Penn State Mont Alto — Attraction in Mont Alto

Take it from someone who actually studied there for two years. Penn State Mont Alto is a surprisingly great campus. Is it in the middle of nowhere? At first glance, yes. But in fact, civilization is merely a hop, skip and a jump away as Haggerstown Maryland is only a 20 minute drive away. That town has just about everything a college student would need. Restaurants, a fantastic outlet mall, a halfway decent regular mall, Movie theaters. And 2 miles away from campus is a Walmart superstore. If you don't have a car, shopping trips are regularly scheduled by the student government. And if you miss out on that, so long as you have a friend with a car, you can get anywhere between Waynesboro, Chambersburg and Haggerstown, or even State College. And trust me, you will make plenty of friends here, many of whom will be locals, and so they will know their way around the area very well. The bulk of my friends from college that I still keep in touch with are people that I met at Mont Alto. And you may be surprised (I know I was when I first got there) but that campus is very diverse for being out in the middle of nowhere. I've met people at this campus from all over the country and some from other countries, all different races and creeds. The faculty is great, and they are really dedicated to making sure you get a good start. If for some reason you must finish your college career here, admittedly, your choices for a degree are limited as it is a branch campus, but every other branch aside from PSU Altoona is the same way. It's designed for you to spend a year or two here and then move to University Park to finish your degree. Also, the dorms aren't bad at all. Especially Penn Gate 2. Penn Gate 2 offers suite style rooms with their own bathrooms and showers shared by two rooms. The building is less than 15 years old and so it is in very good condition. Mont Alto Hall offers a more traditional dorm experience, and I must say it is an experience that every college student should have at least once. This is an older building, so expect smaller dorm rooms, communal bathrooms, painted cinder block walls, you know, traditional dorm room. Get creative with your room mate and make it work for you guys and you'll be fine. And if the food is still the same as when I was a student there, then the Millstream Cafe is excellent. I cooked there for a semester and so I know the food well. I can tell you that the quality is definitely there. I was addicted to their philly cheese steaks for a while. You can get just about anything there from hamburgers and cheese sticks to a new york strip steak (if it's on the menu that day). Their breakfast food is fantastic as well!

On a final note, just to be clear. Penn State Mont Alto had absolutely less than nothing to do with the Jerry Sandusky scandal. I doubt Sandusky even knows the campus exists. That said, if you are going to judge a branch campus by the actions or inactions of a handful of faculty and staff from another campus, or if you are going to judge the quality of a Penn State education as a whole based on what happened, then you're probably not smart enough to get into college anywhere. So don't bother applying if you are one of those people. Penn State Mont Alto is a fabulous campus. A diamond in the rough if you will. Given the opportunity to go back in time and do it all again, I would...

This campus is in the middle of nowhere which is not convenient for those without a car. There is only 1 place to eat food and it often closes at early times which is not convenient for those without a car Professors are terrible and use a terrible grading system when it comes to their courses plus they are very petty when it comes to grading students who they seem to not like. Some professors teach classes one way but take exams from other campuses to give out to students which do not contain the same teaching style they have taught us the students. This campus with Academically hold you back if you plan on transferring to main campus because of the small amount of classes that are available. There are advisors who will trick you into staying at Mont Alto for 4 years and as a student you must do your own research as too what and where you want to go and make sure you are not getting duped into staying at such an atrocious campus for your undergraduate degree. A lot of courses here have to be self taught due to terrible teachers. If you are a minority i advice you to not attend Mont Alto due to racism that is out there in that community and within the school, there are a couple of white students who use the "N word" but do not let minority hear them say it when they are around. This campus does not take the problems of racism serious and often push it aside due to their lack of empathy of any situation. The campus does not make Minority feel welcomed at all.. The retention rate is dropping because this campus lacks a lot of things and is overall terrible and the people around here are worse. Please do not listen to any of the great reviews on this campus because i can honestly say that if you are not from around the Mont Alto area this campus would be the worst Penn State...

I went to this campus for three years and there’s numerous issues with it. More than 20 minute drive away from any grocery store, only one place to eat on campus and it has very limited hours and very limited options (don’t go here if you have dietary restrictions or want to eat healthy unless you drive to the grocery store) and there’s only one pizzaria place that will deliver food to the campus, no other places nearby are close enough (I called several places and nobody does unless it’s changed in the past year or two). No public transportation anywhere closeby and no ubers/lyfts unless you pay a fortune. There’s also very limited parking nearby the dorms, so everybody constantly fights over spots. There’s other parking lots, but sometimes those will fill up completely too and if they fill up, they will expect you to park all the way across the street and away from campus and then walk all the way up the mountain to the dorms across a busy street. The dorm building is old with no air conditioning and communal bathrooms for each wing on each floor; very thin walls, so be prepared for noise and to hear everything. Would recommend commuting if you want to go here.

Don’t bother trying to get a job on campus if you don’t have financial aid or a certain amount because then you can only work at the cafeteria for minimum wage really. Some teachers are great/wonderful and some are really awful. You can’t hold any teacher accountable if anything goes wrong or isn’t fair; Do not rely on the student advocate or majority of staff to help you with that because they won’t. Even the student advocate will say “that’s not my job” or “figure it out yourself”.

Definitely would not recommend; not...