Questions for Schreyer Honors College acceptees

<p>So far SHC is the only college that I've heard back from, but I don't know how it compares to other top-tier schools. (Other than SAT scores, which are very competitive)</p>

<p>If anyone could tell me what other schools they got into or hope to get into and where SHC ranks among their college choices, it would be appreciated. Most of the acceptees in my school treat Schreyer as if it were nothing more than a safety, but I wanted to get some other more level-headed viewpoints.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>it's kind of hard to compare schreyer's to top tiered schools, but I'll try. most honors-level classes are probably comparable to ivy-league courses. one advantage or disadvantage, depending on how you look at it, is that not nearly all of the classes you take are going to be honors courses. one good thing about schreyer's is that you matter. often, in ivy-league settings people report that they feel like undergrads receive no attention. it's easy to do research or projects within schreyer's. </p>

<p>as far as my colleges go, I've applied to harvard and berkeley in addition to shc. I would almost certainly choose shc above berkeley. if I were to get into harvard, there is still a good chance I would attend shc, b/c I know I'd receive a lot of attention in the astro dept, I'd be able to take more classes w/o killing myself, and it's a lot cheaper for me. at the moment, I'm thinking harvard for grad school, rather than undergrad, if I had the option.</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice. SHC is in my opinion the best deal in undergraduate education, but I continue to think about the value that an ivy-league diploma might hold when applying to grad school.</p>

<p>remember chris, that you get top priority in getting internships and co-ops that you would not get at an ivy-league university, where you would be competing with another 1500 or so students.</p>

<p>Here's a link to the newsletter, which might give you a better sense of the college.
<a href="http://www.shc.psu.edu/update/enewsletter.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.shc.psu.edu/update/enewsletter.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Concerning a previous posters question about if going to the SHC at PSU would look as good as going to an "ivy league" school, I'll give you these thoughts...</p>

<p>I was speaking with an older friend who is currently an SHC student and he said that for students that do well, they can basically pick which grad school they want to go to. He knew seveal upperclassmen that basically applied to the top five grad schools in their field and got into ALL of them. Now of course this isn't saying that it happens to everyone, but what it does say is that grad schools and others know that this program is very hard to get into and that the quality of students getting degrees is just as if not better than any other school or program out there. </p>

<p>Also, another thing to consider that was pointed out to me was the SHC's record if having students that win the super major awards like becoming Marshall or Rhodes Scholars or other big programs like NSF fellowships (for science folks), Goldwater, ect. In the last few years, in terms of those fellowships, the SHC has posted a record that looks good compared to ANY school... expecially when you consider they are only accepting 300 freshman a year. Specifically I think they have had several Marshall and Rhodes winners in the last five years or so (many schools would be thrilled to have one per decade) and a about 2-3 years ago I think they had multiple Marshall Scholars named in one year... something which only the top of the top schools typically achieve. </p>

<p>So anyway, sorry to rant, but I'm just trying to point out that people can guesstimate what people's opinon of the SHC is, but I think the facts speak clear that it is a very very good school and the success of their graduate speaks for itself.</p>