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Interview with a PSU Student

Interview with a PSU Student

Interview with a PSU Student 2

Interview with a PSU Student 1

There is certainly a dominant persona of a Penn State student. The majority of students are white, from a middle class backround, and from an area of Pennsylvania. Despite the abundance of people who fit those categories, Penn State does still include other minorities, economic and social groups. I believe that economically Penn State is mostly middle class because of its tuition rates. I have friends that are both white and black, but I've never ran into racial or social problems. Most students, despite their differences, seem to find friends who support and appreciate them in college, and tensions become less apparent. Penn State students are intelligent and I believe that the education students recieve helps transcend boundaries of race, religion, etc. Penn State is a place where if a problem exists, students have the means and opportunity to voice that. Many student groups, whether it be the LGBTA or the NAACP chapter, host events to help conquer any prejudices people may have. Penn State students are greatly open to change and work hard for it. This past year, we had events that ranged from sweatshop protests to Amnesty International marches. Penn State students are active in their rights and that is one thing I am certainly proud of.

One of the great advantages to attending a large school such as Penn State is that there is a very diverse student body. This exposes students to new people and cultures, and gives them the opportunity to learn about these different groups. At Penn State it is impossible not to find a group of people with whom you can identify, and it is also very easy to expose yourself to new and interesting people.

Speaking as a distant alumni I doubt I could provide anything accurate about what the current student body is like, however as a Penn State grad I can say that the amount of alumni is staggering in the working world. Penn State Alumni tend to gravitate to each other, and it certainly helps during interviews and social events.

Most students at PSU are from the upper middle class, but there are some from higher and lower economic backgrounds. Financial aid is not that good at PSU, unless you're on an athletic scholarship.

Though they call PSU very diverse, it's about as diverse as you can get within the middle of Penn-tuckey. The only downside to the diversity is the fact that in general, most racial diversity is nulled by the non-mixing of groups. Asians always hang out with Asians, Blacks with blacks, indians with indians, whites with whites. Every once in a while you'll find an anomaly however you never see large mixed groups. The student body is noted for it's parties, frats are solid so long as you stay away from some of the large ones downtown. Frat land across from campus will actually give you drinks and be nice to you if you're a guest, where as downtown frats look at you simply as a liability. Politically, we're pretty liberal I suppose, but it's not way off kilter, it's probably about 60-40 or 65-35 liberal-conservative. Either way, you get some pretty intense arguments when opposites want to. As far as converstations go, most of the time you talk about the party or upcoming weekend, we're very good at dividing academia and social interactions, creating a very relaxed weekend, and a very good learning environment during the week.

PSU is a really wide range of backgrounds and ehtnicities.