It won't be that bad. While there are more confederate flags than there should be, I think I've only seen a house with more than 1 flag like once or twice. Despite what people on this sub say, there is not nearly as many confederate flags as there are in the south. I am pretty convinced most people here have never been to a rural southern area.

If you like nature, the area east of Pittsburgh will be perfect. Depending on where you are living you will be in or near the Laurel Mountain highlands, and the PA wilds, both are beautiful and have excellent hiking. If you like more extreme sports there is even pretty good white water rafting and decent rock climbing down by the WV and Maryland border. On the topic of bordering states WV that state is an underrated gem, and in my opinion the prettiest state on the east coast.

As for homophobia, while it is not nearly as bad as people in the cities make it out to be, it will likely be less welcoming than the major cities. I am straight, but I have a gay friend who moved to a rural part of the region from NYC. He never spoke of any homophobia, but did say that the lack of other gays, and the extremely limited dating options, made living there lonely at times. He ended up moving to Austin Texas about 3 years later, he cited the lack of LGBTQ community and poor dating options.

That being said I do think it depends on where you move, if you are close to Pittsburgh you will have to drive more to nature, but will likely have a more robust LGBTQ community. Also one of the highest rated thigs to do in Johnstown is its gay bar so there must be a decent sized community around there.

When looking at median Disposable income for US is about $43k, and for France it is $29k. Median Disposable income takes into account medical expenses and retirement savings, as well as rent costs, taxes, etc. basically its how much money is left over after all life expenses. So people still make more here than France. Though the French do get a lot more time out

I was referring to undergrade, masters degrees in the US are way more expensive and there are far fewer scholarship and financial aid options.

Pennsylvania is generally very safe, though the country as a whole is having a significant crime wave right now. Regardless I would say the odds of you getting hurt or being a victim of a crime are pretty low outside of Philadelphia which has gotten really bad in the last few months.

The cost of living in Pennsylvania is pretty cheap so long as you are not in Philadelphia, and even then it is cheaper than other cities in the region. It has been a few years since I have been in France, but I would say that Pennsylvania can be considerably cheaper, based on how much I remember things like food and gas costing in France.

I left another comment on University cost, which will be high since you are an international student. I think you would need a student visa, which, if I understand the complaints of my international student friends correctly, would make you ineligible for work while pursuing an education outside of official internships.

As far as other states to look at it depends on what you are looking for, I am from Pennsylvania but have had the opportunity to live in many states in the country. If you can tell me what is drawing you to Pennsylvania I could maybe give recommendations of other states to look at too.

Also, if you are just interested in living in the US for a bit, it may be better finically to either go to college in France and look for an exchange program, or come the US for grad school or a starting job. I know a few people who did the second option, they say its a smart move because many jobs pay a bit more here, and the tax burden is a lot lower, but they still got to take advantage of the lower cost universities back home.

Generally Universities in the US do not give many scholarships to international students. Most scholarships and financial assistance is reserved for people within the country. However, there may be some available, I would do some research online as well as in your country, I know a few have grants for students studying abroad.

The amount of Americans who are heading to Europe for college is miniscule. College in Europe is not free nor cheap if you are not from the country. It would be cheaper to go to Penn State than go to Europe for College.

Edit: I looked into this when I was applying to undergrad, I know things are different for masters degrees and it is actually cheaper for those. When I was in undergrad most European English Speaking Universities were charging between 10k-15k, For Penn State at the time it was about 16k, so when travel costs and COL was factored in, Europe was not cheaper than the US.

Yes, it literally happened all over Europe and the world. Its a common historical trend in fact, most cities after facing significant destruction, take advantage of the opportunity to replan the city and make significant changes. In addition to long term redesigns of the city starting in the 1840s, Paris was completely rebuilt following its destruction in the Franco Prussian War. London widened some of their main streets throughout the 1800s but did take advantage of the damage done by the blitz to rebuilt portions of the city with wider streets. If you go to London you can see which areas were hit hardest through how wide the streets are. Stuttgart was heavily bombed in WW2, and completely rebuilt after. Vienna also suffered significant destruction during the World Wars and rebuilt with wider roads

Large portions of those cities were either partially or completely destroyed by wars in the last 150 years and thus were rebuilt all at once allowing for better planning. Also as mentioned above they have more forgiving terrain and weather. Most Cities from those countries that actually retain their historic city plans suffer from many of the same accessibility issues that Pittsburgh does. I agree with the main point about how we need to maintain our sidewalks better and just generally improve infrastructure but you examples aren't very good.