<p>My son did not get into University Park and got into Altoona. His other acceptances are Rutgers, U Delaware, Fordham, and American, all fine schools. However, against my advice, he seems intent on going to Altoona and transferring to Univ Park. We spoke to a few Univ Park professors and they said the teaching staff at both schools are similar since many Univ Park professors rotate between campuses and many "top name professors" are currently teaching at Altoona. It seems the class sizes at Altoona are much smaller, its much easier to meet with professors and there is more interaction with advisors and guidance counselers at Altoona. Also, when you graduate from Penn State Univ Park you get the same diploma no matter which campus you start at and no employers seem to inquire at what campus you started at as a freshman. Of course Univ Park is where all the action is and the center of the Penn State universe, but am I missing something here? Are there any disadvantageous in terms of education, careers, social life, etc. by starting at the smaller campuses?</p>
<p>I don't know how true this is -- but when we were down there for an engineering open house the student leading one of the discussions talked about how MANY kids transfer in from Altoona and that it works out just great. They make friends there in a smaller environement and then they all transfer together to Univ Park. (I don't know how that works logistically - it was sort of a blanket statement.) He also said starting out in smaller classes worked well for some kids.</p>
<p>Like all school sponosred talks though, I don't know how true that all is - but he seemed sincere about it.</p>
<p>Personally I can't imagine starting out a school knowing you were going to transfer! But I guess lots of kids do it.</p>
<p>I have the same question about Pitt. Nephew applied to Pitt but was only accepted at the Greensburg campus (he did not know there were multi-campuses---he is from CA.) We are wondering how easy it would be to transfer to Pitt after a year at Greensburg and is it a good idea to start at a campus you are not thrilled about. </p>
<p>Like the original poster, he was also accepted to some other colleges (American, UCI, UW) but Pitt was the front runner until he was shunted to a lesser campus.</p>
<p>I think it might be better in some ways to start out at the smaller campus. I know here in Texas many kids do that for UT and A&M. Once they get to main campus, they adjust fine. Altoona sounds like a good pathway up to the Big Top! The other choices are excellent, too, but if he is hell-bent on Penn State, then I wouldn't worry about the Altoona stopover.</p>
<p>I don't know the specifics about transferring, but I do know by word of mouth that most of the students from the hs that my S attends were not accepted to University Park either, but to the smaller campuses. As I understand it, most of these students lost interest, as they are sports orientated, and they were accepted to other large schools where there is a focus on sports. I would rather have my S in the smaller campus environment for the reasons you listed, if he had chosen Penn State.</p>