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Pennsylvania State University
usinfo | 2013-06-17 10:53
History
Like many land grant universities, Penn State started off as an agricultural college. The concept of Penn State was originally devised in the 1850s. A local iron worker donated 200 acres of farmland to the new institution, and the first president conceived a broad education based on his own European education. The institution was actually officially established in 1863. Over the decades Penn State grew from an undergraduate institution to an agricultural research institution and finally to a scientific research community. The country’s involvement in the space race and national concerns for the quality of education, among other hot topics, have guided Penn State to develop leading educational and research programs.
Penn State University (officially known as The Pennsylvania State University) is located in University Park, Pennsylvania. There are 19 branch campus located around the State of Pennsylvania. There is also a medical school in Hershey, a law school in Dickinson, a school of graduate and professional studies in Malvern, and the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport. Penn State also offers a distance education program known as World Campus. Penn State University was founded in 1855 as an agricultural school and received university status in 1953. The University now awards associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and professional degrees.
Penn State University defines its mission as one “that improves the lives of the people of Pennsylvania, the nation, and the world through integrated, high-quality programs in teaching, research, and service.”
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Academics
Penn State’s strongest academic programs are in the technical and scientific fields, primarily life sciences, engineering, agriculture, and the earth sciences. These are also some of the tougher disciplines on campus. Other quality programs include geography, chemistry, mathematics, and business. Some of the more popular lectures can have class sizes of 300 or more. Overall, Penn State offers more than 225 programs of study for undergraduates. All undergraduates are required to take a certain allotment of “diversity-focused” courses that teach minority and cultural awareness.
The University Park Campus is composed of a number of different schools and colleges: the College of Agricultural Sciences, the College of Arts and Architecture, the Smeal College of Business, the College of Communications, the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, the College of Education, the College of Engineering, the College of Health and Human Development, the School of Information Sciences and Technology, the College of the Liberal Arts, the Eberly College of Science, and the Graduate School.
Bachelor’s degrees are awarded in a number of different disciplines, including of accounting, administration of justice, agriculture, a wide range of the sciences and humanities, classics and ancient Mediterranean studies, creative writing, business, engineering, education, forensic science, hotel restaurant and institutional management, information sciences and technology, mathematics, music, nursing, plastics engineering technology, psychology, Russian, statistics, theatre, and women’s studies.
Graduate programs at the University Park campus also cover a wide range of fields, including acoustics, apply statistics, as your biology, counselor education, educational leadership, fuel science, health policy and administration, industrial engineering, mathematics, music, nursing, plant pathology, world sociology, teacher certification, wildlife and fisheries science, and youth and family education. There are graduate minor programs in gerontology, high-performance computing, language acquisition, linguistics, literary theory, criticism and aesthetics, medieval studies, religious studies, science, technology, and society, and social thought.
Graduate programs are also offered at the Erie campus, the Harrisburg campus, the School of Graduate and Professional Studies campus, and the College of Medicine. A few graduate programs, primarily in education, are also available through the online world campus. The law school is a partnership with the Dickinson school of Law in Dickinson, Pennsylvania.
Unique Programs
Penn State’s meteorology program is home to Accu-Weather, a system used to make accurate weather forecasts. In fact, the system’s designer is a Penn State alum. Other unique academic programs include Industrial Health and Safety and a focus on electrical engineering.
One beneficial offering is the L.E.A.P. (Learning Edge Academic Program). This intensive program immerses freshmen in the lifestyle of a large university like Penn State, but teams them with like-minded students who have similar interests. Students study and attend class together and, in some cases, even live together. They also have access to career counselors to determine exactly how their degree can be put to use.
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Admissions
An impressive eighty percent of undergraduates at Penn State ranked in the top quarter of their high school class. For first year admissions, applicants must have a high school diploma or equivalent. The average entrant at Penn State has a high school GPA of 3.51 to 3.90, a SAT score of 1180 to 1340, and an ACT score of 26 to 30. High school GPA accounts for two-thirds of an applicant’s results, while all other factors contribute to the other third. While these are all factors in determining admission, each student is considered on his or her own individual merit and how he or she might contribute to the greater University community.
It is strongly recommended that applicants for the fall semester have complete applications filed by November 30 of the prior year. There is an application fee of $50. In addition to the application form and fee, students must provide high school transcripts and test scores. Programs such as architecture, music, theatre, visual arts, pre-medicine, the joint science BS/MBA, and the golf management program have special additional requirements. Applications can be submitted on-line.
Graduate students should consult the individual program for instructions for applications. Students applying to the Dickinson school of Law or the College of Medicine at Hershey should consult those schools specifically for information about the requirements. Applicants may only apply to one graduate program/campus at a time. Nondegree admission is available.
Financial Aid
Athletes are especially welcomed in the scholarship programs at Penn State, which offers over 500 different athletic scholarships in various NCAA sports. For other undergraduates, the FAFSA should be submitted as early as possible. Penn State offers university-wide scholarships, for which students are automatically considered when the apply for admission. Scholarships that are based in particular fields must be applied for through the department that offers them.
Over seventy percent of Penn State recipients of financial aid received loans. The Office of Student Aid can facilitate application for the appropriate loan program for each student, including Perkins Loans, Stafford Loans, and the PLUS loan for parents of undergraduates.
In-state tuition and fees for undergraduate students were $10,408 in 2004-2005 at the University park campus. Students applying from out of state and graduate students will have different costs. The tuition rates also vary with the branch campuses.
Financial aid is available with a combination of grants, scholarships, loans, and work-study programs.
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Students
Dormitory living is a requirement for all freshmen at Penn State. While the University is fairly well known for its academics, it also has quite a reputation for parties and celebrations on campus. Greeks make up a significant portion of the student body, and offer regular partying options. The student union, aptly named The Hub, is open 24 hours for students who are looking for some kind of entertainment besides partying.
The University’s location among some of the country’s most beautiful countryside offers students various options for outdoor activity. Skiing, hiking, and sailing are favorite pastimes. Local events include the arts, as well as symphonies, rock concerts, and ballet.
In addition to the numerous classroom, dormitory, and administration buildings, Penn State University has a theatre, two auditoriums, an art museum, and several other galleries. There are a number of research institutes on campus.
The Penn State University Library offers electronic catalogs and on-line databases, in additional to physical volumes stored on site. There are a number of smaller libraries devoted to particular programs. Special collections include rare books and manuscripts, the University archives, and the historical collection and labor archives.
Athletics
The Penn State Nittany Lions have almost a cult following, due in large part to football coach Joe Paterno’s influence. Tailgate parties—both pregame and postgame—prevail on game day. Some of the University’s biggest rivals include Michigan and Ohio, and tickets for those games are highly coveted. Recent renovations to the University stadium have made it much friendlier and more comfortable.
Penn State offers twenty-nine varsity teams. National titles have been captured in field hockey, fencing, and volleyball.
Penn State University is an NCAA Division I school, with baseball, basketball, cross-country, diving, fencing, football, golf, gymnastics, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, tennis, track & field, volleyball, and wrestling for men and basketball, cross-country, diving, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track & field, and volleyball for women. The team nickname is the Nittany Lions. Penn State plays in the Big 10 Conference.
Sports facilities include Beaver Stadium, which has capacity of 107,282 seats, a multipurpose building, golf courses, baseball and softball fields, a tennis center, and a center for basketball. (The Jordan Center also hosts entertainment and other activities.) The University has a sports museum with 10,000 square feet.
There is an all women’s and a co-ed cheerleading team. There is also a mascot, the Nittany Lion.
Penn State has won 35 national team championships in men’s sports, most recently gymnastics in 2004. There been 14 women’s championships, most recently volleyball in 1999. There also have been nine individual fencing championships since 1990.
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Traditions
The Nittany Lion mascot dates back to the early 1900s, when the term “nittany” (which means ‘mountain’ in a native American language) was applied to a local wildcat. The Penn State campus is home to the Nittany Lion Shrine, a likeness of the lion carved into limestone, where students gather for spirit events. For visitors to the University and the local community, the Nittany Lion Inn offers visitors a spirited and historic location with all the comforts of the northeast.
Local Community
State College is located in the heart of Pennsylvania and is the center of the Penn State community’s branch campuses. Local attractions include the Mount Nittany Vineyards and Winery, Penn’s Cave, the PSU golf courses, and Bald Eagle State Park. State College is also home to numerous museums and galleries, including the Matson Museum of Anthropology, Earth & Mineral Sciences Museum, and the Frost Entomological Museum.
University Park is located in central, hilly, rural Pennsylvania.
Like many land grant universities, Penn State started off as an agricultural college. The concept of Penn State was originally devised in the 1850s. A local iron worker donated 200 acres of farmland to the new institution, and the first president conceived a broad education based on his own European education. The institution was actually officially established in 1863. Over the decades Penn State grew from an undergraduate institution to an agricultural research institution and finally to a scientific research community. The country’s involvement in the space race and national concerns for the quality of education, among other hot topics, have guided Penn State to develop leading educational and research programs.
Penn State University (officially known as The Pennsylvania State University) is located in University Park, Pennsylvania. There are 19 branch campus located around the State of Pennsylvania. There is also a medical school in Hershey, a law school in Dickinson, a school of graduate and professional studies in Malvern, and the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport. Penn State also offers a distance education program known as World Campus. Penn State University was founded in 1855 as an agricultural school and received university status in 1953. The University now awards associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and professional degrees.
Penn State University defines its mission as one “that improves the lives of the people of Pennsylvania, the nation, and the world through integrated, high-quality programs in teaching, research, and service.”
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Academics
Penn State’s strongest academic programs are in the technical and scientific fields, primarily life sciences, engineering, agriculture, and the earth sciences. These are also some of the tougher disciplines on campus. Other quality programs include geography, chemistry, mathematics, and business. Some of the more popular lectures can have class sizes of 300 or more. Overall, Penn State offers more than 225 programs of study for undergraduates. All undergraduates are required to take a certain allotment of “diversity-focused” courses that teach minority and cultural awareness.
The University Park Campus is composed of a number of different schools and colleges: the College of Agricultural Sciences, the College of Arts and Architecture, the Smeal College of Business, the College of Communications, the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, the College of Education, the College of Engineering, the College of Health and Human Development, the School of Information Sciences and Technology, the College of the Liberal Arts, the Eberly College of Science, and the Graduate School.
Bachelor’s degrees are awarded in a number of different disciplines, including of accounting, administration of justice, agriculture, a wide range of the sciences and humanities, classics and ancient Mediterranean studies, creative writing, business, engineering, education, forensic science, hotel restaurant and institutional management, information sciences and technology, mathematics, music, nursing, plastics engineering technology, psychology, Russian, statistics, theatre, and women’s studies.
Graduate programs at the University Park campus also cover a wide range of fields, including acoustics, apply statistics, as your biology, counselor education, educational leadership, fuel science, health policy and administration, industrial engineering, mathematics, music, nursing, plant pathology, world sociology, teacher certification, wildlife and fisheries science, and youth and family education. There are graduate minor programs in gerontology, high-performance computing, language acquisition, linguistics, literary theory, criticism and aesthetics, medieval studies, religious studies, science, technology, and society, and social thought.
Graduate programs are also offered at the Erie campus, the Harrisburg campus, the School of Graduate and Professional Studies campus, and the College of Medicine. A few graduate programs, primarily in education, are also available through the online world campus. The law school is a partnership with the Dickinson school of Law in Dickinson, Pennsylvania.
Unique Programs
Penn State’s meteorology program is home to Accu-Weather, a system used to make accurate weather forecasts. In fact, the system’s designer is a Penn State alum. Other unique academic programs include Industrial Health and Safety and a focus on electrical engineering.
One beneficial offering is the L.E.A.P. (Learning Edge Academic Program). This intensive program immerses freshmen in the lifestyle of a large university like Penn State, but teams them with like-minded students who have similar interests. Students study and attend class together and, in some cases, even live together. They also have access to career counselors to determine exactly how their degree can be put to use.
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Admissions
An impressive eighty percent of undergraduates at Penn State ranked in the top quarter of their high school class. For first year admissions, applicants must have a high school diploma or equivalent. The average entrant at Penn State has a high school GPA of 3.51 to 3.90, a SAT score of 1180 to 1340, and an ACT score of 26 to 30. High school GPA accounts for two-thirds of an applicant’s results, while all other factors contribute to the other third. While these are all factors in determining admission, each student is considered on his or her own individual merit and how he or she might contribute to the greater University community.
It is strongly recommended that applicants for the fall semester have complete applications filed by November 30 of the prior year. There is an application fee of $50. In addition to the application form and fee, students must provide high school transcripts and test scores. Programs such as architecture, music, theatre, visual arts, pre-medicine, the joint science BS/MBA, and the golf management program have special additional requirements. Applications can be submitted on-line.
Graduate students should consult the individual program for instructions for applications. Students applying to the Dickinson school of Law or the College of Medicine at Hershey should consult those schools specifically for information about the requirements. Applicants may only apply to one graduate program/campus at a time. Nondegree admission is available.
Financial Aid
Athletes are especially welcomed in the scholarship programs at Penn State, which offers over 500 different athletic scholarships in various NCAA sports. For other undergraduates, the FAFSA should be submitted as early as possible. Penn State offers university-wide scholarships, for which students are automatically considered when the apply for admission. Scholarships that are based in particular fields must be applied for through the department that offers them.
Over seventy percent of Penn State recipients of financial aid received loans. The Office of Student Aid can facilitate application for the appropriate loan program for each student, including Perkins Loans, Stafford Loans, and the PLUS loan for parents of undergraduates.
In-state tuition and fees for undergraduate students were $10,408 in 2004-2005 at the University park campus. Students applying from out of state and graduate students will have different costs. The tuition rates also vary with the branch campuses.
Financial aid is available with a combination of grants, scholarships, loans, and work-study programs.
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Students
Dormitory living is a requirement for all freshmen at Penn State. While the University is fairly well known for its academics, it also has quite a reputation for parties and celebrations on campus. Greeks make up a significant portion of the student body, and offer regular partying options. The student union, aptly named The Hub, is open 24 hours for students who are looking for some kind of entertainment besides partying.
The University’s location among some of the country’s most beautiful countryside offers students various options for outdoor activity. Skiing, hiking, and sailing are favorite pastimes. Local events include the arts, as well as symphonies, rock concerts, and ballet.
In addition to the numerous classroom, dormitory, and administration buildings, Penn State University has a theatre, two auditoriums, an art museum, and several other galleries. There are a number of research institutes on campus.
The Penn State University Library offers electronic catalogs and on-line databases, in additional to physical volumes stored on site. There are a number of smaller libraries devoted to particular programs. Special collections include rare books and manuscripts, the University archives, and the historical collection and labor archives.
Athletics
The Penn State Nittany Lions have almost a cult following, due in large part to football coach Joe Paterno’s influence. Tailgate parties—both pregame and postgame—prevail on game day. Some of the University’s biggest rivals include Michigan and Ohio, and tickets for those games are highly coveted. Recent renovations to the University stadium have made it much friendlier and more comfortable.
Penn State offers twenty-nine varsity teams. National titles have been captured in field hockey, fencing, and volleyball.
Penn State University is an NCAA Division I school, with baseball, basketball, cross-country, diving, fencing, football, golf, gymnastics, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, tennis, track & field, volleyball, and wrestling for men and basketball, cross-country, diving, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track & field, and volleyball for women. The team nickname is the Nittany Lions. Penn State plays in the Big 10 Conference.
Sports facilities include Beaver Stadium, which has capacity of 107,282 seats, a multipurpose building, golf courses, baseball and softball fields, a tennis center, and a center for basketball. (The Jordan Center also hosts entertainment and other activities.) The University has a sports museum with 10,000 square feet.
There is an all women’s and a co-ed cheerleading team. There is also a mascot, the Nittany Lion.
Penn State has won 35 national team championships in men’s sports, most recently gymnastics in 2004. There been 14 women’s championships, most recently volleyball in 1999. There also have been nine individual fencing championships since 1990.
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Traditions
The Nittany Lion mascot dates back to the early 1900s, when the term “nittany” (which means ‘mountain’ in a native American language) was applied to a local wildcat. The Penn State campus is home to the Nittany Lion Shrine, a likeness of the lion carved into limestone, where students gather for spirit events. For visitors to the University and the local community, the Nittany Lion Inn offers visitors a spirited and historic location with all the comforts of the northeast.
Local Community
State College is located in the heart of Pennsylvania and is the center of the Penn State community’s branch campuses. Local attractions include the Mount Nittany Vineyards and Winery, Penn’s Cave, the PSU golf courses, and Bald Eagle State Park. State College is also home to numerous museums and galleries, including the Matson Museum of Anthropology, Earth & Mineral Sciences Museum, and the Frost Entomological Museum.
University Park is located in central, hilly, rural Pennsylvania.
