I was recently accepted into Smeal College of Business at Penn State University Park, and was accepted to Barrett Honors College at Arizona State in the W.P. Carey School in December. I know both are great business programs, but the locations are drastically different. I visited Barrett in November when I wasn’t accepted yet, and liked the whole feel of the campus and the students raved about the program. I am visiting Penn State for an admitted student visit in a couple weeks, but I wanted to get a feel for which program might be better for me in advance.
Things I worry about:
-Internship opportunities: Is Penn state in too small an area? Does it’s proximity to NYC matter? Is Tempe/Phoenix still comparable?
-Reputation of the school: I know ASU is ranked significantly lower than Penn State, but does Barrett make up for that ranking? (Since it’s the number 1 honors college in the nation)
-Program difficulty/Quality of program: Do they make you take unnecessary/too many classes for your major? Or do they make classes unnecessarily difficult? Is one program definitely better than another?
-Support: I got the feeling that Barrett has a very welcoming atmosphere and a lot of helpful advisors/teachers. Is Penn State the same? In either college, would I be able to switch majors and possibly to arts and sciences easily?
-Student life: Is there stuff to do in/around campus? (especially worried about University Park’s city size) Are there enough organizations for any interest?
Things that don’t matter to me:
-Weather
-Size of Campus
-Number of Students
-Cost
Any help pertaining to either school/program would be greatly appreciated!!
Did you apply to Schreyer?
Barrett beats regular Penn state I’d think, but Smeal beats Carey. All in all because being in the honors college gives you so many advantages I’d still pick Barrett. If you throw Schreyer into the mix it changes the equation though. And since you’re part of the few students admitted to Smeal, apply to the Sapphire program, a sort of business honors program separate from Schreyer.
As for fun, the best time to live in a college town is when you’re in college, right? As far as I know, students have too much to do at Penn State, whether on or off campus.
Smeal is the most selective college at Penn State, about 10-11%, but there are no direct admits. You must prove yourself just like everyone else. If you fail to get a 3.2 GPA (3.5 for finance) you can’t proceed to Smeal. However you can double major with another college (or minor) very easily, you declare once you get into Smeal (not before), or add a minor to your Smeal major.
University park…“city size”. Hahaha. I live here and there isn’t an ounce of a city in sight. However, anytime you put 50K young people in one small area, it comes to life. We are one enormous community and there’s no city to get in the way. I’ve lived in many major cities and appreciate the town we live in. Between BJC, sports, theatre, restaurants/shops up and down the main strip, life’s great. Downside: snow, travel delays in/out of airport, pitiful shopping mall. Now academically, it may be different. Smeal is a tough business school and those weed out courses can be brutal. You will spend a lot of time studying in hopes of getting a high enough GPA to declare your major. Carey won’t be quite as difficult. With Penn State, you have the alumni network, which helps with internships and job placements. Because PSU’s program is so rigorous, hiring managers come looking for our graduates. Good luck with your decision. I’m sure you’ll be happy wherever you end up.
I didn’t apply to Schreyer only because I decided to apply to Penn pretty close to the deadline and didn’t have enough time to properly finish the Schreyer app. I did think about applying if I chose to go to Penn, but now that I know about the business honors program, I’ll look into that. In regards to the minimum GPA, do you know how long I have to get a 3.2? Until the end of sophomore year? @MYOS1634
Basically you have to get a 3.2 in all the business core classes (that means being in the top 30-40% of every class, roughly) as well as getting a 3.2 overall (can’t blow off gen eds - business students must be well-rounded). You can’t really get derailed at any point. You should have that by the end of your 4th semester, typically.
You can’t apply to Schreyer anymore but Sapphire is only open once you’ve been admitted to Penn State AND Smeal. (Keep in mind only about 10-12% applicants get Smeal straight from high school as per admits, which is NOT a direct admit ie., beside Sapphire and a business adviser you have no advantage over DUS and you have to get the same grades and take the same classes.)
(Note that “Penn” is the University of Pennsylvania and “Penn State” is Pennsylvania State University – Penn people get annoyed to be associated with Penn State, and Penn Staters have too much school pride to be associated with any other school. :D)