Your stats are not particularly impressive so I am not surprised that you were denied by Rice and Duke. You are on the low side of Northeastern admits too.
“Penn State is not a safety for anyone.”
I STRONGLY disagree. While an excellent school Penn State is no Ivy and if your credentials are good enough to have any real chance at getting into an Ivy Penn State is almost guaranteed to accept you. To put it in perspective, Penn State’s 75th %ile ACTs are less than all except Brown’s 25th %ile ACT. Moreover, they admitted 55% of applicants.
Again, Penn State is a well respected and all around excellent school (and cheap if you are in state) but it is a safety for many people.
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Penn state is a public ivy
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lol…there sure are a lot of schools that folks claim are (non-existant) public ivies.
@mom2collegekids The only school that comes close to being a public ivy is UC Berkeley.
Cal is the only public who has alumni achievement rates close to the (lower) Ivies, though I would put UMich and UVa are in the “near-Ivies” category.
Most of the schools you listed would not be safeties for you (in the case of UIUC, which admits by major, if you applied for engineering or CS).
I would be pretty surprised if someone who was in the top 1% and had a smart application strategy didn’t get in to at least one of the near-Ivies (http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1682986-ivy-equivalents-p3.html).
However, someone who’s more like top 5-10%, like you, should be shocked only if you applied and got rejected by all schools at the UW-Madison/McGill/UToronto/Edinburgh/St. Andrews level.
BTW, all the UC’s are pretty competitive to get in to these days because they get so many applicants.
PSU is known to have a strong alumni base.
If you look at the “bubble chart”, Penn State is a safety for someone with a 3.9/2000+ score. GPA is weighted as 2/3 of the decision. Students with a 3.4 and lower are directed to branch campuses. So, for you, Penn State was a match, not quite a safety.
Did you take the ALEKS test and if so how much did you score?
Since you followed a rigorous curriculum, you should be able to get some credits and placement - did you take A-Levels?
http://admissions.psu.edu/academics/credit/a-levels/
The difference between the two schools is that 1° NEU is in Boston (awesome city) and 2° it has the co-op system, whereas Penn State 1° is in a “classic” college town and 2° offers more of a typical Strong Flagship, American college experience. Both have very strong career centers and alumni networks.
OP, so I guess $$ is not a factor in attending the schools you have been selected to, and if RPI ‘comes through’ that is where you want to attend? Have you visited these schools? Where did you say ‘yes’ to, and are you doing a summer orientation/course scheduling process?
Hey guys! Thanks for the replies. BTW, I’m confused as of the rankings of the schools according to academic reputation. Is UIUC on par with Northeastern and Penn state? Or…? BTW I did take the ALEKS test, and scored an 80% 
BU is not a safety for anyone. I know kids who were accepted to Ivies who did not get into BU. They gave a very hard sell at their tours, that they would rather take kids with As in regular classes than kids with Cs in APs.
I highly doubt RPI will “come through” - they admitted some students in January 2016 instead of the fall, so they are booked. If RPI waitlisted you, I feel like you didn’t post some pertinent stats or had essay issues. Or maybe you applied to a small major?
The only kid I know going to Northeastern had excellent stats.
As for “rigourous” that is a requirement, not a bonus in any way. 3.5 UW is not considered very good, rigor or not. You can understand that “rigourous” is a requirement, not any kind of hook.
As for “don’t accuse him of whining” - again with the math teacher whining. It’s like every math teacher has a conspiracy against kids.
PSU is an excellent school - wide alumni network, many many research and study options available. BU, Rice, Duke, and UCSB rejections are expected for many.
Does PSU accept more people though? Is it easy to get into compared to BU and NEU?
They’re a public university and they’re much larger so obviously they admit more people, especially considering they have admission options other universities don’t have; dus, summer session, apply before/after November 1, branch campus…
In terms of outcomes and general academics, it is MANY people’s reach, including from out of state.
Look for bodangles or, etuck . Go to the PSU thread to see who got in and who didn’t.
UCSB is actively working to improve its reputation among the public to meet its academic reputation (which is fantastic), so a student who may have been a shoe-in a couple years ago may very well be rejected in today’s application cycle. I can’t speak too much towards the other schools, but I do know some incredibly intelligent people at BU, and some very mediocre people at Penn State, and vice versa. Once you’re in the top ~50 of schools (remember there are around 3000 accredited US colleges), you’ll be receiving a fantastic education, so don’t worry too much about the individual rankings. Unless you want to go into investment banking or engineering or some other vocation that requires enormous prestige at the Ugrad level, don’t worry too much about rank and focus more on where you’ll thrive and enjoy your experience. This is from someone who chose UCSB over Georgetown and USC!
Penn State is a fine large state school. And I suggest you stop worrying about where you didn’t get in and move ahead with one of the schools you have been accepted to.
It seems as if OP is worrying Penn State is a school for losers, or “rejects”… I’m guessing OP worries he’ll be surrounded by people who are bitter they didn’t get into a higher-ranked school, or kids who aren’t very driven, perhaps confusing Penn State with a directional like Cal State or non-flagship like Alabama State…due to the “state” in the name??? Just trying to guess.
I would suggest you sign up for Paterno Fellows or the Gateway program (an advantage of PF is that you get to take some Honors Classes with kids from Schreyer.)
ALEKS 80 is not bad. Retake to see if you can reach 83+, check out the 140 syllabus if you’re going to take calculus in college, and see if you can start in 141 (or, for added challenge and if you like writing proofs, there’s 140H).
OP, Penn State is an absolutely fantastic school for the reasons others have mentioned; I’d most certainly rate it 4.5 out of 5 stars. You should be proud of getting into such a fine institution. I’d even encourage you to go there instead of Northeastern, in all honesty (but there are personal reasons for that 
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OP - I suggest you stop worrying about Penn State’s relative selectivity and prestige, and begin looking forward to your time there. It is very well-respected. If you decide that you don’t care for the environment, you would have no trouble transferring. I live in NJ, where people bestow more respect on Penn State than they do on Rutgers, our own state flagship. It is in the middle of nowhere, but it produces some of the most fanatical alumni/ae I know, so people obviously love it. The campus is nicknamed “Happy Valley.” I can personally say that it wouldn’t have been the ideal place for me or for either of my kids, but that has nothing to do with its educational quality. I’ve read that it draws more job recruiters than any other campus in the country. You are young, and you share a brand preoccupation that appears especially intense among international students (who are less likely to have heard of more than a handful of American universities). You will outgrow it, I hope. There is no greater guarantee of unhappiness in life than constantly looking around and comparing yourself and your circumstances to others. Someone will always be richer, better-looking, more successful, etc., giving you cause for envy and resentment.
Again, thanks for the replies! I do understand the situation now. However, do you guys think I should transfer to one of the top ten schools after the first year, given that I have the GPA to do so? ( I saw quite a few top schools have high transfer acceptance rates.) Or do you guys think that for me, a future engineer, I should just transfer to a top school after 4 years of undergrad?
Wow, you are not getting the message.
You got into Penn state and Northwestern. Very good schools and you haven’t even stepped foot on those campuses and you already think you need to transfer?
Wow, you just don’t get it…
Lose some of that arrogance and learn:
Give it up, your scores aren’t top ten, and you don’t have an international fame card. The top 10 are a lottery. Worse, the odds for transfers are infinitely against you. Why would you even suppose that you could transfer after a year? Princeton doesn’t take transfers.
You are not getting it.
I generally don’t like to criticize, but OP, if you are thinking of transferring before setting foot on campus, then there is something wrong with you.
You got into two GREAT schools. GREAT ones. A lot of people don’t even get a chance, and those that do sometimes can’t afford it. You got a chance, you can afford it, and you’re contemplating transfers? Northeastern has a ~30% acceptance rate. Be glad that you got into it.
In the end, it’s your choice, but if you’re attracted to ranks as opposed to a good education and a stable alumni network, then no one can help you.
OP - I might have expressed myself poorly, and apologize if I did. I mentioned transferring only if you decided that the large size and remote location of Penn State did not agree with you, and indicated that they are respected. I said nothing about “trading up,” and reiterate my remarks about your obsession with brand prestige. The odds of transferring into a more selective college aren’t great, and you should embark upon your college career with the assumption that colleges which did not admit you as a freshman probably won’t change their minds. You were accepted to Northeastern and Penn State. You might be able to transfer from one to the other, if the location and environment did not agree with you. It is highly unlikely that you can transfer from one of them to MIT or Stanford. It will not endear you to classmates or professors if you tell them, through words or deeds, that you believe you are their superior and deserve better. When I mentioned transferability, I was thinking in terms of transferring to Pitt, Temple, Clemson, VA Tech, et al, not the colleges which you believe you belong at.