Pennsylvania State University

Love binge drinking. Love talking about binge drinking. Love taking advantage of drunk girls or be a drunk girl who is in favor of being taken advantage of. Care little of things other than football, binge drinking, and bragging about how many shots you can take. Be white and from a suburb and hate any kind of diversity. Lack passion for anything other than binge drinking and making money. Like to drink.

1st Year Female -- Class 2012

Campus Aesthetics: A, Faculty Accessibility: F

Ok, I know I'm one of the rare ones that didn't like PSU. Maybe b/c I was an out of state (NJ) and didn't feel like I could relate to the other students ... or maybe b/c from NJ and PSU seemed to be completely out of the way and in the middle of nowhere.

I could only take a year of PSU and transferred out of there asap. I’m glad I did.
My major beefs with PSU are that I felt that they somewhat deceived me. Example, I was looking for a large, DIVERSE, school spirited, challenging University. I got two of those... it's large and the school spirit is out of control! I truly miss that aspect sometimes. But, it's definitely not diverse and I didn't find it particularly challenging. So first let’s talk about diversity. I went to a very yuppie white high school and was looking to branch out in college and meet different people from different backgrounds. When I went to PSU for a tour they put all us students in a room and talked to us about how great the school was blah blah blah. They had the frat boy, the token black guy, the geeky science girl... everything was covered... I bought it. I thought wow I’ll find my click and there are so many different people here. LIE!!! This is the least diverse school ever! It was literally my high school on a larger level. It's pretty much the same white girl in uggs, tights, and a north face with highlighted hair and probably a fake tan and a hundred frat boys with PSU sweatshirts. Honestly zero diversity. Oh and everyone I talked too about PSU said it was such a difficult school to get into and challenging when you got there. Ok I honestly didn't really have that experience. I felt I did nothing and pulled off great grades with little effort. Maybe it's because the school is just all dumb PA kids... ok well that's harsh there are a lot of smart kids and they're not all frat boys and pretty girls BUT the fact that my bio/chem major roommate got a 4.0 her first year makes me really question how difficult this University truly is.

Another HUGE issue I had with PSU was with orientation. Since I wasn't from PA I really didn't know that many people who had gone to PSU and was looking forward to meeting people and making friendships. Well... didn't happen. My RA did a shit job and we maybe spent all of 20 minutes meeting people on the floor and saying two words about ourselves. No ice breakers, no dumb games to get to know each other, NOTHING! So my roomie and I (who I did love) left our door open and tried to get to know people. No one cared. Everyone else had there doors shut and that's how it was going to be. Let me remind you that my experience was just unfortunate event after unfortunate event and that I'm sure it's not always this bad a PSU... but for me it was. Continuing... I soon found out that I was put in an all girl dorm (asked for coed) and was with people who already knew their roommates (choose them) or had gone to summer session and already knew people. Therefore no one needed to make any new friends. My roomie and I tried and neither of us succeeded in making friends with these crazy bitches. Anyway, some highlights of my freshman year were... putting up Christmas decorations and having them torn down multiple times by drunk dumbass people (like I said we didn't even know anyone on the floor of 60!!! girls and didn't have any known enemies) we even made a bet on how long our St. Patrick’s Day decorations would last (considering PSU is all alcoholics and changed St. Patty’s day b/c it feel during spring break to STATE Paddy’s day to make sure they got there drinking in you WOULD think people would embrace the decorations… no) torn down in a week. Having stuff written on our door (every door on the floor actually). EVERY weekend waking to throw up all over the bath room... oh yeah the bathrooms are gross!!! At least in the east dorms. Stay away from east! Go for west or south.

Ok so my experience was that the girls were bitches and that the guys were kinda ... um... hickish. God I sound awful but they called me dirty jerz so whatevs.

My main issues with PSU were that there was NOTHING for me to do on weekends. I would go to football games, gymnastic meets (guys won nationals!), and movies but i don't drink therefore my time at PSU was a waste! WARNING: if you do not party or drink DO NOT go to this school b/c you'll be bored shitless and you'll end up babysitting someone or stepping in someone else’s puke. yum. I tried really hard to find things to do on weekends but since i didn't drink i was pretty much seen as an outsider cause everyone at PSU is an achoholic. Not kidding. One of my friends came to an exam tipsy. WTF.

I also was under the impression that i could easily take a bus or something to Philly but not the case. Stuck in "happy valley" with a town a centimeter big was torture. If you need to be near a city don't go here. I went crazy! Oh and the weather SUCKS! I flurried everyday during spring semester when i was there. So depressing.

Ok now that i ranted I'll tell you some good things. The profs really care about there students and embrace PSU. Like I said school spirit is out of control. One time i was waiting online for a comedy show and we had been waiting soooooooo long... soon enough PSU chants started! People were surfing the line, it was a lot of fun! It's really safe. The class you can take at the gym white building like step and kickboxing are GREAT! Football is an experience though the school I go to now is better (RU) lol there is nothing like a PSU game.

Personally I know a lot of people who had a great time at PSU and I still have some good friends that go there but in the long run i knew it wasn't right for me and i'm glad i transferred.

Overall... college is truly what you make of it! I probably could have put more of an effort into making PSU a great experience but with factors i couldn't control (like the weather and location) I honestly wouldn't choose this school. Hope this was informative...?

1st Year Female -- Class 2010

Campus Aesthetics: A+, Individual Value: F

Thinking about how close I was to transferring my sophomroe year, I really wish I did. Im now a senior in my last year. I have alot of negatives about penn state, the big ones; the weather, the lack of things to do here, the rudeness of northern people (especially people from philly and new jersey)and the fact that they let in way too many dumb people here.

I wanted the college town experience which state college certainly provides. unfortunately, that just means that there is nothing else here to do but drink. I definitely enjoy doing that, but i am fine with drinking just two or so times a week while most people here do it every night of the week. Another thing I never considered was the guy to girl ratio. 55% males might not seem bad but it is actually pretty terrible with 40.000 plus students

Penn state may seem to have alot of student pride but its really just a constant divide here with people from pittsburgh always going at it with people from philly (and trust me, it will never stop.) People here put pro sports wayyy over college sports and it gets annoying fast. I am out of state and I have to say the people here gave me a whole new appreciation for my home area and the state of maryland.

Greek life is pretty huge here, and i rushed my freshman year but i was pretty fast to realize all the guys were douchbags and all the girls were fake (although very hot.) The bars in state college are pretty awesome but they get old too. Tailgating for the few warm football games is really the only thing i get excited about anymore.

The academics are penn state are very good as well as challenging and even my crime law and justice degree (which most people will write off as easy and ill generally agree) had some tough classes. An internship would have been nice but considering its the middle of nowhere here, that was a no-go. All in all, i cannot wait to graduate and get back to the baltimore-washington dc area. There may be some things Ill look back on and miss but i dont really see that happening.

3rd Year Male -- Class 2012

Campus Aesthetics: A+, Individual Value: D