Penn State vs. Indiana

<p>I'm having trouble deciding between these two. I'm going in as exploratory, although I'm fairly certain that I'll end up majoring in engineering or sciences. It's just a matter of which one and exactly what. It would be great if you could tell me about the science and engineering programs at the schools. Namely physics, astronomy, and mechanical engineering. </p>

<p>Penn State seems to be the better school while Bloomington to me would be a better place to live. But it's not like either school is bad in either of the areas, which is why I'm having trouble making the decision. Right now I'm kinda leaning towards Penn State because it consistently ranks higher in college rankings(although I admit that some of those ranking lists are quite absurd), and I get the feeling that Penn State's reputation would help me more after I got out of college.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, visiting either college is not an option for me. I know its hard to take 2 universities and compare them on the broad scale that I'm trying to do. I guess this is what I get when I go in exploratory. In particular, I'd like to hear about which school would serve me better post-graduation as well as a comparison of the science and engineering departments. Thanks for any info you can give.</p>

<p>I used to live in Indiana and I have a student at PSU majoring in ME. Indiana is known for its business program but is not as well known for engineering (and I believe science). If you are a resident of Indiana, Purdue would be the place to go for engineering/science. If you are out of state and finances are not an issue and you are considering ME or science, I think PSU is the better choice.</p>

<p>I’m OOS for both states, and they’re going to run me roughly the same amount of money.</p>

<p>Thanks, I kinda figured PSU would be better for what I currently think will be my major. I should’ve put this in my first post, but can anyone tell me anything about the music at Penn State? I highly doubt that I will major in music but minoring is a possibility and music is a big interest of mine. I know about Jacobs being one of the best music schools in the nation, and that’s great, but I’m not really looking for the best music school. Just a good program to be a part of.</p>