Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Top Questions

It could be contested that the biggest stereotype of students at Penn State is that everyone is a drinker. This is somewhat true especially around football games and State Patty's Day, a holiday at Penn State specifically for drinking. However, this does not mean all students at Penn State drink constantly. In fact, the only reason there are so many drinkers may be because of the shear size of the school itself. In other words, drinking varies from person despite what seems like a lot of drinkers at Penn State.

Party school revolves around greek life. Extenuation of high school.

Jock, Frat kids, Stoners

Students at Penn State are often characterized as jocks or frat brothers because of our high profile sports and large Greek life. While this is accurate for some students, the vast majority at a school as big as Penn State are just normal, young adults, enjoying time with friends and working hard in class.

The main stereotype at my school is that everyone here parties...a lot. At one point, we were ranked the #1 party school in the nation. Also, we are responsible for making up our own drinking holiday: State Patty's Day. I think what most people don't realize is that this is college and a majority of people in college do party. At a university with such a large student body, that majority happens to count as upwards of 20,000 people (most people attend schools in which 20,000 students or less is the total population just to put it in perspective) . With that many people, of course partying seems to be a popular extracurricular activity. Keep in mind though, when you attend a university with a large student body you are also going to find many different kinds of people interested in everything ranging from sports, to music, to volunteering and you are bound to come across someone with similar hobbies. No need to take stereotypes too seriously.

Stereotypically, Penn Staters are party-animals. After all, we were the number one party school in the nation for a long time. But, I don't necessarily think that title is fair. Penn State is also one of the top recruiting schools for graduating students, especially those from the Engineering fields. Not to mention, PSU has the largest alumni group in the world! We're definitely not just a party school.

Frat guys and sorority girls who like drinking and football, science & engineering guys

There are a few stereotypes that follow the students at my school. One of the first stereotypes is that all the students do at my school is party. This stereotype is untrue, actually my school has very good academics and is known not to go easy on the students when it comes to work load. This school teaches students how to manage their time and challenges them in all areas academically. Another stereotype about students at our school is that we only care about sports mainly football and that sports come before school work. This is also untrue our school takes pride in our sports teams achievements but we have rules and standards put in place so that students always know that school work comes first before anything. Lastly, my school has been under fire because of recent events that have unfolded involving school faculty. This publicity in my opinion would bring other schools down but not us. This situation has brought our school even closer together to show pride for our school and defend our school name. In the end our school is a family not just a group of students and a group of faculty and despite what the media says we still stand by each other.

Some people say that Penn State students are immoral for the riots that occurred after the firing of Joe Paterno. I would like to say to all those who label an entire university of over 40,000 undergraduates that it is beyond wrong to characterize a university by the acts of a few.

Penn State students are stereotyped as party-goers, but in reality most of us are not crazy party animals.