<p>I’m trying to find the best state universities in Pennsylvania for safeties, preferably in the eastern portion of the state. While most of the state universities in Pennsylvania aren’t the most prestigious, I want a state college with a decent reputation with many academic and extracurricular opportunities. I am aware that “best” is a subjective term. What I am looking for are colleges that have at least one of the following offerings: </p>
<p>-Honors programs that actually involve hurdles to get into, preferably with some honors classes/honors housing options.</p>
<p>^ I’d agree but I’d be wary suggesting it…They seem to think they’re not a state school, acting like they’re above other state schools or something.</p>
<p>monstor, my guess is that you are going to find other posters attacking me because they will claim that U of Penn is not a state school, but in fact a richly endowed private institution - however, if that was the case, it wouldn’t be name “of” Pennsylvania…just like University “of” California.</p>
<p>in fact, I always confuse U of Penn with Penn State.</p>
<p>Isn’t U of Penn’s mascot the Nittany Lions or something like that?</p>
<p>UPenn is private, ivy league, and NOT a “state school”
Pitt and Penn State are both great with very well respected Honors programs, If you don’t get into Shreyers(PSU) you can try for University Park(main campus) and still have an above average PSU experience,
Drexel is private but they have VERY nice accomodations for honors college as well,
that aside, Ursinus is also private and a reasonably good LAC in PA
I’m from PA and applied to college this year so PM me for anything,
do schools have to be in PA bc I’d also rcommend UD and UMD</p>
<p>University of Pittsburgh and The Pennsylvania State University are not true state schools. They are rather “state affiliated universities”. Are you talking about the “true” state schools of Pennsylvania, such as Clarion University of Pennsylvania, IUP, etc.?</p>
<p>If you’re looking towards the eastern part of the state, I would recommend East Stroudsburg, West Chester, Kutztown, and Shippensburg.</p>
<p>Don’t forget, Penn State and Pitt have satellite campuses scattered throughout PA. These are less expensive and selective (and prestigious) than the main campus, but there is usually a high probability of being able to transfer.</p>
<p>UPenn is actaully the University of Pennsylvania founded by Benmjamin Franklin
it’s mascot is the Quakers
Penn State is the official Public school
it’s mascot is the Nittany Lions</p>
<p>UPenn was named back when there was no Penn Sate
please stop confusing people</p>
<p>UPenn is about as state school as Cornell is and cares less about in state than Duke(wehich keeps 15% of their incoming class from NC)</p>
<p>and no, I’m not attending and will not be attending UPenn so please do not lable me as a Penn foloower bc I corrected your erroneous statement</p>
<p>If you have excellent stats, Shreyers honors college at Penn State is the state school for you. Decent stats then either Pitt or Temple Honors. Temple is an underrated school and a great safety for Pa residents. These 3 universities are technically not state colleges, they are state related but they offer instate rates. Of the state funded colleges, West Chester is probably the best, and I believe they also have an honors program, but academic expectations at these schools are much lower. Temple is your best bet.</p>
<p>The only major “public” research institutions in Pennsylvania are Pitt, Penn State, and Temple, and they are the ones that would best fit your criteria. They are part of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education which means they have private governance (so technically, they are more private than public) while the state subsidizes their in-state tuition. Only about 10% of their budgets are funded by the state. They are commonly referred to as “state-related publics”. (FYI, Pitt and Temple were fully private until the mid 1960s). Then there are the 14 state owned-and-opperated colleges that are part of the separate Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and are typically small colleges in small towns that originated as normal schools and still are mostly known as teaching colleges. None have noteworthy research programs and they typically have substantially lower admissions standards than the “state-relateds”, but they are substantially cheaper. As with any college, they have individual programs of note, but do not offer the breadth of the larger research schools.</p>
<p>BTW, the most selective “state school”, state-relateds included, by the admission criteria is Pitt. (Middle 50% SATs: Pitt 1720-2020; PSU 1630-1940; Temple 1500-1810) You won’t get into Pitt with lesser stats than would get you into PSU. I would submit that Pitt UHC, although structured more loosely, is at least, if not more highly regarded than Shreyer, primarily because it churns out more national scholar and fellowship winners (Rhodes, Marshall, etc) than any other school in PA, including Penn. Penn by the way, is unquestionably private. Only Penn’s Vet School has any connection to the state (because it is the only Vet School in the state). Penn has always been private and has no connection or similarity to Penn State, other than its name. </p>
<p>Anyway, regarding your interests, besides not being in the east, Pitt’s journalism program just got combined into joint program with creative writing so that may kill Pitt for you. It does offers the rest of the things you are interested in though, and is especially notable in international studies and undergrad research. In the east, I’d look at Temple as a state-related school. I have no idea how their journalism program is, but it is the best “state” school in the east. It is definitely an up-and-coming school. Penn State is not in the east. They are dead central Pennsylvania, and by far the largest of the three and would have good opportunities for research. Their branch campuses have a substantial drop off in quality if you look at their numbers and none of them are ranked in any category so I wouldn’t seriously consider their branches as an option if I were you. In fact, the state-owned schools are generally better regarded than Penn State branches.</p>
<p>"I thought it was one of those state universities with many colleges in it…</p>
<p>for instance, isn’t a college called “Wharton” part of U of Penn?"</p>
<p>Typically, by definition, any university is composed of individual schools or colleges. Wharton is simply the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, not really different than Harvard Business School being a component of Harvard University.</p>
<p>The University of Pennsylvania is colonial college founded in the middle of the 1700s by Ben Franklin as Philadelphia Academy and is fully private except for its Vet School. It has 10,000 undergrads and about 10,000 grad students, has a major research program, is urban and located in Philadelphia, and has no branch campuses and no substantive connection to the state. </p>
<p>The Pennsylvania State University is a state-related land-grant university founded in 1855 as Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania. It has 38,600 undergrads and 7,000 grad students at its main campus in State College located in Centre County, Pennsylvania. It is rural, has major research programs, has 19 branch campuses (not including its med, law and tech school) awarding the same diploma with approximately 33,500 additional students, and has substantial ties to the state government.</p>