Advice for colleges in Pennsylvania

[mandi98]

Hey everyone,
I'm a going to be a senior in high school this year, so I need to start looking for good colleges in my state(which is PA of course). I hope to go to a in-state college for 4 years then apply to University Virginia-Maryland.

But i am not great at this whole pick a college that's right for you thing so I need some advice of good colleges that you went to in PA that could also be good for me. There's 2 big things i'm looking for: lower tuition and cost fees, and a smaller sized school. I think I will do so much better with classes of 20 students or smaller, or at least enough teacher assistants for the class.

So just say some things about your PA college to help me out, and maybe a few tips to help me get through college searching/applying because I have no idea really of what I'm doing. Thanks!

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[Gwenevre]

If your ultimate goal is vet school, then my advice would be to look at community colleges for the first two years. Keep your undergrad costs as low low low as possible. You will thank yourself if/when you get into vet school and take on 150k+ in loans.

 

[Caiter92]

Second the CC route the first two years if you want super small class sizes. Intro series classes at my university had 200-700 students depending on the class. I think at most non provite universities you're going to have larger class sizes the first few years as well, even with a small campus than mine was.

Does your high school have some sort of Running Start program/ program where you can attend CC Full time as a high school student and they pay the tuition? Is so and it isn't too late to enroll, that might be an option for your senior year. You can get one of your two years at a CC paid for by the state and save even more money.

 

[deleted676737]

If your ultimate goal is vet school, then my advice would be to look at community colleges for the first two years. Keep your undergrad costs as low low low as possible. You will thank yourself if/when you get into vet school and take on 150k+ in loans.

This. I didn't go to school in Pennsylvania, but I definitely wholeheartedly agree with this advice. Take it from someone who is going into her fifth year of undergrad (was aiming for a different career for the first year and a half) and will be finishing right around $45,000 in debt before vet school... it is terrifying to know that I've already dug myself a hole that, if I were to go to vet school, will only get deeper and deeper. I loved my undergrad and I loved the experience of campus life, but I do wish that 18-year-old me would have been a bit more aware of how taking out these loans were going to affect me down the road.

I would see about doing the community college thing for at least the first two years or so of pre-reqs. It will be significantly cheaper that way, especially if you will be mostly/completely financing your schooling on your own.

 

[bovinelvr84]

I recommend the 2+2 Penn State program where you start at a branch campus and then go to main campus.
They have a lot of good animal/vet science stuff on main campus. And there are MANY scholarship opportunities. And you can obtain research experience.
(I am a little biased as I am a PSU grad.)
There are other good schools in PA as well but I feel Penn State has a lot more to offer in terms of animal/vet science opportunities.
Good luck on your choice!

 

[bovinelvr84]

And doing CC courses for the first 2 years could save you even more money

 

[mandi98]

Second the CC route the first two years if you want super small class sizes. Intro series classes at my university had 200-700 students depending on the class. I think at most non provite universities you're going to have larger class sizes the first few years as well, even with a small campus than mine was.

Does your high school have some sort of Running Start program/ program where you can attend CC Full time as a high school student and they pay the tuition? Is so and it isn't too late to enroll, that might be an option for your senior year. You can get one of your two years at a CC paid for by the state and save even more money.

My school doesn't have any of that. I am taking AP classes to try to get some credits for college though.

 

[shortnsweet]

I did go to school in PA, but unless you enroll in an honors program or something similar at a state school, i'm not sure staying in state will get you lower tuition/smaller class sizes unless you do that. PA has a ton of wonderful liberal arts schools which was perfect for me, but because they are private, I paid for the smaller class sizes.

Also, why VA-MD and not Penn which is your in-state?

 

[mandi98]

Thanks everyone for the advice. My only thing is that if I need to do scholarships and financial aid Im willing to do that for college. AND i forgot to mention that I'm not thinking about CC because I don't want to live at home, its already hard to get high school hw done in my house.

Can someone tell me a little about Penn state some more or Allegheny College? Those were two I was looking at, it seems like they have a lot to offer and have smaller class sizes.

 

[Gwenevre]

Thanks everyone for the advice. My only thing is that if I need to do scholarships and financial aid Im willing to do that for college. AND i forgot to mention that I'm not thinking about CC because I don't want to live at home, its already hard to get high school hw done in my house.

Can someone tell me a little about Penn state some more or Allegheny College? Those were two I was looking at, it seems like they have a lot to offer and have smaller class sizes.

My roommate went to a CC and just took out money to pay for her own apartment, because living at home wasn't a viable option. Tuition at a CC will be cheaper than a state school, and you can negotiate loan amounts to help pay for an apartment.

 

[mandi98]

I did go to school in PA, but unless you enroll in an honors program or something similar at a state school, i'm not sure staying in state will get you lower tuition/smaller class sizes unless you do that. PA has a ton of wonderful liberal arts schools which was perfect for me, but because they are private, I paid for the smaller class sizes.

Also, why VA-MD and not Penn which is your in-state?

Well I went to a National College fair last year and VA-MD seemed great for me. Everyone who went to VA-MD for a veterinary program said its a great school and very affordable and small class size. I am also close to relatives that live in MD so its a nice location .

 

[mandi98]

But my big thing is with CC the classes that you have to take in the beginning of your college year will be a huge class size, that's why I was looking at other smaller colleges. Isn't Penn State a big class sized school?

 

[Caiter92]

I just wanted to say that if you're basing the idea that Penn State will have smaller class sizes on some statistic the university gave in some pamphlet ("an average class size of X"), that is probably heavily skewed. I went to a university of a similar size to Penn State, and I think in the info packets on my tour before I applied it said something like "an average class size of 30." That was including all classes, across all majors and programs, and including the graduate level classes. In reality, the smallest class I had in my science classes my first two years (not including lab sections) was 200 for Physics. Intro biology had 700 the first quarter and around 500 for the next two quarters. My non science classes tended to be a lot smaller, only one had over 100, most were closer to 50.

They could definitely do things differently at Penn state, we only had one or two sections of lecture offered for intro courses so they had to be big, but I think you should be prepared for your first two years of classes to be fairly large at any public university. After I was in the upper level electives for my major, my classes were much smaller. Right around 50.

 

[Caiter92]

But my big thing is with CC the classes that you have to take in the beginning of your college year will be a huge class size, that's why I was looking at other smaller colleges. Isn't Penn State a big class sized school?

CC classes will be far smaller than at a university. I took general chemistry at the CC my final year of high school. They offered two or three sections of lecture each quarter (though only offered each course once a year, so that was how they were able to), and the courses were capped at 30. At my university, my friends had 300-500 people in there lecture for genchem each quarter because only one section was offered a term.

 

[bovinelvr84]

Allegheny College can be very expensive from my take and I lived in the county it was in. Nice school though.

Penn State branch campuses will have smaller class sizes. If you do two years there you will get that. After two years of being at a branch campus, you would transfer to the main campus. Yes the gen ed classes there are large- HOWEVER your animal/vet classes are not very large. I knew almost everyone in my classes.

I graduated high school with a class of ~150 people and went straight into main campus. It was a transition but I do not feel that my education is lacking. If you need help in a large class, you can get help from groups or the professor individually. I did not feel like a number there.

 

[mandi98]

So another similar question I have is do I take pre vet degree or a biology degree?

 

[Gwenevre]

Take whatever degree you want. You will have to make sure that you complete the pre-requisite classes for the schools you want to apply to. But you can get an arts degree and take the vet classes on the side.
Also make sure that whatever degree you pursue, that you'll be happy in a career, and can get a career using it, if you don't get into vet school.

 

[bovinelvr84]

Exactly what Gwenevre said. I personally liked the Pre-Vet track but make sure you get all your pre-reqs. Vet schools pre-reqs are ever changing. Even between last year and this year so I am sure there will be modifications down the road. Just stay aware of that and don't limit yourself.

 

[mandi98]

Thanks for the advice.

 

[PennObie20]

If you're looking for a smaller school, Allegheny would be a good choice. You can also get some good money there in scholarships. I was accepted there as a presidential/trustee scholar and it was very tempting.....it's a good school and the campus is very nice too.

 

[WildZoo]

I'm partial to Pitt but it's not exactly small. Perhaps the satellite campuses are though.

 

[orca2011]

My two cents is to take into consideration financial aid you might receive as well if you're trying to keep costs low (although everyone's advice of considering CC's is excellent too). I applied to both PSU and Pitt and only got like $1500 in a scholarship from PSU's Ag school and nothing from Pitt, which is to be expected since they're state schools and have so many students. I ended up finding it cheaper to go to a more expensive , private school OOS because they gave me enough grant money to cover a lot of my expenses, as well as a work study position. My parents likely have some debt in my name from the school, but I personally only walked away with like $30-35000ish (i might even be estimating high...and i'm too lazy to confirm right now) from a school that started at $45+k/year and increased a crap ton each year.

I could have gone to PSU Berks since it's like 10 minutes from my house, but I quite honestly wanted to get the hell out of my town and didn't want to live at home. I did end up doing a summer class there and enjoyed it and you definitely will have smaller class sizes.

Also, from dealing with my sister's college, which was larger, my mom and I have both found it a lot easier dealing with administrative type things at my undergrad. This can be kind of nice if you need to get things done quickly in emergency situations. My school's financial aid department went above and beyond in helping me get the documents I needed when I was given a hard time trying to get my UK Visa for studying abroad.

 

[Filly Bay]

I had a similar experience to orca2011. As a PA resident, I applied to several public schools in PA including Penn State but it ended up being way cheaper to go to any of the private schools. Penn State gave me almost no financial aid while all the private schools offered great scholarships/grants ect. I ended up choosing a small private school in Ohio and graduated almost debt free thanks to their scholarships, grants, and being an RA for 3 years (covers room & board). I also applied to many outside scholarships to cover the amount that my school didn't cover. It's very doable.