<p>I'm having trouble deciding between these two. I'm going in as exploratory, although I'm fairly certain that I'll end up majoring in engineering or sciences. It's just a matter of which one and exactly what. It would be great if you could tell me about the science and engineering programs at the schools. Namely physics, astronomy, and mechanical engineering. </p>
<p>Penn State seems to be the better school while Bloomington to me would be a better place to live. But it's not like either school is bad in either of the areas, which is why I'm having trouble making the decision. Right now I'm kinda leaning towards Penn State because it consistently ranks higher in college rankings(although I admit that some of those ranking lists are quite absurd), and I get the feeling that Penn State's reputation would help me more after I got out of college.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, visiting either college is not an option for me. I know its hard to take 2 universities and compare them on the broad scale that I'm trying to do. I guess this is what I get when I go in exploratory. In particular, I'd like to hear about which school would serve me better post-graduation as well as a comparison of the science and engineering departments. Thanks for any info you can give.</p>
<p>Oh man, a guy who doesn’t know about a college! Whats he doing here on a forum where people talk and ask questions about colleges?</p>
<p>I appreciate your input about the sciences, but your ridicule about my inquiry about engineering was completely uncalled for. People come to these forums for the very purpose of learning more about colleges, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. Too bad if my preliminary knowledge of the university is too low for you. Perhaps my knowledge of this university is as incomplete as your understanding of this forum.</p>
<p>Physics is probably stronger than astronomy at IU-B.</p>
<p>Other programs that you might be interested that are strong at Indiana are Geology, Anthropology, and Geography.</p>
<p>P.S. The reason Indiana University at Bloomington has no engineering school is because when the Indiana legislature set up their public university system back in the 1800s, they set up two schools–Indiana University and Purdue University–Indiana for the humanities and business and music and law, and Purdue for engineering and the sciences. Over time both schools added a lot of departments normally associated with the other school, but engineering was the exception.</p>
<p>I think most people expect that people will have at least looked at the college’s website to see what it offers before asking questions here. Such basic questions are annoying and a waste of time. That’s why people get snarky. With instant access to the entire college catalog and viewbook there is no good reason not to know basic facts.</p>
<p>Can’t we all be civil? All of us make mistakes and lack knowledge in certain areas. Yes, some posts do seem to be annoying and might be a waste of time to others, but if time is that valuable and limited, then don’t respond and waste even more of your time. And nobody controls anyone else’s reactions but that person. Yes, people tick us off, but WE are responsible for our own actions. Nobody else MADE us do something. My parents drilled that into me long ago. A wise teacher told me once, “You can’t control what someone else does. You can only control how you react to it.”</p>
<p>We are trying to teach a valuable life lesson. Don’t ask dumb questions because you were to lazy to do a little work first. That sort of thing will have you branded as a lazy or just not very bright person person in the real world–like at a job. We are not dealing with children here but people who should start becoming independent thinkers.</p>
<p>Life lessons don’t stop when one becomes an adult, either, and learning how to teach those lessons without insulting someone is also a very valuable skill to learn–like at a job. We all need to be independent thinkers and kind, civil posters. Hope y’all have a good week!!!</p>