Wow. My twin sons ended up at UVA —we kinda like our state flagship universities at our house — but I would have been thrilled if either of my sons had accepted the invite to Penn State and the Schreyer Honors College. I thought Happy Valley was lovely (we’re also fond of small college towns — yay, Charlottesville), loved the endless Main Street (with its bookstores, coffee shops, burger joints, sushi places, etc) right off campus, and was impressed with the Halloween festivities that were in the works including the pumpkin carving festival and community trick or treating. Plus Division 1 athletics, a leafy campus, a terrific student rec center, an amazing alumni network, tens of highly-ranked majors and minors in a variety of fields, and 800+ clubs and organizations. I had no doubt that my sons, neither of whom drink or are involved in Greek life, would have had an amazing four years at Penn State.
We absolutely love UVA —our guys are doing terrific academically and are very involved in a host of varied extracurriculars — but Penn State is a terrific school. Perfectly fine for a student to feel that another school is a better fit, but it is foolish to suggest that a bright, motivated, hardworking student will find Penn State lacking academically.