<p>I loved visiting Penn State. I've been accepted to the University Park campus and have also applied to the Honors College. The problem is paying for this college.</p>
<p>I'm an OOS with good measurables. I've got a 33 ACT and am ranked 27/407 with a GPA 4.38. I really need to earn some merit scholarships to be able to go to Penn State. I've also been accepted to Ohio State and was just notified that I have earned their Maximus Scholarship which roughly covers 60% of my tuition. Still with this assistance, I'm probably looking at $20k in expense/annually for total expenses.</p>
<p>With this being said, Penn State is going to be significantly higher than Ohio State unless I'm offered some serious aid. Can anyone provide any insight on when and how much merit I can expect to be offered? I know that with admission to the Honors College there is a $4500 award, but this will no way cover the difference between the two schools.</p>
<p>That $4500, if in fact you are accepted into Schreyer, is probably the only merit aid you will receive. It’s really no better for instate students, though they of course are eligible for instate tuition (still quite high). Penn State is notorious for poor merit and need-based institutional aid.</p>
<p>Wow, that’s fairly surprising. Looking at pure selectivity (standardized test scores, admission % and general rankings) Ohio State appears to be on par or even ahead of Penn State. Does Penn State primarily want a more homogenous PA student population (primarily PA residents) or do people just pony up the tuition? I was admitted into U of M yesterday, and assumed that my odds of merit were small there, but Penn State is not U of M. This is a little disappointing if it is true.</p>
<p>Schreyer does not use test scores to determine admissions; fyi. there are also Millennial scholarships that can be as much as $6K a year but they are few and far between. Some colleges like Earth&Mineral Sciences give out their own merit scholarships but again, as a percentage of the student body those are small. </p>
<p>Penn State has thousands upon thousands of applicants and a standing rep for poor financial aid ---- so they feel no pressure to offer any. It also gets very little funding from the state itself, so the comparison to other state schools is not as equitable as you may assume. </p>
<p>My son got an OOS tuition waiver for Florida State. As a Pennsylvania resident, his education at FSU will cost about 2/3 of what Penn State would run (he got into University Park). I think Penn State is a better school, but not enough to overcome the financial difference. </p>
My daughter is an OOS student. I am here to tell you that 1/3 of the students are not PA residents. All the OOS parents I have met have a little bit of wealth. ( I based this on the cars they drive, their occupations and the towns they are from) You get into that level is all works out to be the same. No financial aid , merit at privates with 60K sticker) but no merit at PSU. It all works the same. There are plenty of families that fork that over.
This comes up every single year in the Penn State threads. I do not understand why OOS students apply to a school expecting significant merit money when the school has no history of offering it, even to its tippy-top students.
Supply and demand. Simple as that. And a reason many in-state students take the money at OSU or Bama or any number of out-of-state schools.
Thank you for your honest feedback- unfortunately, at 17, I’m not wealthy enough to appreciate the intrinsic value of a Penn State education; my monetary situation is real and I will go where the value proposition is strongest. Understanding the base concept of supply and demand, I applied to reach schools and sprinkled in the better publics thinking that they would demand a better student that is mature and conscientious like myself.
@charlton235, I’m sure Penn State WOULD love to have you. They may even offer you a small merit award (which few students get), but they’re not a school that offers big scholarships and never have been. Plenty of good students have to choose the less expensive option; sounds like you already have at least one nice offer from OSU. Good luck to you.
I’m a PSU grad and loved it, but wouldn’t even let my kids consider it because of the OOS cost. It just isn’t worth the difference in price unless you are going for a very specific major that isn’t offered anywhere in your state (like I did).
I’m sure @TV4caster would be happy to pay for his kids to go to Penn State if he could pay the same rates he was charged back in the day. Do you realize it costs more than $40,000 a year to attend the school as an out-of-state student today?
@NASA2014 - seriously, even for in state PSU is Expense!
This is coming from a parent that has a son at PSU. If we lived OOS state he would not have attended.
My second child will not be applying to PSU. We will not and do not want pay full tuition, room and board and fees without merit aid help ever again! Many, many great schools out there beyond PSU.
We learned from our mistakes with the first kid and we will not make that mistake again with the second. Although in our case, PSU ended up being the lowest COA out of the acceptances. The merit aid offers with all of his other acceptances were STILL not enough or the other colleges brought their COA close to PSU.
BTW, PSU was the only school that did not give us merit aid.