I think if you go back far enough but still well within living memory, that was a fairly common sentiment, that Penn State was the “flagship” public and Pitt was not. I have sometimes analogized the attitudes in that era to Michigan and Michigan State (for those who know those schools–I grew up in Michigan although now have lived far longer in PA).
And old attitudes sometimes last, so I have no doubt at least some PA residents (not least but not only Penn State grads) may still think that way.
However, I do think at least in some circles, it is now more like a co-equal situation, with some people then preferring Pitt for reasons we are discussing. I think a lot of things have contributed to that.
One of the simplest is just that urban crime rates had been going up and peaked in the early 1990s, but then started going back down rapidly. So circa 1990, it was much more often a negative than a positive for a college to have an urban location. But in recent years, urban crime rates are much lower, many neighborhoods near universities have gentrified, and a lot more kids either want an urban location, or at least are indifferent. Of course the traditional college town experience also still has appeal to many kids, so now it is more a matter of personal preference than one dominating the other.
The rise of life sciences in terms of prominence was also very good for Pitt’s general standing. Thanks to the hospitals and in fact being in what is the de facto capital city of Northern Appalachia, Pitt has had great success building out relevant departments, and those have become at least one of the things certain kids are really looking for, either for pre-health or research paths or industry paths or so on.
Finally, as a sort of intertwined side note, I think Pitt’s relative gains in perceived desirability have been particularly concentrated among potential out of state applicants. Not that no one in state sees the increased appeal, but out of state students are least likely to have any lingering sentiments. And then I think Pitt’s relative strengths are perhaps a little more unusual (not unique, but unusual) when you are looking across the OOS market–like only so many quality research universities which are selective but not too selective actually have desirable urban locations. That sort of thing.
And then without much friction from older sentiments, that can build on itself. So Pitt, at least I believe, has started getting more positive attention in some OOS circles, and that contributes positively to word of mouth affects and peer dynamics and so on. And that attract even more positive attention, so it is somewhat self-reinforcing.
In terms of numbers, I think it was similarly true for a long time that Pitt had significantly higher acceptance rates, but not so much anymore. Like in the 2023-24 CDS, Pitt had a total acceptance rate of 49.7%, and Penn State (this is main campus in each case) was 54.2%. That is not really meaningful on its own, but WalletHub does a ranking where they also factor in reported test scores and class rank, and Pitt is #106 in that measure, Penn State #163. Obviously all this depends on details, and without proof I do suspect part of the numbers thing is an OOS affect, but I do think if anything Pitt is the mildly harder admit these days.
Anyway, that’s my two cents. I think kids should feel free at this point to choose either for their own reasons, because I am pretty confident few if any people of relevance in the future will assume that choice was forced on you, as opposed to just something that of course could rationally go either way.
She’s not one to be swayed by this type of thinking, but it’s curious to me or maybe a by product of the PSU alumni network and legacy children etc. It did appear across her hs academic group, less of the group earned fall UP Admission and considerably more kids were admitted at Pitt so perhaps that is factoring into the kids’ thinking that PSU is more elite. Or it’s a football thing! Regardless, D25 seems set on Pitt because it makes sense for her but I wondered if other PA residents noticed similar thinking/sentiment between these schools in their circles or their students’ circles.