My sister, brother, wife and I are all alums. My oldest son is a junior at Penn State but my daughter has decided to go to Pitt. She will be the first in my immediate family not to attend Penn State. I’m very proud of her since she received substantial academic scholarships to every school she applied to and will be attending Pitt essentially tuition free. The only university she did not receive a scholarship from is Penn State. I am not sure I understand how state affiliated universities like Pitt and Temple can offer scholships but Penn state cannot.
The string has been broken, my daughter has become a panther
- Thread starter bhill29
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Nice to see she had the courage and independence to follow her heart.
You done good
You done good
Congrats! She will receive a quality education AND the sun will come up tomorrow.
Congrats to your daughter. My condolences to you.
Only BOT kin get scholarships. Another nice perk is can sit on the 50 for all football games.
You now know what this mean's, don't you?
She now has to elope! You no longer have to pay for her wedding!!
Can I please be there when you give her the news??
Well, look on the bright side.....she didn’t go to tOSU or UMich!
We're killing Pitt on the football field, but they're killing us in the classroom.
It's an apples to oranges comparison because of the size difference between the two schools. It's the end result that matters, and a PSU degree is still more valuable. Even if that ever changes, that wasn't the case when I received my degrees, and that will never change.
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Pitt and Temple are not run by grifters. My youngest will graduate from Temple this Spring. I am getting more and more "done" with PSU every day.
You may wish it to be so, but there's no objective evidence to back up that claim. Pitt's incoming students have better numbers than PSU's do by a not-insignificant amount, and they are spending on faculty as well. Even if it is (doubtfully) true what you state about a PSU degree relative to a Pitt degree, that won't be the case much longer.
The academic decline of PSU has been precipitous and alarming, and it doesn't appear that it is being adequately addressed. We may as well all get used to the fact that this school will be relegated amongst the Big Ten bottom dwellers until the leadership of this school decides to deal with the issue, which unfortunately for all would require them to admit that this has all happened under their (lack of) leadership. There is a significant amount of arrogance at the top of this university, and it is fully unwarranted.
As a Pitt grad myself in 2005, I have to admit that I kinda wish I had gone to Penn State. My girlfriend went to PS and I’d drive to State College most weekends to be with her. The atmosphere of the college town was way better, and Pitt feels like they crammed a University into a busy metropolis. Also, if you’re white and stray into the Hill District, your physical safety is in peril. Crazy.
Congrats to your daughter though! Sounds like a wonderful young woman.
Congrats to your daughter though! Sounds like a wonderful young woman.
But, but...the US News rankings has Dear Old State ranked higher! Surely that means everything is fine and isn’t at all due to the combined 30% of the ranking that is exclusively derived by how much money the school spends on stuff, right??
I'm not sure that statement is true.
First congrats to your daughter and your family on all fronts.
A member of my extended family was accepted to UP this year as well and has been given multiple Provost scholarships/awards to the tune that his cost of attendance would be less than $5k per year.
There was the whole "#1 with corporate recruiters things" not that long ago. Never heard Pitt talked about that way. Also, as a hiring manager and alum of both schools, I can tell you that in my experience PSU degrees are still valued more than Pitt degrees.
Do you have any objective evidence that to that a Pitt degree is more valuable than a Penn State degree?
LOL
That is an admirable spin
Interesting. So you think that schools of different sizes are equally comparable on admission statistics? And that these admission statistics drive the value of the degree earned, ignoring the next~4 years? I'd also be interested in what evidence you have that makes you think a Pitt degree is more valuable?
I don't disagree that PSU is headed in the wrong direction, that's not even really debatable. Maybe someday a Pitt degree could be more valuable... but I just don't believe we are there yet.
I'd rather pay to go to Penn State than go to Pitt for free.
OK that's not true. Getting a scholarship is a great thing, no doubt. Surely she made the right choice.
OK that's not true. Getting a scholarship is a great thing, no doubt. Surely she made the right choice.
Congratulations to both of you. Apparently you did an excellent job in imparting the value of an education. And she worked diligently to receive the scholarship money. Once again congratulations. As an added bonus, if you attend a Pitt home game, you both can find some comfortable sun splashed seats at Heinz stadium and enjoy a long father daughter talk without all that annoying crowd noise.
First, congrats to your daughter. As someone who works in the industry I have heard a lot of great things about Pitt in recent years.
As to the question of scholarship money, and why Pitt seems able to give more, it's likely tied to the fact that Pitt's endowment is $4.2 billion for a total enrollment if about 19,000, and Penn State's is $3 billion for 40,000.
Though my wife and I both went to Penn State, and though my kids have already expressed an interest in following in our footsteps, I have been working in higher ed long enough to know that the perfect fit may not be the school you always thought was a perfect fit. I plan to explore all options with my kids, find out who is offering the most in terms of scholarship/aid, and make the decision based on what makes the most sense. If that means Penn State, great. But if not, that's fine too.
One thing we are starting to see in our town here in suburban Philly is more and more kids looking to the big state schools in the South. Kids are going to 'Bama, Clemson, South Carolina, etc., and from what we're hearing, the financial aid packages being offered are much more generous than those being offered by schools in the Northeast.
As to the question of scholarship money, and why Pitt seems able to give more, it's likely tied to the fact that Pitt's endowment is $4.2 billion for a total enrollment if about 19,000, and Penn State's is $3 billion for 40,000.
Though my wife and I both went to Penn State, and though my kids have already expressed an interest in following in our footsteps, I have been working in higher ed long enough to know that the perfect fit may not be the school you always thought was a perfect fit. I plan to explore all options with my kids, find out who is offering the most in terms of scholarship/aid, and make the decision based on what makes the most sense. If that means Penn State, great. But if not, that's fine too.
One thing we are starting to see in our town here in suburban Philly is more and more kids looking to the big state schools in the South. Kids are going to 'Bama, Clemson, South Carolina, etc., and from what we're hearing, the financial aid packages being offered are much more generous than those being offered by schools in the Northeast.
On the bright side, without the need to attend football games, she can take in all the fantastic Pittsburgh culture. Did you know they have a symphony?
A story I've told many times, when my son was graduating, he wanted to go into pharmacy. Penn State does not have a pharmacy program so his choices close to home were Pitt, Temple, University of the Sciences in Philly and closer to home, Wilkes. As a fan, it would have killed me to see him go to Pitt. As a father, I wanted him to get the best education he could, get a good job from his education, and to support himself and his future family. He wound up staying close to home, got his Doctorate in Pharmacy, worked in retail for several years and because of the connections he made there, he is now Assistant Dean Experiential Education and Assistant Professor Pharmacy Practice at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. It may kill you at first, but life has a way of working out.
The current “state” of Penn State reminds me of General Motors under Roger Smith in the late-70s and eighties.... fat, dumb, and happy - feet up on the desk, mailing it in... “We Are...Hubris”
stormingnorm’s numbers gives us a whiff of what’s happening - not a good look long term, alas - PSU is too big to fail.
I’ve lamented on this board before that my 19yr old son ruled out mMII’s alma mater early on in the process - solely based on PSU’s well-earned reputation for high tuition / zero financial aid (we are NYS residents) .... while several of his HS classmates bit the bullet and ponied-up for the PSU Country Club... my son feels comfortable that he went a different direction - and I try to convince myself that’s all that matters.
Pandaczar typed this on his PalmPilot
PSU isn't declining - it is the makeup of the university.
Pitt has branch campuses but the don't guarantee transfer to Oakland.
At PSU it is 'easy' to get into a branch campus. The requirements to get in are significantly lower than to get admitted to UP. These requirements are no different than Pitt Johnstown/etc. The difference is students who go to Pitt Johnstown don't automatically transfer to Oakland if they want to where as the students at PSUs branch campus's can attend UP for 2 years.
When I attended (late 90's) about growing the commonwealth campuses to 4 years to minimize the effect. I know numerous campuses expanded 4 year majors to minimize the impact - but it still isn't where it should be. To be admitted to UP - it is as tough to enroll as a freshman as almost any public university.
This also doesn't tell the whole story. As many pointed out - it isn't who gets in - it is who gets out. PSU's graduates regardless of entry criteria - are among the best prepared (atleast among publics) and we are ranked accordingly there. We have many programs ranked in the top 20 of the country - and regardless if somebody had less credentials to get in than others - they are more prepared when the leave - and that is what matters.
Congrats! Great school, she'll have a great time. Pitt, to its credit, provides a lot of financial aid to strong students, which can make it a lot more affordable than PSU.
Yeah, I don't know about Clemson and USC, but Bama offers extremely generous aid to kids with good grades and high SATs. I think Tuscaloosa would actually be a pretty interesting place to go to college.
If I’m not mistaken, the figures Norm cited earlier are for freshmen enrollees at Penn State’s University Park campus and freshmen enrollees at Pitt’s Oakland campus - so the more lax admissions numbers at Penn State or Pitt branch campuses isn’t really applicable, at least when it comes to the numbers Norm used.
Purely anecdotal, but through my NJ girlfriend I've become friends with several couples who all have kids either in college or getting ready to choose a college. Out of six that I can think of, not one is even considering Penn State (or Rutgers for that matter). The schools that they are attending or have interest in attending are Virginia Tech, Ohio State, Pitt, Temple, Clemson, UNC, USC and Alabama (among some other smaller private schools). One night after hearing the parents discussing these schools I asked if any of their kids ever considered Penn State (they all know I'm an alum). There were various reasons for "no" - cost was a big one (no financial assistance), but also some negative perceptions of the school regarding Sandusky and Piazza. Being a local kid, the Tim Piazza story was played up pretty big in the press in this part of NJ
Congrats! Nothing wrong with that. My son is only 5, but I can’t imagine why he’d even apply to PSU at this point, with us in Illinois. Plenty of options, and most will find a similar set of experience wherever they land.
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