<p>I am in quite a pickle and seeking some helpful advice. I got in to both Pitt Honors and Penn State, and I was quite set at first on going to Penn State for a variety of reasons, my best friends going there being one of them. When I visited, I also thought the campus was charming. But then I visited Pitt, and I ended up liking the campus a lot too. I am going for humanities, and both colleges seem to have pretty good programs for what I want. As aforementioned, my best friends are going to PSU and I loved how enthusiastic everyone was about PSU--the student pride; the thing that has me holding back from going there, though, is that PSU seems very into partying and football. I'm not a huge football fan, and partying is great but it just seems like that is close to the only thing to do. Similarly, I don't know if the internship opportunities would be as prevalent and available at PSU then they are Pitt.</p>
<p>Pitt was great, but my big drawback is that I am from Pittsburgh and feel like if I went to Pitt I wouldn't really be "spreading my wings".</p>
<p>I don't know what to do!</p>
<p>That is a tough choice. I would say Pitt’s honors college is the better of the two, and I can justify that opinion by citing the production of major scholarship awards it produces every year, which surpasses even those by Penn in Philly. Heck, it had a both Rhodes and Goldwater scholarship winners this year. Pitt also has higher admissions standards than PSU going by the numbers. </p>
<p>Pitt just opened a new Humanities Center as well ([Humanities</a> | University of Pittsburgh](<a href=“http://www.humcenter.pitt.edu/]Humanities”>http://www.humcenter.pitt.edu/)) and has a great reputation in Humanities, especially areas like creative writing, etc. I’m not sure which humanities you are interested in, but I view PSU as more of a hard science school…like engineering. And it is also true that the Greek system, football and partying play a much larger aspect in student life there. </p>
<p>It seems like the thing holding you back from Pitt is your desire to try something away from Pittsburgh. I completely understand that, but depending on where you’re from in the Pittsburgh area, living in Oakland can be as different as living in State College, plus you will be stepping out on your own at Pitt by not relying on the safety of going to school where your friend is. In any case, its not like you are deciding between staying in the 'burgh and going to school in California. One thing you could consider, in order to really get that spread-your-wings going-away experience, is to do a study abroad for a semester. Pitt has an excellent program set up for that. Check out its study abroad options and also its highly regarded Center for International Studies. No matter where you go, study abroads are a good experience.</p>
<p>Thank you, you’ve opened my eyes a bit and helped confirm my thoughts on where I should probably go. I wasn’t aware of the new Humanities Center, either.</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>