Does anyone have experience with this school ? Admissions, is this predominantly a residential school. Not looking for a commuter experience. Jobs post graduation ? Thank you!
I entered my question under the Penn State forum because I thought it has some association with Penn State University.
Pennsylvania College of Technology is affiliated with Penn State, but you graduate with a PCT degree, not a Penn State degree. Very different. PCT is an open admission school. If you graduate high school, you can get in. But PCT has very good job placement rates in many of it’s majors and really well respected trade programs and now they also have many 4 year degrees. PCT is more hands on than a typical college. I looked into it for my son last year, but he decided to go to a PSU commonwealth campus instead so he is going to Altoona next year.
I am not sure about whether it is a suitcase school. I do know they have dorms there. I would look at sites like college niche and other student reviewed sites to see what campus life is like. But it is a very well reputed school for what it does.
@jlhpsu Thank you very much for your prompt response. It is very helpful and yes, we know a degree from PCT is not coming from PSU. I guess I was a little surprised that there was no PCT forum on CC. That was pretty much why I placed it under PSU. It is good to know it has a good reputation and thank you for the terminology - suitcase school. One of the biggest challenges is a lot of technology / IT schools are suitcase schools. There are a lot of universities that have IT degrees and trying to find a match in where he would gain admission is a challenge. i.e. Drexel is not in the cards due to his academic record or the cost.
I am also going to check out college niche.
Have you thought of the commonwealth campuses at PSU? He can start at a ‘branch’ campus and those with dorms are not suitcase schools - and then go to UP campus after 2 years. Admission to the branch campuses is much easier than UP campus. My son has average grades and average test scores (like, real average - not CC average because most people here are very high achievers so you will see someone say they are ‘average’ and they have a 3.7). He is going to PSU Altoona in the fall. He can start at a smaller campus, get lots of attention in smaller classes and then in a couple of years with some extra maturity under his belt, he can go to UP to finish his degree. You can definitely start in IT at a branch campus and then seamlessly go to the UP main campus after 2 years.
Yes exactly my experience on CC. Even the average students are working to cure cancer on Sunday afternoons.
It is very jaded thinking and most of the US are average (and I do mean C to B) students. The idea of a branch campus was enticing but learning that it is 2 years before one can move to a main campus is disheartening. I realize a lot of people these days do not do the 4 year plan that was once popular, but spending 2 / 4 or 4 1/2 years at a branch campus is a lot. My son is looking for what was once considered a ‘traditional’ college experience - sports, campus life, clubs and possibly Greek life. So I was weighing the difference between going to PCT and transferring as a sophomore to a main campus school of choice (i.e. Temple) vs. gaining admission to a branch campus and then waiting 2 years to transfer to main campus of that school.
Well I can’t speak to all other branch campuses for other schools, but many PSU branch campuses have all that you describe. My son, as I said, is going to PSU Altoona next fall. They have tons of clubs, intermural sports, NCAA sports DIII, 4 dorms on campus, 5000 students. It is a traditional college experience and many students stay all 4 years there and graduate from the Altoona campus. I think they may surprise you. PSU Altoona was just as much of a traditional campus as any we looked at. It’s also only 40 minutes from the main campus and students go to the giant PSU football games and participate in many of the main campus events as well. But there is plenty to keep you busy on the Altoona campus as well. My son already has 3 or 4 clubs in mind to join.
That being said, I also don’t know how the other “main campuses” do things, but PSU main campus you either start as a freshman or you can’t transfer in from another school until Junior year. There is no sophomore transferring. This is because they have the branch campus option. By the time that the kids at Altoona are going to the main campus, most of their whole class is going as well - so your friends go with you.
I will say you should think about the transferring option carefully because by sophomore year, many kids have made friends and leaving those friends may be hard for your son. Similarly, by sophomore year at the school he would transfer to, many are already in their niche’s there. Of course, with a big school that won’t matter as much. The other issue to consider is the transferability of the classes he would take. You need to make sure that the school he’d want to transfer to will take all of the classes so that he isn’t wasting time and money.
Good luck! I know from experience that finding a place for a typical student can be challenging. I have one that went to PSU main campus freshman year and one that will start at Altoona - and my husband and I both graduated from PSU. So if you have any PSU questions, feel free to ask!
Thank you for the details on PSU Altoona. I does make sense that a lot of very, very large schools have branch campuses that are actually the size of other colleges’ main campuses. I am familiar with PSU, having grown up in the shadow of it but while a lot of my friends 30 years ago when there and some of my extended family did too, it is such a large school that I am wondering if even being on the Altoona campus would be a challenge since the entire, overall PSU experience is so enormous. We know that our son would really do a lot better at a smaller school, but investigating branch campuses of largers schools would probably be a good idea. Thanks again - your response was really insightful.
Sorry for a couple of the typos-
@jlhpsu : for a strong, hard working student whose test scores aren’t good enough for main campus/stem&tech, would you recommend Penn college of technology, Altoona, Erie, or Harrisburg? Any preference /rankings? What if you take into account college life and experience (dorms, clubs, sports and arts facilities, on campus events such as films and speakers, residential life/living learning communities or wellness floor, percentage of commuter/suitcase students …)?
@MYOS1634 For my preference, I would choose one of the commonwealth campuses of PSU, if only because the reputation and opportunities at the University level are much higher than at PCT in my opinion. PCT is also very heavily weighted towards males vs. females. 64% male and that’s because they have so many trade majors there and those tend to be more populated by males. The vast majority of students there come from that part of the state. So the chance for it to be a suitcase school is higher.
The PSU commonwealth campuses offer the same things UP does - just on a smaller scale. PSU Altoona is my favorite of the commonwealths because of it’s proximity to UP campus. It is so close that the Altoona students can easily get to UP campus for activities, events, football games, speakers, etc…
@MYOS1634 When my son was applying to Penn State we were working with a respected independent college counselor in our area (Philadelphia suburbs) at the time. He told us if my son did not get into University Park to definitely choose Altoona as an alternative. He basically told us that’s where you want to be if your child can not get into main campus. Not sure what his reasoning was and we never visited Altoona, but he always spoke very highly of it. It was listed as my son’s second choice.
Thanks! I hope it’s helpful to @dspflyer Too 
@jlhpsu @myos1634 and @japsmom - Yes this is all very helpful and it is really putting branch campus of a large school vs PCT into perspective. Neither my son nor I are thrilled with the idea of PCT for all the known reasons - too likely a suitcase school for one. I think Altoona is on the radar now. That is also very helpful to know the advice of the independent college counselor. While we are not prestige-hungry parents, we do know that having some kind of name associated with your college degree does mean something. My son does not even realize that PCT is open to anyone with a HS diploma. He may be a C+ - B- student, but he has pride and I know he would be so down on himself if he knew that PCT was his safety school. I am sure that people can have wonderful futures with a degree from there but it is truly our very last resort and I am searching all avenues to not go that route.
So do you have any other knowledge of branch campuses like PSU- Altoona? Anything in NJ, NY, MD that would provide an on-campus, full college experience like PSU-Altoona ? Temple is a top choice for my son but there are
no branch campuses like PSU-Altoona (vibrant, residential, etc).
@dspflyer I do not know of others unfortunately. I am sure there are some around. I know the SUNY schools in NY are similar although there is no “main campus” per say.
To make you feel better - my son had a 2.7 GPA and 20 ACT and got into PSU Altoona no problem. I know someone with as low as a 2.2 GPA who got into a PSU branch. The idea is to give them 2 solid years of experience before going to UP campus. If they can’t hack it at the branch campus, then they likely won’t get the grades to transfer to Main campus anyway (which is only a 2.0 by the way, although different majors have different GPA requirements to get into the major). Lots of kids just need a little more time to mature.
@jlhpsu I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to read all of your updates - especially this last one. I researched PSU Altoona last night and went to bed with more satisfaction than I’ve had in years. My son is very similar to yours - GPA and I suspect ACT-wise. He is taking the ACT this Saturday for the first time. His practice test came back with a 25 but we are holding our breath that he can get to a 25 on the real test. I know he can take it multiple times fortunately. His GPA by the time he graduates next year will most likely be a 3.0 at most. He was a 3.0 in 9th grade and a 2.99 in 10th grade. As expected, 11th grade year is the hardest so he is doing all he can to try to get up to a 3.0
Let’s be honest, there is something to it when you put a school name on your resume and there is something to the sense of pride you feel when you (I pray) graduate with a degree. To have PSU on a diploma - whether it is Altoona or ultimately transferring to main campus holds more weight than a degree from PCT. It just does. It has taken us a while to truly realize that PCT is really a college-version of a vocational high school. While there is nothing wrong with a Vo Tech education, when you have a kid who is so thirsty for a “traditional” college experience and has always wanted to go to a school with some kind of recognition, PSU Altoona is going to be his new safety school.
I know I should not be surprised at all, but our HS like so many other competitive ones is really interested in the AP students. The college counselor never once mentioned PSU Altoona. She along with some of his teachers only pointed us to PCT. I think that whole faculty is useless, unless your kids is brilliant, goes to a prestigious college that will bring recognition to the HS.
@dspflyer My son attends PSU main campus but he has quite a few friends who attend Altoona. His friends are up for every football game and they attend quite a few parties with my son. My son’s friends are all doing the 2 + 2 program. When/if your son moves to University Park he would already know a lot of people.
@dspflyer Ugh…I hate counselors at schools like that…They must be on CC too much! There are PLENTY of places for B and C students. Our kids are not relegated to tech schools and community colleges IF that’s not what they want. If that is what they want - then that is awesome and there are places for those kids too. My son wanted a traditional school. He didn’t want a community college. My son had the opposite experience as yours…he did not do well freshman year, a little better sophomore year, and then when he realized that he did want to go to college, he got a 3.5 his junior year, which was also the hardest year. Now, senior year he is also over a 3.0. But those first two years hurt him. They did not mean, however, that he couldn’t go to college. He applied to IUP (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) and Kent State (in Ohio) and got into both as well as PSU Altoona. He ultimately chose Altoona because of it’s proximity to UP campus and his sister is at UP campus. She got in freshman year. Totally different kid. But both equally capable of college work.
You could also look into the PA state schools…we call them the PASSHE schools. Penn State, despite it’s name, is not a state school. It only gets a very small amount of funding from the state. Some of the state schools, such as West Chester, Bloomsburg, Lockhaven, IUP…all have good reputations. Some others have more financial problems so I’d investigate others carefully. But they give a good education at an affordable price as well. We ended up not choosing them because of the name recognition with PSU. Honestly, my husband and I are both alumni and the alumni network at PSU is one of the largest in the country with over 600,000 living alumni. That helps when you want to move out of state looking for a job, etc…
Good luck!
^ of the passhe schools, I’d say West Chester , Bloomsburg, perhaps Slippery Rock are okay. IUP has a good honors program but is going downhill fast in many ways, and the others have a lot of financial and recruiting trouble.
Suny’s for a 2.7-3.0/23-24 act: I’d say new paltz is a medium reach, Cortland , Oswego, and Oneonta are matches, Buffalo State, Canton, and Plattsburg is a safety. With Eop, add Geneseo and Buffalo for non stem majors.
In PA, Lycoming, Lebanon Valley, Elizabethtown, Moravian, Albright, Washington and Jefferson are all matches, and Susquehanna or Juniata possible reaches.