<p>Hello everyone !
Thank you for reading my post!
I plan to learn geography in college ,but since PSU and OSU both have excellent departments, I donnot know how to choose.
1st, I have an aunt in Columbus(OSU),my mother think I'd not be too lonely here,since I am likely to go home at most 1 time per year.
2nd, psu is in front of osu in many rankings, and seems to have a larger fame,but rankings donnot mean anything.
3rd, Columbus is a big city with more entertainment and culture ,but State College is small ,but it's said psu is a 'party school'.
4th, osu is cheaper than psu,but not too much,because I live in neither state.
So,what's your opinion? Any comments?
I'd appreciate your help a lot !</p>
<p>Are you an international student? … I ask because your spelling and syntax are not what one might expect of a native english speaker headed to a top 100 college.</p>
<p>If so, having a relative near your school could be important in a psychological sense.</p>
<p>Have you been accepted to both?</p>
<p>Yes, I am .</p>
<p>then having a relative nearby is a huge differentiator… psychologically and possibly financially.</p>
<p>I don’t know… I’d go with PSU-UP because even though it’s known as a party school much to do around there. Nice collegetown also. Also, it has a high Int’l student % so would be easier to make friends of your own ethnicity if thats what your also looking for.</p>
<p>Jimgotkp – you post made me look up Int’l student % at both schools… in fact they are nearly identical – 2.9% for THE Ohio St. University, and 3.1% for Penn St.</p>
<p>I was also including those of different ethnicities that are US citizens. For example, PSU-UP has a ton of Korean students on-campus so it also attracts internationals from South Korea. Same would go for the Chinese students. OSU is not well known in South Korea and why I keep mentioning South Korea is because Koreans are one of the largest groups of minorities who attend universities in the US.</p>
<p>First off, congrats to OP who had gotten acceptance from both Big Ten universities!!</p>
<p>As the former President of Asian Study Group/Society at tOSU, my members were mostly international Asian students, including myself. However, this was…7 years ago…
Even though personally I had close interactions with KSA, TSA, JSA, CSA…, etc. back then, I can not verify whether PSU is more well known or respected in terms of academics in Korea than tOSU or vice versa. However, I can attest to you that both are fine institutions with decent # of Asian students (China, Korea, India, Taiwan in particular) presence. The only major difference is that tOSU had recently announced the plan to “double” its international student enrollment and that Chinese scholars are in greater # when compared to PSU. I suspect this is partly influenced by the recent publicity of reknown undergrad alumni - Huiyan Yang (the richest person in Asia) and her sister who majored in Business '03 & Psychology '08, respectively. </p>
<p>[Yang</a> Huiyan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yang_Huiyan]Yang”>Yang Huiyan - Wikipedia) </p>
<p>In case some of you question my wiki source, below is the link from Forbe:
[#125</a> Yang Huiyan - Forbes.com](<a href=“Forbes List Directory”>Forbes List Directory)</p>
<p>PSU office of global programs fact 2009:
<a href=“http://www.global.psu.edu/about/pdf/fact_book.pdf[/url]”>http://www.global.psu.edu/about/pdf/fact_book.pdf</a></p>
<p>OSU to open centers in China, India, Brazil:
[OSU</a> to open centers in China, India, Brazil | The Columbus Dispatch](<a href=“http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/10/29/OSU_world.ART_ART_10-29-09_B1_3TFGQ0M.html]OSU”>http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/10/29/OSU_world.ART_ART_10-29-09_B1_3TFGQ0M.html)</p>
<p>Well, based on the above data, tOSU and PSU have nearly identical # of Korean international student population, and so far as I am concerned, both have excellent programs in Geology. In fact, tOSU houses its own Geology museum and library in Orton Hall. I guess the bottomline is as you alluded above whether you truly be joyful in the ‘Happy Valley’ or living/learning in the more city-like Ohio State campus (~2 miles away from downtown Columbus) which offers more entertainments and Asian grocery stores/restaurants in general which are definitely added benefit(s) if you are as fobbish as me. :P</p>
<p>Anyways, G’luck to you & I am certain that a trip to both campuses should iron out your concerns! ^o^v</p>
<p>I had to choose between these same two schools - I chose OSU because I wanted to be in a big city and have things to do outside of campus if I wanted to. I never regretted it. For undergrad - the department ranking is less important. The important thing is that you are happy and that you do very well and get noticed by professors (if you want to go to grad school)</p>
<p>*1st, I have an aunt in Columbus(OSU),my mother think I’d not be too lonely here,since I am likely to go home at most 1 time per year.
*</p>
<p>If you’ll be living with the aunt and commuting, then you’ll save a decent amount of money.</p>
<p>The non-resident Cost of Attendance (COA) for both schools…</p>
<p>$36,210 per year, OHIO STATE</p>
<p>$39,510 per year, PENN STATE</p>
<p>If you can afford either one, visit and decide. :)</p>
<p>littlebulb never answered as to whether they had been accepted to both, just that they were an international student.</p>
<p>For the COA m2ck provided on PSU/OSU, a private college with more merit aid, more prestige and far smaller class sizes might be the best bet…</p>
<p>Paying out of state tuition for a large state school is not the best higher ed value…I am not alone in thinking this.</p>
<p>I agree…</p>
<p>But, it’s probably too late to apply to privates that give good aid to int’l students.</p>
<p>Just realized that I’ve mistaken OP’s intended major as Geology instead of Geography… Silly me :p</p>
<p>If you intend to major in Geography, there is no comparison. PSU is clearly ahead of OSU. It’s neck and neck with UC Santa Barbara right now for top program in the country.</p>
<p>Re: geography rankings, I show NRC Ph.D. rankings as #1 Penn St., #5 Ohio St. That is not enough of a difference to matter IMHO.</p>
<p>Pros for PSU:
Slightly higher academic ranking
Network focused in the East</p>
<p>Pros for OSU:
Located in an actual city and great local atmosphere
Better football and sports teams (PSU has better volleyball…)
Network focused in the Midwest
Friendlier people (PSU has a reputation for being mildly racist/cliquey)</p>
<p>I would say that PSU=OSU when it comes to football. They are both nationally well-known and usually highly ranked.</p>