<p>To dispell any misconceptions…the Pa higher education system is strange…</p>
<p>There are a bunch of ways to break schools up in Pa…</p>
<p>LACs:</p>
<p>Bucknell
Haverford
Bryn Mawr
Elizabethtown
Dickinson
Allegheny
Carlow
Chatham
Franklin and Marshall
York College
Juniata
Lafayette
Gettysburg
Swathmore
Lancaster Bible
Grove City
Messiah</p>
<p>state-supported publics:</p>
<p>Pittsburgh
Penn State
Temple</p>
<p>state schools:</p>
<p>West Chester
Slippery Rock
Millersville
Shippensburg
Kutztown
Clarion
California UP
Indiana UP
Edinboro
Lock Haven
Bloomsburg
Cheyney
East Stroudsburg
Mansfield</p>
<p>larger privates:</p>
<p>Penn
Lehigh
Dusquense
Drexel
Scranton
University of the Sciences Philly
Villanova
CMU
Susquehanna
Drexel
St Joes.
Lincoln</p>
<p>They all have their pros and cons and their own specialites and such (and yes, I know I probably missed a bunch)…</p>
<p>I listed those in no particular order…just in the order I thought of them and such…</p>
<p>Pa has a lot of great options to consider for all levels of selectivity and size/population/diversity…and the pure state schools have been getting more selective in the past few years…</p>
<p>I hesitate to make a list of the ‘best’ schools in Pa, since there are so many specialties to consider… </p>
<p>Of course the more traditionally though ‘best’ schools in Pa would be:</p>
<p>Penn
Haverford
Swathmore
Bryn Mawr
CMU
Pitt
Penn State</p>
<p>However, you can get an excellent education at nearly all of the aforementioned universities…</p>
<p>As for the best ‘state’ schools:</p>
<p>West Chester (good well-rounded)
Slippery Rock (for things related to sports…though I’ve heard bad negative things from a professor on the student population)
Millersville (arguably the best for education and special ed)
CUP (good for tech ed)
the others are about equal in my experience…</p>
<p>for ‘state-supported’ schools:</p>
<p>Pitt/Penn St. (they are equal in my book…both have strengths and weaknesses…one is urban, other is rural)
Temple (good for certain fields…but I think Pitt and Penn St. are generally more well-rounded)</p>
<p>That’s my opinion and let me know if I left out any particularly good schools…</p>