Penn State University

By
Hugo Aguilar & Eileen Truong

AVID 10
Mrs. Vanessa Jara
30 September 2016

Hugo Aguilar / Eileen Truong

Mrs. Vanessa Jara

AVID period 6
30 September 2016
Penn State University
Penn State University is a public, research-intensive university with campuses and
facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania. Their school is founded on the statements,
Teaching students to be leaders with a global perspective. Conducting research that improves
lives [and] Contributing millions to the economy and sharing expertise. Penn State has a variety
of majors and programs for their students, both on campus and online ("PSU Homepage | Penn
State University"). So no matter what situation you are in, you will have a variety of choices to
choose from by attending this college. As Pennsylvania's only land-grant university, they have 24
campuses spread out across the state. Penn State is particularly famous with their program,
Invent Penn State, which offers students resources that will enable them to pursue the
entrepreneurial path. The reason why we are researching this particular college is because we
were impressed with its high acceptance rate of 50.3% and the fact that it is out-of-state. We
chose Penn State so we could broaden both ours and our class options for college. Overall this
university, like many others, are very invested in the success of their students and want them to
grow both in their career and person.
Penn State has exactly 24 campuses, all of which offer students a wide range of college
and residential settings to suit to their tastes. One of Penn States most famous and largest
campus, University Park consists of 46,000 undergrad students that enjoy academics and
recreation in this classic college town setting ("Complete Campus List"). Students wishing for a
smaller, more peaceful campus can go to these campuses: Abington, Altoona, Erie, and

Harrisburg; these campuses range from 4,000-4,500 students. If students want to go even smaller
theres: Beaver, Berks, Brandywine, Dubois, Fayette, Greater Allegheny, Hazleton, Lehigh
Valley, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Schuylkill, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre, Worthington Scranton,
and York; these range from 550-2,800 students. Lastly, there is an online school called World
Campus, or more commonly known as Penn State Online, that offers students the opportunity to
earn their degree online. Hershey, Great Valley, Carlisle, Behrend, and Williamsport are
specialized in specific branches of study. Each campus offer most of the same majors, except for
Hershey, Carlisle, and Williamsport that are specialized in medicine, law, and sports respectively
("Complete Campus List"). According to their website, titled Penn State World Campus,
Diplomas and transcripts are identical to those earned by our Penn State students studying on
campus. Some of these campuses offer a variety of campuses that can be like traditional college
towns to scenic suburbs. Each campus possesses unique classrooms that are specialized for
different types of lectures and labs. The largest on-campus lecture hall is Room 100 in the
Thomas Building and can seat up to 726 students, which is usually used for huge conferences
("Penn State"). The student to faculty ratio is 17:1, which could be the result of the university's
high acceptance rate of 50.3%. About 25,000 students are accepted each year into this school,
and its not a surprise as to why they are usually a favorite among students across the nation.
There are many libraries, a place where students spend most of their time studying and sleeping,
located in this vast college. All of the libraries on this campus are open almost everyday, usually
for 14 hours at most ("University Libraries"). The annual tuition cost depends on the campus you
go to and whether you are a resident of Pennsylvania. If you want to attend University Park, it
will be $29,440-32,440 for residents and $43,272-46,272 for non-residents. For the
Commonwealth campuses, it is $25,828-29,536 for residents and $33,022-37,270 for non-

residents. Not only is there a tuition fees, a student will have to pay additional costs for rooms,
meals, and other amenities; these additional costs range from $11,926-14,926 ("PSU Homepage |
Penn State University"). The amount of students that live on campus are many freshmen and
there are: 13,700 students at University Park, 900 at Altoona, 212 at Beaver, 806 at Berks, 60 at
Dubois, 1,642 at Erie, 209 at Greater Allegheny, 427 at Harrisburg, 485 at Hazleton, 438 at Mont
Alto, and 316 at Schuylkill. Some campuses have private housing located near the campus that
are convenient for those who do not wish to commute to school ("Penn State Campuses | Penn
State University"). However, some campuses like Brandwine have no housing located on or
nearby so all students are encouraged to commute in order to attend. Penn States on campus
restaurants sum up to 18, and they all provide meal plans tailored for both vegetarians and
omnivores ("PSU Menus Online"). Not only does Penn State offer meal plans, but it also has a
student union that provides their student body opportunities in leadership, volunteerism, and
student employment ("HUB-Robeson Center").
Although Penn State University is all around pleasant school to attend for college, it is
rated the 6th in the nation for the highest crime rate (Rizzo). Most of the offenses are forcible sex
crimes and 1.16 in 1000 students are likely to be victims of a crime while attending Penn State .
There have been about 119 forcible sex offenses, 4 robberies, and 39 aggravated assault cases at
Penn State. For a college as massive as Penn State, it makes sense at to why its ranked 6th for
crime rates. With a bigger college, youre bound to encounter diverse people with different
temperaments. On the Penn States public safety page, there have been 8 crimes in the year 2016
("Crime Alerts"). Out of the 8 crimes, 3 are cases relating to criminal mischief which involved
person of interest and vandalism. One quite alarming incident happened on April 16, 2016 that
involved two African American males in their mid-twenties attempting to lure and kidnap

females. As of now, this particular crime has not yet been solved. Another crime involves an
Asian male who attempted to enter the girls dorms, but fled once he was confronted by one of
the residents; this crime has also been unsolved. The last incident of that took place this year is
fraudulent phone scams. Penn State University Police have received multiple reports of phone
calls from scammers trying to obtain personal info and telling them they owe money; this crime
has not been able to be solved either.
There are Educational Opportunity Programs (EOP) and a Comprehensive Studies
Program (CSP) offered at this college. For those of you who are not familiar with EOP, it can be
best described as a program that provides students assistance through mentorship, academics,
financial help, counseling, and many other support services for first generation college students
and/or from low-income backgrounds ("University of California - Admissions"). The contact
person for EOP is Terri Van Slyke; her email is tsv1@psu.edu and her phone number is 717-7714040. CSP is exclusive to Penn State Abington and is centered around the academic success of
their students ("Comprehensive Studies Program (CSP)"). Unfortunately it is only available to
residents who reside in Pennsylvania. The contact person for this specific program is John
Nguyen; his email is jxn@psu.edu and his phone number is 215-881-7353. One popular
scholarship that Penn State's provides is Academic College Scholarship where students can be
awarded $700 to $2,500 per school year. This scholarship opportunity is offered to both first
years and continuing students. The scholarship is offered on many of the campuses at Penn State,
each specializing in a certain branch of study. Another form of scholarships are Campus
Scholarships, which are awarded based on academic performance, SAT/ACT scores, and
financial needs. Students are given the chance to win $800 to $2,000 per academic year and like
the previous scholarship, is offered in many branches of study ("Academic College

Scholarships"). Lastly, theres a scholarship offered from the Office of Student Aid that requires
students to submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to Penn State ("Office of
Student Aid Scholarships"). The Student Aid scholarship is only for full time students (who take
12 units plus) and have a GPA of 3.0 or higher. Those who apply to this scholarship have the
chance to win around $1,500 to $3,200. The career-planning center is located on Penn State Erie
campus, which is an amazing opportunity to explore yourself. The career-planning center does
not cost any money from what was found on the Penn State website. In addition to the student
programs and scholarships, Penn State offers health services that are readily available for
students who need them ("University Health Services (UHS)"). Their services range from
vaccinations to physical therapy.
At Penn State, the overall goal in regards to dormitory life is to make yourself at home. In
and around Penn States twenty-four university campuses, a variety of dorms and apartments can
be found readily available throughout the semester. In addition, coed dorms can be found at most
college campuses ("Housing and Residence Life"). Each campus has its own set of regulation
such as all University Park students have to live on campus during their first year meanwhile
other campus sites operate on a first-come first-serve basis. Due to the wide variety of campuses
scattered across the state, the percentages of students living on campus vary. But despite all this,
the residency statistics can be best summarized by the following; 73% of all university-wide
students live on campus while 28% of those 73% students reside in out-of-state university sites .
On average the most popular housing option is to be situated two people to a room, but the
amount of students under one roof can range from 1 to 8 people (depending on your desired
campus of course). There are a total of three ways that you will be paired with your roommate(s),
the first option is to handpick someone that you have already become acquainted with. The

second and third options are quite similar as you and your future roommate will be paired based
on both of your individual interests, the only difference is that the first option is dealt with on
social media while the third option is decided by the Housing Office. Within each on-site
dormitory building, several facilities are accessible to all students. These include: an electronic
card access system, laundry facilities, and mail and delivery service ("Amenities & Features").
A variety of recreational activities can be found while exploring each individual Penn
State campus but in general they share all the same trends. Community-wide monthly activities
are available to everyone at the university in order to allow the students to better get to know
each other. On top of this, museums, galleries and theaters can be found on the majority of
campuses, most of which are open on weekends. Some of the most notable museums and
galleries include: the Palmer Museum of Art, All-Sports Museum, Patterson Gallery and the
Zoller Gallery ("Welcome to College of Arts and Architecture"). Alongside the Penn State
Museums and Galleries, the School of Theatre and Penn State Forum work alongside to offer
students leisure and amusement during their spare time. The School of Theatre in particular
offers a considerable amount of diversity in terms of dance events and performances ("Penn State
Forum"). Broadway on Allen has become a popular free summer form of entertainment with a
total of seven dates spread across the month of July. In addition, during the Fall and Spring
semesters, performances such as Be More Chill, Twelfth Night, and The Light in the Plaza are
currently on sale. Penn State Forum, on the other hand, provides incentive and motivational
speakers to speak on behalf for their cause and occupations. Tickets are currently being sold for
orators such as Kim Jeffery, Kevin Hines, Julissa Arce and many others soon to come. If none of
these interests you, Penn State University also offers Strength and Fitness gym facilities
("Hepper Fitness Center"). The Hepper Fitness Center, the IM Weight Room and the White

Building offers equipment such as barbells and dumbbells and state-of-the-art machines to
execute any workout routine you may have in mind. The Hepper Fitness Center, IM Weight
Room and the White Buildings weekday hours of operations are from 9AM to 11PM, 6:30AM
to 10PM and 6:30AM to 10PM respectively. In addition their weekend hours of operations are
from 12PM to 10PM, 11AM to 6PM and 10AM to 6PM respectively.
Pennsylvania State University takes pride in their athletic abilities, which is primarily the
reason why they nicknamed themselves The Penn State of Excellence. A plethora of sports are
available throughout all twenty-four universities including but not limited to: baseball, field
hockey, swimming, men and womens hockey, women's lacrosse and men's soccer
("GOPSUSPORTS.com :: Official Athletic Site of Penn State"). With Penn States twenty-nine
sports, games tend to take place frequently and often throughout the fall, winter and spring
semesters. These seasonal sports are free to attend but typically, the price of admission for the
main season tickets ranges from $40-$200 for singles. The benefits of purchasing these tickets
include, exclusive access to single-game ticket presale with preferred pricing, priority access to
Bowl Game tickets, the option to transfer, buy or sell tickets on Penn State TicketExchange, a
priority option to apply for away-game tickets, eligibility for a reserved parking spot at Beaver
Stadium, qualification for season tickets to other sports subject to availability and complimentary
tickets to select Penn State athletic events, including men's and women's basketball and
baseball, all according to the website titled GOPUSPORTS.com. In general, all scholarships
given by Penn State are highly competitive so even though no precise percentage of students
receiving Athletic Scholarships is given, one can only assume it isnt high. Regardless 63% of all
athletic students managed to receive a 3.0 GPA, easily qualifying for a large amount of
scholarships.

Penn State University is a public, research-intensive university with campuses and

facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania. Penn State consists of twenty-four campuses,
each with the goal of aiding their students and making their time studying the best theyve
received. Through various programs, clubs, recreational activities and sports, every individual is
destined to find what suits them best. The Human Development Service does a remarkable and
phenomenal undertaking in helping students with needs such as providing scholarships and
health services. In addition, a students stay in their dormitory will create a strong friendship
between them and their roommate due to the campus outstanding job at pairing individuals.
Although Penn State is ranked sixth in the nations highest crime rate, the atmosphere
encompassing each individual campus creates a gentle and tender community. Overall this
university, like many others, are very invested in the success of their students and want them to
grow both in their career and person.

Works Cited
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"Academic College Scholarships." Penn State Office of Student Aid. Penn State, n.d. Web. 27
Sept. 2016.
"Complete Campus List." PennState Undergradute Admissions. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.
"Comprehensive Studies Program (CSP)." Penn State Abington. Penn State, n.d. Web. 27 Sept.
2016.
"Crime Alerts." University Police & Public Safety. Penn State, n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.
"GOPSUSPORTS.com :: Official Athletic Site of Penn State."GOPSUSPORTS.com :: Official

Athletic Site of Penn State. N.p., 2016. Web. 19 Sept. 2016.

"Hepper Fitness Center." PSU Strength and Fitness. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Sept. 2016.
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Sept. 2016.
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"PSU Menus Online." PSU Menus Online. Penn State, n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
Rizzo, Kevin. "Campus Crime 2015: Top 10 Highest Reported Crime Rates for Large Colleges Law Street (TM)." Law Street (TM). Made In New York, 12 Aug. 2015. Web. 30 Sept.
2016.
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"University Libraries." Hours and Locations. Penn State, n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.
"University of California - Admissions." Educational Opportunity Program (EOP). University
of California, n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.
"Welcome to College of Arts and Architecture." College of Arts and Architecture. N.p., 2015.
Web. 21 Sept. 2016.