<p>I'm having a seriously hard time deciding between these schools. I made a pros and cons list and I still cannot decide. Can anyone give some other insight? Here's my list.</p>
<p>Penn State Pros:
State College, really nice town, 40,000 other college kids.
Better school academically, great communications/media studies program.
Huge alumni network.
Cheap cost of living.
$23,152 tuition per year.
"College exerience."</p>
<p>Penn State Cons:
Middle of nowhere.
Limited internships due to location.
Politically moderate.
Family 7-8 hours away. (I live in Florida but all my family is in Massachusetts)
School may be too big; lines, crappy class choices left for freshmen, etc.</p>
<p>Northeastern Pros:
Boston. 300,000 other college kids.
Family two hours away.
Politically liberal.
Lots of internships at fingertips.</p>
<p>Northeastern Cons:
Limited "college experience."
Expensive cost of living.
$31,500 tuition per year.</p>
<p>I'd appreciate any assessment of my situation here, as I am truly torn. For every pro, comes a con that the other school can satisfy. How much worse off would I be going to a more mediocre school with interships, or a better school with mediocre internships? Arghh!</p>
<p>I think that you understand the differences between the two schools. Maybe it depends upon how important an internship working/learning experience is to you. What do you plan to study? Another difference is that approx. 77% of the students are in-state at Penn State compared to 35% at Northeastern. Also Big 10 football vs. no? football.</p>
<p>I want to study communications, particularly media studies. I think I want to be a magazine editor, but I want broad exposure to the process of creating a magazine. Writing, editing, designing, etc.</p>
<p>world changer: I really would like to focus on my career, but would also like to dabble into other areas of study, like philosophy, foreign language, and several of my other interests. I also realize Boston may not be the place for, say, an internship at a big magazine company, but quite frankly, neither would State College.</p>
<p>darkblue_13: Regarding your question about the "college experience," I think colleges in the city tend to lack in this area. There gernerally aren't ivy-covered buildings and walkways lined with oak trees, and big sporting events associated with the school to go to on the weekend. That is how I picture the typical college experience.</p>
<p>Penn State has D1 football and the basketball team is improving a TON (they're damn good this year). Also, in terms of where kids are from, you'll find a very good amount from outside of the area. </p>
<p>NU has a football team, but they're not very good. The big sport at NU is hockey. They're actually having a really, really good year for once.</p>
<p>Penn State is probably the better option if you're not concerned about immediate career opportunities (not to say they won't exist, but with Northeastern, you'll have built a considerable resume already).</p>
<p>S was facing a similar choice 2 yrs ago; he was down to large state flagship in the midwest and NEU (although state flagship is also in an urban area, just not as large as Boston); he too wanted that traditional college experience with the Ivy covered buildings and a real campus, both of which state flagship had.. well, in limited amounts compared to many smaller suburban/rural schools (btw, as an alumni of state flagship I still remember those old buildings, how cold and dark and smelly they always seemed to be). </p>
<p>S ended up choosing NEU; he was VERY big into the co-op idea, but he also liked the size and feel of the campus and fell in love with Boston (and of course they also gave him nice merit aid/grants which brought down the cost quite a bit - compared to no merit aid or grants from state U. so cost was no longer a big issue in his choice).</p>
<p>Also, just because you attend NEU does not mean that your co-ops have to be in Boston; they can be anywhere in the country. S is planning to do his first co-op back home in order to save up some money.</p>
<p>Wow, I did not know that about the co-op, scansmom! How much merit money does NEU tend to give? As I noted, tuition is greater than PSU, but I don't think Penn State is great at giving out money (someone correct me if I am wrong).</p>
<p>Thanks for all for your help everybody. I really welcome all this input, and if anyone else has anything else to say, please feel free. This is still going to be a tough choice! I need all the help I can get, and not a bit of it goes unappreciated.</p>
<p>As far as merit money for NEU goes, the best scholarship you can get early on is the Dean's scholarship (max 16 K a year). I applied early action and got it with a 33 act and 3.9 weighted GPA (top 5% of class). </p>
<p>But then sometime in February (or so I've heard) they take the top 1% of the entire student applicant pool and give those all full ride scholarships, top 2% full tuition scholarships. Very competitive though, no idea what the standards are for those. If your stats are good, you can likely get at least a substantial scholarship here compared to Penn state</p>