<p>That scandal isn’t going away for years. It’s going to be tied up in the criminal proceedings for over a year or more, and then the civil suites will be additional years. You have still have investigations by the Commonwealth, the FBI, and the Department of Education, not to mention the school itself and possibly the NCAA not including all the reporters milling about, some of them just getting started. Heck, they haven’t even gotten to the preliminary hearings. It is not a stretch to call it the worst scandal in higher education and sports history. Even if it is over in five years, people will be studying it and talking about it and writing about it for decades. If you think of school as an investment, it is not a frivolous concern worry about the trajectory of the perception value of a PSU diploma, as a major part of that institution was wrapped around the image of their football program. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a good experience and a great education there, but I would seriously evaluate equivalent options, Pitt or not. Fair or not, perception is reality. Just my personal opinion.</p>
<p>I grew up very close to State College and now live in San Francisco. Talking to people back home, there seems to be a major disconnect between how people view the scandal around that area and how those outside of that sphere of influence view it. Part of that clear disconnect is why PSU has looked so bad in all of this to outsiders; there seems to be a sort of an alternative view of reality there. I can’t begin to tell you how bad the scandal and subsequent happenings made PSU, and even the entire state, look to outsiders, but no one can predict the future in how all of this will play out.</p>