@PAHoosier Yes. I know it is. My husband and I have already been researching it since this morning. For many reasons it does not seem like a good fit for him even for two years for him to then transfer in his junior year to the main campus. It is too rural for him and he likes to be in the city. It only has 700 students which that actually would be a good thing for him because one of the universities he applied to which is in a suburb of Baltimore only has 1500 students which is good for him to succeed academically… But another problem is coming from Southern California , they only give housing for one year. So if he has to be there for two years he would have to find housing and be responsible for living and doing what we as adults do which for various reasons there is no way in only two years from now he would be able to do that. Living in a dorm with other people would give him the 4 years to mature then of course be able to live on his own and know how to pay rent and the bills and everything else that comes with being an adult. Also we looked and one of the reasons why he wanted to be part of Penn State is for the immense sports unity and school spirit. They’re too far from campus that they don’t even offer a shuttle to get to the football games.
@kidzncatz My husband and I have already been researching it since this morning. For many reasons it does not seem like a good fit for him even for two years for him to then transfer in his junior year to the main campus. It is too rural for him and he likes to be in the city. It only has 700 students which that actually would be a good thing because Goucher College only has 1500 students and small academic environment is definitely a good thing where my son is concerned But another problem is coming from Southern California , they only give housing for one year. So if he has to be there for two years he would have to find housing and be responsible for living and doing what we as adults do which for various reasons there is no way in only two years from now he would be able to do that. Living in a dorm with other people would give him the 4 years to mature then of course be able to live on his own and know how to pay rent and the bills and everything else that comes with being an adult. Also we looked and one of the reasons why he wanted to be part of Penn State is for the immense sports unity and school spirit. One of the reasons why I’m thinking he actually would be disappointed at Goucher College even though the academics for him would meet his learning style. They’re too far from campus that they don’t even offer a shuttle to get to the football games. Which is the whole reason why he wanted to be at Penn State and be part of University Park.
Flag · Like Helpful · Reply · Share on Facebook
« 1 94 »
Go
Reply
@badwizard
I wonder why this year’s engineering major is so hard to get in with fall term. You have awesome stats.
@Andreq: if your son’s #1 choice is Penn State, will he consider now changing his major? (Especially since he used to be interested in Immunology&Infectious Disease).
Fayette is NOT a good choice - in CA, it’d be a CC (and not Diablo or Santa Monica college, more like College of the Siskiyous.) It’s very rural, commuter-only, fewer than 1,000 students, there’s no campus and no campus life, test score ranges are like 370-500 EBR/ 400-510M … Perhaps he could ask for Infectious Disease and for a campus either Greater Allegheny or Abington (both are not very selective and have a dorm, although both are super commuter…; there’s also Berks that is a bit more residential. Greater Allegheny is near Pittsburgh: 650 students, 200 in dorm; Abington is near Philadelphia, 4,000 students, 400 in dorm; Berks, 1H30 to Philadelphia, 2,900 students/800 in dorms).
What are his test scores? If you can share them, we’d be able to tell you if he even has a shot at Altoona/Erie/Harrisburg (the residential campuses) or whether he should ask Greater Allegheny/Abington/Berks to have a shot.
Call mentioning you’re from California therefore you need a campus with housing.
http://abington.psu.edu/residence-halls
http://abington.psu.edu/honors-program
http://greaterallegheny.psu.edu/living-campus
http://greaterallegheny.psu.edu/honors-program
http://berks.psu.edu/residence-halls
http://berks.psu.edu/honors-programs
However, I’d choose UNH or Goucher over one of these choices.
@Andreq - I have been to Goucher College in the old days when it was an all girls school. One of my friends went there. Its lovely and going to downtown Baltimore is easy. To be honest I am not a fan of UNH. There were a bunch of kids from out town who went there and there are a lot of drugs on campus. I did not allow my kids to apply there. I know its everywhere but NH has a major problem.
Hi - not sure if I said it here or on another thread, but we are from So Cal and are a UNH family. Lots of family members are alums and have good memories. We visited this summer for a tour. It is a beautiful campus and has great facilities. I know that there are drugs on every campus, but I’ve never heard that UNH is worse or better.
@MYOS1634 I seriously know you’re trying to be helpful but I think you keep getting me mixed up possibly with another parent whose student was interested in going into something else. He never had an interest in communicable diseases. His interest has always been at least since 11th grade in ophthalmology because he wants to be able to do surgery on the eyes. And that is why for some campuses that didn’t have premed he applied as a biology major but for those that did have a premed department he applied as a premed major. I actually started off back in 1984 @Los Angeles Valley College and went for two years before transferring to Cal State University Northridge. I am not familiar with most of those other junior colleges you mentioned except for Santa Monica college of course. We actually live a mile away from College of the Canyons which this semester he is taking one class at while he continues his classes at his high school.
Yes we researched the school since I posted to you and the town is really not one that would be good for him there for the campus will not be good for you. I see that the town has only about 850% population. Oh my goodness… He is definitely not a rural person. We’re talking about somebody who this summer was also touring campuses in the heart of Washington DC because he thought perhaps he may enjoy that environment.
Because of issues that he has his test scores are not good at all. All I will say is they are below 24 and leave it at that. But yes Monday morning I will be calling them letting them know where he got in where we are coming from and the fact that he needs to be at a campus that has transportation such as the shuttle obviously and that has student housing on campus. I’m voice texting so I hope there aren’t too many typos in this.
Regarding Goucher and sports: the cool thing is that he’d be in Baltimore (Ravens, Orioles) and would be within an easy train ride to Philadelphia and DC. He’d also be allowed to take one class at University of Baltimore or Johns Hopkins through the college consortium.
Or maybe you can convince him to apply to a couple more colleges that are Penn State-like (UDel, UVT, Ohio University) or perhaps UMaine or WVU? Or a small college in a big city (I can suggest quite a few, some of which would be test optional so that his test scores aren’t part of his application). Right off the bat, St Mike’s which is near UVermont, Capital Ohio, St Joseph in Philadelphia, Manhattan College in NYC, WPI near Boston (reach), Marist and SUNY New Paltz (both 1h or so to NYC by train…)
Yes you’re right I keep thinking Biology-> premed when it’s Biology-> optometry. My apologies.
Fayette may be like College of the Canyons then. 
What I mean is that you should definitely think of it as a small community college.
@Andreq Your son may want to consider West Virginia University, which has a lot of school spirit and is big on sports. Out of state admissions requirements are a 2.5 GPA and 21 ACT (superscored). They have rolling admissions, with decisions made within weeks…
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
I think any conversation about PSU vs. another college is best handled by starting a new thread in College Search & Selection.
@skieurope
Amen!
I know this has been asked an answered in the past, but for those of you were admitted recently, when did you apply? Did anyone who applied in Nov or Dec hear recently? And if so, anyone engineering? Thanks.
Guys! The moderator has asked you not hijack a decision thread with college comparison discussions 
Start a new thread, please. Thx.
applied before the November 30th deadline, and my application status isn’t even ‘under review’ yet. getting really worried as we’re supposed to hear back by the 31st of this month. anyone else?? or is it just me?
I also applied to the honors college but I don’t know whether that has anything to do with it; just stating the fact.
p.s: I’m an international student too.
@aabsku I wouldn’t worry about that. The portal responses seem to all all over the place. One day it says nothing and then the next it’s a accepted out of the blue. Call tomorrow if it eases your mind. Only a couple of days left if you got it in before the deadline anyways. Best of luck!
Any decisions today for anyone? Saw a few yesterday that was a weekend surprise.
My FAFSA was sent in October and received by the other schools. My PSU acceptance only happened yesterday and I submitted my deposits. Will the financial aid section update or should I be concerned that the portal says I have no financial aid items.
D18 Found out yesterday, application went in on 11/29
Accepted! School of Engineering College Park
SAT 1470 GPA U3.8, w4.2
In state
She is undecided, we were unable to visit prior to applying.
Congrats to the other acceptances!
Same here. International student. Have applied for engineering on Nov 25. Application status is still not under review.
Lets hope we get a decision by 31st. All the best! Congrats to everyone that got accepted.
International students have a different deadline, I believe it is sometime in February? But not Jan 31
Financial aid information is released in March. Generally speaking, it is more likely to be loans than scholarships. Next year the apparent goal, rumored, is to have decisions and financial aid released simultaneously. That’s part of why the application will open in August instead of September.
@Andreq I live in Pittsburgh and the Fayette campus is really just a few buildings in the middle of a very rural area. I would not send a kid from California to Fayette campus. I am sure he could get into Altoona but he’d probably have to change his major as I don’t think Altoona has a premed program. That being said, you can go to med school from many many different majors.
I’d call and ask for DUS and Altoona if that was his second choice campus. Altoona is a regular college campus with dorms, clubs, dining hall, etc…Just smaller with 5000 students. Fayette is more of a community college with less than 1000 students and they all commute. Harrisburg, Behrend and Altoona are the commonwealth campuses that I personally would say are ‘worth it’ for OOS students. The others, not as much. My son is at Altoona (daughter at UP). He loves it! Altoona is certainly not a metropolis but it’s a decent sized town. The best is that it’s only 45 minutes from UP campus and there are football shuttles and tons of off campus housing right near campus (there is not enough housing for everyone, but freshmen are allowed to live off campus and TONS do - but the housing is campus adjacent so it’s almost like they are on campus. My son has friends who live off campus who’s walk to classes is shorter than my son’s who lives ON campus!)
edited to add that I should read the rest of the comments before I comment because I see you’ve been given the same advice by others!