<p>PSU Schreyer is getting more applications each year and thus it's harder to get in these days. We know kids with awesome stats who were rejected last year. We don't know of any who was accepted with low stats. Overall though, it's a holistic look - they want more than numbers.
Most of the kids are in Engineering, Science and Business - although it's open to all majors. The new dean is strong and the program is very well funded. But they don't hand out merit money like Pitt. Pitt has more state funding, so they can be more generous.<br>
Pitt and Penn State are of similar academic quality, with some differences depending on program. Visit both and see what you think.</p>
<p>Why is it that Pitt offers so much more merit $ than PSU? They're both state colleges and both are highly rated.</p>
<p>Here's a link to PSU superlatives [url=<a href="http://www.psu.edu/ur/about/superlatives/%5DSuperlatives%5B/url">http://www.psu.edu/ur/about/superlatives/]Superlatives[/url</a>]</p>
<p>I doubt that Pitt gets more state funding than PSU, altho I have no clue as to PSU's funding. A year ago when our D was a Pitt freshman, we were told at one of those orientation parent things that less than 25% of the Pitt budget comes from the state. The rest is a combination of tuition and fees, federal and private research grant type money, alumni donations, corporate donations, and other types of donations. Pitt was referred to as being "state-related" as opposed to a "state school". It started out as a purely private university and started receiving state funds in addition to private funds in the 70's I think.</p>
<p>There are apparently lots of wealthy and/or enthusiastic alumni who fund a lot of these scholarships. The engineering alums pump a lot of cash into the engrg scholarships for example.</p>
<p>The Peterson Center (the Pete) and the Nanotechnology Center are two examples of things funded almost entirely by alumni donations (at least the construction, getting it going $$).</p>
<p>PSU is more crunched than Pitt and it DOES affect merit $. There's lots of wealthy and enthusiastic alumni at PSU too, but they can't make up for the shortfall.<br>
From a recent (Fall 2007) budget hearing (quote from Mr. Curley, the PSU Budget Officer)
"Within Pennsylvania, the state appropriation per full-time equivalent (FTE) student at Penn State ($3530) is lower than that at Temple ($5200), Pitt ($5040), and the State System of Higher Education schools. Although enrollment has grown at Penn State since 1977 compared to these other schools, funding has not kept pace and Penn State has fallen behind the other state-related schools. This is one reason for the increases in tuition, and Penn State having high tuition costs. Penn State's Commonwealth Campuses, in particular, face stiff competition from the lower cost community colleges and State System schools".</p>
<p>There's another other factor to when comparing PSU and Pitt. They are both fine institutions, however, PSU has been more popular (probably due to the football program). Application and yield rates are climbing. So, PSU doesn't need to hand out merit $ to attract folks. Their financial aid packages are dreadful...and it's too bad... because it's affecting the socio-economic make-up of the school. The latest report showed a pretty big decline in low-income kids (and a big increase in OOS kids).</p>
<p>where did you guys see that Pitt is a better engineering school then Penn state?</p>
<p>Pittsburgh's Honors college mainly focuses around the BPhil they offer if you choose to earn that. You can be in the honors housing at Pitt and not even take any honors classes.</p>