Ok, so I am currently a high school sophomore in SoCal that is looking to major in Business Administration/Management. As of right now, it looks like I will be getting a C in math. This is my first C and hope it will be the last. So over the past few weeks, I have been researching what business schools I would be interested in. I saw that W.P. Carey school of business (Arizona State University) and Smeal school of business (Pennsylvania State University) ranked pretty well. I know a lot of information about ASU but not so much about Penn.
By my junior year, I plan to have taken 6 AP classes (3 per semester). I expect my weighted GPA to be around 3.6 with an unweighted GPA around 3.4.
My Extracurriculars: 8 years piano at local music school, about 3 years of club swim, and high school swim team throughout my whole high school career.
I have a few questions regarding Penn State:
How can I get into Penn State?
Does Penn State have a better business program than ASU?
Does Penn State look at weighted or unweighted GPA?
I know I am still a sophomore and I have not taken the SAT or ACT but am I on the right track?
Keep your grades up for the most opportunities.
Have you talked to your parents about how much they’ll pay each year for college? PSU for an OOS student will be about $50k per year. There’s no aid for OOS students.
Many parents will not pay that much for OOS when there are fine instate offerings.
I’m an out of state student at Penn State this year and I have a scholarship from PSU, grants, and federal aid, so I’m not sure what mom2collegekids is talking about. I pay much less than $50k. Penn State focuses a lot on the numbers, so try to get a really good standardized test score if you’re interested in coming here. I don’t know a lot about ASU’s business school, but I know that Smeal is really tough to get into and is considered to be a very good business school. It’s important to consider which school you actually like better once you figure out the academic side of things as well. I love Penn State and it has an incredible alumni association and a really great retention rate (kids who come to PSU and actually graduate from PSU- so students love it!) and there’s a ton to do here. As a sophomore, don’t stress yourself out about all of this just yet. All you can do is keep your grades up, study well for the SAT/ACT, and do your best! Good luck 
@yahtzeect You’re lucky.
PSU is notorious for having bad aid and not much merit.
The $50k I was referring to was future cost. This student is only a sophomore.
Can you detail the breakdown of your aid? Pell Grant? Loans? Name of merit scholarship and amount?
what is your FAFSA EFC
I know that the SHC (honors college) students typically get about $5k per year in merit.
PSU reports that it gives less than $10million per year in non-need merit scholarships. That is very low for a school that large. to give you an idea of how little that is, Alabama (a smaller school) gave over $87 million in non-need merit for the same year.
Instead of taking 3 AP classes each semester and getting a mediocre (but still good) gpa, I think it would be wise to drop one or two of those APs so that you can focus on doing well in your classes and keep your gpa up. Rigor does matter, but gpa is also very important. You’re in a good place for both those schools, though.
The key questions are
1° you live in CA, a state many students would want to attend school at. Why do you want to go to AZ or PA?
2° how much can your parents pay?
Right now, I’d say to go to 2 AP’s/2 honors per block, and bring that GPA up + work very seriously on your standardized testing.