<p>periklis:
You have a couple of options. First, you can do a SLO or Special Living Option. For engineers that would be E House and they are in West. West is one of the nicest dorms, and they are pretty close to everything compared to East. The only thing is it is very competative. Don’t do the first-year engineering SLO. That’s in East. Secondly, I don’t know if the housing is rolling or not, I have no idea. But there is the chance that you will get put in East even if you request not to be. I requested Pollock and I am currently living in East.
As for stores, there is the Nittany Mall nearby, it’s okay. Nothing spectacular.You have to bus to it. I don’t know what electronic stores are in there, I think there might have been a Radio Shack. There are two Gamestops, one in the mall and one on Atherton Street by Walmart. </p>
<p>Also, for everyone, the bus system is awesome. They are almost always on time and there are a lot of buses. The on campus ones are free and all but one of the buses stop by the Pattee-Paterno Library. Bus fare is 1.50.</p>
<p>periklis, There is information about the SLOs here-- [Housing:</a> Undergraduates](<a href=“Home Page | LiveOn”>Home Page | LiveOn)
My son lived in E House for two years and I think was pretty happy with it. I believe that everyone who requests E House gets into West (McKee).</p>
<p>Did you find it easy to meet people and make friends (I am outgoing and energetic, but Im afraid that I might not be able to make very close friendships)? / Do you have a good group of friends?</p>
<p>I only have experience with E House, but I think that is generally true with the SLOs. You could check with housing.</p>
<p>After I posted the link I took a quick look at it. One bit of information that i didn’t see was that there are some responsibilities that go along with living at E House, but nothing too onerous. I think the requirement is to participate in two social and two academic activities each semester (could be yearly, not sure). Social activities that I remember S doing were watching away football with the group and decorating (and eating) Valentine cookies. The academic one I remember was a resum</p>
<p>EastCoaster00: I found it is pretty easy to make friends here. There really is enough people here that there will be someone you can be friends with. I have a really close group of friends that I spend a lot of time with. I also met a lot of fun people through the clubs on campus. </p>
<p>nickis93: The food on campus, on average, is pretty good. Sometimes it will be off but there are enough options that it doesn’t matter. There are a couple of types of eating places on campus. First is the all-you-can-eat. East, West, Pollock and Redifer (South) have these. They have a pretty good selection of foods, there are always salad bars and healthy options. Depending on which commons you go to, there are different special areas that each on has. I know that West has a pasta line, a vegan area, a deli line. That sort of thing. Next type of eating place is the there are small stores in each of the commons that you pay per item. Redifer has the biggest one of these with a lot of variety. North is mostly this with a very small all-you-can-eat. You can get made to order sandwiches, wraps, grilled foods, and some other things. The last thing is that all of the commons have a small general store area where you can buy staple foods to have in your dorm. All of these places take meal points and lion cash. Paying with meal points is cheaper for the first two types of eateries.</p>
<p>D was recently admitted for fall 2011 and is very excited, but needs to wait to hear from some other schools to make a firm decision about where she’ll be going. Do we need to go ahead and send in her deposit in order to insure a choice of housing, or does it really matter? Thanks for any info you can give!</p>
<p>Guys when I try to choose the SLO for engineering I can only find the “engineering and applied sciences house” and the “Freshmen in science and engineering”,there is also there is this option: “E-House”. My problem is that I can’t find the plain “Engineering house” that is located in the West Halls.</p>
<p>Periklis, when you ask “NY is 5 hours away, right?” if you mean Manhattan, yes it’s 5 hours and a bus runs from State College and drops you a few blocks from Penn Station. The bus originates somewhere else but I believe there are no stops between State College and NY.</p>
<p>There’s at least one “restroom” stop on that bus too. But make no mistake, if you’re a homebody, PSU is a long way from home and you won’t be coming home that often.</p>
<p>periklis, E House in Engineering House. (My sons’s dorm tee had the “nerdy lion” on it (wearing glasses).)</p>
<p>Runners2, If you are waiting to hear from privates that won’t notify until spring, it would be best to send in a deposit now. If you expect to hear in the next couple of months you should be OK waiting.</p>