Hey all! CC was useful to me when I was looking at colleges, so I thought I’d try to answer some questions people had since I think this is around the time people are kicking their decision making process into high gear. It’s a pretty large university (to say the least), so I’ll do my best with questions but obviously no promises. Hopefully some other students can jump in to help out. For some basic info- I’m a liberal arts major in Schreyer graduating this spring.
Shoot!
How is the job placement. I’m an international student soo that’s definitely my biggest concern. I’m planning to major in Finance, MIS or Econ
I’ll start with finance since I know that major better (more friends in it). As a whole, finance majors do quite well. 83% of them will have full time offers/other types of employment after graduation and that goes up to 95% if they have interned before. Those employed make an average of $57,908. You can check out that report here- http://www.smeal.psu.edu/corp/undergraduate/StudentOutcomes20132014ASD2.pptx
Adding some personal insight, I would say Smeal is Penn State’s best department by far in terms of what they’re doing for their students. I expect them to become increasingly better every year in the future. Since you asked about finance specifically, I’ll comment on that more now. On the top end, finance majors are being more heavily recruited by the top wall street firms than ever before. This year Goldman Sachs made their OCI earlier specifically so they could recruit more PSU students. Credit Smeal for that. The PSIA/Nittany Lion Fund has been a godsend for finance majors who can now go into interviews saying they personally managed over $500,000 in real investor money. As a whole, Smeal has resisted the quality dilution that is happening in other colleges. IIRC, they plan on raising the GPA requirement for finance in the next few years to ensure they can more effectively focus resources on their students. All this is to say that you won’t have a problem getting a job with a finance degree. If anything, your degree will be worth more than if you were graduating with it right now.
In econ, all of my friends are doing quite well too. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be outcome data available so you’ll have to rely just on my anecdotes for this one. As an econ major, you’ll probably be aiming for business-type jobs (banking, consulting, analyst, etc). While placement does seem to generally be good, it’ll require some more effort on your end. You’ll have to attend networking events and make an effort to get yourself out there. My friend who ended up at a bank went to all the Smeal networking events and a friend who ended up doing consulting got in by talking up their rep at a career fair.
I don’t know much of anything about MIS so I can’t really help you there.
Hope this helped!
@psustudent15 thanks a lot and whats your plan for the future?
Do you know anyone majoring in international politics (international relations)? I wanna know more about the quality of the program and overall difficulty of the major since I’m hoping to attend law school afterwards. Thanks!
@ind1900 I’ll be headed to grad school after.
@Colombiangirl I do- It’s a solid (not bad/not spectacular) program as a whole. You’ll have three options for concentrations: international relations, international political economy, and national security. IR is your standard international relations fare while IPE will be a bit more quantitative as you’ll have to take econ. I don’t know much about national security except there seems to be decent amount of ROTC people in it. To add two things: first, take IST 445H (Globalization Trends and World Issues). It’s a cool way to integrate international relations and technology which also has the perk of setting you up with a CFR internship after completion. Second, consider the IUG program with the School of International Affairs which will get you a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in 5 years.
Difficulty will vary greatly depending on which professors you take. Message me if you want more specifics on that or on law school things in general.
Hey! I think it’s really nice of you to help out all of us with questions. I was hoping that you could help me as well.
I was accepted into the engineering department and I was wondering if you knew anything of the program? And your general impression of the engineering students? Also, I would appreciate it if you could give your opinion of each of the dorms. I’m not exactly against the party scene but being an engineering major I’ll probably need quiet most of the time.
I just realized how many questions I seemed to have! If it’s too much please feel free to pick whichever you think is most important. Thanks for any help that you may give! And good luck with grad school!
@kelors I’m a current sophomore
Not sure what you mean by impressions of engineering students but the program is great in all majors and assuming you keep up/do well, you’re hard pressed not to find a job after graduation.
I can answer your dorm question better though. I would not let your potential major dictate where you want to live. You may (and probably will) find that studying away from your dorm is more helpful anyway. Because despite the popular pairing of dorms and partying, no real partying happen in dorms. The issue is dealing with belligerent people who are loud after partying, and honestly, it doesn’t matter where you pick to live because there’s a good chance you’ll deal with those people regardless. I lived in east halls freshman year and in my first semester I had a LOT of people who partied frequently (everyone except my first semester roommate and myself ended up in a fraternity) but I really didn’t mind it, they were friendly enough and as long as my door was closed no one bothered me. I slept through most of their antics and studied in the commons most of the time. I changed rooms to two floors up the second semester and the floor was dead quiet 24/7…its just a game of luck really. But anyway, heres a breakdown of the dorms for you
East: reserved for freshman only except RA’s. Largest residence halls area by far. Far away from virtually everything except the creamery. dining commons is god awful - There may be debate that “all commons serve the same food” but I am firmly on the “East is the worst” side of the fence - the other places to eat (big onion, good 2 go, roxys, fresh express) are fine though. Like I said, its a lottery for how rowdy your floor is. Since it is 100% freshmen, its easy to meet people, and RAs really push “floor building” events.
Pollock: Second most populated dorm for freshmen. Pollock is about a 5 minute walk south of East halls, making it slightly closer to more academic buildings, but not by much. Pollock has the best food by far in my opinion, the dining commons is the newest on campus and the other place to eat (the mix) is fantastic. There are a lot of freshmen here too, so meeting people is also fairly easy. But youll likely see less of a bond between floor mates if there are other classes of students on your floor.
South: South is mostly reserved for Sorority housing and Honors college housing. The fancy new dorms you might see in South are the sorority dorms (they cant have houses off campus so gave them new dorms). Not too many people live in South besides those groups but some do. South sort of blends in with Pollock at the south side of campus almost into one big residence area (along with East View Terrace - which isn’t an option for freshmen) South is pretty quiet since its full of honors college people, and its the closest to downtown
West: West has a conglomerate of all classes and is the oldest residence hall complex on campus. West is by far closest to the majority of academic buildings save for a few. The rooms in West are also slightly larger than those in East for example, but not by a whole lot. West is very quiet but there is very little interaction between people living there, since many arent really looking to make new friends and already have them. The food at West is great too (youll learn about West’s chocolate chip cookies which are to die for)
North: North is weird - its totally suite style living and more expensive than your other options. There seem to be a lot of foreign people who live in North, and its very quiet…kind of too quiet. Its easy to forget it exists as its tucked away at the northernmost part of campus. Its the smallest residence area by size. The places to eat there are also open at weird times that aren’t very convenient. Its pretty close to the northern academic buildings though (which you probably wont have classes in as a freshman) and Forum (which you will 95% chance have a class in as a freshman)
Hope this helps! DM me if you have any other questions too
OP, I was just admitted to Schreyer and I’m considering a Liberal Arts major as well. How have you found that that major has prepared you for grad school and what advice would you have for someone interested in following a similar path?
Also, I’m not really much of a partier, and I know that is a big part of PSU’s reputation. Do you think the party culture would be overwhelming for somebody who isn’t really into it? Are there other options socially at PSU?
@kelors
No problem! Could you be a little more specific about what you’d like to know about the engineering program? That said, I’ll try to answer that question in general. Engineering is one of the stronger departments and they have pretty strong placement. Most students who graduate with an engineering degree have little trouble finding jobs. Even people with ~3.0 flat are optimistic about their chances. That said, I’ll offer a few caveats that I know about that path. First, it is absolutely true there are weed out classes and from what I’m hearing they may get tougher. Basically, the departments don’t have the capacity to handle all the kids that come in as engineering majors so they have certain classes that are designed to separate out the wheat and the chaff. In those classes, and pretty much all engineering classes, expect a curve. Don’t panic when you see the 60 or 70 on your exam, you might actually be well above average and on the way to an A. Use your resources- I’ve heard some good things about Penn State learning. And definitely keep up with it. Engineering is a tough major with a strong payoff at the end (good job, good pay, good job security) and four years of hard work isn’t much to give up for it. Also, from what I hear, it does get a little easier after the weed out classes.
Some of my best friends are engineers but I’ve also found some engineers to fit the anti-social stereotype to a T. It will vary. Is there some truth to the perceptive that engineers are less social than say, a LA major? Sure. But that definitely won’t apply to everyone. There will be an increase in student quality after your ~sophomore year too (see my weed out comments above). Did that answer your question? If not, feel free to ask again.
In regards to dorms, @etuck24 did a pretty good job describing them so I’ll just try to flesh things out a bit. The one thing I’ll add is that atmosphere matters and varies. While partying doesn’t happen in dorms and there is some degree of randomness, generally people in east will want to go out more and that will contribute to a larger level of noise etc. South is pretty restricted to Schreyer and sorority housing so it’ll be tough to get. That being said, there’s a solid amount of rooms in Schreyer housing (Atherton and Simmons) for non-Schreyer kids so if work/party is a really big thing for you, I might consider applying for one of those spots. I’m pretty sure you can do that if they haven’t changed anything but it’s worth looking into. To add to the summary above, South can be loud at times too. Sororities do some pretty high pitched yelling though I’m sure it’s nothing compared to East.
West might be a good option for you since that’s where a lot of the engineers are. In general, very generally, the more upperclassmen there are in the dorms, the quieter there’ll be (minus sorority housing). In West you’ll have a pretty high concentration of upperclassmen and combined with the high engineer presence since most of the engineering buildings are on the west side, you might find more like minded people. I’ll echo on the West cookies- they’re fantastic.
Pollock is sort of your blend between East and South being halfway on the noise scale. There’s also some sorority housing here. For North, I’d add that there seems to be a high concentration of artsy majors since a lot of their SLOs are in North. It’s near the business building which can be a pretty good air-conditioned study spot.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask if you need more specifics.
@guitarskills101 I guess I can’t fully answer the question yet since I haven’t stepped foot in grad school yet! But as far as being competitive in admissions goes, I’d say it was a mixed bag. I’ll preface by saying that I had some pretty high goals as far as grad schools was concerned and that definitely colored my experience. In general, I found Schreyer really helped draw the best out of my major in terms of getting me connected with faculty and into classes (especially in my freshman and sophomore year). Some of my underclassmen honors classes were the best I’ve had in my four years and the support for writing the thesis is unreal. However, in terms of competing against the applicant pool that I was aiming to compete against, even with Schreyer, LA fell short in terms of getting me to an even playing field. When I started studying for the standardized test, I didn’t feel as prepared as I wanted to- it seemed to be on a higher level of thinking/analysis than I was used to from my classes. That is, the level of critical thinking/analysis needed for an A in classes wasn’t quite at the level needed to score highly on the standardized test. Does that make sense?
As far as advice goes, I would say to always keep grad school in mind throughout your four years. It’ll be easy to sort of let your goals fall by the wayside and focus on short term things. Trust me. By that, I mean keep in mind that your GPA has to be high and it’s tough to recover from even one bad class. Keep in mind admissions officers, depending on your grad school, will expect certain things. Some pretty much require you do research. Some pretty much require you to do research/intern in the summers too to be competitive with everyone else. And the sorta annoying part, at least if you’re aiming high, try to do more than your classes require/do stuff outside of your classes. From what I’ve seen the most successful people supplement what they learn in the classroom with other things such as research, internships, or other leadership.
I get the party question a lot and honestly think it’s more a reputation thing as far as partying being a ubiquitous or overwhelming thing. Yes, a lot of people will want to go out. But that’s by no means necessary. You’ll come in with a huge class and there is a significant subset of that group that will not want to go out all that much. It’s just a matter of finding a group that shares your preferences (trust me it’s a lot easier than you think it is). I can’t stress the importance of finding your own group of friends enough. Once you have that group, the party atmosphere will just be “those other people”. In Schreyer, there’ll be a larger amount of those people around which should make it even easier. Just hang out in the lounges (the Globe seems to be a pretty popular hangout spot) the first few weeks and I’ll almost guarantee you’ll find friends who don’t like going out either. It seems to be a point of pride/an inside joke for some friend circles that they do things other than going out. I’ll have to add that I found the whole HUB Late Night thing they push during tours and stuff to be pretty useless . First, not many people go relative to the PSU population. And second, those who do go usually go with friends and only go for specific things. I doubt there’s people who actually go to that every week.
Let me know if you have any questions either on this thread or via message (this goes for anyone else reading this too- always happy to have a private convo). I realize I get a little unspecific at times but that’s so I don’t give myself away too much.
I’m going into the college of HHD as a transfer. What kind of housing should I pursue?
I’m a second-semester freshman in Schreyer and haven’t really made friends yet. Is there anything you would suggest beyond the normal join-clubs-be-friendly?
There are two types of buses: free buses that run around campus to downtown, and fee-charging buses that take you all around town. Some private residence halls include the bus pass.
@cannonball7 That question is really hard to answer without knowing what kind of environment you prefer. Would you mind elaborating for what you prefer in terms of price/location/etc?
@bodangles I’ll be honest and say that, at least from what I’ve seen, PSU social groups are really driven by common interests. Personally, I’ve met some people just talking to them randomly in lounges, classes, events and such. It sounds cliche, but it might be time to break out of the shell a little. If you find someone with a shared interest, try talking to them and see if it develops. I know how that sounds but there are seriously a ton of friendly people on this campus.
@excellos Basically housing falls into 3 camps: on-campus, downtown, and non-downtown off-campus. Downtown will be a bit more pricey but the convenience is hard to beat. For some examples, google/look into the Meridian, the Legacy, the Palmerton, and Park Hill. Let me know if you want more details on any of them. Non-downtown off-campus housing, especially further from campus (think 10-15 minutes by bus) can be cheaper than living on-campus/downtown. They give a ton of amenities to draw people in and make it worth it. For some examples, look into the Retreat (super nice but hella far), Toftrees, Nittany Crossing, the Heights. The bus system is pretty reliable and just about all of the non-downtown off-campus housing will provide a bus pass with your lease.
As far as walking, that’ll depend on where you live. Downtown apartments are almost universally walkable. Non-downtown, I’d suggest a bus (they’ll tell you which bus stop and it’ll generally be close).
For cheaper, I would find roommates. Sharing a room can bring down your cost significantly. Unfortunately a few rounds of housing have already happened (most people I know already have housing for next year) so you’ll have to do some searching on that front.
Thank you for the input. One quick question, is it really difficult to schedule your classes? It seems like majority of classes are already full at day 1. I was trying to take chinese and it is almost all filled up at day 1 of scheduling for upper classes. I won’t be scheudling until mid april and was worried that I won’t find classes for gen ed and languages that I need as a transfer student.
For LEAP, should I get Rhetoric and Composition or Effective Speech A over with??? I know I’ll have to take them both, but which is more painful and should I get over with first? I’m doing the Mass Media and Society LEAP Pride. Thanks!
Your last answer helped with the housing. I wanna meet people but I think I’m SOL for on-campus being that transfers are already on waiting lists for supplemental. Do you have a preference to any of the downtown apartments you just named? Some people have leases for those properties and are looking for roommates so that seems like the best option.
@excellos I might not be the best person to ask about scheduling classes (Schreyer schedules before everyone else). That said, from what I hear at least, it gets easier to schedule your classes the higher up you get. That is, it’s easier to schedule upper level courses because there’s less competition for them. What class standing are you now if I may ask? The system generally works so that the people going for the same level upper level class schedule at around the same time. It’s odd that you’re scheduling so far behind your peers. Even so, the watchlist is an amazing thing. Spots will almost always open up for you throughout the summer/beginning of the semester. Failing that, go to the professor/department and see if they’ll add you manually. There’s a decent shot of that if it’s a required class/it’s a pre-req for another class you need later. Gen eds do go pretty fast. Again, try the watch list otherwise you might have to wait until a bit later.
@Tooth1010 I’ll have to disclaimer again and say I never had this issue. When I started, they were the same course (LA 101H). I think this may depend on your personal preference though. Are you a weaker speaker or writer? Hate to phrase it like that, but I would take the weaker one during LEAP since you can focus on it more. Gun to my head, I’d choose rhetoric and composition since it seems like that requires more work (with most professors anyway).
@cannonball7 How much does price matter to you? If it matters a lot, I’d consider just choosing the cheapest option. That said, there’s a chance of landlord/environment issues just about everywhere. It’s college apartments after all. The Meridian has the reputation of being the biggest shitshow (I use that word because it’s honestly the one associated with the Meridian) apartment in terms of parties, noise, and such. The Legacy is brand new and it’s quite nice if you want to go with quality. The Palmerton has a fairly nice setup too. Park Hill is a bit old school- it’s small but cozy. I really don’t think you’ll be able to tell the difference between any of them all that much though. Like I said, college apartments. Personally, I’d take the Legacy just because it’s the newest and apart from the nicer stuff they have, I assume they’ll have fewer maintenance issues (which can be a lot to handle). Consider where your classes are too and how much you care about long treks in the State College cold. The Legacy is east side which makes for a trek if you’re an engineer and have all your classes on west campus. The same for the Palmerton and taking classes on the east side.