I am a rising senior and Penn State is my “first” choice target school. I’m from NYC and I want to live in a small town area. I want to do the 2+2 and don’t wanna start at University Park. Ive been interested in Erie, Berks, Beaver and Mont Alto. I really like Erie but the school is bigger than what I wanted for a starting school and the proximity to Canada bring a lot of snow and cold weather and I don’t know if I could really enjoy it being so cold. Berks I like better than Erie but I put it second because it’s a bit too close to home and I don’t want to be farrrrrr. Beaver I like the Athletics because I want to join a club sport and go to games ect, joining a sport isn’t a big thing for me I probably won’t even do it so it’s not a deciding factor. I’ve been reading reviews on the campuses from different students and from my choices I think Berks had the worst. Mont Alto didn’t come off as too great but I like the atmosphere but not the proximity to home. I want to dorm on campus, I don’t want rent if I did I would go to Schuykill. I want to major in any of the following because you can go to law school with any major legal studies, political science, Phycology, and history. I do have the grades to get into University park the admissions officer told me but I want to start small. FYI my reach school is UCSB… SAT score 2250… GPA 3.4
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to do your two years in a community college, then transfer to UP? That’s what I’m doing
This is the first I’ve heard of a Penn State branch campus being something that an out-of-state student would aspire to… The main University Park campus is in a city that is much smaller than New York.
But since you mention law school, why not go to a less expensive SUNY so that you can save money and avoid debt in preparation for expensive law school? Or a school where your 3.4 GPA and 2250 SAT would get you a full tuition or better merit scholarship?
I honestly don’t want to stay in NY, my parents also want me to go to Penn State, as for the branch campus I really want to live in a small town with a small school. I visited the main campus and stayed over night and the town was small and there were a lot of cows and horses but the school was bigger than I wanted because I want “change”. And for law school I’m planning on going to law school in California. Since I am applying with a fee waiver, I’m going to get financial aid so my parents want to see how much I would have to take out in loans before I finalize my decision but Penn State is my diary choice I just need help on the campus
I was thinking about doing that but my parents don’t want me to go to comunity college, I’m just going to see how much aid the school offers me then I’ll make my final decision from there.
Erie is a good fit for you.
What major are you interested in?
Since Erie, is one of the biggest branches. It has a https://psbehrend.psu.edu/school-of-humanities-social-sciences/academic-programs-1/pre-law-program
If you get a fee waiver due to financial circumstances, forget Penn State: they don’t offer need based aid to out of stater and very very meager merit aid. You’re limited to 5,500 for your first year - if you don’t have 41k in a college account and your parents can’t pay that amount “out of pocket”, you will not be able to afford any Penn State campus.
Also, you don’t need to “wait and see how much you get”, you can simply run the NPC (net price calculator). There’s one for each college and because their formula varies depending on college you have to run it on each website.
If you want a smaller campus with strong academics in a small town, look at Dickinson, Muhlenberg, Ohio Wesleyan, Denison, Allegheny, Ursinus, Goucher…
Why don’t you want to stay in New York?
I hear students say that all the time because they want something “different”, nominally, from their high school experience. But quite frankly, there won’t be a huge difference bewteen living in some small town in New York like Fredonia or Geneseo and living in some small town in Pennsylvania like Erie or Berks. In fact, there are some places in New York that are further from NYC than some places in Pennsylvania. And both a small town in NY and a small town in PA will be very different from living in New York.
There are many SUNY campuses in small towns with small schools. SUNY New Paltz, for example, is a cute little small town in the Hudson Valley and I think the school’s enrollment is something like 5,500 students. Fredonia, Brockport, Geneseo, and Oneonta are other campuses that are small, in small towns, and pretty far away from New York and will be pretty functionally similar to attending a Penn State branch campus - with the caveat that they will be far cheaper. There are several other SUNY campuses in slightly larger towns or very small cities (Oswego, Plattsburgh, Potsdam, Cortland). SUNYs are excellent deals for New York residents.
Don’t assume that you will get financial aid just because you are applying with a fee waiver. Public universities reserve their best aid for their own state’s students, and because PSU is a state-related university, it’s actually much more expensive than actual state public universities. (Look up the difference: it’s subtle but has a huge impact on the finances of the university.)
Penn State is notorious around here for being one of the worst state universities for in-state students in terms of cost and financial aid. It certainly won’t be any better for you as an out-of-state student.
Try the net price calculator.
Penn State itself is a great school. If only they can fix the cost and financial aid.
The schools I’m looking at all don’t require recommendations and SUNY schools do, if I were to go to a SUNY I would go to Oswego, but I can’t think of any of my teachers who haven’t retired or been transferred who would write me a recommendation. L
If Univ park is too big for you, you could do all four years at Erie. More than any other branch, they are set up for students to stay all four years, if they want. One of my daughter’s friends goes there and is very happy.
@awkwardcity If rec letters are what’s stopping you, don’t let them! Use LinkedIn to track down the teachers who have transferred, or google them and email them at their new school addresses.
If nothing else, Facebook them. Apologize for the informal contact and explain the situation. They might be annoyed and say no, but if so, so what? You already don’t have their recommendation. They will probably be fine with it.
@autumnal when I email the teacher should I include, when she had me and the grade she gave me because I had her a year ago and she’s at a different school now.
Have you looked at Altoona? Smaller, beautiful campus, you can stay all 4 years and the campus is basically in the middle of a neighborhood.
That being said, as others here have mentioned, Penn State is very expensive. It is the second highest tuition of all public universities IN THE COUNTRY. It is not a state school. It’s state related. OOS tuition is crazy high, though in line with a lot of other big flagship schools OOS tuition. Also, Penn State is notorious for not giving aid. They just don’t. Barely anyway. If you get into the honors college, you can get some merit aid, but as others mentioned, it is only $5500 per year. You really don’t have to wait to see what you get from Penn State. You will very most likely get nada. You CAN get student loans of course. But if you don’t want the UP environment and you are thinking of majoring in a liberal arts major - then an in state small school would more likely fit the bill. Or an OOS that gives lots of merit or need based aid. Penn State does neither.
I don’t see Penn State on the list.
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2014/12/02/10-most-expensive-universities-for-out-of-state-students
@jlhpsu yeah thanks, when I visited they had a special trip where they brought just NY students up and told us about all the aid and merit scholarships but after doing some more research the school I’ve wanted to go to for the past 10 years doesn’t seem as great or worth it to me. Since I have no college fund and my family has a low income in state is the best way to go since SUNY does give a lot of aid to instate students some of the most in the country. After this thread I fell in love with SUNY Oswego I’m just trying to find out how to ask my teacher for a recommendation through email
@awkwardcity Include your name, the year/class you had her and the grade you received. Include a short summary of what you plan to do in college/life and your contact info. Offer to send her a resume of your activities and any other information she needs. If she works at a nearby school, you can offer to meet her at her new classroom.
Talk to your junior year teachers too - any classes that you had an A in, or that you showed considerable improvement in.
My aunt also could have gone straight to main but decided to do two years a Erie because she wanted the small campus too. She absolutely loved Erie so much I can’t even explain how happy she was with her experience! It’s definitely the best branch campus academically(not by much) and the campus is nice. You’re going to have to deal with the snow no matter what campus you go to but please consider Erie I know you will like it.