<p>Ok, I have been admitted to Penn State, Maryland and Wisconsin. I am instate in Maryland. </p>
<p>At Maryland I was admitted to the scholars program and I will be placed into a specific program by my choice. I will submit my top 3 choices and they will try to give me my first choice(Business, society and economics). This is one of their harder placement programs but I am garanteed a spot in the scholars program itself. Each program admits 70-90 per year and their are 12 programs. I was admitted into the business school as a freshman. ITS INSTATE!</p>
<p>At Penn State I was admitted to the sapphire program and the business school. I am in this program and it takes about 80-100 business students each year. The business program at penn state has about 5000 students so about 360 of the 5000 have been in this program.</p>
<p>Wisconsin- I love it. I love the atmosphere and the tradition. It is better than both of my other schools overall with a 4.2 peer assessment rating over UMD's 3.7 and PSU's 3.8. ITs business program is tied at 12. It seems perfect. The problem is their business school does not admit freshman. Both Penn State and Maryland do this. Maryland denies many to the business school as freshmen but they offer a chance. Wisconsin only allows students into the business program in their junior year. The average person that gets in has about a 3.5 up till their junior year. I am sure many upper level GPAs pull it up but still a 3.2-3.3 is a must. </p>
<p>Financially. My efc is under 1400. I will most likely have many loans from all these schools. </p>
<p>Is wisconsin worth the risk? Is Penn State worth the money I will have to pay in loans? Is Maryland a good enough instate program to get me into a nice grad school if I do well? What would you suggest? </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>What a choice...it's all good. Go with the UMD Smith school. Save $$$ for an MBA or ? Good luck whatever you decide!</p>
<p>Thanks. I know I will be doing an MBA but will the difference between these schools really matter much when it comes to that time? I mean if I got the same Gmats, the same job, and the same GPA will it make a huge difference that I went to Wisconsin over Maryland or PSU? </p>
<p>Is it a big risk to try out wisconsin? I mean I will work hard, i always have. I don't want to be denied to the business program in my junior year and be out of a major. This is a tough decision to make in a month. I"ll be going out to PSU on the 31st and Wisconsin in April. I have visited Maryland 3 times in the past month and could go right now if I wanted.</p>
<p>Cheapseats, please write up a trip report on your visit to PSU. Will you be attending a presentation for admitted students by the business school?</p>
<p>You might want to consider the size of the business school and effectiveness of the placement office.</p>
<p>A business school with 5000 students is very large. Is this the size at University Park or are you counting all the other campuses? How many of these are BBA students?</p>
<p>Smith is also rather large and up until 2005 is not very selective. They have tightened up the admission requirements a lot since.</p>
<p>Worry I will definatly post up everything. I am attending it through the business school but it is a special date for sapphire students. I'll make sure to have a detailed post.</p>
<p>GoBlue that is a really good point. THe guy from PSU said in an e-mail that they have 5000 undergrads at smeal, so yah i think that is at university park only. Smith is also pretty big but not nearly as big as smeal. Smith has, I think, around 2300 students. Smith has really started to make standards higher also as you said. The entering freshman class this year has an average of 1360 or 1370 SAT.</p>
<p>Thanks, Cheapseats :o)</p>
<p>At psu any business major in any campus can be from smeal. A lot of students begin at another campus and then join Upark for junior year, begining business studies at erie or another. I think its an automatic transfer for people who want it. They do finish at UPark though. So that number probably includes future transfers and those already at UP</p>
<p>I would choose Madison over the other two, namely because I think the recruiters would be better, even though it is quite "researchy," but the name is certainly bigger than the other two. Are you attending grad school immediately after college? I feel like if this is your favorite college, then you should attend. I wouldn't worry about not obtaining the necessary GPA, either. You're obviously smart enough to handle it. </p>
<p>There's absolutely nothing wrong with attending your state university, however.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone,
but yeah europe, I really think i am leaning toward Madison but every single time i do i go back to thinking Maryland. I am starting to feel PSU is out of the picture but I don't think that should be. I would love to go to any of these schools. I, for one, love my state school. UMD has provided me with the terps to cheer for in high school and has had about 6(some 'distant'-cousins aunts and such) of my family memebers in the past 8 years. It is going to be a tough decision. </p>
<p>About 11% of the school last year were freshmen at Smith. THat means about 44% are total throughout unless some transfer out, so we'll say about 40%. I went up to the career center at smith and some lady asked me what I was doing. I told her I was looking around and I would be comming next year. SHe said it is a real benefit to enter as a freshman. At madison I won't have this. But madison is 'better'. THis is tough. I have a month or so to decide so I'll visit and take my time. Thank God I have choices though.</p>
<p>Definitely Maryland. Good job opps in that area + D.C.</p>
<p>I would forget about PSU and focus on the choice between MD and WI.</p>
<p>If you're at Wisconsin and somehow don't get in the bisiness school, you could perhaps major in economics or poli-sci or psych (or whatever you enjoy), & take as many business classes as you can (I'm guessing you don't have to actually be IN the business school to take business classes, right?). Also, don't a lot of top MBA programs actually PREFER applicants who didn't do their undergrad degree in business?</p>
<p>Although i'm not a huge fan of UW-madison, it's still better than the other two options. it's a bigger school with more school spirit i think. I went to U Maryland last year and thought the campus was awful, and penn state is just tooooooooooooo big.</p>
<p>go there, make friends, work hard, party harder! and you can become Barrons's assistant.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses.
Accepted already that is agreat point about maryland. i have a good amount of family friends that are very successful in business in this area and DC makes it easy for internships.<br>
well worrywart, I found out that I can't make it to penn state at the end of the month. It sucks. I am going to go to wisconsin over spring break. This is a tough decision for me but the financial aid packages will make my decision for me. I would go to Wisconsin despite their higher price but the real problem is they don't accept into the business school until junior year. I think that is a horrible decision by the school. I don't know why they wouldn't accept just a couple 100 even. Really penn state is falling out of the picture due to their tuition and I think it is on par with Maryland. I would love to go to penn state if I could afford it. Some SERIOUS financial aid is needed.</p>
<p>This is going to be a tough decision for me but I guess I'll have to make the decision which is best for me. If anyone else has some info on this please feel free to post it. I guess I am beginning to know everything i need to know but i have to make a choice now. I guess this isn't supposed to be easy. :(.</p>
<p>I would narrow it down between Wisconsin and Maryland.</p>
<p>Penn state isnt worth it.</p>
<p>The wisconsin transfer thing does not sound very appealing. If you somehow screw up, your future goes bye-bye as you cannot transfer into the business school. </p>
<p>Also, if there is too much competition that year, you can also kiss your chances goodbye.</p>
<p>Note: Look at Umich and Ross before students could apply to Ross directly</p>
<p>bob i think that is where I am at, i guess. I don't know what penn state could give me financially to justify going there. </p>
<p>yeah accepted, I think that is a big risk for a smaller reward. I like the feel of Wisconsin but Maryland is a good school i guess. Maryland is basically only good at business and journalism. My first choice was business and my second was journalism. Luckily I live in a state that has a school that reflects my wants. good thing i got into my first choice. Both of those programs are LEPs(limited enrollement programs).</p>
<p>What is the possiblility of going to Maryland and transfering to a better business program by my junior year? What would be a realistic tranfer destination if I do pretty good?</p>
<p>Your chances of transfer are about the same whether you attend UMD/wisconsin/PSU, so you might as well go to UMD. </p>
<p>Keep up a good GPA and you can probably transfer out; depends on a lot of factors though. I wouldn't worry about that stuff yet.</p>
<p>In your first post you mentioned taking out loans. Wisconsin is good, but save the $$$ for an MBA when a name college maters a bit more.</p>