i’ve been accepted into both schools, for their liberal arts program. (economics major)
i’m having a real hard time deciding on which to commit to.
so i’m hoping the CC community could help me out.
i’m a PA resident, so PSU is a little bit cheaper. about $10,000/year cheaper.
campus life is very important to me. i wanna be able to go out and have fun, find a whole new group of friends and have a wide variety of good campus food and housing.
which is better recognized? PSU is more prestigious, but will it really make a difference?
i am transferring in from a community college, so i have to do one year at a PSU branch campus, which is a big deterrent for me. if i go to Rutgers, i get the full college experience, rite away.
Academically, it does not look like they are that much different in undergraduate economics, though if you go to Penn State, it is generally preferable to choose the honors intermediate economics courses, since they use calculus (the Rutgers intermediate economics courses use calculus, though neither school’s courses are as math-intensive as those at some other schools). However, there may be specific elective economics courses at one of the schools that may be of interest to you.
http://bulletins.psu.edu/undergrad/courses/E/ECON/
http://economics.rutgers.edu/undergraduate/courses-and-syllabi/course-descriptions
If you intend to go on to PhD study in economics, you should take many more advanced math and statistics courses in preparation for such.
But it is difficult to make an argument in favor $10,000 per year more expensive.