<p>I'm a freshman at UP right now. Know everything now that I wish I would have known coming into college, so if you have any questions just ask here or send me a message. I've been in classes of different sizes (from 20 to around 700) and I've also been to a lot of parties up here and I know a lot about the social scene as well. I did summer session too so if you have any questions about that you can ask as well.</p>
<p>I know a lot of people are still waiting to hear back still. I applied last year the first or second week of September and got in either late October / early November. But I was the first of all my friends, decisions still go out a good time into the new year.</p>
<p>what were your high schools stats? (gpa uw/w, sats/act, extracurriculars)
did you receive any financial aid? i’ve been trying to find out about how much you can earn up to.
what is their accounting program like? if you have any info on it.
i really like penn state but i’m out of state! if you can answer these it would help :)</p>
<p>ipodnano: I had a 1790 SAT, 3.75 UW 4.2 W GPA. No extracurriculars besides varsity football I guess. I’m getting about $9 grand in grants and then another $9.5 grands in federal loans. I have to take out around $5000 in private loans to pay the rest. Tuition for this school year is around $24,300, so it’s really not cheap considering my family is dirt poor (I’m instate). I’m not sure on the specifics of accounting (not sure if any of my friends are in accounting) but I have friends in econ, business management, ect, and overall Smeal is a very good college to be in. Oh yeah, financial aid at Penn State sucks. They’re hard to work with and barely help you with anything. I’m like 3 months in and still having trouble setting up my aid correctly.</p>
<p>rocknroll52: I actually haven’t had a four loko while up here at penn state, but I’ve seen pictures of friends with four lokos and hear some stories that involve four lokos. Heard they’re going to be banned soon though. Most people at Penn State (probably everwhere) think of four lokos as “black out in a can” because you usually black out after having two or three.</p>
<p>emeraldtree2: I really have no good insight on the medical program at PSU, sorry.</p>
<p>QuicklyTea: The engineering program is great. I came into Penn State in the college of engineering but I switched majors to IST a few weeks ago. The first two years DO WEED students out and you will find out whether engineering is right for you or not, for me it wasn’t. But if you find it interesting and can do good in all of the physics and math classes, and then not fail too many Engineering classes (I’m in an engineering seminar for Computer Engineering, and my professor said you should allow space in your schedule, as there are two or three classes mostly everybody fails their first time). Penn State engineers are very highly regarded I hear, and have good job placement.</p>
<p>The dorms are really small. I live in East Halls where a lot of freshman end up (a lot also end up in south, I’ll talk about that too). When you walk into a dorm in East there are two desks that wrap around a bit on both sides, and then right after the desk is the bed which takes up the rest of your wall. There’s a mini fridge in the middle of the beds against the wall with the window. You can’t move stuff around but you can do some cool stuff with the rooms by hanging up lights, covering the walls and ceiling with stuff, and other crap. It gets crowded having more than 5 people in the rooms (standing, I have to add). South halls has bigger rooms than East. You can actually fit a good amount of people in (most I’ve been with was like 12 in one room). You can move the beds and desks around however you want. They aren’t too bad. Pollock is basically the same, only I think they’re a bit smaller and less customizable. West and North are generally upperclassman, and north halls is pretty much two South rooms with a little lobby in between. Never been in West, but they do have the best dining commons.</p>
<p>I’ve seen rooms in other schools and PSU dorm rooms are generally smaller than others. Guess that’s what happens when you have so many students crammed in one place.</p>
<p>During the summer I took english 15 and chem 110 (i didnt do leap). Classes were every day. English was pretty easy there was about 20 kids in my class and we had to write 5 papers about 4 or 5 pages long in the six week period. Awesome teacher, probably the best I ever had but that was his last semester, he’s at OSU now… Chem was pretty hard, it was a lecture at 8 a.m. every day with like 300 people in it. Had to print out like 15 pages of slides every 2 or 3 days. The tests were pretty hard but not too bad if you studied around 10 hours a week or so. Supposedly chem 110 is one of the hardest classes to take over the summer so any classes they’ll let you take take over summer are manageable.</p>
<p>When I was there in the summer it looked like a lot of people to me, there was always people out and always something to do. Now that it’s fall semester there’s about a million more people everywhere lol. Summer was definitely worth it I don’t regret it at all, met a lot of my good group of friends over the summer that I wouldn’t have met if it wasn’t for summer. They do a good job holding lots of events for students since you have a total of 2 hours of classes a day you have a lot of time to spend meeting new people. There was a lot of great parties over summer as well considering there were barely any upperclassmen. I recommend doing LEAP.</p>
<p>So I’m sure everyone in these forums knows that the Penn State student body is enormous. 40,000 strong if I’m correct.</p>
<p>Now in terms of tangle bodies, 40,000 is just an incomprehensible amount of people. From what I’m read it seem like you think “pft its just a lot of people” but really how do you feel about so many students around you all the time.</p>
<p>Do you ever just want to get away or feel crowded? Has all those people ever become a problem? For instance are lines and waits unnecessarily long? Thats just an example bur whats it like being around so many people all the time?</p>
<p>I never really want to get away or feel crowded here, although sometimes I do wonder how it would be if I were at a smaller school with 1-3 thousand kids and walking through the commons, I would probably recognize a lot more people. But I kind of like all the people around, theres always tons of cool people to meet, and you can stay away from people you don’t really like (I honestly haven’t met many people here I don’t like, everyone’s nice so far). There’s never really lines for anything, theres so many places to eat you can always find somewhere with no line. Being around all these people’s definitely been more of a benefit than anything.</p>
<p>QuicklyTea: I’m not sure if life exists outside of this town. I mean, there are so many people in University Park and the surrounding couple miles of State College that we don’t really need to be inside a city or anything like that. There’s plenty of night life just on College and Beaver Ave that you really don’t have to go other places.</p>
<p>My son was there for band camp and got to know the campus a bit for a couple of days before everyone else showed up. He said the first couple of weeks were a bit tough with all the students as everyone was trying to figure things out - lots of lines for food in the various commons, everyone doing laundry at the same time, everyone at the gym at the same time, etc. But by the 3rd week, it seemed that everyone had gotten the routine down and by adjusting things just a little (lunch a little earlier/later, laundry mid-day/mid-week), he didn’t have to worry about lines of people. </p>
<p>And you can’t beat that big student body on football Saturdays!!! ;)</p>
<p>I’m also a freshman at UP. For there being that many people at UP, it can get really quiet and deserted. Usually there are a few people around no matter where you are but that depends on the time of day and how close you are to East, the HUB, Willard and the library. The campus is spread out enough that it never really gets super crowded. </p>
<p>If you aren’t into the party scene, there still is a ton of things to do on campus all the time. In a lot of the dorms there are lounges and TVs, there are pool tables and stuff at the commons. Late Night at the HUB is fantastic, there are board games and usually a large event like a comedian or a concert going on. Also, if you play piano, there are pianos in every dorm. I don’t know why, but it’s pretty cool. Also, check out the clubs. On the website, it might be hard to find the clubs, I think they haven’t updated the site in a while. There are the usual clubs sports and things like that but there are also the fun clubs. I am part of the Monty Python Society, the Urban Gaming Club and I know there are other clubs like the Happy Thursday Club. They bike around campus and downtown wishing everyone a happy Thursday. If you want to find clubs, ask people and go to the club fairs.</p>
<p>Another freshman at UP here! I’ve also lived in the town for over 10 years so maybe I can give more information? Just ask and I’ll try.</p>
<p>I was in LEAP and it was great. Highly recommend it.</p>
<p>In the fall, I admit it does feel very crowded especially if you are used to smaller towns or summer session, but you get used to it and nothing feels out of place. I’ve visited East, West, and lived in South so I soooorta know about the dorms.</p>
<p>Since East and South have already been covered, West is basically like South but bigger. You also have nice stone floors and a lot better architecture. It’s mostly upperclassmen, but freshman CAN get in. It’s generally quiet, though the dorms aren’t completely dead. A few frats are right across the street if you want easy access.</p>
<p>I hated doing laundry there, I still don’t think I have it down. I’d recommend going at some strange early or mid-day time in the middle of the week. While you might be able to find a washing machine, it’s finding a dryer that’s difficult.</p>
<p>You usually don’t have to wait too long to get food in the dining halls. Sometimes when they’re serving something good there’s a line, but it’s not too bad. I recommend going early. Dinner opens at 4:30 and ends around 7.</p>
<p>Life vaguely exists outside of Penn State. There aren’t really any big cities nearby, nor is there really that much do to off campus. That said, there’s still things like a bowling ally and an ice skating rink that you can visit. Bumming around downtown can be fun though, and after 10 PM Insomnia Cookies opens. They’re a store downtown that sells really good cookies. There’s also a ton of bars if you’re over 21.</p>
<p>Personally, my grades and other stats were not very good, but everyone in my high school who applied to Penn State got in since we live here.</p>
<p>Hello guys I got admitted (Undecided Engineering) in Penn state 4 days ago and i have already paid the 300$ so I can now choose living preferences, my question is what are the chances if I choose now NOT to get into East dorms? Also are there any electronics store and malls?</p>