<p>So in a matter of months I will have to go through the college application process.
And I was hoping to find some more information.
Here are my questions</p>
<p>1) What is Penn State? Is it just another state public school program like SUNYs?(I live in NYC btw)</p>
<p>2) If the answer is yes to the above question then it means like University Park is a separate school than the other schools in the system right? Like for example Binghamton University vs Stony Brook University</p>
<p>3) Why is it that Penn State gets a bad rep?
My friends keep saying things like "O you are thinking about applying to Penn State? I thought that was a bad school" Is it that the other schools in the Penn State system are bad and that University Park is the only good one. or does it have to do with something about this football scandal i keep hearing about. Isn't the engineering program really good there.</p>
<p>4) I have a 3.5+ GPA(not sure how to exactly sure yet..but somewhere in the higher range of that) and I have a 1910 SAT . I'm trying to get a better score with the ACT. I don't have a whole ton of extra activities...I only have Quiz Bowl Team...Chess Club...Film Club...and that's it......Will I have a good shot at the school?</p>
<p>Thanks for your time to read and answer. I greatly appreciate it</p>
<p>1) Very much like SUNY. The biggest difference is that all of the SUNYs are pretty much on even footing, but University Park is much bigger than any of the branch campuses or any of the SUNYs. </p>
<p>2) Yes. SUNYs are more “independent” of each other. There isn’t a feeder system for SUNY. At PSU many of the people do 2 years a branch campus and finish at UP.</p>
<p>3) I would assume it is either the scandal or the party school reputation. Academically it compares favorably to any of the SUNYs. One thing worth considering, SUNYs are MUCH cheaper for a NY resident than PSU would be. And PSU is VERY stingy with their aid.</p>
<p>4) According to the bubble chart, you are a good candidate, probably in at University Park. For some more selective majors (eg Engineering and Finance) you might be a bit in the maybe category depending on where your weighted GPA actually is. Get you application in early, and you should be ok. Don’t worry about activities for PSU - they really don’t look at them. GPA and test scores.
<a href=“http://admissions.psu.edu/info/counselors/bubble_chart.pdf”>http://admissions.psu.edu/info/counselors/bubble_chart.pdf</a></p>
<p>Your friends probably arent too bright if they think the #8 public school in the country is “bad”. PSU branch campuses for the most part aren’t worth anything but as a vehicle to transfer to UP after 2 years but University Park can compete with pretty much any other non ivy school. </p>
<p>Etuck24, I find your lack of information quite amusing. " PSU branch campuses for the most part aren’t worth anything " 60% of all Penn State students either start out or finish at their local branch. If they branch campuses weren’t worth anything as you say, nobody would be attending them. Yes it is true, a lot of students transfer from branch campuses but a lot of students also remain to graduate from them and there is nothing wrong with that. This is the problem with UP students like you, thinking attending a branch campus is a bad or negative thing. Yes its true UP is the most ranked campus, but that doesn’t mean that the Branch campuses have any no value to them! However, it is true that some PSU branch campuses are not up to academic par to normal standards however some are very strong academically and career wise. I attended Penn State Erie for 2 years before transferring to UP. I can give you multiple examples of how PSU Erie is either the same quality if not better than some instances at UP campus. Academics at this campus were very strong. Our science and physics departments were more stringent and harder than the entry level physics courses at UP. I had friends that went to UP that did phys 211 and 212 and I took the same course at Erie. The courses in material in exam difficultness were exactly the same. They did a study a little while back where how does our physics courses compare to UP preparation physics courses. they gave an final exam Erie and the exact same final exam at UP. What was interesting to note was that Erie students had 5% more higher marks on the exam than UP students! This is because physics at Erie was based on a MIT scale model rather than a lecture setting and was proven more effective! </p>
<p>Other than academics, I have received fantastic internship and research opportunities at Erie and I would never had received those starting my first 2 years at UP. There is just so much more potential for students attending this campus.</p>
<p>So before you go posting branch campuses are aren’t worth anything, maybe you should stop being soo ignorant and look at the facts that some students prefer to start at branch campuses and finish rather than UP. </p>
<p>Cheers Mate!</p>
<p>I would have to agree with @obwiann22 I am going to University Park as a freshman this year but all the people that I have talked to about branch campuses say that it does not matter where you go. The education is basically the same. What i will say is that you should do some research into which campus is the best for your major. Also some campuses are bigger than others so it is all about what you are comfortable with.</p>
<ul>
<li>@obwian22</li>
</ul>
<p>Well yea, that was the entire point I was trying to make to Etuck. It doesnt matter where you start or finish school, each campus is unique in its own way including University Park. Rankings dont matter as much as Etuck thinks, and I know he cares about prestigious rankings alot because I’ve seen some of his posts.</p>
<p>Cheers!</p>