Penn State Berks ???

Colleges and Universities A-Z Penn State
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<p>My S failed UP but got Berks. We got little knowledge about this campus apart from info on Berks' website.</p>

<p>Can anyone share your knowledge about this campus with us? e.g.
- quality of learning
- campus and dorm life & activities, food
- chances or ease of being relocated to UP at junior year
- research opportunities
- study abroad programs
- how is living in Reading, Berks</p>

<p>Any one knows how to get from central Philadelphia to PS Berks?</p>

<p>Any help or comments would be very much appreciated. </p>

<p>Anyone accepted by Penn State Berks, shall we chat here?</p>

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<p>Any reply, please help!</p>

3

<p>Are you at all familiar with the area? It's really hard to know if it will be what you expect. I would not categorize Reading as a college town. There are plenty of shops, restaurants, etc. in Reading and the surrounding communities- it is not in the middle of a cornfield or anything. I definitely would recommend visiting the campus before you decide.
I do know of one student who went to Berks campus for 2 years and finished at UP. She was happy with her experience.
Sorry I can't be more helpful, but to highly recommend you visit.</p>

4

<p>my son got accepted to berks as well and we went to visit. liked the look of the campus very much, kids looked happy, buildings nice and new, etc. the one major problem is that they do not have enough housing, especially for boys. there are only 800 male spots, with only 400 reserved for freshman. the rest of the students live off campus. I can't imagine sending a child, who has yet to even do laundry, to manage life in an apartment. but maybe girls are different.</p>

<p>while i like penn state i also wonder if it is a culture schock to attend one of the branch campuses and then transfer to up where there are 37,000 students. anyone else?</p>

<p>ps we are also out of state so don't have the pull of the inexpensive tuition.</p>

<p>anyone else?</p>

5

<p>Thanks very much PA mom and hazeleyedgirl.</p>

<p>As we are living in Hong Kong now, it is too cosy to pay the campus visit. So we at the moment just try hard to find info from the following websites of</p>

<p>City of Reading
City</a> of Reading, Pennsylvania - Directions To Reading, PA City Hall
and
Greater Reading Conventions and Visitors Bureau Greater</a> Reading Convention & Visitors Bureau</p>

<p>UNFORTUNATELY, STILL CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW READING LOOKS LIKE??? IS IT A SAFE AND GOOD STUDYING AND LIVING PLACE???</p>

<p>What even worse is that we are unable to sort out how to go between Reading and Philadelphia if we don't drive but just want to take public transport. There seems to be ONLY a schedule coach service operated by Bieber Tours / Capital Trailways but it takes 2-3 hrs (but Penn State info states that it is only 1 hr drive from PHL) for the one-way trip and costs $24. (p.s. we have a friend living in Philadelphia)</p>

<p>I wonder if Reading is a remote place? If yes, where can the PS Berks students spend their weekends if their families are not living nearby???</p>

<p>From the academic side, do the students in Berks have fair competition with those from UP for major entrance in UP in year 3?</p>

<p>About on-campus housing, the acceptance package states that housing is still available. Is that your case, hazeleyedgirl? BTW, I have same worry if it is easy to transit from a very small campus to a huge campus.</p>

<p>Can anybody help, please please please! Don't know if we should accept offer from PS Berks!</p>

6

<p>Can you find any links for the Reading newspaper? I know you can access at least part of it on-line. That would be a good source of info about what's going on in Reading day to day. </p>

<p>The campus is actually in a prettier area in the outskirts of Reading, not really right downtown. </p>

<p>I don't know of any easy way to get to Philadelphia without a car. There are commuter trains that run west of Philadelpia, but they don't go as far as Reading.</p>

<p>Does your daughter have other schools that are options? I am not sure I would send a student all the way from Hong Kong to Reading - I think there are probably more "college town" environments at other schools that would be more accomodating for someone coming such a distance. Just my $.02. </p>

<p>Perhaps you can ask your Philadelphia friend to take a campus visit and report back to you ( don't know how close of a friend it is, but they may be able to give you advice! )</p>

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<p>I just thought of something else - I would contact PSU and ask for information specifically about Berks campus rather than the U as a whole. For example I noticed that Berks has about 2500 students and only about 200 OOS- that's a lot of in-state students if you are not one of them. Also only 15 internationals - not very many if you happen to be international. Perhaps you could also get the profile of enrolled students for that campus ( SAT scores, average GPA, etc. )
It could be useful information to help determine the fit.</p>

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<p>I know several OOS students who went to PS Berks 2 years and then to the PS UP campus. They were studious and quiet and found that the Berks campus cleared out on weekends at least in their opinion. However I would imagine that there is a percentage of students that stay on campus. I hear that it is one of the most beautiful campuses. </p>

<p>Academically I would look into where your student would fit from "SAT" score perspective. I know that SAT scores don't predict how well a student does, but they give you a ballpark figure. For these students the 2 years of college in a smaller more nuturing environment meant that switching to main campuses was an easier transition and the were confident of their abilities by the time they did the switch. </p>

<p>Though the UP campus is huge most students by Junior year are doing things within their major field of study so the campus becomes a bit smaller.</p>

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<p>if i am correct that you have a son, housing is not available at berks. there is a waiting list of over 200 people. i have not looked into off campus housing but that is the other option. the acceptance package usually says that you need to send in your acceptance and apply for housing. you can call them but you will see once you sign on to accept that they will say there is no more housing, which is the case for a lot of campuses right now.</p>

<p>as far as going to up junior year, it is my understanding that as long as you maintain the required gpa for your major, you apply for admission to your major at up and are automatically accepted. there are different gpa requirements for each major, nutrition is a 2.5 i believe.</p>

<p>personally, i would not send an international student with no automobile and expect them to live off campus. i would want them to live on campus, especially if they are new to the area and in this case the united states.</p>

<p>if you have a relative/friend that lives in philadelphia, why not look at schools there?</p>

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<p>ckfvera,
I would be very hesitant about sending my son to PSU Berks with your situation. There are many students from my area who attend there and we also looked at it briefly for child #2. There is no campus housing left, as I know several students who are on a wait list. All students are allowed to keep a car on campus which leads to mass migration on the weekends-I see the PSU Berks kids home all the time. It is, however one of the nicer branch campuses with nice facilities. I do agree with the above poster, that there probably are better options for you in the Philadelphia area.</p>

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<p>Thanks very much again PA mom, hazeleyedgirl and Sierra for your valuable suggestions. </p>

<p>I am now wondering if we have made a mistakes by including PS Berks as one of our options.</p>

<p>We consider PS Berks because
1) it has the big name of PS but also has a small class environment for easy transition,
2) it is closer to our Philadelphia friend so that we may have some kind of support from them in case of emergency or big problems,
3) it is one of the 4 or 5 branch campuses that is claimed (by PSU) to have relatively more support for international students (in fact we don't know how true it is),
4) my S's SAT score in critical reading is low (only 460) though his math score is high (750). Although PSU does not require SAT for international students if he has good scores in TOEFL (like my son's case), we still afraid that that PS UP is too reach for him. </p>

<p>The other options available to my S is Drexel in Philadelphia, the name of which is of course not as great as PSU. What we know is that Drexel is mainly well-known for its engineering / architecture programs and co-op programs, but my son is interested in those chemistry-based programs e.g. food science, nutrition, ..</p>

<p>We are also waiting for result from U Delaware. However, we just learnt from CC forum that the school surroundings are not really very safe! (not sure if this is true).</p>

<p>We didn't consider Temple (another state school in Philly) because we don't like its campus environment and surroundings. The other colleges near Philly are mainly private and liberal art and they do not fit our budget and provide wide range of majors. Further, my S's SAT may to too low to apply to those more reputable colleges.</p>

<p>For our friend in Philly, they just immigrated into the States 2 years ago, and their kids are still in Junior School. So they really can't give us much suggestions. We did send email to PS Berks, but they didn't reply all our questions.</p>

<p>As mentioned by you, our bottom-line is: on-campus housing must be available. This is very important for an international freshman.</p>

<p>TO SUM UP, WE WILL BE VERY VERY PLEASED AND THANKFUL TO YOU IF YOU CAN POST ANY FURTHER USEFUL INFORMATION OR ADVICE. MEANWHILE WE WILL WRITE TO PS BERKS AGAIN TO CLARIFY!</p>

<p>THANK YOU.</p>

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<p>we are also waiting to hear from university of delaware. as to safety, any urban school that you go to is going to have some degree of unsafety, as large cities usually have a higher crime statistic. all students need to be aware of their surroundings.</p>

<p>but i think the majority of campuses are policed. like other parents have stated, students need to use caution and not leave campuses late at night and alone. but if you can get into a great school with lots of activities, there doesn't seem to be a need to go off campus.</p>

<p>you can also request crime statistic reports from each college, they are available.</p>

<p>as to cost, not sure how financial aid works for international students but it is hard to compare costs of schools without knowing if you qualify for aid or scholarships. </p>

<p>good luck.</p>

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<p>The University of Delaware, like any other campus has had some incidents of crime lately but overall is in a very safe location. The town of Newark is a college town with many restaurants and stores within walking distance (this is not the case at PSU Berks-there is nothing in walking distance).I have had numerous members of my family attend there. I would recommend it over attending PSU Berks and you can see by my name I am a PSU parent. The campus is gorgeous and there are many international students who attend there. They have a lot of connections with the Dupont Company so chemistry and chemical engineering are especially strong. Drexell is another good option.</p>

<p>I don't think you can call Newark, Delaware an urban area. Have you been there to visit, Hazeleyed? Wilmington, the urban area of Delaware is at least 15 miles away.</p>

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<p>Thanks Knitkneelionmom and hazeleyedgirl.</p>

<p>Knitkneelionmom, as you are so familiar with UD, do u mind to tell more ... academic, professors and classes, students, social life, dorm and food, activities, environment ... anything, good or bad.</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

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<p>Drexel is not in a good area (West Philly). I worked around there for years and there is significant crime. Penn is dealing with this right now...seems to be worse lately.
I have never been to UDEL but i know a few students there and they say it's fine - not nearly what you would be dealing with at Drexel or Temple.
How about Westchester University? WestChester is a great town - and I know many students live on campus. I don't think they would have a problem with your son's low score. It's about 40 minutes west of Philadelphia. I'm sure they have buses that head out there from Philly.<br>
I agree with those who say that Berks is probably not the best option. It's a suitcase school so weekends might be pretty rough..</p>

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<p>I was going to suggest West Chester as well due to the safe area and the ease of travel to Philadelphia, but I got the impression the OP wanted a little more international name recognition.
I also second UDEL. THere are some less savory parts of Newark, but on the whole it is a safe area. The school seems to be gaining in reputation all of the time as well. It would be a little harder to travel to Philadelphia ( I think you need to get to Wilmimgton to catch a train), but probably easier than Berks.</p>

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<p>Thank you all who help me thru this thread. I don't know what I can offer to you in return. Hope my S will also get an acceptance to UD. However, I am still a bit worry about safety in UD's surrounding area. According to some posts in <a href="http://www.**************.com/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.**************.com/&lt;/a> , the town of Newark looks terrible in some people's point of view. Robbery, raping, etc frequently taking place. </p>

<p>Secondly, in your opinion, does UD has much inferior recognition and quality of education when compare to PSU (I know that PSU ranks about 50 and UD about 70 in the US, and PSU ranks within top 100 in the World while UD is outside top 200).</p>

<p>I am getting a bit crasy. It is really very difficult to make a decision with sufficient information about the situation. Though I tried hard to search information fromt Fiske College Guide, Insider Guide, Princeton Review, etc, information is still limited. I know that campus visits are most useful. Unfortunately, I didn't search and plan well in advance before I visited US last year. I visited only Drexel, Temple, Villanover, Haverford and 2 community colleges but NOT PSU Berks and UD (b/c my friend in Philly didn't know these 2 colleges). Eventually, my S doesn't like Temple's campus setting and Villanover's and Haverford's programs do not match his interests (also his SAT scores are not good enough).</p>

<p>I know nothing about West... University at all b/c it is not on the Fiske College Guide?</p>

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<p>knit, i have not visited udel yet. at this point, we are waiting to see if my son gets accepted. as to urban, i was thinking more of comparing it to the reading area in terms of size it seems that newark is closer to that. have been to wilmington though for work.</p>

<p>what do you think of lasalle? i know the area also has a bad rap but as this is also my first experience, do you think that is vitally important? or do you encourage your children to stay on campus?</p>

<p>this is going to be a tough decision for us too. right now we are deciding between marywood u in scranton, lasalle in philly and waiting for udel. would you have a preference between these three for nutrition?</p>

<p>i have ruled out psu berks because of the housing situation (although i did pay the deposit). this is hard.</p>

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<p>ckvera- I think that much of the info concerning UD's safety is a bit over the top. I live about 40 minutes away and believe me , I do not hear a lot of crime being reported in and around Newark DE. There were some bad situations in recent years, but I would not feel hesitant to allow my daughter's to attend there if they had chosen. If you look close enough you will probably find frightening info about crime in or near almost any university.
As far as rankings go, I would not worry too much about PSU vs Del. I think PSU is more widely recognized, but UDel has a respectable reputation as well. </p>

<p>West Chester University is one of the PA state universities ( there are a number of them). It is in a quaint town about 45 minutes from Philadelphia. You can get a lot more info from their website - but you will not find a lot of info in college guides as it is a regional university not well known outside of PA.
I really feel for you, because I can't imagine how difficult it is to make this decision from your perspective.
I am also wondering if you could appeal to the PSU admissions people to allow your son to attend UP. Perhaps you can explain that he would do better in an environment with more international students and with more services as he can't live on campus at Berks. I don't know if it would do any good, but it is worth a shot. Also, I would ask them if he could start in the summer because sometimes by starting in the summer students are allowed to go to UP rather than a satellite campus. It is worth a shot!</p>

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<p>What PAMom says about crime is true...every campus has its problems. UNC and Auburn both seem to be in very safe settings and have had some horrible incidents recently. You can find bad stuff happening on most campuses...it's just a matter of degree. In any case, I don't think UDEL compares to a place like Drexel or Temple.
Westchester U is regional just as Villanova is - granted it's much harder to get into Villanova.<br>
I agree that it might be worth it to ask PSU admissions about getting into the main location. Starting in the summer is a great way to get to know the campus and make early friends.</p>