Penn State?

[devinemi83]

Anyone here go there or know anyone who goes there? The reason I ask is that I am applying to one of their campuses and I wanted to know what its like to go through their admissions and the lives of students there.


Thanks Dudes!

[Devanshu]

Although I dont go there, I applied to U of Penn and went on a tour and ended up not going. Main reason was, I did not like the environment and it was too far from home.

[shoozleboy]

U of Penn (Ivy League) is not the same as Penn State (Pennsylvania State University).....

As for PSU..... been there, done that... so have numerous friends and contacts......

What campus? Main(State College)? Harrisburg? etc.... I forget how many they have now spread throughout the state.....

Life at main is cool.... both socially and weather wise.... (it's in the mountains and snows a lot)

Anytime someone mentions attending PSU, I think of the line from one of those 80's movies.... I forget the title but it was a comedy and there are these college recruiters trying to get a football player to go to their schools.... one is from Alabama and one from PSU.... they get into an arguement over why one is better to go to than the other. Something like," It's good to see the seasons change!! It's good to see the seasons change!!!"..... (I guess it's funnier in the movie than a message board!)

[ricky1756]

Go to a real college, like the university of Michigan.
j/k

[Craig Tucker]

Penn state, sounds like a prison

[Tommyknocker]

No, Craig, that's State Pen

And @ Ricky1756: Go Blue!!!

[Craig Tucker]

No, Craig, that's State Pen

I know :P

[indolikaa]

The University of Arizona.

[shoozleboy]

(sigh..... I should have known this would end up happening! DOH!!!!!)

[Two2Tango]

I went to Penn State (59-63). Great school for an education, sports, social life. Big campus, you will do a lot of walking.

[Devanshu]

U of Penn (Ivy League) is not the same as Penn State (Pennsylvania State University).....

Whoops...forgot that there was a Penn State also

[devinemi83]

U of Penn (Ivy League) is not the same as Penn State (Pennsylvania State University).....

As for PSU..... been there, done that... so have numerous friends and contacts......

What campus? Main(State College)? Harrisburg? etc.... I forget how many they have now spread throughout the state.....

Life at main is cool.... both socially and weather wise.... (it's in the mountains and snows a lot)

Anytime someone mentions attending PSU, I think of the line from one of those 80's movies.... I forget the title but it was a comedy and there are these college recruiters trying to get a football player to go to their schools.... one is from Alabama and one from PSU.... they get into an arguement over why one is better to go to than the other. Something like," It's good to see the seasons change!! It's good to see the seasons change!!!"..... (I guess it's funnier in the movie than a message board!)

McKeesport. Its right in my town basically so I will save tons on room and board, all I have to pay for is bus fare to get there

[shoozleboy]

ah, near Pittsburgh, huh?

I was never at that campus of PSU, only State College and Hbg.

I don't know if you looked at it yet, but here's the Mckeesport Penn State website.... http://www.mk.psu.edu/

PSU as a whole is cool.... as most larger universities, the academics are plentiful, and the social life is what you make of it. If you like meeting new people and having a good time AND you can get your studies done, then you could probably do very well at any one of the PSU campuses.

Your idea of saving on the room and board sounds good, the only drawback would be that you may find your home life could distract you from your studies.... but then so can living in a dorm (parties, no parents, neighbors making noise when you're studying, the list goes on....) Check with the school as well on this, but some schools nowadays want the freshmen to stay in dorms their first year.... it helps them to adjust to the studying for their classes.... The first year is a good indicator on how the remaining years of college will be for you.

As far as admissions goes, when I went there, it was not that bad. It is a state run school and they get tens of thousands of applicants every year (all the campuses combined). They'll look at your high school classes and grades and then they may decide to have you take a standardized test to see where you might start with the English and Math courses.... most colleges do that anyhow, it's no big deal.

They also may require that you take the SAT and also check out financial aid. They used to check every applicant for financial need automatically... that way they can help you to budget what you will need to pay for.

The whole ordeal sounds like a lot, and by the time you are finished (it can take weeks to complete all this 'paperwork' and have it processed at PSU) but it's not that bad when you look back at it. Every college is going to have you jump through some hoops to get in nowadays, even the community colleges do all of this as well....

The best place to start is with your High School counselor (I'm assuming that you are still in high school - sorry for the assumption if you are not). The counselor can walk you through a lot of the preliminary stuff like the SAT and such (again, I'm assuming that you haven't taken them yet - my bad if i'm wrong)

After you check with your counseler, then contact admissions at PSU, schedule a visit for a tour and ask for an application for admission AND one for financial aid. Then get on that bus and visit the campus.... do that DURING the day when the students are there... that way you might get the opportunity to talk with some of them... if they are like the guys and girls I went to school with, then you will find a lot of friendly people willing to talk about the campus life.

Who knows, you may end up finding that you may want to stay on campus after all !!