Hi everyone I need some help with a decision because I don’t have much time left until May 1st.
I am deciding between Colgate University and Penn State University Park which are two completely different universities.
Colgate is a liberal arts college which I really like the idea of because I get to explore what I am interested in. I also love the idea of small classes and individual attention at Colgate. Big classes worry me at Penn State because I like close connections with teachers/professors.
I am looking to major in public health/biology and both schools offer good courses and majors for what I am looking for right now. I am definitely more interested in my selected major at Penn State right now but my major might change in college.
Colgate is small, Penn State is huge: there is no in between here. I come from a high school with about 4,000 kids which is bigger than all of Colgate. This makes me scared about if it will be too small for me.
Money is not a deciding factor but one is definitely more is expensive than the other.
I have visited both campuses and loved Penn State while Colgate was good but didn’t excite me as much as the other one did. Penn State also has amazing football games to look forward to and more with social life. Both have amazing alumni networks.
Also another factor is that Colgate is more prestigious than Penn State. I have worked really hard throughout high school (top 1% of my class) and I don’t want prestige to be a factor in my mind but it is unfortunately.
I feel like I could be happy anywhere but I don’t want to make the wrong decision.
If you could give me your thoughts on my decision it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Colgate is not high school and it’s inappropriate to make comparisons of any sort at all in terms of your possible or likely future experiences there. its mission statement is clear and focused. Maybe you should review it and decide. I cannot think of many Colgate students who even considered Penn State. So if you are on the fence then maybe that is your better choice.
Congratulations on having such great choices! It sounds like you can see reasons you would be happy at either one, which puts you in a great position. There is no “wrong” choice here.
Since the college experience is more about the student than the college, you can have a great experience at either. It is up to you.
That said, I think there are compelling arguments for Colgate. Although the schools involved are different, the idea here is the same. My son attends a different top small private liberal arts college with highly selective admissions. He has friends attending different top state colleges in three different states. The educational experience my son is having seems vastly superior. Small classes, more challenging work, more professor attention and feedback, and nearly every student in the college is intellectually oriented and loves learning, making class discussions and dorm/dining hall discussions fascinating.
A telling example: my son and his friend took a class with the same title one semester. The friend at the state’s flagship public read secondary sources citing the primary sources my son read. He sat in a large lecture while my son’s class discussed and debated the content. He took tests, while my son wrote papers and got extensive feedback from the professor. Which educational experience sounds better to you?
If you are going to graduate school anyway for public health, you do not need that major as an undergrad. As someone myself who got a masters in education after majoring in a purely intellectual subject at a liberal arts college, I am a strong proponent of four years immersed in the life of the mind studying in the liberal arts as opposed to doing pre-professional work as an undergrad. I believe that those four years did more for me as a thinker and a writer and a human being than my professional graduate studies ever did. A strong background in biology also will give you good knowledge for ultimately making public health decisions.
Just some thoughts. It sounds like you see pros and cons to each college and would be happy at either, so ultimately you can just decide which environment seems like the one where you will be more enthusiastic about spending the next four years of your life.
Colgate is far better if you want smaller classes and interaction with professors, especially since you didn’t get into Schreyer. The resources per student are not even comparable: personalized advising is one huge perk, as is career services (great at Penn state but, again, not as personalized at what you’d find at Colgate).
(In addition, it’s got D1 sports)
Which one is more expensive than the other? Everyone assumes penn state is cheaper but depending on your situation, it could be Colgate, and the advice would likely change.
Colgate does seem to represent an in-between size. By enrollment, it places somewhat higher than traditional NESCACs such as Williams, but lower than Ivies such as Dartmouth. By campus size (553 acres), however, Colgate could be considered a large school.
Yes, school size is relative, and the NESCAC colleges themselves are quite a bit larger than LACs like Harvey Mudd, Hampshire, Beloit, and Knox.
In any case, the college experience at a college with 40,000 undergraduates is obviously going to be very different from a college with 3000 undergraduates. The percentages of classes with 50+ students (1% at Colgate, 17% at Penn State) and with fewer than 20 students (70% at Colgate, 30% at Penn State) are merely a couple of points of comparison.