<p>I am extremely excited to be going to University Park come August, I have heard about Penn State's elite academic courses just as much as I have heard about its lengendary party status, but i am curious to hear what some alumni could tell me about freshman year at old main and maybe hook me up with a few tips.
Thanks,
Marshall</p>
<p>I just finished my first year and this question has no right answer so I’ll just go into a bit of detail. </p>
<p>Your classes will be hard. There isn’t really a thing thats an “easy A” here - despite what you hear. ‘Easy’ in college is still significantly harder than high school. If you intend on doing something thats engineering/science related, heres a tip they dont let you know - Do not schedule math 140 and Chem 110 in the same semester. Those are two of the most dropped classes across the entire university and advisers tend to not let you know that. While scheduling your first semester ask them if theres an alternative to scheduling the two together if they tell you to do that. This is especially true if you intend on joining a frat/sorority (more on that later). If possible avoid 8am’s - no matter how early you got up for high school they’re going to be bad. Sometimes you cant avoid them but do your best. Most of your first year classes will be large and impersonal and difficult to make any connection with the professor, since most of them teach hundreds if not over a thousand students. They get smaller as you go along though. All nighters are fake dont do them you wont be any sort of productive the next day. Time management is key - you’ll find that you wont have anything due for 2 weeks then all of the sudden youll have 3 tests and 2 papers due in a week. Classes tend to have exams around the same times, every 3 or so weeks give or take some, so this happens a lot. Dont buy textbooks until the first time you need to use them. I spent $150 on my math 110 book and never used it but it was “required” - same for statistics. The bookstore will likely never run out and is always there for the book should you need it. </p>
<p>Socially we are a party and football school, but im sure you understand this. Fall Saturdays revolve around football and tailgating, then going out afterwords. I wont say anything about football because that speaks for itself - its incredible. There are 2 main drivers of social life here - THON and greek life. We have one of the most active and largest greek populations in the country and its very visible on campus. Is definitely not for everyone, and yes hazing happens even though they all say it doesn’t. If you elect to join a fraternity it will basically be your whole social life. Theres a lot of information about it during welcome week and rush week so if youre interested you can find out more. THON is the other big deal on campus - google/youtube it if you dont already know what it is - A LOT of people participate in making that event happen so if you dont partake somehow you’ll probably feel left out. </p>
<p>If you live in east halls freshman year, you learn quickly the east dining commons is terrible. I think I ate in the east commons 3 times in my whole year. You’ll learn to love the Big O. If you really like the dining hall style of eating, the short walk to pollock would be worth it, in my opinion. You’ll also find out east is far away from everything like you’ve probably heard already. It can be loud in east but its not as bad as its made out to be by some. You may make friends with your floor, you might not. Same with your roommate. You can always try and get out of your room after the semesters over if you get a bad roommate. Most of your friends will come from the clubs you join, sports you play, groups youre in, etc. You have to go join those things though because if you dont jump on it early you’ll feel socially left out which can be hard at a large school like this. </p>
<p>if theres something else you want to know just ask</p>
<p>This has been very informative, im definitely interested im joing greek life, what are the most notorious for throwing down? And also, is there wifi this year?</p>