So much for being the sixth borough of New York.
With 26,341 freshman buckling down at its universities in the fall of 2002 -- the most recent year for which data is available, Pennsylvania surpassed New York as the number one destination for U.S. college freshman opting to attend college outside their home state.
For university administrators across Pennsylvania -- a state that has long been considered an extension of its northern neighbor -- the large number of prominent institutions has been a key factor in luring students to the Keystone state, despite New York colleges and universities outnumbering those of Pennsylvania by more than 200.
"I think in all honesty there's just a lot of really good schools in Pennsylvania so I think we're very fortunate in that respect," Carnegie Mellon University Director of Admission Michael Steidel said.
"I think both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are great draws in terms of urban areas but the state system is very good too."
Penn Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson highlighted Pennsylvania's geographical diversity, saying that the combination of great universities in urban, suburban and rural areas offers something for every individual.
"We have excellent colleges in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and the area in between. ‹¨« We have wonderful suburban schools with the Philadelphia suburbs, with the Gettysburgs and the [Franklin and Marshalls], and the Allgenheys," he said.
Penn itself draws 81 percent of its undergraduates from out of state, 9 percent from other countries, and 10 percent from Pennsylvania.
According to Steidel, the increase is not so much due to the prioritizing of out of state students as that applications rose greatly overall.
"The applications just have been steadily increasing [on] both sides of the house -- in-state and out-of-state," he said.
Over the last few years, out-of-state students have turned away from New York. In the fall of 1998, New York exceeded Pennsylvania by a little over 300 out of state students, but by 2002, Pennsylvania had risen over New York by almost 4,100.
Bethany Yenner, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, feels that out of state students' mass-migration to Pennsylvania is a result of its long tradition in education.
"We have historically been a big state for teacher preparation and produce an over-abundance of teachers every year," she said.
Although the two states are located in the same region and the flagship campuses of their public universities have similar tuitions, both Stetson and Steidel mentioned that Pennsylvania's location near the middle of the eastern seaboard plays a roll in the decisions of out of state students.
Stetson explained that the decrease in airfare in recent years has helped to make the east coast more accessible for those from the midwest and west coast.
"I have found in traveling throughout the country that students in the center part of the United States ‹¨« they wanted to be near the coastline," he said. "Even the Denver students are only 3.5 hours by plane and that's very easy for them."
For Penn State sophomore and New Jersey native Tracey Pinho, distance was both a central factor and cause for disagreement during her college search.
"I honestly wanted to go to Florida but my mom wouldn't let me go farther than South Carolina," she said.
Pinho said that the distance of Penn State "definitely makes you more mature ‹¨« [it's] far enough that you can't really come home for the weekend, but its close enough that you don't have to take a plane."
Sarah Telson, a New York native and Penn freshman, said that the concentration of universities in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, along with the culture those cities offer, make Pennsylvania an attractive stop in the college search.
"It has more than one major city ‹¨« people from the west can go to Pittsburgh," she said. "There's a lot of colleges in [Philadelphia] and kids are looking for interaction with other people."
