<p>I'm at the end of my Junior year and want to utilize my senior year wisely looking at colleges in my area.
I want to major in Physics, and Pitt and Penn State have pretty much the same research opportunities, class sizes, ranking, etc. and the cost is negligible at this point. </p>
<p>I'm torn because I want to end up in Penn State for Graduate school (for Astro but that might be thinking too far ahead) and sometimes grad schools might not want students who went there for undergrad..
Any suggestions, comments, or words of wisdom for a very nervous student?</p>
<p>My son is majoring in Physics at Pitt. He’s really enjoying himself. He obtained a research position as a freshman already and looks like he will work in the same lab for the remaining years of undergrad. This summer (after soph year) he obtained a paid internship at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.
You may want to direct a question to the Penn State Physics Dept, whether they prefer students from outside the dept for grad school admissions.
Since the Penn State astrophysics grad program is so highly rated, it would be tempting to go there for undergrad, since you may be able to take advantage of its professors and research opportunities as an undergrad as well. You may even decide to go to another highly ranked program for grad school. In the sciences, it does not matter if the grad school is public or private since virtually all programs provide 100% support.
As Hanna says though - definitely apply to both and visit both. You don’t have to decide until next year.</p>
<p>If you can visit, that may make the decision for you. I have two kids, one likes Pitt better, the other prefers the PSU traditional campus more. My son and his cousin both picked PItt over PSU when it came to crunch time, and his cousin did so after a summer at PSU that he so enjoyed. But when he visited and looked at Pitt, he felt that was where he wanted to live for the next 4 years over the PSU campus. My SIL has a niece and nephew at each, and they each had the choice too.</p>
<p>The feel of the campus will likely have you decide. I personally wanted to go to a school where the school was the most important thing going on in the area, and Penn State had that.</p>