<p>I have been accepted to these three schools.......Regardless of any other factors, which school do you believe has the best reputation? Can lead to most successful/high paying jobs?</p>
<p>How sad that you equate a college eduation with a high paying job when you graduate. Please tell me you have more interest in the college learning experience than that? </p>
<p>You should major in your best avocation, what gives you great excitement to learn, where you can make the biggest impact at school and later in life. Pick the school that best describes your personality. </p>
<p>Elon is huge into community service, international exchange and a holistic approach to learning. If you do what you enjoy, your avocation, and you work hard, the rest will all come into place in your working life. </p>
<p>Elon has produced international businessmen and women and also a lot of outstanding teachers. They have produced award winning journalists and television reporters. Its a wonderful school with warm and endearing people.</p>
<p>Its the complete opposite of a large state university. Its not apples and oranges, its apples and moon rocks. </p>
<p>Not knocking PennState and Maryland, both of which are fabulous schools, but which are huge state schools with enormous sports and social activities. </p>
<p>Finally, you will do well anywhere if you apply yourself, focus on your studies and giving back to the community, joining public interest clubs etc. </p>
<p>Schools don’t get you jobs. You get jobs…by doing well in school, learning and growing and becoming a good citizen. Schools facilitate that by offering you an opportunity for all of the above. Its up to you to go get it.</p>
<p>ghostbuster’s response was fabulous, so I won’t repeat what s/he said. I will add that much depends on your intended major and what is most important to you about the college experience. If you have an unusual major in mind - the larger universites might be better. Penn State and Md have more national name recognition, but Elon is so up and coming and those who are familair with it think very highly of the school. </p>
<p>Does housing concern you? Elon has more on campus housing. Upperclassmen at MD live off campus, I’m assuming Penn State is the same. Would you rather be a bigger fish in a smaler pond or vice versa? I can understand having questions comparing Penn State and MD - but as ghostbuster said - they are both nothing like Elon.</p>
<p>I will try to answer your questions, " has the best reputation? Can lead to most successful/high paying jobs? ", if you approach this question in a vocational approach, not a holistic , life growth experience approach.</p>
<p>Reputation = Maryland , easily the most selctive of the 3.
Success/ high paying jobs= Again Maryland as employers will hold ir’s degree in a higher value of the 3 , based on academic standing. Caveat is that Penn State has enormous name recognition due to the size (they have the largest number of alumni) and sports programs.</p>
<p>That being said Elon is a fantastic place , and given the above choices, I would happiest if my children enrolled at Elon for the various reasons already stated by the other posters.</p>
<p>Good luck in your college search!</p>
<p>Maryland probably has the best name of the 3 and also has accessibility to a large city - don’t forget to consider that.</p>
<p>I would go with Maryland, generally. But, what will your major be?</p>
<p>Maryland and Penn State are about equal. Both have lots of top 30 departments of the nation. Both are among the best public universities along the east coast, comparable to UNC, a little stronger than UVA if your intersts are in humanities, science, and engineering.</p>
<p>Some of the best science/engineering public universities ranked by avg US _NEWS rankings </p>
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<p>University/engineering rank/computer sci rank/chemsitry rank/physics rank/math/biology rank/earth sci rank/avg rank
Penn State 23 29 16 23 28 42 7 24.0
Maryland 17 13 36 13 21 48 38 26.6
Georgia Tech 4 9 26 36 36 68 55 33.4
UNC-Chapel Hill 71 20 16 36 28 26 49 35.1
Stony Brook 60 31 50 23 24 48 28 37.7
Rutgers 51 31 68 26 24 48 38 40.9
Florida 25 39 36 36 58 48 60 43.1
U of Virginia 37 29 50 36 40 42 81 45.0
U MASS 50 20 50 48 64 68 49 49.9
Virginia Tech 27 46 68 68 48 77 28 51.7
NC State 31 48 50 48 48 77 81 54.7
U of Georgia 91 71 50 76 55 58 67 66.9
Delaware 46 71 62 68 70 95 81 70.4
U Conn 71 71 81 68 90 77 81 77.0</p>