<p>@Knitkneelionmom - She didn’t pick Millersville, she picked Kutztown. Oh well …</p>
<p>Funny, though, we toured Millersville on a Friday afternoon (around 2:30 or 3 pm), and the campus was deserted. I mean, absolutely dead. It was the middle of a semester and there was no one in the buildings, on the walkways, in the student union building. Ship, Kutztown and Bloomsburg were very lively, but then again, we didn’t tour those on a Friday afternoon. </p>
<p>Millersville does have a few restaurants and a grocery store. A lot of Millersville kids hang out in the city of Lancaster, which has an active young adult scene with many restaurants, art galleries, and events. I think the city bus would run to Millersville. My niece and nephew started at Millersville. They are part of the statistics for not finishing for various reasons. One finished at Penn State Harrisburg at age 26. </p>
<p>re: Double Depositing, you might want to look at this thread:
<a href=“URGENT Double(?) Deposit - Applying to College - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1467248-urgent-double-deposit.html</a></p>
<p>@knitkneelionmom - we’re cross-posting, I see! lol </p>
<p>I agree that Millersville and W.C. are regarded higher. But I can sympathize with her wanting some kind of town nearby, especially without a car. Funny, Millersville accepted her very quickly. Bloomsburg wants first semester’s grades. Who knows? </p>
<p>Did you look at Temple?</p>
<p>According to Naviance, she wouldn’t have gotten into Temple. Also, although she likes the city and would have been happy to go to college in a city, Temple is in the absolute worst part of Phila. Last year, the older sister of a classmate was randomly attacked near the campus. A couple of 13 year old girls basically bashed her face with a brick. She required a lot of surgery. That didn’t help my daughter’s attitude toward Temple. </p>
<p>I know some kids that are happy at Temple and some who hated it and transferred. It is not for everyone.</p>
<p>Agree about Temple. You definitely have to be comfortable about going there. How about taking another look at Millersville? Going during the week may give her a different impression. I can remember from my college days that Friday afternoons were always low key. We were resting up for a big Friday night out!
We looked at Altoona, Harrisburg and Berks for another child. He refused to go to any of the branch campuses. He like, your daughter was not admitted to Main campus.</p>
<p>I think which state system school is “best” is extremely subjective. IUP, CAL and Edinboro seem to always have poor images where I am from, but ymmv. It’s just perspective – I’ve heard plenty of people say altoona is for total branch campus rejects, too, and I know that isnt actually true. I think Kutztown had a party reputation but they really worked on that after the fire (there was a fire in an off campus apartment that — hazy memory — killed a student).</p>
<p>I will pm you about advising. My DH is a Philly native and the only school our children were jokingly/but meant it forbidden to apply to was Temple! </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.greensburg.pitt.edu/academics/psychology”>http://www.greensburg.pitt.edu/academics/psychology</a></p>
<p>Take a look at Pitt Greensburg. Also Slippery Rock when you’re over that way. </p>
<p>Oh and before your daughter makes a final decision see if she can stay overnight or sit in on classes, talk to psycholgy dept and such to get a feel for the school.</p>
<p>I’m another parent who thinks you’re going to have to trust that your daughter made a good decision for her. My son applied only to IUP (the only school we visited other than 2 Penn State branch campuses and a local for-profit college), was accepted, and decided to go there, despite my urging him to visit and apply to other schools so that he would have a choice. I’m not thrilled about him going to a school with a “party school” reputation, but I have to trust that he’ll make (mostly) good decisions once he’s away from home. By the way, a trusted and well-liked teacher last year urged my son to apply to Kutztown, the teacher’s alma mater.</p>
<p>I’m in State College right now (I actually work in the College of HHD, as a postdoc) and I’ve been down to Altoona a few times for various things (it has some things State College doesn’t). No way I would live in Altoona without a car, especially if she would have to live off-campus in apartments. How will she eat food? I guess she could slog it to the campus all the time, but the other question is how close, really, are all of the apartments to the campus? Many apartments here in State College are walking distance, but they get rented up really fast and others are pretty close to campus but too far to walk. Is this also the case in Altoona? Will she have to rely on buses (if there are any)? How isolated.</p>
<p>I think you are thinking a lot about the benefits of going to Penn State’s main campus. Most of the pros on your list are related to her either being near the main campus (like going up to State College for the weekend) or largely going to the main campus for junior and senior year. But she also has to look forward to and live at PSU-Altoona for the first two years. If she doesn’t like Altoona, she might be quite lonely.</p>
<p>On the other hand, I think people place outsized importance on “prestige.” Many, many students go to small regional colleges and then go on to have very successful and productive careers. Kutztown has a lot of majors - they’ve got public administration and social work; they’ve got advertising and public relations as minors. The social work BSW program might be especially appealing to someone interested in psychology, as it’s a bit more employable in direct service provision on the bachelor’s level while still getting at many of the same things that appeal to a psychology major. With good grades she could do anything from Kutztown - she could go to Havard Law or Stanford Med, she could get a Fulbright, etc.</p>
<p>The other thing is that if she really wanted to take advantage of the PSU main campus’s pros, she could transfer there after two years at Kutztown. That’s two years spent in a place she’s happier and likes more, while still doing whatever she wants at PSU main. Plus you’ve saved money since Kutztown is so much cheaper. Plus Kutztown is close to Allentown (and Lehigh, if she wants to experience some D1 sports, although of course it’s not exactly the same as Beaver Stadium lol) and a short drive away from Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Your only real con for Kutztown is that it’s not Penn State - but Penn State Altoona is not Penn State main, either. A quick glance at data show that PSU-Altoona’s students are quite similar in selectivity to Kutztown’s students. Those are who she will be hanging around her first two years, during a really formative period in college. (The lower graduation rates only matter of they are because classes are not readily available for people to take and graduate sooner. Sometimes, lower graduation rates are because of the financial status of the students and their families - they may have to take time off to work or earn more money to continue. If your family can afford four years of Kutztown barring any emergencies, than the low graduation rates might not be a problem if that’s the reason.)</p>
<p>Admissions data also suggest that Millersville’s admitted students are only slightly, marginally, and perhaps not statistically significantly more selective than Kutztown’s.</p>
<p>She’ll be fine!</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, did she consider West Chester University?</p>
<p>We were in your exact shoes with my son. My daughter went to Penn State UP and my son was accepted to a branch. He could have commuted to our local branch, which is great, imo, but he hoped to live away at school. I myself spent two years at PSU-Altoona before going to UP, and while it was fine, Altoona is not too exciting and it’s far. So, we looked at the state schools, and he ended up at one. Not Millersville, or Bloomsburg, both of which he really liked, but they didn’t have his major. </p>
<p>He ended up going to another state school farther away and has been happy. He does say that he sometimes wishes he had gone to Penn State, but he was not willing to do the time at a branch. I have noticed significant differences between Penn State and his school as far as details, organization, quality of instruction, etc. I do try to keep my mouth closed about it because I don’t want to be making comparisons and denigrating his choice. </p>
<p>He is doing very well and will graduate in four years including an internship. </p>
<p>I think in the end, it has to be her decision, if you have no real objection. </p>
<p>We will go to an Accepted Students day in February for Kutztown. I think we’ll have more time then to find out about the academics. The only reason she had to make a decision now was because of the Altoona dorms. But the others don’t need an answer yet and it seems smarter to apply for financial aid before I send in a deposit, yes? I’m sure there will be some kind of Accepted Students thing for Millersville too, and we’ll see if she’s interested in going.</p>
<p>@SansSerif - I had a feeling Millersville was one of the choices. I graduated from Millersville and so I’d my husband. We loved it there. West Chester and Millersville are the only state school that I want my daughter to apply as her safeties.</p>
<p>It’s not a suitcase school at all! Loved the location. Now, it been built up even more than when I attended, but it is a great school. I would probably choose this over any of the others. I have friends that all graduates from all the schools you listed. We are all up there in earning potential. The state school education never held any of us back. The PSU friend of our makes the same as us.
I would choose Millersville for psych then spends all that extra at PSU. I’m familiar with PSU since my son attends. So far he IS already having difficulty getting classes he needs as Freshman.</p>
<p>I almost attended Kutztown, but that was too close to home and that is quite dead for me.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t choose Temple. My friends daughter attends. Her daughter has to constantly text her Mom so that her Mom knows she is ok. I don’t want to feel this constant worrying sending off a kid to college if I felt the area was that unsafe. </p>
<p>I have no firsthand knowledge of PA schools but my D1 attends a very similar college in our state. Looking online at the US News and then at the Kutztown site, it looks like a solid state U. Under 10K is a nice size! She could have a very nice undergrad experience. My sense is the small state U’s are oftentimes a best-kept secret for undergrads. They focus on the students rather than the massive athletic programs and 20 layers of university administration.</p>
<p>@Ryan18, she knew she couldn’t get into the main campus, so she applied directly to Altoona. She has a 2.86 / 1500 SAT, so there was no question of making the main campus, even for summer. If she had applied to Univ Park, they wouldn’t have gotten back to her until January, and likely the dorms in Altoona would be full by then, anyway. </p>
<p>@slipjig - I can’t fool myself, Penn State is a better school academically. But as long as she picks a school where she can do well and be happy, then I’ll be okay, too. I just hope her view of Kutztown now turns out to be reality next year.</p>