Should I look into other schools?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>So here is the deal. My mom is an employee of Penn State, and as a result, I will receive a 75% off tuition if I attend any of the Penn State campuses. This has always been my plan,for obvious reasons, and the only real decision was what campus to attend. Recently, my dad, who went to Dennison, has been pushing me to apply to some LACs. I have my doubts as to whether that is the best fit for me and my likely major. I would likely be majoring in finance, but something like economics or political science is certainly not out of the question. My mom feels that I should attend Penn State, and that is what I am leaning toward. My older brother attended Wooster and now is starting a post-doc at Columbia in the fall, so I've definitely seen what a LAC education can produce in terms of success. I could essentially do 4 years of Penn State without incurring any debt, as my parents have 80-85k in a college fund for me. Can anyone offer me some advice as to where to apply to and where to go?</p>

<p>Here are my stats
Freshman year
Attended a cyber school for a variety of reasons, and I deeply regret it. It negatively affected the rest of my high school career. But anyway,
3.9 UW, same weighted as it did not offer honors courses</p>

<p>Sophomore year
Moved to a mid-sized public school, where I go now
3.8 UW 4.2 approx W
Honors Algebra 2
Honors English 10
Honors World History
Honors Biology
Spanish 2
Various non-honors electives</p>

<p>Junior year
4.0 UW Not sure about weighted as my school hasn't recalculated yet
Honors PreCalculus
AP US History
Honors Chemistry
English 11 CP
Spanish 3
Various other non-honors electives</p>

<p>Senior year schedule
AP Econ
AP Bio
AP Calc AB
AP US Gov (self-study, as this seems like a joke from the practice tests I've seen)
Spanish 4, not sure if this is honors or not
English 12 CP
Various other non-honors electives</p>

<p>Class rank: 26/267, as of end of sophomore year. I'm guessing this is now mid/high teens after my junior year</p>

<p>Other info:
SAT: 1800 back in January with no prep whatsoever. Retaking in October. Recently got a 2010 on a practice test
SAT II: none, although I could take them if there's a point in it
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Income: ~80k I think
State: Pennsylvania</p>

<p>ECs
Mock trial, 2 years, captain as a senior
Volleyball, 2 years
Soccer, 1 year
Odyssey of the Mind state qualifier as a junior
Young Democrats, 2 years, president as a senior
NHS member
Avid potter, taken in-school classes for the last 2 years and I am taking a summer class right now
Not a whole lot of volunteering, maybe 20 hours</p>

<p>Probably something I'm forgetting, but this seems like a good start. I am providing my grades/ECs/info to hopefully get some recommendations for other schools to apply to besides Penn State. Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>That’s what I forgot. I got a 5 on the APUSH exam</p>

3

<p>Would you be happy going to Penn State? If that’s a place that you enjoy, I don’t see why you would go to another school with the reduced tuition at Penn State. However, is it 100% that you’d get in? I’m not really sure what your relationship gets you besides reduced tuition.</p>

4

<p>I like it, but I am a little worried about the size. The relationship doesn’t give me any advantage in admissions but, given Penn State’s admission stats, I would be a virtual shoe-in (sp?)</p>

5

<p>Claremont Mckenna is a LAC and has a financial economics major and has really good connection in socal and all over cali</p>

6

<p>Your brother’s experience at an LAC sounds positive for him. May I suggest that you read Lauren Pope’s books, “Colleges That Change Lives”, and “Beyond The Ivy League”. They will give you a little more insight into LAC’s and what they can offer in your intended major and interests. Many will give generous merit tuition if you can raise your SAT score. It should fall within your parents contribution. Also, you may want to look into taking the ACT.</p>

7

<p>Also you can take classes at other claremont colleges like pomona, pitzer, scripps and harvey mudd. It makes your liberal arts college seem bigger than it is.</p>

8

<p>I certainly do not want to be as far away as California. I would not want to be farther west than Chicago and not farther south than Virginia. And say I get a 2100 on the SAT or the ACT equivalent. How much merit and/or need based aid could I get at reasonably high level LACs?</p>

9

<p>Well youd get in penn state anyway. if u go to penn st go to college park campus. if go penn st and say money if you wanna get your mba</p>

10

<p>Penn State is a perfectly good school; if you like it enough for it to be your first choice, and it is definitely affordable (especially given the discount) and you are sure that you will get in, then there is really no need to apply anywhere else.</p>

<p>But if there are other schools that are competitive for being your first choice and are affordable (check the net price calculators and the scholarship parts of the schools’ web pages), then you certainly should consider applying to them.</p>

11

<p>The one, Southern LAC that I am familiar with, offered $16,000 per year in merit scholarship last year with your scores. They are also very generous with their need based calculations as well, the average aid award was $26,000 with 96% of applicants receiving aid.</p>

12

<p>If an LAC or some other smaller, more selective university appeals to you, there’s no harm in applying to them (besides the application fee). Apply to Penn State anyway, though, as a safety if nothing else. There’s nothing wrong with having more options, unless filling out additional apps is something you really don’t want to do. Many private colleges have generous need-based aid and if your parents’ income really is 80k, you should receive quite a bit.</p>

13

<p>No reason not to look at other schools - including some LACs. You have all summer and Penn State isn’t going anywhere. If, after doing the research, you decide that Penn State is what you want, then that’s great - and your dad can be satisfied that you at least took his suggestion seriously.</p>

14

<p>Bump 10 char</p>

15

<p>If you were going to look at LACs, I would recommend schools like Connecticut College, Hamilton, or Colby, or maybe Bucknell or Colgate (these are a little reachy, but looking can’t hurt). However, if you want to attend Penn State, I think you should. You’re in-state; as a PA resident, you’re pretty much a shoe-in for Penn State. I have many family members who have attended Penn State and if you truly like it, I’d say go for it, especially since you’d save a lot of money. However, like previous posters have said, it can’t hurt to <em>look</em> at other schools and see what they offer as well. </p>

<p>You also might qualify for the Academic Honors college at UConn (which would be half tuition). I’d recommend looking into UConn as an option as wlel.</p>

16

<p>I am thinking about applying to Kenyon College, primarily as another option in case something about PSU doesn’t work. I go to a summer camp there (unrelated to the actual school) and I absolutely LOVE the campus. What are my chances of getting in at Kenyon?</p>

17

<p>Take a look at the Common Data Set for Kenyon (google it) then go to Section C. It will give you a good feel for your chances at Kenyon. And if you like Kenyon, there are lots of other good midwestern LACs along similar lines that are both more and less selective.</p>