Indiana Bloomington vs Penn State UP

fallenchemist
Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:11:08 +0000

chi777 - You are right that it is easy to get sucked into the rankings games, but really just ignore them! They mean nothing for the individual student where there are a million variables at play. It is just a silly game that too many people have gotten sucked into. For these two schools in particular, there is not a huge difference in nearly any aspect.

As far as high school friends being at the same school, goodness! These are huge student bodies. You could easily go all four years and never run into someone from your high school. And even if you do, so what? The odds of having the same classes or even being in the same section of a dorm are very small, and thus you won’t interact with them that much anyway. If they join the same sorority or are in the same club, then OK they will see them but they will also be making tons of new friends. This factor should be completely ignored.

The real factors should be money and/or any intangible that makes one school preferable. Newer dorms? Distance from home? Looks better in red/blue? Because academically she won’t notice a difference at the undergraduate level.