<p>Hi,
Title says it all.
Can someone please help me decide which school has an overall better experience?</p>
<p>Giving equal weightage to academics, reputation, social scene, college experience in general. Cost is no factor. Time to commit is coming and I dont want to regret my decision, this choosing thing has been killing me.</p>
<p>Thank you guys SO MUCH for your help.</p>
<p>For social scene, let’s just say that Austin is significantly different from where Penn State and Purdue are located.</p>
<p>What is your major?</p>
<p>Also, your net price (after subtracting financial aid (grants only) and scholarships from list price) at each?</p>
<p>@Shiloh77, I am majoring in Computer Science although I am currently undecided and am confused between chemE/compE/ and finance.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus money is no factor, im an intl student anyway, so im basically paying the same amount for each college anyway</p>
<p>@Erins Dad do you mean that in a good way? Thats a big plus then, in my opinion 
But then itll also mean the lifestyle would be more expensive since ut austin is in a metropolitan city. Could you give me advice overall on which college is superior?</p>
<p>All 3 are great universities, and they’re all pretty different. “rankings” wise, Purdue is #68, PSU is #37, and UT Austin is #52 - a lot of it is kind of what you want in the school. I’m a freshman now at PSU and could tell you all about it if you want, just message me. PSU and UT Austin will probably give you a better social scene and college experience, IMO, than Purdue. </p>
<p>The non-resident prices for public universities can vary considerably. Check the “cost of attendance” pages for each school.</p>
<p>I’d go with either Penn State or Austin.
UT = liberal in a conservative state, in a city, good (warm but not too bad) weather from October to March, very hot and muggy the rest of the time.
Penn State = not really political, in a college town (a town where everything is geared toward students, so lots of movie theaters, bars, clubs, diners, restaurants, coffee shops…), about 6 hours from NYC and DC, 3-4h to Philadelphia, cold and dry from November to March, with snow.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus the price does not matter. I repeat: “If money is no object”. That is not a factor to consider. </p>
<p>Austin is called the Silicon Valley of the South, and the Live Music Capital of the World.</p>
<p>Although which one do you guys reckon is superior, academically?</p>
<p>Penn State and Austin would be better than Purdue overall, but these two are in the same league academically.</p>
<p>You might find they rank differently based on the many majors you listed 
Purdue is excellent in engineering. As are the others. If you want to change to finance mid-stream…then it might be helpful to look at the business school ratings. UT Austin has a large international contingent - but I feel certain that the other schools do as well.</p>