I am an international student and my major is Mechanical engineering. I wish to take a research oriented career path (may be in academics also) with higher studies in future.
I got acceptance in Penn state Schreyer Hons college, UMD Hons and Purdue…
Pl advise me which one I should accept…your valuable feedback would be really helpful to me as I will be deciding my future as an international student sitting couple of thousand miles away…
If I get some feedback on pros and cons for all these 3 universities, it would be really great…
I am currently a Freshman at Schreyer and an international student from France. If you are looking for opportunities at the research level and an almost Ivy League level education, Schreyer would be the way to go. I have been involved in research ever since my first semester and the amount of interesting research here is incredible. Finally, Penn state’s department of Engineering is excellent.
Schreyer is ranked among the top 7 or 8 best programs in the entire country. It’s highly selective and The opportunities are unlimited - LOTS of Honors classes if you want them, lots of non-honors classes to balance things out, lots of research opportunities. @bodangles is a Schreyer Scholar in Engineering and should be able to tell you more! @AFrenchie36 is a Schreyer Scholar involved in research and should be able to tell you more, too.
A plus for UMD is proximity to DC, 45 mn and you’re in the country’s capital, with lots of historical places, free museums, and cool neighborhoods, plus access to internships - but a big minus is College Park, the town it’s in (the campus abutts a major highway which is another downside).
A plus for Penn State is a cool college town where there’s about anything you’d need, and possible bus trips to DC, Baltimore, Philly, or NYC 4 hours from there if you find the time over a break. Another plus is the alumni network (and strength of career fairs and career center). A minus is that there’s not much outside of State College, you have rolling hills and fields for a while.
I’m assuming you didn’t get Honors at Purdue so it’s not in the same category as the other two. West Lafayette doesn’t feel as nice as State College but is better than College Park. In terms of location, is less good than either UMD-CP and PSU-UP. If you want a more “techy” campus and mostly students whose focus is engineering, it’s better for you. If you want more diversity in type of students, majors, and choices of classes, both UMD and PSU are better.
@mom2collegekids , Thx for your view…All 4 colleges are almost in the same cost bracket and my parents are Ok with that. With 4500 USD merit scholarship at Schreyer Honors college at PSU, it is much better for them indeed!!
@AFrenchie36 : Thx for your feedback, I also have almost same impression after going thru various online info/videos
@MYOS1634 : I really appreciate your detailed feedback with pros and cons
@MurphyBrown : Thx for your suggestion…I am not very sure if I would get a unbiased feedback from individual foruns…that’s why I posted this query separately…
