The poster is bashing great schools out of jealousy. Any kid getting a scholarship to a top 50 school has much to be proud of. For that matter, any school. Saying that if you don't go to an Ivy or a ND you are wasting your time has got to be the most ignorant comment yet. There are many factors that go into a college choice. Even as an eighth grader, you and your kid have an idea of their strengths and weaknesses. A Penn State, Maryland, Ohio State are all great choices for an early commit who has decent grades, but maybe not high honors material. Some kids love the big sports school atmosphere, and don't want to be too far from home as well. They have the best chance to find a major that suits them and not be overwhelmed with academics that are tough to handle given the D1 practice requirements. If schools like PSU are a waste, I'd hate to hear what the poster says about the boys going to Stonybrook, Hoftstra, Delaware, UMass, Denver, those kids are doomed for failure! Total garbage, poster should be ashamed of himself!
Penn St. isn't a waste - a scholarship is a scholarship. That being said, nobody with any shred of intelligence will say Penn St. is a better academic school then the likes of many Ivy's and Duke, Hopkins, Notre Dame, etc. If they do, they are a complete homer.
I don't know this kid, there could be a myriad of reasons why he chose Penn St. Maybe it's been his dream school, maybe he wants big time football, maybe his AI won't be high enough to get into the more academically rigorous schools. We won't know and honestly its the family's business, not ours.
The insinuation from the original poster was that this VERBAL commitment was something more; as if it some mythical extra special verbal vs. all the other verbals top kids give. It isn't. Either party can walk away before NLI signing. Period. End of story.
God help the kids who decide to verbal to Loyola or Towson, they must really be desperate!
