Based on peer quality and especially the discrepancy regarding the number of poli sci professors per student I’d pick Allegheny. If you get it forthright same rice as wcu you have a terrific bargain. Congrats 
(As for summer internships, it’d stand to reason that the college has good ties to Pittsburgh.)
This comparison isn’t totally fair to West Chester, because they have a lot of students in pre-professional majors (like business, nursing and other health services, criminal justice, and education), as well as those majoring in liberal arts. The pre-professional students probably aren’t taking a lot of political science classes.
According to College Navigator, West Chester had 64 polisci majors in 2015-16, while Allegheny had 27. The departments appear to have similar numbers of faculty, so the student-faculty ratio is still better at Allegheny, just not as much as the overall enrollment numbers would suggest.
Allegheny expects each student to complete a two-semester Senior Project under the direct supervision of a faculty member. West Chester doesn’t have this requirement, probably because there would be too many students for each faculty member to handle.
Allegheny is probably the better choice academically, and it appears to match West Chester financially. However, it sounds like you are concerned that Allegheny is too isolated and remote. If that’s the case, then West Chester might still be a better choice. You will not maximize your academic performance if you are miserable for four years.
But before making that decision, I would at least visit Allegheny and give it a chance.
@Corbett I will be visiting next weekend so hopefully that will help put things into better perspective.
Please report back to give us your impressions! Best of luck to you.
Ok, so I visited Allegheny yesterday and it really helped me make my mind up. The campus was beautiful and the students seem really academically focused. It also seems to offer me things I just won’t be able to get at West Chester, including the no gen eds requirement and the senior comp. Overall, it was just one of those things where from the moment I stepped on campus everything felt right.
Thank you for all of your input and advice!
Thanks for the update!
Congratulations.
Not sure if you got a merit scholarship from Allegheny, but they have no minimum GPA tied to the scholarship, which is really nice.
^ Congrats! As a bonus, Pittsburgh has become a really nice city for cultural events, restaurants, shopping, etc., so you’ll have a great place to visit from time to time (and a vibrant place for internships).
I hope I am not too late to the party, but Allegheny hands down and for $100 more than WCU, this is not even a discussion point! I was ready to sign on the dotted line for Allegheny when it was close to 10K more than SUNY Bing (no need-based aid for us, only merit), and I still thought that my son would have been so much better off at this small LAC. I hope you are going there. I said one thing to Ron Cole, one of the administration members at Allegheny “I wish I knew Allegheny existed when I was applying to colleges because I would have loved it here.”