College kid coming to PA

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by angsw8

Hi everyone! Well I'm only 18 years old, currently live in Florida, and I'm researching cities up in PA that I might be interested in moving to. I have many options for college in PA like Temple, Penn State, and the University of PA, but I have no clue what the cities are like or if I would enjoy being there. So I was wondering if someone could help me recommend some good cities to live in.

Here's some information about myself to help narrow the recommendations down:
I'm still very young and do want there to be some night life and fun things to do after dark!
I don't want to be in an extremely small rural town, I'd at least like to be close to a major city.
I'm expecting to major in political science or history, so any city that has career opporunities relating to either of the two would be great.
I would love to live in a diverse neighborhood and would like to stay to the eastern region of the state.

Thanks for any help!

Back to the OP please. You'll note that he does not mention Phoenix

[Davros]

Penn State is a good school, but it is not near any major city.

As mentioned, Penn is very hard to get into, but if you can get in there and can afford the tuition, go for it. Temple I don't know much about, but I know it's in a rough part of town.

There are a number of schools in the Pittsburgh area that you should add to your list of schools to check out.

I know this isn't PA, but heck --- you're in Fla so this isn't much of a stretch. I would seriously consider The Ohio State University and Georgetown University (D.C.).

[TelecasterBlues]

...I really, really, really have to echo the thought on going to Penn if you're able to afford it. If you have scholarships or someone paying your way, then by all means go for it and don't look back. Otherwise, you need to consider what type of financial state you'll be putting yourself in upon finishing college if you rack up crazy high loan debt from attending a school like that.

As far as where to go...well any school around Philly would be great. The campus area will be safe and just that...a college campus. You technically wouldn't have to venture out if you weren't comfortable doing so, but Philly has a ton to offer. It's also the most dangerous city in PA and you REALLY need to know where you are and what you are doing, but you can't go wrong with Philly as long as you're smart about it and have city experience. Dunno if I'd suggest it to somebody whoo's not familiar with cities and city life though. Penn State is also a really great university in a really nice setting. It's isolated and more or less just a college town...but it's 100% safe, revolves around PSU entirely, has everything you could want to do as a student anyway in terms of nightlife and things to do, and the actual town of State College is a beautiful place. Don't sell PSU short for being a college town type of school, it still has TONS for you to get into during your free time and would be the most navigable. As for the perfect compromise...Pitt. Pitt is located in a college community on the outskirts of Pittsburgh called Oakland. It's not as nice as State College by any means, however Oakland is more or less a slightly more urban take on your typical college town. You have Pitt and all there is to do in Oakland...which revolves around Pitt and college culture...and then just barely down the road you have all of Pittsburgh to check out and whatnot whenever you get bored. Pittsburgh itself is the most scenic city in PA, much safer than Philly, and still has a lot to do. It's a bit more countrified than Philly if that makes any sense and an easy city to break into if you've never experienced city life before.....Pittsburgh feels more like a really, really big collection of towns with a central skyline where Philly is a concrete jungal.

Here's a photo set showing Pittsburgh, the first photo gives you a panoramic of Oakland to give you an idea of what I'm trying to convey to you. The tallest building is the Cathedral of Learning, everything around it is the campus itself. The second to the last picture in the set and a few above it shows what Oakland looks like from ground level, the Cathedral of Learning is in the background. You're be getting a college town and a city with Pitt, it would also be more affordable than Philly: Recession 09: Pittsburgh - SkyscraperPage Forum

I'd honestly schedule a trip....check out Temple/Penn and Philly, head west towards State College to check out Penn State, and then head over to Pittsburgh to see Pitt. You're more or less just taking the turnpike accross the state and it'd be easy travel.

[Davros]

Originally Posted by TelecasterBlues

I'd honestly schedule a trip....check out Temple/Penn and Philly, head west towards State College to check out Penn State, and then head over to Pittsburgh to see Pitt. You're more or less just taking the turnpike accross the state and it'd be easy travel.

Stop by Georgetown on the way to Philly, and head on over to Ohio State after Pittsburgh. Seriously, those are great political science schools and are in good city environments (nation's capital and Ohio state capital).