Sometimes there are other transit options available that aren’t always apparent to outsiders. For example my DD is at Muhlenberg and we relied on https://www.mybushome.com for her first couple years before she stopped coming home as often. Their list of schools served changes from year to year as the demand ebbs and flows, but there are niche programs like this all over.
Another point: it doesn’t cost much more to add the Allentown leg to flights which saves a lot of travel stress.
The Septa West Trenton line is a straight shot from Ewing, where TCNJ is, to Philly, FYI.
THRILLED with both the University of Delaware and Drexel. Both absolutely outstanding.
https://www2.calstate.edu/attend/student-services/Documents/admission-handbook-2019-20.pdf page 11 describes homeschool frosh applicants to CSU. In addition, many of the a-g subject requirements can be partially or completely fulfilled by such things as SAT subject or AP tests, giving additional options for homeschool students to fulfill a-g subject requirements.
Given that you are willing to pay out-of-state price for Penn State and the PA equivalents of CSUs (PASSHE schools like West Chester), is it correct that the price limit is fairly high?
I do not need to be quoted how CalStates and UC’s work. I already sent a kid to college, and have been through all of this. It is an exhausting and frustrating process to fulfill A-G requirements for a student that does not “test well” as you have to take approximately 12 subject tests, APs or attend a community college class which does not work for our location and schedule. Homeschoolers where I live can only take AP classes online, and we’ve done that- it is super hard to teach yourself an AP course where you only see the teacher once a week. Obviously, I have my reasons why I do not wish to jump through those hoops only to end up in an overcrowded school with no good reputation, overcrowded dorms, extremely liberal bias (so much so that entire departments have shared right on the front page of their department that essentially you are not welcome if you are conservative), and so much more. The only CalState really fantastic is CalPolySlo but with this year’s incoming class having about an average of 1450 SAT’s, and having turned away over 13000 applicants with GPAS ABOVE 4.o it would not be within the reach of this student. 
Reality is reality.
UC’s no longer require PRIVATE homeschoolers to meet A-G requirements at all and instead only require two extra SAT subject tests in any category. They have a very holistic review. But, the UC’s that have her major are not within my daughter’s reach. (Davis for example with again much higher SAT ranges than she has. California UC admissions is extremely extremely competitive.)
I am not sure what you mean by price limit? But we’d like to keep the cost under 45K per year total cost for great school or 35K for a middling school. So, schools like Drexel with a 70K price tag would be out unless she received Merit Aid. For Schools like St. Joe’s we would need to see a significant Merit package as well. West Chester is within reach, and PennState UP campus would be acceptable as well financially.
Even with this price tag it’s still half of the cost of sending a kid to a private U in CA For example Chapman, Westmont and Saint Mary’s are all about 70K in all.
Also, UCB grad- I am sorry my first line came off rudely. 
I’ve been around the block and then some with CalStates
UC’s are great- super flexible with homeschoolers BUT only if you have amazing SAT and SAT Subject tests which this student has well above average but not competitive enough for UC Davis
You might want to look into Millersville, Kutztown, East Stroudsburg, Rowan, Montclair, Towson, Ursinus, Lycoming, Elizabethtown, Albright, Arcadia.
Psu Abington will be an absolute safety but it’s a commuter school (I suppose you listed it as #2 after UP?)
If you’re Christian, Messiah and Eastern can be worth looking into.
That being said, PASSHE colleges are less well funded than CSUs.
I can’t imagine coming across the country for Abington, no offense to the fine students and faculty there. Kid can live at home, keep costs down, keep the high school job- yup, makes sense. But to come from California??? And not sure how you define “great school” vs. middling school given some of the options that are getting listed. I think Towson, Rowan, are clearly on the upswing academically. Some of the others seem quite resource constrained right now…
Yeah Abington came off the list a while ago once I found it out is such a commuter school. Great school would be PSU Main campus…the rest pretty much middling…Rowan would be below middling I am mostly talking about rankings and reputation…there are other factors such as beauty of campus, school spirit, college experience etc. West Chester is actually ranked lower than Stockton for example. But West Chester has a better area, better access to Philly and then their GD program is ranked much much higher than Stockton’s. So, sorry to be vague. It’s hard to nail down so many factors in just a few words or phrases.
Hi,
I was super excited about University of Delaware, until I watched several videos outlining that if you do not drink, you will have no life, and no friends. I feel that a campus can easily have that reputation, and some are more drinking schoos than others. Of course, Penn State IS a drinking campus but there are a LOT of kids who do NOT drink, tons of clubs where other things are happening, plays, orchestras, symphonies, and so many other events coming to the little town of state college that you really can have a life and choose not to drink. My son is there and he’s very busy and not drinking. …So I did a research comparison on both schools figuring that comparing the review of both would give me an idea on how biased or accurate those videos I saw were, but the outcome was disappointing. The UDel reviews on so many websites, just are so clearly outlining this idea that if you drink you will have a life and friends and if you do not drink you will be alone, lonely and bored.
What has your kids’ experience with all of that been? Feel free to admit if your kid drinks, many PSU parents do, and we accept htat different families have different beliefs on that. For our part, we hope our kids choose not to partake in that lifestyle so we want to be sure they go to universities where there are plenty of other options of things to do on weekend nights.
Thank you for asking. Our daughter just graduated and has the best friends of all time from Delaware. Drinking was never a concern; at least not that I know of. She made Dean’s List every semester and had a “normal” fun experience, but nothing out of the ordinary. I’m sure that there’s out-of-the-ordinary everywhere.
Professionally, she applied for and got accepted to 7 out of 7 pre-internship “leadership” programs and did them all after her sophomore year. Got 7 offers for internships and is now working full-time for the one that she interned with.
She was enormously sad to leave. Spent a week with friends at the beach and when I went to pick her up every single one was crying.
We visited every school from Boston to North Carolina with the biggest thumbs ups to Richmond, William & Mary, Virginia Tech, UNC, Duke and Elon. Delaware was the final visit and she immediately said “Oh yes.”
Exceeded all expectations.
Our son is a freshman at Drexel Engineering and came home this past weekend. Said that he can’t picture himself at any other school. Absolutely a dream.
We didn’t know much about it, but selected it as a safety school.
Well, Ivy Rejection Night was followed by a fantastic offer from Drexel which really changed the mood. There was one Wait List, but Drexel is the one (of three) safeties that won.
And, he finished #1 in his class (of 800), 8 5’s on all 8 AP’s and a nearly perfect SAT and ACT; not to mention a very successful international legitimate charity and making it to the All-State Orchestra (from the toughest region in a tough state).
So, naturally, the Ivy League thing pops up and I sincerely feel like we dodged a bullet. We were actually all-in with “those” schools and have a very strong sense that it all worked out for the (much) better.
Hope that helps, but it’s also true that every school mentioned is outstanding. In looking back - the student’s gut feel during the visit was usually very accurate.
Rowan is very much up and coming and better funded than West Chester. It’s 20mn to Philadelphia and they’re trying to spruce up the area.
Yes, Psu Abington is basically commuter only and I wouldn’t cross the country for it. But it’s in your preferred location and offers 2+2.
Penn State UP is 2/3 GPA+ rigor (3+ years foreign language, bio-chem-physics, precalculus/calculus, number of APs+honors). Smeal and Engineering are very hard to get into (most admitted to these as freshmen would be top of their class, top 2-3% test scores, etc). If aiming for one of those two but without top stats apply DUS. You might want to check the PSU boards.
A note of caution: the areas you’re considering are definitely purple/blue or strong union strongholds so if politics is a big concern (ie , avoiding CSU’s because they’re perceived as unbearably liberal) those wouldn’t be the best choices - universities such as Edinboro, Mansfield, IUP, York, Eastern would likely yield a political climate more to your liking.
Baltimore-area schools have been mentioned above. You might want to check out Towson University, Goucher, and cross-registration opportunities for classes at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) in Baltimore.
Delaware a bigger drinking culture than Penn State? Wow. And I’d pick Rowan for academic resources over some of these other choices any day of the week.
I know I thought it was really odd!! THat’s why I asked but it sounds like OneMoreKid’s daughter didn’t have that issue at all! So, must be just internet lore or a few people’s experiences.
Mysto- thanks a lot!! All great points. We aren’t looking for red schools or red areas, it’s just ONE of the many reasons we don’t love CalStates. They are aggressive and scary in their stance, not just that they believe something…but you have to silence your self, and I mean totally silence if you want to get by.
Penn State does not actually look at whether you have rigor as much as your GPA first, which of course rigor helps becuase you can then have a GPA above 4.0 as my son did before he was accepted. SHe would be applying to Graphic Arts, and I already spoke with their department who feels she is a very strong candidate. SHe would have no hope in Smeal, Engineering, or PreVet or most of their Science programs. But in the art department she’s looking pretty good
However we are undecided whether she should apply to Integrative Arts or directly to Graphic Arts. Graphic Arts only accepts about 80 students per year and then those are whittled down after the first year to as few as 12 depending on how many seniors they have graduating from the program! Integrative Arts accepts many more students, but she would never have the chance to be a full fledged PSU trained Graphic Artist which would open up doors anywhere she would want to go. She could take a few GD classes, and art classes and then they said they’d have her take some advertising courses and her Degree would say something like Integrative Arts with a Concentration in Advertising or even a Minor in advertising, which would open up a lot of doors for her but not quite in the same way as GD…hard decision there!
I guess I will look into it again, but I grew up in S Jersey and viewed Rowan as a community college type school. I know they expanded their programs and built more dorms but I can’t imagine it’s better than West Chester…not that I don’t believe you but just totally thrown there.
Ok so I spent some time looking at it and yes their average top SAT score is a LOT higher than West Chester and they have built a lot of new buildings and seem to have a nice little town and things to walk to…and they do have GD program! Interesting
Examples?
I get the impression that CSUs are relatively apolitical and more preprofessional, and I would expect their equivalents in other states (e.g. PASSHEs in Pennsylvania) to be similar in this respect. Since many are heavily commuter, student political views are likely to reflect those of young adults in their areas (which is to say less engagement in politics generally besides perhaps a few noisy activists, though probably left of adults overall in their area based on age), and some CSUs are in more conservative areas.
Not worth getting into here, would rather stick to the topic but we have personal experiences that speak to my generalization.