Every is different, soil conditions vary greatly and can affect what will and what won't do well. Most areas of PA have fairly acidic soils, from 5.5 to 6.0. That can often dictate what will do well and what won't. Newly logged areas tend to be fairly acidic, particularly if old oak, pine or hemlock forests. Adding lime to the soil would be a huge boost and open up options.
If you can't or don't want to do anything to the soil I like to frost seed the seeds. Usually mid to late February is when I put the seeds down. My favorite low maintanence seed mix is 10 pounds of orchard grass, 3 pounds of white dutch clover and 1 pound of birds foot trefoil per acre. If you don't mow it, the orchard grass will eventually take over. If you can mow it, the stand will mature in about a year to 18 months and will last for many years thereafter. It is fairly low pH tolerant and shade tolerant and the deer will happy graze all 3 plants.