Pennsylvania State University

PROS:
"Real College Experience"
- Football games, greek life, parties parties parties
Yes its true you get to go to awesome football games at the legendary beaver stadium, but how much is too much? Greek life is full of total douches in the frats, and douche-loving hobags in the sororities. The entire greek system is self sustained and they dont associate with anyone who is not greek.

- School Spirit
Everyone who goes to Penn State is required to LOVE penn state. People take pride in the fact that we are the #1 party school....uh really?

- Large alumni network
PSU claims to have a huge alumni network, and this is true. You will always see old alumni walking around campus revisiting old landmarks of their 4-5 years here.

CONS:
- Athletes treated like royalty
Its unreal. They do whatever they want, whenever they want- without getting in trouble. This is especially true with football players who are treated like they are holy. Whenever a football player is seen on campus everyone sort of stops and gazes like they see jesus's resurrection. Its incredibly sickening. All the athletes get all the girls so whatever is left is a mix between fat chicks/hicks/internationals/hippies.

- Everyone, EVERYONE is a drunk
9/10 people you will meet drink every night of the week. You will hear there stories the next day during class about how they got "schwasted" and totally banged this chick. People take PRIDE in their drinking, Im sure you have heard of our self made holiday "State Pattys" day.

- Classes for real majors are designed to weed out students
If you are in a worthless major (see: comm, soc, etc.) you will be fine. The business program is alright, but everyone in that school thinks they are headed to wall street or a mega corp after they graduate. People are so stuck up its unreal. Science majors are tough, especially intro classes which are clearly designed to weed out students are ultra hard workers. Classes here are designed for stupid yet hard working students to excel. EVERY class I have taken here requires 99% memorization of ambiguous information, and 1% application. Its infuriating.

-State College sucks
There is nothing to do in State College. Ever.Overall, come to PSU if you want the classic college party experience. Dont come to PSU if you want to be intellectually stimulated, meet real people, and prepare your self for the real world. I am currently in the process of deciding where to transfer.

2nd Year Male -- Class 2012

Perceived Campus Safety: B+, Useful Schoolwork: F

If you go to PSU, don't go to a satellite campus, or at least not Abington. The students aren't very nice, there is no parking after 9AM, most students are unintelligent and rude. The campus is beautiful, but the surrounding city of Abington is very white trash, and traffic is horrible. Since it is a commuter school, you just go to class and leave, and social life is kept to in-school friends only. If you need to use a computer, bring a laptop, because since no one has friends they all sit on the computer playing online poker. The professors are outstanding. Very open to talking about things other than their subjects, and will answer irrelevant questions. Since many of the kids have below average intelligence, they ask plenty of irrelevant questions. And since all of your friends go to real colleges, you're stuck at home writing reviews about how much the school sucks. If you are somewhat intelligent, get in the honors program if you can. The only way you'll get a decent study group is if you're in the group, and they're so elitist they won't let most people study with them. Gas also takes up all of your spare money too.

2nd Year Male -- Class 2009

Campus Maintenance: A+, Innovation: F

The study of graduate biology at Penn State was quite an experience. I will give the positives first. There were some very bright and dedicated professors, especially among the more highly regarded academics. However, the treatment of graduate students was a complete scandal. Teaching assistants were placed in a position where they were routinely cooperating with some highly innapropriate behavior. As an example, students would often tell teaching assistants to give them a better grade, or they would do everting in their power to get them in trouble. Because of the manner in which things were run, this was usually effective. If you did not cooperate with behavior along these line, you had a political problem. The teaching assistants were managed by a woman who worked every angle on the teaching assistants (Diane Burpee). She would even order the teaching assistants to tell the professors how great she was. If you didn't play her games, she would do everything possible to have you fired. It was a completely revolting job. I have never seen management as bad as that of the biology department teaching assistants. The graduate students constantly complained to each other about the place, but the lines of communication between them and the professsors were down. Also, though some top bioinformatics people are at Penn State, they are locked in bitter political and ideological disputes with top people at other universities. I have spent considerable time as a student in my life, and I never experienced anything like the Penn State biology department.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000