@momofsenior1 - what are the key things that your daughter likes about Purdue? Are there things that she doesn’t like?
Cornell and Carnegie Mellon are out of the picture now. Their acceptance rate has dropped to ~6% this year. Waitlisted at UMich but he’s no longer interested. We visited Purdue on Monday 4/1. Except for the brutal 12 hour drive each way we loved every bit of the admitted students day. Planning to visit PennState on Monday 4/8. No scholarships from Virginia Tech so that’s out since it’s working out more expensive than Purdue.
Though my son was reluctant on Penn State, labeling it as a ‘no good party school’, after visiting the University Park campus on 4/8 for the Admitted Students Day he just fell in love with everything Penn State has to offer. Now he’s heavily leaning toward Penn State instead of Purdue. A final decision is yet to be made. ?
@skarekat We Are?.. we are heading to Accepted students (18th) although my son accepted Penn State awhile ago
@airway1 PennState ?
Congratulations on being accepted to and on accepting PennState!! What major? Are you in state? What other schools did he get accepted to? And what made him accept PennState? Thanks!! Good luck!!
@skarekat my son is an international student majoring in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering and Energy Finance… after getting accepted he pulled his ED to Boston University (legacy) and all others as it went from being his 4th choice to his first (Accepted Jan 21… being accepted was a huge relief for him especially that at his high school so many apply to engineering (all his friends are heading to engineering which is amazing)… what we both liked about the program is the ability to double major in finance.
My son finally accepted the PennState offer of admission after going back and forth between Purdue and PennState, and after a lot of analysis and discussion.
Purdue definitely has a better academic program than PennState but PennState has many other advantages (from our perspective) over Purdue like better campus/dining halls/food/dorms, more diverse students and programs, closer to home (2.5 hours versus 12 hours to Purdue), equally good opportunities for coop, internships, campus jobs and campus placements, and last but not the least - In-State tuition that means approximately 10k lower total costs per year.
Thanks everyone for your wonderful support, advice and recommendations that were immensely helpful. Good luck to all your kids for much success in their lives.
Thanks for letting us know. Best of luck to your son!
Congratulations! And thank you for coming back, giving the decision, and explaining its rationale - it’ll be very useful to students later on. 
Congratulations on Penn State instate! Unless merit or need based aid elsewhere comes through, often the instate options are best bets.