I was accepted to all three for biomedical engineering (bioengineering in Pitt’s case). I’m still waiting on some more universities, but I’d say these three are my top choices.
As a side note, I’m considering switching over to computer science for whatever university I end up going to.
On one hand, I received both the National Buckeye and Maximus scholarships at OSU, which causes OSU to be lower priced than Pitt or PSU for me. On another, Pitt and Penn State are in-state for me and therefore closer to home.
My son got into OSU and similar $$ from OSU, as well. He wants Comp. Science. He may NOT choose OSU, as he is waiting on better options. (A note about CS at OSU… they require 3.2 GPA to get into the program, AFTER being admitted into OSU…). Choose the college that you feel would suit you for Dorms, Campus, Co-ops, and if you want to live in that area (should you get job offers in that state). I would chose the ONE With BEST CO-OPS and connections, and I would prefer ONE with smaller classes than large lectures sometimes seen at OSU
If you haven’t committed anywhere yet, I’d suggest appealing your tuition at Penn State and Pitt by emailing them with proof of the amount of scholarship you’re receiving fom OSU. In state publiic schools usually price match if you total at an OOS school ends up being cheaper.
Actually, no, public universities rarely price match. Private universities may, but not instate public universities, because they have fixed rates and limited budgets.
Pitt has a mechanism where you can request reconsideration based on a peer offer. I don’t believe Penn State does, as they offer very little merit to in or OOS kids.
If your offers from other peer schools reduce your total cost of attendance to below what it would be at Pitt, it’s worth it to submit the cost analysis. They have a form on their website, you can email it and you will hear back within about a week.
My son was accepted to all 3 of those schools last year. He also got the Buckeye and Maximus which made OSU cheaper for us than PSU or PItt. For him, OSU was his clear favorite. But we leave outside of Philly so I wasn’t so thrilled about the distance.
He’s been home 3 times since the school year started - Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring breaks. He did not come home for the short fall break. He flew home for a short Thanksgiving break (because he wanted to be back for the Saturday OSU v Michigan football game) and for Christmas break. He next came home for Spring break. I don’t know where you live in PA but OSU offers a very inexpensive ($60 or less) chartered bus trip home to Pittsburgh or Philadelphia for the Thanksgiving and Spring breaks and that’s what my son took. We decided that the cost of flying him home for Thanksgiving and Christmas break was more than made up for by the scholarship money he earned.
We have many friends with kids at PSU and it does seem like they come home a little more frequently because it’s easier to do so.
Ultimately you need to find a reason to pick one of the three schools over the others. I would investigate the ease of switching into CS at the three schools if that is something you are sure you are going to do. That may cause one of the three to become a front-runner. If finances are an issue and Pitt doesn’t match your OSU COA then that may cause OSU to become a front-runner. Or if you think you want to come home a little more frequently perhaps that drops OSU to the bottom of the list.
However, the schools are similar enough that you really can’t go wrong with any of them. Good luck making your decision!
