The Pennsylvania State University — Restaurant in State College

Hate to do it, but I'm going to have to agree with some of what Mark said. I think I owe it to my Alma Mater and native-state to try to make it better through constructive criticism. Penn State main-campus' strength is not necessarily it's personal-touch. Although I graduated from this institution and do have some fond memories and appreciate the experience, I definitely came-in optimistic, social, confident and left not necessarily so, somewhat socially-awkward and feeling disconnected from people around me. I think I even regressed in-terms of health-habits and life-skills. Not only is this school huge, but State College itself is somewhat isolated (Happy Valley) from the rest-of the world. This has its advantages and disadvantages. Perhaps, things have changed since I graduated, but for all of the money that is spent on administration and staff, something could be done to make sure that every single student is made to feel connected and like more than just a number. The branch-campuses definitely do a better job of this in my-experience. I completed a graduate degree from a Penn State branch-campus several years later and actually felt the care and quality of instruction was much better without sacrificing rigor across the board. I would suggest that if a student is considering Penn State, to pay-close attention to the effect that campus-size has on the students' experience (if that isn't obvious -- as it wasn't to me as an idealistic and focused teenager who grew-up brainwashed by the Penn State brand). That being said, it is what it is and there are advantages to being at main-campus. If you do go to main for your undergrad and you think you might have trouble adjusting to the size, be certain to stay on-campus for as long-as-possible, get and stay involved in something that connects you to a group of people outside of your normal academic and social activities, the more the better. Whatever you like to do with other people, find an organization that does it, and if it doesn't exist, create it. The quality of your experience depends on it. I think this is just as important as the academics or partying at a school like this in my mind. My experience with career services after attending every single career fair aside from one during my four years at Penn State, mirrors my other experience. While it's nice to dress-up and get some practice pitching yourself at these fairs, I did not feel that career services did anything that I couldn't do more effectively myself and on my own. It merely contributed to that feeling of being just another number. We may be Penn State, but we can do a better job of encouraging uniqueness, inclusivity, and caring for...

I am only giving a rating of 2 stars because of the social atmosphere. The social atmosphere is great: football games, plenty of activities to be found, friends are easy to make, etc. It's definitely a great place to discover who you are as an individual and what your interests are. Other than that, the academics (especially in the Eberly College of Science) are horrendous. Classes are entirely too big (even as you advance in your major, you will still be in big lecture halls), the majority of professors do not care about undergraduates (they would rather put their attention to their research and oftentimes will act nasty/apathetic towards students should you ask for help), active learning and critical thinking is not fostered in the majority of classes (your grade is based on exams that assess your ability to memorize insignificant details, not how you critically assess and apply your knowledge), and many of the advisers do not do their job of helping students transition into their major and provide guidance along the way. Many of the lab classes are based on outdated curriculum that bear very little coherence to classroom material (for example, doing an entire half semester's worth of work on siRNA in plants when we only spent 10 minutes talking about that in class) and many students leave class very confused about what is even going on in their experiments. There is too much emphasis on General Education requirements and not enough on classes within the major. For example, I wanted to take a Human Genetics class but sadly I could not because I did not have room in my schedule, as I was required to take a tedious English class (which focused on common-sense everyday things that one already knows [i.e. how to properly format margins, how to format web pages to make them aesthetic, etc.]). While I was there, I studied typically 5-6 hours everyday and tried to reach out to professors for help when I did not comprehend something. I would say approximately 70% of the time, I was met with condescending remarks and nasty/apathetic attitudes from professors. For all the money the school generates through research, you'd think they would invest more in their students with better facilities and instruction/curriculum. Sadly, they don't. Do yourself a favor: if you're out-of-state and are looking to major in science, do not waste more than $36K a year to attend this school. Education is meant to foster learning, critical thinking, and application of knowledge to real-life scenarios. Penn State Eberly College of Science...

I’ve got a very love hate relationship with this college. Penn State University Park has many opportunities and is a very credible school. There are many jobs you can work on campus and are helpful for growth in your work ethic. Campus is very clean and large. You can major in many different fields. It is a very safe place to live. There are many places you can visit and will be worth your time. Food very good to eat. Penn State themselves provides jobs that you can work full time and have a sustainable income with benefits. Problem however… Professors don’t show much interest in their students improving. Let alone getting good grades. Yes, I’ve had a couple professors care about me. However, the rest don’t express interest in being a professor let alone working at Penn State. Which to me is a red flag, I came to this college to learn material and improve. Instead I see poor work ethic and bad morals. It is common to see a class get canceled while your on your way to class. Taking exams what is talked about in class and is on their slides, is useless info.This is because the exams will have content completely irrelevant to what is shown in class. When it comes to my advisors, they have provided no help. I’ll ask questions about classes that will satisfy my major, and what is going to help, yet every time I receive “I don’t know”. Scheduling a 30 minute meeting that I have to book two weeks ahead of for that response is not helpful and gives reason to not bother making the appointment. I view Penn State as an “acquired taste”. This doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad, it doesn’t mean it’s terrible, more I don’t have a great deal of respect for the college. Some love it, some don’t. Personally I did not enjoy my time here. But it was the redeeming qualities I mentioned before that made me gaze over the bad preventing me from hating this university. If I were to give this university a grade it’s be either a C-. This college has a lot of room for improvement that if they were to acknowledge their flaws they’d be better except there is a good likelihood that’ll not been seen in the...