OP will need to check - I thought there was a secondary threshold. Anyway stats indicate 90% retention from freshman to sophomore year so if there is it’s definitely not drastic, unlike at some universities where 2/3 are eliminated after the 1st or 2nd year (the PA v.Ohio difference is very stark).
For Penn State, students choose 2 campuses on their application, but considering OP’s stats s/he’d be applying to UP and Altoona, in either order. UP offers the “traditional ‘We are/Penn State’ experience”, it definitely has the most accomplished student body, nursing students can be part of the Schreyer community, etc. One year indeed is spent at a hospital complex near Harrisburg, which is a bit like study away with prestigious internship, not sure it’s a downside and it’s clearly explained AFAIK.
Altoona is a small campus (about 4,000 students), partly residential partly commuter but does feel like a real college compared to the other branches (minus Behrend and Harrisburg),albeit with fewer activities; it’s more nurturing than UP, there’s a greater age diversity, and if the student doesn’t want to spend a year in Hershey then they can stay in Altoona all 4 years. (There’s Schreyer too but let’s be real, it’s totally different from Schreyer at UP).
At most PA universities, nursing students are expected to have a vehicle and drivers’s license.