My Personal Checklist When Choosing Penn State
- Size: Bigger is SO Much Better.
I’m from out of state. Baltimore, MD to be exact. I remember when I first joined the Penn State Class of 2018 Facebook group in November of my senior year, about 10 minutes after I found out I had been accepted to PSU, I was overwhelmed by the amount of people that said they were from “outside of Philly”. Considering everyone said they were from the same place, no one really seemed to know that many other people. One of the many reasons I picked Penn State in the first place.
I went to a decently-sized pubic high school. My graduating class was about 375- bigger than several of the other high schools in our district. Yet, by the end of my senior year, I still felt like I knew everyone at my school. This is not what I wanted in college.
For many, the idea of being at a school with 40,000 other students might seem daunting. For me, it made Penn State all the more appealing. I liked the idea that I would never be able to know everybody- that there would always be someone new to meet and more friends to make. Now that I am here, I’m glad I didn’t let that deter me. Its true what they say- you can make a big school small, but you can’t make a small school big. Now, when I walk around campus, I usually can’t go without seeing at least one person that I know.
2. “College Town” Feeling
When I was touring, one of the big items on my wish list was a true “college town” feeling. Of course I would be at the library most of the time (at least as far as my parents were concerned), but I also loved the idea of having cool places to shop, eat, and hangout off campus. Penn State had all of the above. Of course there were several crucial things my ideal college would have downtown: it had to have a Panera, had to have a Chipotle, and had to have a place to get fro-yo (If you hadn’t already caught on food is an important part of the college experience).
One thing that set Penn State apart from the others was that here in State College, the town really is centered around the Penn State culture. The energy in the air is electric, especially on gamedays, and all of the shops have their windows covered in blue and white and lots of Penn State pride. On that note…
3. School Spirit
School spirit was hands-down the most important thing on my checklist when looking at colleges. My high school was a real buzzkill in the spirit department. None of our sports were really that good. “Homecoming” was just an excuse to have a dance that not many people even came to. “Pep Rallies” were just glorified assemblies with the occasional speech and an appearance by our mediocre school band. Don’t get me wrong- I loved high school. But I wanted bigger. I wanted school chants and a cheering crowd at sporting events and so much school pride it would annoy other people that didn’t go there and therefore couldn’t possibly understand.
It clicked for me when I went to my first Penn State football game. I was still a senior in high school, and I was torn between PSU and another university. My dad, a Penn State alum, knew he needed to convince me, so he brought our family to a football game. It was the Homecoming game versus Michigan. Whiteout. A perfect fall night. Quadruple overtime. To this day, I don’t know if I will ever feel the same dose of excitement as I did that day. The stadium rumbled with cheers and chanting. The suspense was exhilarating. I lost my voice the next day from yelling so much.
It was a done deal. I had never experienced so much energy, pride, and passion in one place as I did that night. Every time I looked over to the students cheering in the student section, I wished I could be part of their world.
I went home, logged on to my Penn State account, and accepted my offer of admission as soon as I got home the very next day.
No, these three things weren’t my only criteria where deciding where to spend the best four years of my life. The touring, applying, and deciding process was long, time-consuming, and at times very overwhelming. These were the three criteria that really helped Penn State stand apart from the rest. For me, PSU was out of my comfort zone. It was different, it was a risk, it was daunting. But I decided to go for it, and it has been the best decision of my life so far.
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