Hi - my daughter was accepted to both UDel (Sports Management) and Penn State (Smeal pre-major). Although she is interested in Sports Management now, she may well find another area of business that she prefers. She is waiting to hear about honors at UDel; she did not apply to the honors program at PSU. With UDel merit money, costs are comparable and not a deciding factor.
We are identifying some pros and cons of each, but it would be great to hear some other perspectives as I am sure there are other things that might not be as obvious as name recognition, size and football :). How do these two business schools really compare - quality while in school and later in life on resume? What about the overall college experience? Difficulty in getting classes you want? Better chances of smaller classes? Internships, networking, and job opportunities? Study abroad? Quality of life? What other less-known factors are we missing?
Thanks!
Right now, she’s in the business school at UDel, not at Penn State (admissions to the Business school take place sophomore year and depends on achieving specific grades in core classes as well as a certain GPA). Adding the honors college possibility at UDel, I would consider UDel the better situation for you.
(She could apply to the Sapphire program, a sort of business honors program at Penn State - only if she’s a Smeal pre admit, but you wouldn’t get much merit and I’m not sure it’s worth it compared to UDel.)
Thank you @MYOS1634. Appreciate you clarifying the PSU business requirements. If she does not get Honors at UDel, would do you still think UDel is better? Is it b/c of the direct admit into business school vs. the situation at PSU? (I think she is on the bubble for honors and I know lots of others already were accepted, so we are not too hopeful.)
And thanks for the tip about Sapphire. We will look into it!
I think Smeal has a better reputation, but she takes a risk of not getting in and having to choose another major. I listed possible choices below, see with her if she’d be comfortable picking any of these instead of Business if she didn’t make the GPA or course grade requirements, and majoring in a liberal arts or other field with a Business minor. Also go over the Sapphire Program application and have her complete it. Since it provides extra support and doesn’t push the students into the same “large lecture hall” environment where so many get lost, it may help with the very rigorous grade and GPA requirements.
At UDel, the business major is guaranteed.
https://lerner.udel.edu/programs/undergraduate-programs/
http://polisci.la.psu.edu/undergraduate/majors-and-minors/business-and-liberal-arts-minor/view
http://bulletins.psu.edu/undergrad/programs/minors/D/DMTAMIN
or
http://bulletins.psu.edu/undergrad/programs/minors/E/ENTIMIN
Wow, thank you for all this info. These are exactly the issues we should be factoring into the decision. Thanks again! (I think I know what we will be doing today!)
@MYOS1634 Do you know if there is a minimum GPA requirement for Delaware’s business program if you go in as an undeclared major. My son is undecided but leans towards business and economics majors. He is also considering Delaware and PSU (except Altoona - not UP).
@MYOS1634 Nevermind…I found this posted on a different thread.
http://catalog.udel.edu/content.php?catoid=11&navoid=438
The minimum GPAs seems to be lower than Smeal, although I didn’t do a side by side comparison. My son received merit money and needs to maintain a 3.0 anyway…so a little higher to gain admittance to Finance shouldn’t be an issue.
@carriebshopper Did you attend the accepted students day yesterday at Delaware? Delaware business students seem to have access to great internship opportunities.
While Smeal students are highly recruited there is the possibility of part-time internships during the school year at Delaware due to the close proximity (and access via train) to Philly and Wilmington. Penn State’s location doesn’t necessarily allow for those opportunities. But that may not be important to your daughter. My colleague’s daughter graduated from Smeal recently and she and all of her friends had jobs lined up prior to graduation.
I think both schools have strong programs. Unless a student is looking to enter investment banking or some other highly competitive field where they only recruit from the very top business schools it doesn’t make a huge difference.
The WSJ has a cool tool that rates Delaware very highly for outcomes (Does the college generate good and appropriate outputs? Does it add value to the students who attend?) http://www.wsj.com/graphics/college-rankings-2018-tool/ You can customize the rankings by adjusting the weighting of the four factors they utilize in their rankings to fit is important to you.
I work in Philadelphia and am involved with interviewing and hiring recent graduates. Both Delaware and Penn State graduates are well regarded and I would never choose one over the other based on their school (and the Delaware grad we hired a few years ago was one of our best).
I don’t think you can go wrong with either and it comes down to which school is the right fit for your daughter.
@Cookies510 thanks for the tip on the WSJ article; I may finally have to get a subscription!
We did go to Accepted Students day at UD yesterday and were quite impressed. The proximity to Philadelphia and Wilmington does make it particularly attractive. I got the feeling that it was just a bit less intense than PSU, which could be a good thing. They also gave the impression that study abroad options were a little easier to fit in, especially with that extended winter break.
My daughter is still sorting through everything, but I agree with you: I feel like either would be fantastic overall and the difference is in the margins (more sports, spirit, and name recognition at PSU; yet at UD you get more connection to urban areas while in school and a slightly cozier environment). And at UD - no classes with 700 other students like PSU’s Intro Psych class.
I am glad to hear that you know of grads from both who succeeded post-graduation!
Thanks again for your perspective!
@carriebshopper regardless of the respective business schools which I assume are both very good PSU and UDel are very different schools. Udel 17,000 PSU 40,000. Psu big 10 sports; Udel can say D1 but no comparison to PSU. Udel very close to multiple huge urban areas…PSU about 3 hours to anything.
It all depends on what type of campus your daughter wants.
@carriebshopper : has your daughter made a decision and if so, what was her reasoning? (Useful for future readers who’ll face a similar situation)
@MYOS1634: long story short…still undecided. Went to Pitt and Duquesne this weekend to close some loops/maybe cross off list and ended up realizing that we have more homework to do .
Penn State - so great in so many ways, but concerned for some class sizes (700 in Intro to Psych??) and possible challenges studying abroad given the intensity of business program. Not too worried about GPA req but it should be considered.
Univ of Delaware, Honors College - many positives (Honors, close to Phila, beautiful campus); no real downsides except maybe it’s less known for business?; cost=PSU and Pitt at this point so not a factor even though we are OOS
Pitt - I liked the approach of the business program best of all options (more flexibility if interested in minors in other colleges, lots of ‘certificates’/concentrations available, big push for multiple study abroad options), but DD not a fan of urban campus. Cathedral of Learning is stunning though!
Duquesne - I know, very unlike the top 3 and was not really on our radar. Applied b/c of Tuition Exchange possibility and she ended up getting that. So, tuition would be covered and she’d be in Honors College. Not easy to overlook. Surprised at how much we liked it - lots of personal attention, nice campus, proximity to Pittsburgh, highly regarded in Pittsburgh with many internship opportunities. However, concerned that it is too regional, maybe too western PA focused.
I should say that we are waiting on a few LACs but they would only be feasible with Tuition Exchange and we are not very confident in that. So I think the likely consideration set is above. (We have TE opp’y b/c of employment at a small LAC that is too close for comfort:))
Thanks for the update!
Right now, it sounds like her ‘best fit’ amonf the original three is UDel.
She can compare UDel honors with Duquesne Honors: which offers more options, more benefits…?
My son is a business major at Duquesne and is currently a Jr…he had an internship at a F100 last summer and 4 internship offers this year from F500’s, all who recruited on campus. We live in NY Metro, so being a western PA school has not hurt one bit. Being in a city is definitely a plus as companies have an easier time attending recruiting events. Duquesne has an on campus job fair each semester. His classes have been pretty rigorous and he absolutely loves the school and all Pittsburgh has to offer.