<p>My D is an AB high school student who has to work very hard. She was admitted to Penn state main campus. We she be left to her own devices to survive or are there tutoring/extra help with the professors if needed. It is such a large school I don't want her to get lost.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your daughter’s admission to Penn State Main! Penn State is very nurturing, but I would recommend that you discuss this with her thoroughly before she starts college and while she attends. There are “tutoring centers” and many students just go to the tutoring centers to do their work in the more challenging classes. Whenever the students need help, they can just ask questions of the tutors on duty. Many, many students do this but your daughter may need encouragement to take advantage of this option. Classes have TAs that can offer extra help also. All students are required to take a writing seminar, which is a small class. Some writing teachers actually give a bad grade to everyone for the first paper to force everyone to come and see them! Even if they do not do this, they will meet with the students. The RAs are also extremely knowledgeable and interested in the students and your daughter should feel comfortable approaching her RA about anything. Another idea is to stay out of East dorms and to request special interest housing. East is where all of the freshman are together, and it can get a bit wild, but South dorms are more convenient to classes and freshmen are mixed in with other class members. The older students can be very helpful to the younger ones. There are special interest dorms in specific academic areas, but also in interest areas such as community service, or for students who want to interact with international students. You will start to get mail about them soon. There are many activities to join and students do not get turned down from activities (except for maybe the student newspaper, which is extremely competetive.) Your daughter should also read the emails that she receives almost daily about opportunities to meet with deans, hear speakers, and everything else that goes on. Best news: she is used to working hard, so she is at an advantage over those who are not used to this! If she understands that she needs to put in an hour a day per class outside of class time, she will be ahead of the curve. Good luck - it is a great school and she will enjoy it! Make sure she buys the student football tickets as soon as she gets the packet - even if she thinks she doesn’t like football!</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your response! Sounds as tho Penn State does “take care” of their students. My only concern is that she feel like a number on such a large campus.</p>
<p>While it sounds like they have tutoring support, to call a school that size nurturing and to expect a lot of support for a student you’re worried about getting lost in the crowd is a stretch. Given you concerns, I’d be looking for a smaller school with smaller classes.</p>
<p>Levirm does a great job at stating all the great things available at PSU. However your D does have to make herself take advantage of them. No one will come to her room to drag her out to study center. She will be fine. Go to class Do the homework. hmom5 may be right if you really think she will have a problem. The school seems huge at first but with time it gets small. SHe will not outgrow PSU like many students outgrow their smaller LAC’s</p>
<p>Penn state #1 party school in the USA
After listening to this broadcast I would think twice about attending. Penn State is not unique. However, it appears that many of the students are immature and disrespectful. State College as a less than stellar reputation when it comes to student alcohol consumption and bad attitudes. </p>
<p>[This</a> American Life](<a href=“http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1330]This”>http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1330)</p>
<p>The topic question is like asking if Altoona or Wilkes-Barre are “nurturing”. Penn State (University Park) is about as large as some entire towns in Pennsylvania. These places have services, but it’s not their nature to be nurturing. Chose a village-sized liberal arts college if that’s what you want.</p>
<p>appdad. On any day of the week at any college you could find a bunch of kids acting badly. PSU is a great university with many serious students doing impressive stuff. PSU is also the WORLDS MOST SUCCESSFUL STUDENT RUN PHILANTHROPY GROUP with THON. THON collected over 7 million dollars last year alone for cancer research.</p>
<p>Students vote for #1 party school and PSU just happens to have many,many students to run up those numbers :)</p>
<p>Students from PSU get into Harvard Law and Med schools and all the other Ivy’s.</p>
<p>the key to this question is whether your daughter has been taught in her current school to advocate for herself if she needs help?</p>
<p>Penn State is no different than any other large public in terms of assistance…Nurturing is a word that I personally wouldn’t use at any school this size (or even half this size)…</p>
<p>Nobody is going to know if your daughter is not succeeding/not attending classes etc…she needs to be able to get the help if she needs it…that is true at ANY school, but moreso at a large one…</p>
<p>We had the same concern, and I am telling you that Penn State is VERY nurturing! Don’t believe me, posters, if you don’t want to but I am speaking from personal experience, AND from personal experience with other, “more highly rated” schools. And, in NO college is anyone going to come and drag anyone to a tutoring center. But I can guarantee you that at Penn State, someone WILL drag your daughter to a Thon committee, where she will get involved and can rise as high as she wants in this outstanding endeavor. It is completely student run and the students gain incredible skills and experience in operations, organization, business, outreach, etc. And I can guarentee that your student’s RA will have gone through incredible scrutiny, a course, many interviews, and ongoing formative support to reach out to your student, get the students on the floor to bond, create a supportive atmosphere, etc. This DOES NOT happen at other colleges (personal experience again!)
I know that it is hard to believe, but Penn State does an outstanding job of creating small communities within the larger university.
Yes, like almost everywhere there are drinkers but it is a lot easier to find the non-drinkers at Penn State than at small, liberal arts colleges in rural areas! And the “number one party” designation is derived in a completely non-scientific way.
BTW, I just heard about two freshman at two very SMALL, highly respected colleges, who got Ds, apparently didn’t know they were on track for this, did not go for extra help, and no one reached out to get them to go for help. This is college, folks, and it can happen everywhere. Students must know ahead of time that they must put in work and advocate for themselves and seek help when needed.</p>
<p>I find it very comforting to know how much experience/trainong the RAs have to go through. They can be instrumental in helping kids adjust to dorm life and feel connected.</p>
<p>Professors also have office hours set up to answer any questions.</p>
<p>D is a junior and since freshman year has had 7 advisors! She hasn’t even been there for 7 semesters. Having said that, she is a “take charge” kind of person and has done well. PSU is not the place for a timid individual.</p>
<p>Well, it IS a large school but the professors, advisors and admin staff are friendly and approachable. And they will help if needed.<br>
That said, your d needs to take charge and seek out help when needed. As with any big school, you can be invisible if you really WANT to be, especially in your first couple of years, when classes are big.
The American Life broadcast IS very disturbing but shows just one small slice of life at PSU. You can find ugliness on almost any college campus these days. They should take that broadcast to THON (the charity effort) to show yet a different side.</p>