PSU: Party School Unequivocally?

When I first made the decision to come to Penn State, I, embarrassingly so, had not the foggiest idea of its reputation as a party school. I know that sounds a bit ridiculous, but it’s completely true. I made the decision to come here based on a number of factors, including school’s poli sci program, its ranking, State College as a town, the size, the desire to be away from home while studying, and the strong sense of community I got from the people who talked about it. Before I began the college search I only had ever heard of Penn State twice, two awful controversies. One concerning sex abuse and another about a death during frat hazing. The latter should have probably clued me in as to the reputation this school would have gained, but I wasn’t exactly sure until I got here and heard first person accounts. The wildest parties you’ll ever see. Hundreds of young adults, sweaty and drunk, having the time of their lives. A school of reckless abandon, with a relatively easy access to substances galore. I’m not gonna pretend it didn’t excite me a bit. I’m not exactly the biggest party guy, but even being in the presence of something so notorious can be a bit daunting.

From my time here so far I can tell that there is more to PSU than meets the eye. The atmosphere is welcoming, the people are kind, the professors are reasonable and the campus is appealing. Though I personally am not an expert on PSU, and I hope to become one, I wonder how much of the reputation is just that – merely reputation. There could be far more than people are understanding. I don’t like whataboutism, but it does seem odd that essentially every college has an alcohol and drugs problem, but certain schools become more notorious when their problems are similar. I think big individual cases can end up making an image of a school that isn’t necessarily true. For example, my high school was never known for drugs or alcohol, being a specialized STEM school, but it had a serious problem, and I doubt that other “less prestigious schools” were 10x worse.