Help settle this debate

[Anonymous]

We have twins that will be entering college next year. Both got into villanova university and penn state. I have my own opinions on which school they SHOULD attend, but I want them to make their own decisions. DS will be majoring in accounting and DD will be majoring in finance. What do you think the better choice is?

[Anonymous]

The one they think they will be most happy with and the one they/you can afford with little to no debt. Both are very good schools! I would probably pick Penn State for both financial and other reasons.

[Anonymous]

Nova no doubt. #7 business school in the nation.

[Anonymous]

Have they gone to visit? What do they think?

They seem like very different schools to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The one they think they will be most happy with and the one they/you can afford with little to no debt. Both are very good schools! I would probably pick Penn State for both financial and other reasons.

This.

I decided to go to GW and racked up a whole lotta debt because I just knew I was going to be pre-med. I ended up majoring in Social Sciences and am still paying off student loans 20 years later!

[Anonymous]

Penn state. No question.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends a lot on their personalities and where they will thrive as part of the community. No matter how good the academics are, they will not succeed (educational and emotional growth) if they feel under/overwhelmed, if they want suburban/isolated, big/small, etc. Does Villanova have a Greek system and how big a role does it play at each school? Do your kids want that? Also, are they committed to choosing the same school? They should consider individual preferences, too.

That said, PSU is supposed to have the best alumni networking/career recruiting around. Unrelated, I visited Villanova as a high school senior in the early 90's. Campus reputation (I learned on the tour) was Villa no beer, Villa no sex, Villa no fun. I have no idea if any of these things are true because I ended up not going to Nova or PSU.

[Anonymous]

Villanova 100000000%

[Anonymous]

penn state. way larger and stronger alumni network. cheaper. gets better recruiting for a wider range of jobs companies.

and the fact they want to major in acctng and finance...smeal UG business school gets strong recruiting by all the big 4 accounting firms and decent banks.

If your DD wants to major in finance with a view to work on wallstreet, it certainly can be done from PSU but she will have to network her ass off from day 1.

But that would be the same from nova to be honest.

If your twins cannot function at a ultra-large school however, don't send them to psu.

[Anonymous]

PP here, if your DD wants to do finance but isn't hellbent on wallstreet/investment banking/trading/equity research....i.e. she would like a corp. finance position, then PSU is really strong in that.

PSU is probably J&J's number 1 target school for a wide range of corp finance and general positions for their jersey hq. PSU gets all the defense companies from around here coming up to fill corp finance and engineering positions. Corp finance placement is quite strong.

Besides size of school, I don't see a great value added by nova

[Anonymous]

I worked on Wall St for years, and there is actually a large penn st contingent at the big banks.

[Anonymous]

DCUM is not exactly the place to settle a debate - though I'm sure even that will be disputed.

[Anonymous]

I'd let them choose and would privately cry if the choice is Penn State.

[Anonymous]

Villanova!

[Anonymous]

PSU but that's just my anti private school bias. If they're interested in going to school in Pennsylvania, I think (but wouldn't swear) that Pitt has a pretty good program for business/accounting.