US News ranks Penn State at #60 and acceptance rate as 55%. From that you get the sense that Penn State is a top college.
Forbes ranks it at #408 out of 500 colleges. That gives you the sense that Penn State is a bottom college.
WSJ Rank for Penn State =259 for Salary Impact
And Penn State is complete missing in New York Times.
College Score Card says acceptance rate is 92%, not 55% and so does Money magazine.
So why this wide discrepancy?
I suggest you ignore the rankings. Penn State is a fine college. If you really do care, then you need to delve into the details of the methodology used for each ranking and consider if the criteria used is meaningful to you.
I’m guessing the differing acceptance rate is based on different accounting for the branch campuses. But that’s just a guess.
I live near Penn State. Great school. Very hard to get in there, especially for certain majors like business or engineering. But people who don’t get in are usually offered a spot at a branch campus. Some of which are really good colleges on their own. Lots of kids stay 4 years, especially at Behrend and Altoona. Even for engineering. I think Behrend is ranked nationally.
But I bet 92 versus 55 reflects “accepted into the system” versus “accepted at main campus.”
^ that’s my understanding as well.
If you have a 3-3.5GPA you are likely admitted to Penn State but to a branch campus (there’s a dozen). 3.5-4.00 you have a shot at Main campus or University Park but odds vary wisely depending on how rigorous your HS curriculum was (4 years in all 5 core subjects expected, with as many honors+AP as possible) and what major&college you apply for - in part because there are over a hundred majors yet students congregate into the same majors. A future health professional would be better off in BBH but many never bother checking the offerings and just apply for Biology alongside students who want to be vets yet didn’t loik for the existence of an actual prevet major. As a result, less competitive majors have high acceptance rates (which doesn’t mean they’re easy) whereas Business and Nursing stand at sub 10%…
Many publications also take into account COA after FA for instate students and Penn State fares very very poorly there, among the worst in the nation, being both very expensive instate and offering very little FA or merit aid, with PA being especially stingy with state grants.
Note that USN ranks Penn State within a particular category. For this reason, PSU’s ranking placement in USN cannot be compared directly to that from sources that rank colleges and universities together.
After looking into this more, I think this is the best explanation. Penn State campuses are very different from other university campuses. For example, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz share the “UC” name and have a common application, but everything else is different. Admissions are handled separately, and it is no easier to transfer between UCs than it is to transfer between a non-UC and a UC. In the case of Penn State, campuses, admissions are handled centrally, and the “2+2 Plan” allows students to start at a branch campus and finish at the main campus.
From point of view ranking and acceptance stats this makes it confusing because some sites report 55% acceptance for Penn State (this is for University Park campus) and others report 92% (this must be including all campuses). Some sites report Penn State as a top university (presumably this is the University Park campus), and others rate it much lower (presumably including all campuses).
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