Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Top Questions

Its cool there, fairly diverse but mostly white.

PSU is extremely tolerant. Be whoever you are, I doubt anyone will bother you. If they do, PSU is tough on harassment and will back you up. People don't really dress up for class. Your first friends will probably be from your dorm. Politics is a big issue on campus, which is great.

Everyone can find their place @ PSU. It might take some time, but we our a school for everyone.

PSU seems to be generally left leaning. There is always a drum circle downtown and Peace protests going on on Allen Street. All the stereotypes of college life, frat boys throwing Frisbees in huge front yards, toga parties, etc. are all alive and well at PSU. The girls that roam the streets at night are far from conservative and in every three foot by three foot square around campus you'll find at least two frat boys. Once you get over to the Forum and Palmer Museum of Art the crowds drastically change. All the pierced up art kids seem to hang out in clumps by their respective buildings. The general financial background of PSU students seems to middle to upper middle class. There are hardly any Hispanic students at PSU. The population seems to be 50{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} white, 20{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} asian, 20{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} African American, 5{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} Hispanic, 5{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} other.

The thing about PSU is it's huge and there's no "norm". People are from everywhere, you just have to look in the right places. If you go to frats, obviously you'll find upper class white kids from north jersey. If you join clubs or work on campus, you'll find the best mix of people from different backgrounds, which I found to be refreshing. Football games are also an event that brings everybody from every background together.

everything

Penn State is a predominantly white school. There are plenty of minorities, but they are a small subsection of the entire student body. I've never seen any blatant acts of racism, or anything like that, but you will basically notice that Asians mostly hang out with other Asians, blacks hang out with blacks, etc. This isn't to say any of us hate each other, that's just sort of the way things worked out. As far as finances go, Penn State sort of crosses the whole spectrum. It is a "state" school, technically, so it's not as expensive as most private schools. However, there are a lot of people there on Mommy and Daddy's money, especially within the whole Greek scene. Most kids are from PA, but there are some people from the surrounding states, and even international students.

Penn State's student body is so vast. There are people from every socio-economic, cultural, gendered, religious, etc. background. There are certainly people who try to push their values on everybody else, but this actually unites people who are outside that value. I and all my friends learned so much about themselves from being here. I have interacted in some way with almost every representative of religious groups, socio-economic backgrounds, etc. on campus and find it enriching, interesting and enjoyable. To come to such a huge university says a lot about a person; that they can tolerate a lot of different kinds of people.

Sicking levels of school pride abound. If you loved going to your highschool football games with your entire body painted, sobbing like a miserable wretch when the opponents scored and screaming with such unadulterated glee that most 80's hair bands would have to stand back in awe, you'll fit right in - not just at football games, but in general. Those who are able to subscribe to that WE ARE sort of mindset will do well; anyone unimpressed by those who claim to bleed blue and white and drain their trust funds to buy Notre Dame tickets will look at those around him or her and feel nothing but pity and annoyance.

The trend of Ugg boots, as well as wearing leggings with no skirt/pants needs to stop. Ugg boots are ridiculously overpriced boots. It was a sad, sad day when one of the main stories in the college newspaper was the shortage of Ugg boots. There are more important things in the world, heck even in campus life than Ugg boots. As for the leggings trend, for gosh sakes put some pants on! I don't want to see your vajayjay, or any other part of your body that is made perfectly clear thanks to leggings. Wearing an over-sized shirt and leggings doesn't make you look cool. It makes you look like you don't know how to dress yourself and you forgot to put pants on.