WPI vs Drexel vs Penn State University Park

Hello everybody.

As of now, I have been accepted at the following three colleges:

-WPI ($24000 Presidential Scholarship plus FA, totals $28000)
-Drexel ($26000 AJ Drexel Scholarship plus grant, totals $35000)
-Penn State UP ($4000 Scholarship from Science Fair Award)

They all end up to be a similar price for me. I live in PA.

I applied for mathematics buy may double this up with materials science, economics, or physics.

Just to let you know, I applied to other places as well, but their decisions are not out yet (they start in March). I won’t commit to any college until after those decisions, but I would like a comparison of the merits of each program.

Considering you wish to study math and/or physics, Penn State will be your best bet. Given your large award from Drexel, it wouldn’t be a bad choice. WPI and Drexel have reasonably strong material science programs.

WPI and Drexel are engineering schools and their math programs are mostly oriented toward providing service courses for engineers. WPI is also a good choice if you want to be an actuary. It’s not that the math departments are very weak, but the offerings are limited. I looked at the Penn State UG math program and I’m not particularly impressed with it either, but it seems to have the fundamentals covered for graduate math study, like topology.

While I may seem biased against PSU in the original comment, I have narrowed down and will almost certainly attend the Penn State, as I got into the Schreyer Honors College. SHC has amazing research opportunities in physics, which was my main reason to choose this.