With the May 1st acceptance date rapidly approaching, I am getting pretty nervous about not knowing where I want to attend college in the fall. I have narrowed down my choices to either Temple University or Penn State University Park; however, from there I am having a tough time picking one. Neither one really stands out over the other as the place to call home for the next four years, so I am asking for the opinions of other people. I have visited both campuses and they both seem really nice to me! I plan to be a communications major with my backup choice being secondary education if that does not work out. I would describe myself as a fairly outgoing young male who has a passion for photography an would like to continue to be involved with Student Government and other organizations geared toward helping others. I’m also not much of a partier and care about my schoolwork and grades.
With that in mind, which school do you think would be a better fit for me? Please mention some of the pros/cons of each school as you see it! Any information that you think would help out here would be much appreciated ! Thanks everyone…I just wanna get my life together already and solidify a roommate haha!
The environment of the two schools is tremendously different with one in Phila. and the other in central PA. It is hard to believe that you don’t have a preference.
I think either school would be a good choice. Consider if Temple might give you more internship opportunities and if you are not a partier being in a major city may provide you with a wider array of social outlets.
Do,you want to live in a city…or in the middle of no where in a college town?
I worked at Temple in the 90’s and loved it. I am sorry I left!
Well what other interests do you have? Do you like DIY music shows (Punk/Indie/Raves/etc), the Orchestra, the Opera, Ballet, original theater, off-broadway shows, original and interesting restaurants, public transportation, professional sporting events, a large LGBT scene, along with dirty streets, higher crime, higher cost of living, etc
or
Do you like the outdoors? Huge college sporting events during the Fall, cover bands of dinosaur bands, hanging in with your friends because there’s not much to do along with fresh air, clean streets and relatively no crime?
For communications major, Temple hands down. Practically everyone in Philadelphia Inquire is from Temple, I heard.
Is there a difference in cost to consider?
If possible go visit them again now that it is your decision not their decision. If they offer shadow days, take advantage as that is what made the decision very easy for my daughter even though she had seen all the schools before.
@OHMomof2 Nope! Cost doesn’t really matter that much…it’s more about me trying to figure out where is the best fit for me. I am struggling to find a roommate at temple atm and that worries me a bit because I have had troubles fitting in with other guys in the past. At Penn State, I have a few to choose from, one of which I really like haha 
Merged two identical threads
I would say Temple, since they’re great for communications. (I’m a bit biased, though, Temple is my top choice!)
May 1 is still over two months away - you have plenty of time.
Either school sounds like a good choice for you, but I lean Temple a little bit. I lived in State College for a year (worked at PSU). If you are interested in community service organizations and volunteering in your surrounding community, there are a LOT more opportunities for that in Philadelphia than State College. (I’m big on college access programs for low-income/disadvantaged high schoolers, but with State College being a small rural college town there weren’t really any programs for that.)
Two, if you are interested in SGA and student leadership, it might be a little easier to stand out at Temple (with 28,000 undergrads) than Penn State (with 38,000 undergrads). And three, party culture is pretty big at Penn State. It’s not that you can’t avoid it or that there aren’t people there who don’t party - there are, of course. But it is something you should think about.
Temple’s school of media and communication is pretty well known. PSU has a school, too, and it’s probably also quite good. If it’s important to you, Temple is also more diverse.