Back to Visit Again: Penn State-University Park

Published by Stuart Nachbar at July 31, 2026

I won’t devote space to covering where Penn State is “good academically.”

There’s over 275 majors and a long list of rankings that you can check out. It’s really hard to “lose” on an academic program at Penn State. Career services among the best that you will find at any big school. However, students are likely to see some huge lecture classes at the start, unless they get into the Schreyer Honors College.

Penn State’s main campus has nearly 43,000 undergraduates, second only to Ohio State within the Big Ten

This comparison is interesting. Ohio State is located in Columbus, the largest Midwestern city to host a Big Ten university–unless you consider Northwestern to be in Chicago–while Penn State is the main reason for a town to exist in Central Pennsylvania. State College, host to the university, is just over three hours from Philadelphia and two and a half hours from Pittsburgh. College students could do without a car at Ohio State. Penn State students would more likely want to have one, but forget about driving to classes. Walk, bike, skateboard or ride a bus.

Penn State’s enrollment has trended upward since the pandemic by around 2,000 students. I’m not sure how much the university community can grow. The projected numbers of Pennsylvania high school graduates are expected to decline until 2041. However, Penn State’s main campus has such strong national brand recognition that I cannot expect total undergraduate enrollment to fall. But I do believe that there will be more accelerated paths to masters degrees, especially in areas such as education. Penn State has also offered online education for over two decades. I can also see the university expanding in this direction for undergraduate and graduate programs after closing seven Commonwealth campuses.

Penn State has the largest physical campus in the Big Ten and it’s really spread out.

The campus is walkable for most, but I’ve found that it can feel quite crowded when classes change. Campus buses become a necessity in very bad weather, commonplace in this rural area. Penn State has many attractive buildings and a great Creamery for ice cream. Sports venues, museums and performing arts facilities were constructed on campus with the greater community in mind. The largest, Beaver Stadium and the Bryce-Jordan Center, are placed at the edge of campus. Symbols of Penn State love and pride are everywhere and students wear the swag proudly on campus. Penn State does a great job taking care of its setting.

One great academic strength is the Schreyer Honors College.

As college costs keep going up, Schreyer is an increasingly attractive alternative to extremely selective Ivies and Ivy-like schools. Schreyer was among the first public honors colleges in America that was incorporated into a large university. Penn State, like some peer schools, already had an honors program. But it was a leader in building honors into a residential learning community. Longevity has brought other benefits. Many alumni remain actively engaged with students. It also has access to over $2 million in grants to support students in research as well as study abroad. T

There’s no real downside for the brighter student who can get into Schreyer. though the honors colleges at other schools, including Rutgers-New Brunswick, offer larger scholarships.

The Schreyer population does not reach too far into a freshman class at Penn State-University Park. A class of approximately 9,000 freshmen will have about 300 in Schreyer. There are honors and scholars programs within majors at Penn State-University Park as well the College of Engineering . The university also has several other living-learning communities.

Penn State also offers a highly-competitive Millennium Scholars program to high-potential candidates who are interested in later pursuing PhDs the sciences. This is a tight-knit academic community, much like Schreyer, with a summer bridge opportunity. However, accepted students need a 3.5 to stay in the program versus a 3.4 in Schreyer. Similar opportunities reach down further into the freshman classes at other schools such as Rutgers, the University of Maryland-College Park and the University of Delaware.

If you want to go to Schreyer, treat the application as you would an application to the most selective private college, although admissions are test blind.

There’s one essay as well as nine short-answer questions and a November 1st deadline, In prior years the acceptance rate for Schreyer has been just under 20 percent. Last cycle, nearly 7,000 students applied for just over 300 available seats. The acceptance rate likely to be lower for future admissions cycle. But if you get into Schreyer and you are also admitted to either Penn or Cornell, you will likely get a more personalized education in Schreyer. Combined with Penn State’s resources and alumni base. It’s worth it to pass on the larger Ivies.

I dropped three photos, one exterior, two interior, of Atherton Hall, one of the two Schreyer residences, below.

The exterior shot is from College Street, the main shopping/dining street in downtown State College. Schreyer has 30 administrators and support staff to help students to navigate Penn State and succeed academically. The level of support that Schreyer students receive is extraordinary for a public university.

Penn State is still the only public university system I know that undersells its main campus.

There are some pluses to this system of Commonwealth campuses across Pennsylvania.

Admissions numbers (grades and test scores) are lower for the Commonwealth campuses
Tuition and fees are lower as well. Any savings could be banked towards the higher costs of being on the main campus.
There are 2+2 options to start your education at a lower price before transferring to the main campus
Every student and alumnus at every campus is a Nittany Lion, even if they never set foot on the main campus
It’s easy to balance classes and work if you go home for the summer or go on co-op
Penn State extends the first two years in the Schreyer Honors College to some of the residential campuses

I understand the appeal of the campuses for families in Pennsylvania.

The university is making it possible for people who live practically anywhere in the Keystone State to earn a Penn State degree. That’s a great complement to the mission of a state university system, and it certainly helps to build a loyal alumni base. But seven of these campuses will close after the upcoming academic year: DuBois; Fayette; Mont Alto; New Kensington; Shenango; Wilkes-Barre; and York. In addition, the Commonwealth campus system does not work well for non-residents who had hoped to begin a Penn State education at University Park. Yet Penn State has asked them to select a second-choice campus when they apply.

Admissions vary from college to college within Penn State

This was drilled into me during my recent visit. Penn State has 16 undergraduate schools with different admissions policies. Architecture and nursing, for example, are direct admission programs for freshmen. The business and engineering schools favor direct admission of fershmen; internal transfer is quite difficult. Several schools within Penn State ask applicants to list a possible major. They are then evaluated for academic fit with the school, but not to the major itself. They must wait until the end of their freshman or sophomore year to formally declare a major. Performing arts students submit auditions as they would at other schools.

In several cases there is overlap between academic programs in different schools.

I found this to be especially true with the biological sciences and computer science. There are also business subjects such as Advertising, Agribusiness Management, Recreation, Park & Tourism Management. Energy, Business & Finance and Labor & Human Resources offered in other schools within the university.

Admissions continue to be test optional, the scores are Considered in the admissions process.

At present less than 40 percent of applicant submit test scores for admission. The middle 50 percent for the SAT has been between 1320 and 1460. For the ACT Composite it’s been 29 and 34. Test scores are required for Penn State’s Accelerated Medical-Premedical Program. High scores, academic rigor and excellence are important there.

However, I felt that Penn State was more “test encouraged” at least for the more competitive programs at University such as Architecture, Business, Engineering and Nursing. Having a bushel of 4s and 4s for AP scores by the end of junior year might also help. Proof of rigor and academic performonce are also helpful. Penn State will consider scores for as long as an application is active with no decision made. An applicant who scores well on a fall test in their senior year will have that score considered.

Approximately 2,000 freshman start during the summer.

Those who are insistent on going to University Park might be offered an opportunity to start their Penn State journey during the summer after high school graduation. This is a great way to get a head start on your education, taking two college courses before tackling a full course load in the fall, while becoming more acquainted with campus life. However, this will add to the costs of a Penn State education and make it less possible to work the full summer after high school graduation.

Penn State plays fair with undecided students.

Students come to Penn State undecided on a major can enter the Division of University Studies (DUS) and take courses to plan to transfer into one of the degree granting undergraduate schools. DUS is actually the largest undergraduate division of the university.

Admissions from DUS to engineering have more reasonable requirements than I have seen, for example, at Michigan or UC-Berkeley. Going from DUS into the Smeal College of Business has been easier than it would be to get into the business school as a sophomore is easier than it is at Indiana or Michigan. A 3.2 with completion of core courses would get an internal transfer into any major in ther business school except Finance, where a 3.5 was needed. However, demand for business education is growing and Smeal has a direct admissions brochure to hand out to prospective students. It’s quite possible that standards for internal transfer will be higher in the future.

Most who get into the main campus tend to stay.

Penn State-University Park has retained no less than 92% of every freshman class since 2011. At least 70% of the classes that have entered since 2016 graduated in four years. These numbers are impressive for a school that welcomes over 9,000 freshmen each year.

Penn State-University Park is a better buy for non-residents.

As an advisor based in New Jersey, I have to consider out-of-state costs for state schools in other states. Penn State will charge non-residents nearly $42,000 in tuition and fees, high for a state university. Pennsylvania residents are charged just over $20,000 in tuition and fees. I know of only one public university that charges residents more: William & Mary (VA).

Over half of the graduates in the Class of 2025 had to take out student loans. Nearly a quarter had to borrow from a private lender. That led to an average indebtedness of over $50,000 according to the university’s 2025-26 Common Data Set.

There are merit scholarships, but they’re not that large.

About a quarter of the Class of 2029 received merit-based aid. The average award was just over $6,000. Those who get into Schreyer get a $5,300 award. But they must maintain a 3.4 to keep it and remain in the honors college. I also knew of former students who earned scholarships based on academic progress in their major.

Get to know your housing options before you come.

Estimated charges for room and board are just over $14,000, average for a flagship state school. The university plans to add another 1,500 beds. However, these will be upper-class apartments.. I also suggest looking at the costs of apartment rentals in State College. Apartments close to downtown are going to be more expensive than one might think for a school in an isolated community.

Greek life attracts less than a fifth of the student body, but there are 42 fraternities and 28 sororities.

I can understand why fraternities are popular, given the limited on-campus housing, school spirit, the number of houses and their location near campus. Nineteen sororities have on-campus housing in the university’s South Halls. However, I had to really work to find information on Greek life. The university did not put that information into a Common Data Set. In addition, it appears, as of three years ago that the university is shifting away from some oversight over the Greek system.I recommend that parents click that link.

I know of no other really big university where graduates profess so much love for their school.

Penn State students can also make more post-college connections here than at most other schools.. The university also hosts THON, the largest dance marathon in the country for pediatric cancer. It takes most of the school year to plan for THON, and students organize their own events around the planning. This past spring THON raised nearly $19 million, more than any cause-related student-run event anywhere in the US.

More remarkable, alumni come back to fill a huge stadium that’s nearly three hours from any large city.

Penn State’s Beaver Stadium seats 106,572 people, though most of the seats look uncomfortable from the YouTubes I watched. Beaver Stadium’s capacity is second only to the University of Michigan. It’s also the fourth largest city in Pennsylvania on game days. Just over 21,000 seats are reserved for students.

While watching YouTubes, I really got the mystique of the place. The home crowd will be loud and intimidating for any opponent. I cannot imagine that a high school student who is a football fan, especially one from Pennsylvania or a neighboring state, would want to go to another school if they saw a game at Beaver Stadium on a nice day.

Nittany Lion student fans pay–big time–for their football seats.

A student season ticket costs $246 fand it’s a Taylor Swift dash to get seats before they’re gone.

Football and football recruiting dominate sports news, but the Nittany Lions have won only two national championships (1982 and 1986). Joe Paterno, aka ‘Joe Pa’ was a living legend for most of his coaching career, and much loved in the community. He might be the only football coach in American history whose name appears on a main university library. He and his wife, Sue, raised nearly $14 million towards construction costs. Paterno was at the height of his powers when football recruits had to stay for four years. Although he won only two national titles, Penn State also had five unbeaten and untied seasons where they won a major bowl game. The Nittany Lions also won three Big Ten championships, the last one in 2008.

While Paterno was fired in the wake of the child sex abuse scandal involving Jerry Sandusky, his former defensive coordinator, and died shortly after, Penn State won one Big Ten title (2016) under former head coach James Franklin. The Nittany Lions did make the championship playoff series in 2025 though they lost to Notre Dame in the semi-final round.

Penn State is also quite good at other sports.

Penn State plays 31 sports, more than most universities in America. The fencing, field hockey, gymnastics, men’s lacrosse, rugby, volleyball and wrestling programs are among the nation’s best. The women’s hockey team made the Frozen Four for the first time last season. Most Penn State sports offer free admission to students. Surprising to me, women’s basketball and wrestling are two of them. However, a student who is a football fan and a hockey or men’s basketball fan will shell out over $400 for a season

Conclusions

If there were two words that aptly described Penn State at the main campus, they would be “more” and “bigger.” There are more activities and student-oriented facilities than any student could ever hope to enjoy, and they go far beyond spectator sports. Those who believe that more and bigger are better will love Penn State. This school has given a lot to a lot of people for a long time. But it also asks most of them to pay or borrow more.

Report Card: Penn State-University Park

Four Year/Six Year Graduation Rates: A/A
Freshman Retention: A
Costs: B+ (Anyone admitted to Schreyer or Millennium Schoalrs)/C (anyone else)
Curriculum: A
Community: A
Comforts: B
Connections: A

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