<p>Hi! I just completed my freshman year at PSU university park. Sadly, all I want to do is go back and get this summer over with! I'm a nursing major and I lived in East Halls. I ended up with a 3.75 GPA, I joined a sorority and it was definitely the best year of my life. Last year at this time I read this site religiously looking for answers. If any future students or parents have a question about anything, ask away and I'll do my best to answer!</p>
<p>That’s a pretty good GPA. How hard was it to obtain a 3.7 at PSU compared to high school ? Please explain in detail.</p>
<p>How motivated are the students ? </p>
<p>Did you get all the classes you wanted ? I heard classes fill up EXTREMELYYYY fast.
About housing, will you be moving off campus or living on dorms for 2013-2014 ? If you are moving off campus, is it because you weren’t able to get on campus housing ?</p>
<p>@ psufang</p>
<p>It was definitely harder than high school. I will say one thing about Penn State is we LOVE to have fun and have a great social life at night, but during the day/week nights, every table in the commons is full with people studying and doing work. It’s all about balancing. It’s much more test-oriented than in high school. I really didn’t have any homework on a daily basis, it was just exams for classes and as long as you stay on top of studying it’s manageable. I chose to spend my nights out which meant basically every day when I wasn’t in class I was usually doing work but me and my friends always met up between classes and did work together in the HUB and it wasn’t bad at all!</p>
<p>Students are VERY motivated. I wasn’t sure what to expect coming to a big party school, but I can honestly say that everyone tries very hard. You can always find a study group of friends to prepare for exams together. One thing I loved about east commons was since east was freshman island, I could literally walk through the commons at any time and find friends I know there to sit and do work with. </p>
<p>Classes fill up very fast especially for freshmen. I was lucky and I got in all the classes I need. For a freshman you’re mostly taking gen-eds and english 15/ CAS 100. English 15 is only freshman so you’ll be able to get in that. CAS 100 fills up fast but I didn’t have a problem getting in first semester. As for gen-eds, the easy ones do fill up fast. Watch list is your best friend. You put in the course number of classes you need to get in, it texts you immediately when a spot opens up and you race to your computer/iphone to schedule the class. Although classes fill up fast, it honestly always works out. The worst case scenario is you’re scrambling a bit during syllabus week but honestly there’s so many people switching classes then you’ll get a million watch list notifications and your advisor will always help you out! One other very important piece of advice I can’t stress enough is ALWAYS look up your professors on ratemyprofessor if it lists a professor for the course. </p>
<p>I’m living in dorms again for sophomore year. I didn’t want to live off campus yet. Living on campus is a lottery, me and my roommate didn’t have a problem with it. I’ve only heard of a few people who got supplemental room contracts instead of regular-double contracts but in that case you’re on a wait list and almost always get bumped up to regular-double if not before school starts, within a few weeks. </p>
<p>Hope I helped :)</p>
<p>Hello, I signed up to live my Freshman year in the North Halls, as part of a special living option. I understand that it is pretty unusual for a freshman to live in North halls, but I decided it would motivate me to get a high gpa. I was wondering if you knew anyone who lived in an SLO as a freshman and whether they seemed “isolated” from all the other freshman in east/pollock. I hope I am not going to miss out on the social advantages of living with mostly freshman… thanks.</p>
<p>I am just a mom, but have a son who lived in an SLO in West freshman year. he had no trouble making friends and was happy enough with his choice that he decided to stay in West for sophomore year.</p>
<p>Okay Thanks for the detailed response.</p>
<p>My son just finished his freshman year living in North, and there are quite a lot of freshmen there. Also, since he was so much closer to campus, friends fromEast would use his room as a stopping spot to hang out between classes. He chose to live in North again next year.</p>
<p>Hi everyone! I was offered admission for summer. Now I have already accepted my offer, but I still sent the admission office an email about moving my offer from summer to fall. Do you think I still stand a chance getting offer for fall? Thank!</p>
<p>@student111111</p>
<p>I know a few people who lived in north. All of which had very normal social lives! I would say, it’s definitely easier in east because all freshman are stuck together and you see each other on a daily basis in the commons and around east, but as long as you make an effort you will have a perfectly normal social life in north! I don’t know anyone who was on an SLO</p>
<p>@Christyllky </p>
<p>It’s worth a shot, I’m not really sure about their rules about that. Anyone I’ve had to email in the past about admissions or housing has always been really understanding and easy to work with! If you can’t start in the fall… unless you were thinking about not doing summer because of financial reasons… I DEFINITELY would. I can honestly say one of my only regrets of freshman year was not doing summer session. I didn’t have to but everyone I know who did it absolutely loved it and already came into fall session knowing so many people! If I could go back I really think I would chose to do summer session.</p>
<p>Hopefully a simple question…do you remember when you were given your housing assignment prior to your freshman year? Our son starts in the Fall, and we are just curious when he will find out where he gets to live.</p>
<p>Check his eLiving account – the timeline should have an actual date. But generally speaking, freshman housing is announced in late July/early August.</p>
<p>What’s the racial diversity like on campus?</p>