with lots of attention from faculty who enjoy working with strong students.
watch malcom gladwell’s lecture on that and than decide! I agree with him. so no it would not be bad for you. also do not assume you will be on a better position on the bell curve based on your high school studies.
- Music Education at the secondary level, and probably one other subject (I'm thinking History, Spanish, Mathematics, or maybe elementary education)
- I have a couple schools on my list that are low targets or safeties, one being Penn State, which has an average SAT of 1762, and a GPA of 3.57, according to college simply and prep scholar.
- I'm #5 in my class, with an unweighted GPA of about 96, and I received a 2070 on my SATs. I'd classify myself as a VERY self-motivated person who works very hard.
zobroward: Is this the lecture you’re referring to? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx7K-2oJq7g
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- Music Education at the secondary level, and probably one other subject (I'm thinking History, Spanish, Mathematics, or maybe elementary education)
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- I have a couple schools on my list that are low targets or safeties, one being Penn State, which has an average SAT of 1762, and a GPA of 3.57, according to college simply and prep scholar.
- I'm #5 in my class, with an unweighted GPA of about 96, and I received a 2070 on my SATs. I'd classify myself as a VERY self-motivated person who works very hard.
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When you wrote your OP, I thought you were going to have stats like 2350. You are not too smart for PSU with a 2070. what is your M+CR? I’m guessing around a 1380? The top quartile at PSU has about a 1300+ M+CR.
Are you retesting?
The top 30% of PSU has a GPA of 3.75+
If you’re a serious student, in a serious major, then your classmates will largely be from that top 25-30% of campus. Who cares what the "average students’ GPAs are…they’re not likely in your classes.
One thing to keep in mind, smart students aren’t equally spread out amongst a large campus that has 75-125+ majors. NO…they tend to be found concentrated within about 10-15 majors…usually the academic majors, eng’g, and CS.
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My kids both got into "reach" schools. They had an adjustment from being one of the best and brightest in HS to being average or below average at their colleges.
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I’m many top high school students have that “jarring” feeling when they enroll in a reach school.
I had a 2330/4.0 and I ended up at PSU. Apply for the honors college if you’re so worried. 
Haha no, but I wish. I don’t really consider myself “too smart” for anywhere, I just didn’t know if I’d be comfortable there. Yes, I’m retesting in October.
Ooh what’s PSU like? What does the honors college entail?
And thank you all for your help, it’s GREATLY appreciated!!
Something that may be helpful to you is the University Park Common Data Set, section C (and by extension the Common Data Set of any school in which you are interested; that will tell you more than average GPA and average SAT): http://www.budget.psu.edu/CDSRedesign/cds.aspx?reportindicator=FreshAdmn&Location=UP&AY=20142015
If you’re in-state, PSU will probably be a good safety for you. If, like me, you only get into your safeties, it’s here for you, and if you apply to Schreyer (https://www.shc.psu.edu/admissions/apply/) that may sweeten the deal: scholarships, priority class registration, honors housing, honors advising, etc. Schreyer had an 8% acceptance rate this past year – only accepts 300 people from an ever-increasing pool of applications – so it’s never guaranteed. They don’t consider SAT scores, only your grades and the short essays on its separate application.
I only got into Pitt and Penn State. I chose PSU because of Schreyer; I got into Pitt’s honors college too, but that’s more of an automatic thing. Schreyer felt more special, vain as that may sound. The classes here (I’m in engineering and have taken two honors English classes and three honors math classes so far) are not easy by any means. I have met some truly brilliant people (and some mighty dumb ones, same as anywhere).
If PSU ends up as one of your acceptances at the end of senior year, visit and make sure you’d be comfortable at a big sports/party school. If that’s not your thing (it’s not mine), don’t come here JUST for Schreyer, because Schreyer is not your whole experience. It’s still Penn State.
I noticed your other thread was about being a conservative Christian at college. There is a healthy faith community here; I myself go to Catholic Mass on Sundays at the student faith center. One of the aforementioned truly brilliant people (a math major who took 21 credits last semester and survived with, IIRC, close to a 4.0) is a devout Christian and is working on an LGBT Christian group that sounds pretty cool. There are several different denominations of churches in downtown State College, too. And as far as conservative goes…colleges are generally liberal. But we are in Pennsyltucky, after all.
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What does the honors college entail?
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PSU’s honors college is one of the top, if not the top, honors college in the nation…Schreyer Honors College. https://www.shc.psu.edu
Extremely competitive admissions to SHC, often the students have the stats to get into ivies. There’s no formula for admissions.
PSU is a very good school. It is very big…almost like a small city. Traditions, school spirit, are all part of the school’s history.
Are you instate or OOS for PSU? It is an expensive public univ for instate and OOS students. Have your parents said that they’ll pay for PSU? How much will they pay each year?
I’m in NJ, so OOS. I’m really not into the party scene; as long as I can avoid it, Im fine with it. Is this possible? And what are the big differences between going to a big school and a small school?
Yes I saw that they have churches in the area. That’s good to know, thank you!
And we’re financially able to pay for PSU.
zobroward is referencing a Malcolm Gladwell chapter in his book David and Goliaths where he talks about Caroline Sacks. Well worth reading as you contemplate the question of going to school where the students are less competitive.
By the way, S decided he wanted to be at a school where he was in the top 25% of the class academically - not only did that result in scholarship money, but a lot of faculty attention, the grades he needed for med school, a more well-rounded, less pressured life - and, surprise, a cohort who were often very smart and interesting. Maybe more interesting actually because they weren’t evaluating their success based so much on academic achievement or as focused on winning the next laurel. It made for a very pleasant 4 years and no regrets on his part.
tuneafishvoice this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UEwbRWFZVc
same concept, just expanded and more detailed.
At a large school, it’s always possible to avoid the party scene if 1° you choose your dorm carefully and 2° you avail yourself of the many entertainment opportunities available.
At a smaller school, “fit” becomes much more important, so you’d need to find a college where the Greek scene is not predominant and where there’s more balance in entertainment. Some colleges, like Lehigh, Bucknell, or Gettsburg, rely primarily on parties for undergraduate entertainment and wouldn’t be good picks. Dickinson is more balanced, as is Bryn Mawr.
Going to a smaller school means your education is more personalized, the community is close knit, you know your professors and they know you (in fact they’ve often been hired because of their enthusiasm for undergaduates and their willingness to take them on as assistants for their research), classes are interactive. Because students choose the college for its “fit” or environment, there’s a sense of community. It also means you may have 40 majors to choose from rather than 100, and if you want a major most colleges have like Psychology or Biology it doesn’t really matter, but if you want Turf Science you’re unlikely to find it at a small college. Also, no matter how elite your college is, most people won’t have heard of it, so you won’t be able to impress anyone (people “who matter” will have heard of it if it’s a top school, even if random HS classmates haven’t.)
A larger college will have immediate name recognition, especially if it has a sport on TV. It will have more specialized majors, a wider variety of people ranging from geek to greek, liberal to conservative, studious to drunken partygoer. Classes will more often take place as lectures rather than interactive seminars, the professors’primary concern won’t be you (the undergrad) but their research, which in turns means that you may have more opportunities to participate in ground-breaking research if the grad students don’t take the spots first. If you’re in the Honors College, as a freshman and sophomore you get to have way more smaller classes and way more research opportunities than you would if you were a “regular student”, you’ll also get priority registration which is priceless. There’s also a greater choice of classes but even a small college with 1,500 students is likely to have about 600 courses to choose from, and you can only take 4 or 5 per semester! 
in my opinion every student should look at university of pittsburgh, muhlenberg college and hendrix college.
some people would scratch their heads about my list perhaps. but I think those schools offer awesome opportunities for undergrads. there are a lot of super smart people at these schools . I see the ivies as schools full of students seeking validation and are perhaps less supportive of their fellow students. also like I said earlier agree with malcom gladwell.
http://www.muhlenberg.edu/
https://www.hendrix.edu/
http://www.pitt.edu/about