First, I don't want to say I HATE Penn State. I don't; if it was THAT bad, I wouldn't have stayed for these four years. If I hadn't gone to PSU, I never would have met my wonderful fiance! BUT, I don't think Penn State is that great. I'm not even going to discuss academics...every major is different, so what is good in mine may not be for you. Instead, I am going to tell you about a few real life things and let you make your own decision. Picture this:

1. Freshmen, you cannot have cars on campus. BUT, do you know where the student parking lots are? YES!! Right next to East Halls, which is mainly freshmen! If you don't live in East, you'll probably be walking at least 10 minutes to get to your car--and most likely you'll be walking all uphill. If you do live in East, you're crazy. It's a 10-15 minute walk from the MIDDLE of campus (depending on how fast you walk). Of course, you probably won't want to think about using your car too much. If you take it out anytime between Sunday and Thursday, when you come back, you will be relegated to 'lot 83N' which is 5-10 minutes further than the other lots because someone will have taken your space when you do get back. And don't you DARE park in a faculty lot!! Whether it's empty or not, if they catch you, it's a ticket. Oh yeah, in the winter, definitely keep a shovel in your trunk--they plow the lots--and pile the snow up conveniently right behind your tires!! I could go on for hours about parking, but I better stop before I start banging my head off the monitor.

2. How would you like to live in a room with 7 other people? Well, there's a one in ten chance that you will! Yes, good old PSU likes to overbook--A LOT. See, if a student decides that they don't want to come to Penn State, or if they drop out in a week, that would leave an empty room and Penn State would lose an all important $2000 of the $2 gazillion they bring in every year. So they overbook, expecting to put a few students in temporary housing, and move them to permanent rooms when those who drop move out. Unfortunately, Penn State thinks that a 'few' is about 1200. Yes, about half of these students have moved into permanent rooms within a few weeks. But the other half hasn't!! And if they haven't after a few weeks, chances are they are not going to want to--they're used to their space now, and they probably only have about 3 roommates in an 8-person space. SO, we have no study lounges because people are sleeping in them. What would be wrong with overbooking only by about 600 and then after a few weeks, everyone would have a room?!? So you lose a couple hundred thousand dollars? Big deal. (to a major university, that's not a big deal) And now, you REALLY have to be on the ball if you want a room! This year, all women's undergrad permanent housing space was gone within 4 hours. It has never gone that fast and no one expected it. Now all those unfortunate people who did the wrong thing and went to class instead of turning in their contracts will likely be in temp. housing. You did the right thing and now you get to have 7 roommates. Congrats to you!!

3. Have you ever paid $80 for a book?!? Well, get ready!! I know this is probably not specific to Penn State, but their return policies may be harsher than others, so I'm just warning you. Depending on your major, you'll probably spend between $200 and $500 per semester on books. I usually spend around $350. Oh, but at the end of the year you get to sell them all back!!! Sounds exciting, huh? Well, guess what...the most I've ever gotten in one semester for all my books was $80. I paid $350; I get $80 back. And that's if they're using them the following semester!! Get ready to hear a lot of offers of $3 for a $60 book. Think hard about this, too. I've kept a few books that were related to my major because they will probably be useful, not to mention, I spent $60 or more on each of them!! Also, if you KNOW you're not going to read this book--you go to class every day and the prof. says the class and book will overlap--don't buy it. Share with a classmate if you really need it and save your money. However, if you plan on skipping all those 8:00 A.M. classes, buying the book will help you out a little bit (so will Nittany Notes, but that's a different story).

4. Football--I'm not going to say this is bad because it's a personal preference. What is bad is how they handle it. I wanted to leave town one Saturday and had to take a 10-mile detour because roads were one way coming in to Penn State. Believe it or not, not everyone's life revolves around football. There's also a zillion people walking around campus making WAY too much noise. Enough about football.

There are a few good things--for example, the Willard Preacher (AKA Gary Cattell) is fun to listen to sometimes. The HUB lawn and Old Main lawn are great places to hang out in the summer, and the Creamery has the best ice cream and lemonade in the world!! Not to mention, there is some sort of prestige about coming from Penn State. No, it's not Harvard or Yale, but it's not Florida Beach community college either. Plus, I heard that something like 1 in 80 college grads went to Penn State--so there's tons of alumni--maybe to help get you a job?!? And although this isn't good for me, it may be for you--if you like the frat or sorority scene, Penn State's greek system is huge. I personally would rather make my own friends but hey--that's just me.

I think that's enough for you to think about for now. There are plenty of other little things that I would be happy to tell you about if you want to email me (erinfloyd69@yahoo.com). NOTE: this is for prospective PSU students who want the 'real scoop'--I'd prefer that PSU-lovers don't harass me.



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