Is there a continuing reason for two PASSHE threads when the same info is getting posted in both threads? Seems confusing but maybe there are two distinct reasons for two threads that I am missing? This thread seems more active than the other one.
Don’t want any interested fish to fall through the net…Nobody is required to read. Any newcomers won’t be missed due to lack of dissemination of information. I hope you are okay with that.
@bester1 It definitely doesn’t matter what I am okay with. It has just been curious to me as threads are routinely merged or a second thread just fades away if the same links are posted. It is a testament to this topic and to you that two threads have lasted so long!
@sevmom…I am just a frustrated middle class PA resident and Dad to a B average 26 Act student. I think there may be quite a few of us out here.
A dad ! Cool. . Good luck to you and your daughter. Paying for college is no fun, that’s for sure.
We are just like @bester1, and don’t want to bankrupt our future either.
You always have to be careful with the financial aspect of things. We paid full pay as a family for two kids instate in Virginia and are not at all wealthy.We expected them to take out some loans that were available and work during the summers. Not a good thing to jeopardize retirement funds. But, we do have much less in the bank than we would have if we had not had kids. That is kind of par for the course. It is a stressful time when sorting all this out. Good luck to all.
I went to IUP decades ago. Funny thing is that now that I see all of these SAT/GPA charts, I was at the top of them . Then , it didn’t matter to me. I was the first to go to a four year college and was just happy to go to college. Only applied to Pitt, Penn State and Indiana. Got into all three. Well, IUP was my favorite and felt like the best fit. I have no regrets. I have roommates that were successful-professor, lawyer, therapist, etc. So, I do follow this thread and still get back regularly to Pennsylvania to visit. I am dismayed about the negative comments about IUP. I have very fond memories. I ended up at Pitt for graduate school but IUP will always be dear to me. Sorry to hear that IUP’s reputation has declined with current residents.
@sevmom, around here IUP is respected for its music education program, so we will be looking at it.
@mommdc I had good friends that were in music education there -violin, saxophone, third was trumpet IIRC. I was in a rock type band with them (I played guitar and sang, we actually won a contest and ended up on the front page of the newspaper!). I’ve lost touch but in googling, I know the violin guy (who I dated briefly) is a well respected high school orchestra teacher.
And to clarify, when I said my SAT’s were at the top of the charts, I meant for IUP! I was probably more suited in terms of grades and scores for flagship state schools, but I was clueless! And I did NOT want to get on a bus and commute to Pitt every day, and found the size and distance of Penn State overwhelming at the time. Hence , IUP. Go Indians! Go Crimson Hawks!
This is also what we have been saying:
“Some of the enrollment declines, Brogan said, can be attributed to competition from Penn State University’s 22 regional campuses. Some of those regional campuses are in the same communities as the state system schools.”
“It’s draining students,” Brogan said.
I always check this thread and enjoy the posts. Without reading through it again, have any PA posters here have kids planning on attending a specific PASSHE school?
Also, I think West Chester seems to be the most popular?
We have WC, Bloomsburg and Slippery Rock on our list - that’s if Harvard doesn’t come calling. 
We are like many (probably not the typical CCer, because our kids aren’t valedictorians who work on nuclear fission in their spare time) in this thread: We are raising great kids who work hard and we are middle class with no chance of getting actual useful financial aid from most, if not all, private LACs.
If you visit Slippery Rock, check out North Country Brewing Co. and try some of their Slimy Pebble Pils.
We are only considering West Chester right now for PASSHE, with Millersville on the back burner. We have two Virginia schools that my D would prefer if the finances work out but it doesn’t look great right now. She has been accepted to all of these.
By the way, we took a “drive through” at East Stroudsburg U. last weekend as we were in the Poconos anyway, just for my younger daughter. It looked pretty good to me, but I know some folks on this thread are not impressed. Building some new dorms there also.
@Gatormama …you/we are exactly what this thread is about. Not pretentious in anyway, decent students, decent test scores, middle income with very few affordable schools/options in our state. We don’t pretend that Penn state/Pitt or Temple are true state schools or actual flagships. They are privates that take public funds and create branch campus’s that are often glorified community colleges gouging more residents while sucking funds out the hands of the true state schools(PASSHE) and increasing the costs to attend these solid but not great schools.
@sevmom…After my daughter was accepted into IUP we received an email from the High School College Counselor discouraging us from allowing her to attend school there. Citing nonstop out of control partying, insinuating hard drug issues on campus, constantly lowering admission standards and lack of recent success regarding recent graduation rates. We felt it was harsh, but my daughter took it to heart and declined dispite an offer into the Cooks Honor College. There was an apparent murder on campus just two weeks ago where one fraternity brother strangled his fraternal brother to death on the street.
It will be interesting to see if some of us with seniors actually pick a PASSHE school after all of this discussion and consternation.
@Portercat …If you do not mind telling us…What are the two Virginia schools?
Randolph-Macon (private Liberal Arts C) and Christopher Newport (OOS state school). Accepted at both. Merit scholarships offered for both, BUT just not enough to be close to West Chester. So we are crunching numbers, evaluating, negotiating, and applying to external scholarships…all before May 1st. BIG question centers around cost increases every year. If they could freeze tuition it would make things easier. I think they (colleges) bank on the fact that parents are too ignorant (sorry!) to think about cost increases in years 3 and 4 when deciding on year 1.
This is why I was asking earlier about the benefits to deciding earlier (if any). Thanks.