<p>Talz- I don’t know what they do for spring incoming students but yes the dorms are definitely packed still. Our freshman class was larger than anticipated and they struggled to fit everyone. </p>
<p>Julia- Penn states usually ranked one of the most fit campuses in the country based on the couple of rankings that do that, and I agree. The vast majority of people here are athletic and enjoy playing sports and going to the gym. It will be incredibly easy for you to surround yourself with people who like being for. Rec hall, our main gym, is usually ranked one of the best gyms in the country as well. It’s a great place and it’s usually pretty full.</p>
<p>Team sports freshman such as Wrestling or Volleyball live in west because its closer to Rec Hall, where they play games. Just as Freshman football players live in Pollock because its the “closest” to the football practice facility.</p>
<p>Hi I have some questions for you. Actually, I want to know about meal plans. There are 6 levels of meal plans so could you please tell me what are the differences between these levels of meal plans?
Also since I am an international student when I accepted the offer of admission I was told that DISA(directorate of international student advising) will contact me regarding my visa documents. So will DISA contact me after I have arranged my housing and food services?
I have been accepted for spring 2014 but when I log in eliving I see that there are two contracts in summary one is for fall14-spring 15 and another is spring 14. So should I choose the contract of spring 14? Actually when I selected fall14-spring15 I was asked about “break access housing” but when I went back and selected spring 14 no such questions were asked. None of relatives reside in Penn state so during break I will definitely have to stay on campus so I need to have “break access housing” option. So what should I do ? Thank you.
Talz3113 have you also been accepted for spring 14 and are you an international student like me??</p>
<p>Sami - For living on campus you have to have a meal plan, theres 6 levels to choose from, from level 1($650) - level 6 ($1155) a semester. Full pricing can be found here: [Campus</a> Meal Plan](<a href=“University Park Dining | LiveOn”>University Park Dining | LiveOn)</p>
<p>Basically you pick what plan level you want (you can add/decrease from it at your will) and it gets tacked onto your bursar bill. For each plan you pay the amount of dining dollars you want plus a $1295 ‘base cost’ associated with all the levels (for building upkeep, etc). You can use dining dollars for pretty much anything on campus thats food related, and for concession stand stuff at stadiums. the ‘normal’ level is a level 4 and thats what I have. I eat kind of a lot i’d like to think, and right now I have $440 left for the semester, which is about right to get me through the rest. </p>
<p>And again I’m a domestic student who was admitted for the fall semester, so I’m not very knowledgeable about anything spring-admission related or international related. You should call the proper office at PSU for questions like that. You will want break access housing however as an international student, unless you want to go home whenever school closes.</p>
<p>Hi samir… yes i am accepted for spring and also an international student. oh i got my disa email yesterday, so if you havent gotten yours yet, it should be coming to you today or tomorrow.</p>
<p>From another perspective regarding the party culture at PSU, my daughter graduated last May. She was OOS so did not know anyone at the school, and chose not to join a sorority- tried to stay away from that whole thing. She is in no way anti-alcohol, but is not a big drinker/ partier herself. She did not transfer there until her soph year, so never lived in the dorms. </p>
<p>Despite no sorority and little partying, she quickly made a very tight group of friends. She is pretty outgoing and she is an initiator so she always found plenty to do. While PSU does have that party reputation, there are plenty of people who do not fall into that category and have no trouble fitting in. She would also disagree that there is little else to do than drink- it is a campus of 40,000 students with every imaginable activity available. There is pretty much something for everyone. She is not a huge football fan (bought the season ticket her 1st year to try to meet people but after that only went to a few games each year) but enjoyed the campus atmosphere around game days. In short, she loved her time at PSU and at no time felt like a misfit or that she was regarded as weird. </p>
<p>One thing I will say is that we are from the west coast and she did go thru some culture-shock as the atmosphere felt very conservative to her. She has short hair and got routine comments about her sexuality, especially downtown on “party” nights. She is straight and very feminine, and was kind of shocked at some of the narrow-mindedness. You see all kinds of hairstyles where we live so it had never crossed her mind. Short hair on girls runs in short supply at PSU. fortunately she is pretty self-confident and she thought it was funny.</p>
<p>Also, she and her friends did take the Mega Bus into Philly and NYC ion occasion, just for a break. If you buy your tickets early it is very reasonable.</p>
<p>Do you know anyone in the hospitality business program. If you do, what are your thoughts on that program.</p>
<p>Also, for OOS students, is it very difficult to find friends (i saw that takeitallin daughter’s did fine), but is that typical. </p>
<p>I have heard, although it could simply be false, that PSU students group around high school friends and OOS students, particularly those who are not big partiers, have a hard time. I would hope that is not true, as it is quite an impressive school.</p>
<p>Many - I have no clue about anything related to the Hospitality Business program, sorry.
No, its not hard to find friends. PSU has one of the largest percentages of OOS students at a state school in the country actually, so theres quite a few people from all over the place. You just have to be outgoing and want to go talk to people.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t really say that people group around high school friends - if anything people hate the people they went to high school with because theyre tired of them. Like I said, since theres so many OOS students and everyones in that boat, its easy to make friends and stuff. If you’re not friends with the people on your floor, find a club that interests you and you’re bound to make friends. </p>
<p>Also takeitallin makes it sound like I said theres absolutely nothing else to do here but drink and party and thats not true at all. Quite a lot revolves around that, but certainly not everything. I said everyone can find their own clique of friends thats not hard. If you’re in a rigerous program like anything in the business or engineering school you can’t really go out much anyway. I haven’t been able to do much since syllabus week because my course load is just so demanding.</p>
<p>Sorry Etuck- didn’t mean to do that at all! Just wanted to make sure people know that non-partiers will find plenty of company and plenty to do. </p>
<p>You did say in an earlier post that “…if you don’t like to drink or party, you are kind of considered weird here”… Not everyone would agree with that.</p>