<p>I’m a big believer that “personal fit” should come above anything when it comes to college decision. It sounds like you think Swarthmore would be a good fit for your personality while Penn State will not. That alone, I believe, should determine your choice.</p>
<p>Now, academically, I think there’s no question whether the “average” student at Swat or Penn gets a better education. When it comes to the question of whether you’d get a better education by being among the best at Penn State or fairly average at Swat…well, that’s somewhat debatable. For what it’s worth, even as one of the best students at Penn State, you won’t get more professor attention than at Swat (although you may get as much). IMO, even for the best students, Swat is a better option; your out-of-the-classroom-community will shape your learning almost as much as your in-the-classroom-community, and there’s no question at which college is this academic community more vibrant. Regardless, this is somewhat debatable, and as other posters brought up, it sounds like you’re more likely to academically excel in an environment where you’re driven to success (like Swarthmore) than in an environment where you can easily slack off (like Penn State). Given this, I think Swat is easily the best academic option for you.</p>
<p>Professionally, some posters have alluded to the fact that law schools care mostly about GPA and LSATs. That’s partially true, but you get a pretty respectable bump from going to the top schools–if you look at Harvard Law School or Berkeley Law School and compare matriculated students…the average GPA of law alumns is pretty significantly lower than the average GPA of Berkeley alumns–there seems pretty clearly to be a “Yale” bump in law school admissions. Swat is regarded as highly as Yale in professional circles, while PSU is not as highly regarded as Berkeley–you can count on a pretty substantial GPA “bump” from attending Swarthmore over PSU. Additionally, as has been mentioned earlier, there’s an initial Pass-Fail period at Swarthmore. As most students get their worse grades in their first several semesters, this period tends to be incredibly helpful, GPA-wise. Finally, you seem like the sort of student who will work up to a challenge, but maybe not necessarily past it (I am like this, most of my high school friends are like this). My GPA in college matched almost exactly the GPA I earned in high school. My friends’ GPAs in college almost exactly matched the GPAs they earned in high school. We went to schools ranging from Cornell to University of Maryland and worked about as hard as these colleges required us to in order to earn the grades we have always gotten. It sounds like you will most likely be like this as well, and in that case, there is no question that professionally Swarthmore would be a better option. </p>
<p>That leaves us with the financial question. Ultimately, I agree with one of the earlier posters that this is your parents money and as they seem able to afford it, you shouldn’t stress out about it. Law school is expensive, but most law schools give a fairly significant amount of loans (and even grants) out. Even more crucially, even if you go into public interest (or some other form of relatively low paying) law, you’ll still be making more than enough money to pay back your loans. $100,000 is a lot of money, but I think you’ll find that paying it back over 30 (or 5 or 10) years at a lawyers’ salary isn’t as difficult as you may think. However, the biggest difference is what that $100,000 could get you. It could easily be the difference between you going to a top 15 law school or going to your regional mediocre law school. It could easily be the difference between four enjoyable years of college (what should be some of the best years of your life) and four fairly mediocre years of college. Obviously, it could also not…but in your case, it sounds pretty clearly like Swarthmore–even at the extra cost–is the better option.</p>