Kutztown University of PA - visit

Parents Forum
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<p>I love a college that is easy to get to! Kutztown University of Pennsylvania is about seven miles and two turns from route 78, a major highway that goes East and West through Pennsylvania. It’s about 40 minutes West of Allentown. Around our area, the town of Kutztown is best known for it’s annual Pennsylvania Dutch festival held every summer to celebrate the quickly disappearing Pennsylvania Dutch lifestyle.</p>

<p>The University adjoins the town of 5,000 residents and students often walk there to pick up odds and ends and to just get off campus. I admit that my Junior son and I had to be talked into visiting Kutztown by my husband. I had dismissed Kutztown as a slacker party school, not worthy of Son’s college list. I was (again) wrong.</p>

<p>The campus is set on 325 slightly rolling acres. While the buildings are spread apart, one can probably hustle from the furthest dormitory to a classroom on the other side in about 15 minutes. There are just over 8,000 undergraduate and another 1,000 graduate students. Kutztown is one of 14 schools in the Pennsylvania state school system. Penn State and Pitt are two other systems not connected to each other or to this one. Kutztown, like all the schools in the system is a deal: tuition is $6,256 in state and $13,522 out of state. Room and board is $5,984, for a total of $12,240 for a Pennsylvanian.</p>

<p>The most popular major (this IS Pennsylvania) is education. We, however, were looking into the Computer Science aspect. We arrived on a bitter cold February morning for a 10:00 information session. The Admissions office is a simple old white house right on the main street and parking is in the back. We were ushered in by a friendly secretary and admissions officer and were happy to see a fire burning in the fireplace and were offered coffee or a hot beverage but declined. After a couple of minutes a student arrived to usher us outside and down the hill for the information session. Long hair in a neat ponytail, John was a psych major and wanted to counsel kids after graduation. He took us to the student union where a nice young woman said all the wonderful things about her college during the information session. I must say I don’t remember too much about the speech except the fact that 70% of the people that teach art in public schools in Pennsylvania graduated from Kutztown! She also said that the cost of college is in the hands of our legislature in Harrisburg but the best bet is that it’s going up. Of the 7,985 people that applied in 2004, 66% were accepted. The average SAT was 450 – 540 for both math and verbal. Kutztown has a feeder system with local community colleges that makes it very easy to transfer into.</p>

<p>For the tour we were broken up into a nice small group of 6 people – three mother daughter teams, and one of the kids was a senior and already accepted so this visit was to make the final decision. Our tour guide was a speech and communications major, named Deb. Since it was less than 30 degrees outside we walked briskly from building to building. A new building was the Science and Math one that my Son was to see later. The library was huge and included a coffee shop, one of three on campus. There was also a cool cow statue that won some sort of award in a cows-on-campus contest. The classrooms were standard issue college classrooms with seats and blackboards. I was surprised to see the lack of smart boards that our elementary schools are starting to get and are common in both our Middle and High School. The campus is split in two sections with the majority of the academic buildings on the North side and just a few academic buildings, the dining hall and the sports complex on the South side.</p>

<p>The dorms were clean and modern. Microfridges can be rented. Mini-fridges can be brought from home, but microwaves cannot. Cable is included in room and board. All freshmen are guaranteed housing and can stay in the dorms or in apartments on-campus after their freshman year.</p>

<p>The main dining hall, the Galleria, is large, airy and modern with popular ethnic food and staples like pizza, burgers, breakfast stuff 24/7 and desserts. We were there right before lunch and although it’s located more in the residential side of campus, it was very busy within the ½ hour that we were there. The food was given praise by the students we talked to. The meal plans sounded fairly complex to me but I see that it’s all spelled out on the college website and we’ll look into that in the future if need be.</p>

<p>Kutztown does have a reputation as a suitcase school and with 90% of the students living in-state, that’s no surprise. The students that do stay have a wide variety of activities to choose from with over 16 performance clubs, service organizations, fraternities and sororities. The frats and sororities are not a big presence on campus. In Pennsylvania, sororities are social houses only; students cannot live in them.</p>

<p>After our tour I left campus and my son waited for a student he was to shadow for the rest of the afternoon. This was arranged through Kutztown’s admissions office program called Shadow a Science Student. This is aimed at prospective math, computer science and science students. My son’s student was a sophomore math major and he attended Synthetic Geometry and a Computer Science class with her. He was also given a voucher for lunch and they ate at the main dining hall. After lunch he was given a tour of the new science building. He said the professors were well spoken and seemed to enjoy teaching. The students were engaged and responsive. He said the computers were up-to-date and probably good enough. Since we had visited Drexel previously, he would be pretty hard to impress computer-wise. </p>

<p>All in all, we were both surprised and impressed with Kutztown. The students looked much like the ones at my son’s high school; white, middle class and fairly studious. I think he could get a good education and I think he’ll apply. If he does go here, I guess I’ll owe my husband (another) apology. They have one of the most comprehensive websites I’ve seen so check it out if you’d like to know more.</p>

<p>Names have been changed to protect the fact that I don’t remember the real ones!</p>

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<p>Thanks for the great report. What other PA state schools will you be looking at? How does Kutztown compare with Indiana of PA? S got a glossy brochure in the mail from Indiana/PA Honors College and it was quite impressive.</p>

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<p>“The students looked much like the ones at my son’s high school; white, middle class and fairly studious”…interesting turn of phrase…</p>

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<p>Momofwildchild,
Probably won’t go out to IUP. I’ve visited York (there ya go fendergirl), Drexel, Juniata, Millersville and Kutztown with my Junior son. When my daughter was looking we saw Penn State, Bloomsburg, Millersville and Susquehanna. I’ve heard the honors program is good at all the state schools. My daughter was accepted at the one at Millersville in El Ed but decided it wasn’t for her. The best thing is that honors college students get dibs when it comes time to select classes, right after seniors. This can be huge at State Schools. Our friends have a son at Kutztown and a daughter at IUP. They think both kids may be there 5 years because of the problem of getting certain classes when they need them. Neither are in the honors program. In fact the graduation rate within 4 years is 24.3 % at IUP, but only 16.8% at Kutztown. Contrast this with Juniata’s 67.8% and you can appreciate the difference of a private school.</p>

<p>citygirlsmom, just telling it like it is. Our high school is probably 99% white. Avg. house price $300,000. middle class, avg. SAT 1052 three years ago, 70% take them. Kutztown is 86.7 non-white. Avg. SAT score 1080.</p>

<p>I’d like my kids to want to go to a place with some diversity (my daughters college has 12% internationals, something that she really likes) but that’s a pretty accurate reflection of Pennsylvania once you get out of the city range.</p>

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<p>I guess it was the way it was said,…so is the College a white school in a non-white area? SO the campus does not draw from the people around it? interesting</p>

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<p>kutztown is definately a white area. (from what i remmeber) all of pennsylvania is, just not in the cities. i believe the towns around me (at home) are like 99 percent white as well. in the cities it’s a lot more diverse.</p>

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<p>I think she meant to say “white” instead of “non-white” with respect to the percentage at Kutztown.</p>

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<p>Having lived near Reading, I can almost guarantee that she meant to say “white” instead of “non-white”. And it’s true that Pennsylvania, by and large, isn’t very diverse outside of the primary cities (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, York, Bethlehem). But I think the state schools could work harder on their diversity, in any event.</p>

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<p>My husband is a descendant of the Amish of Kutztown, the Fancy Dutch. It’s such pretty farmland there, hills and fields of corn and dairy. Now the Fancy Dutch are opening up their farms to tourists who will buy their produce and pies. So quaint to travel up a dirt road to an old fashioned farm with the boys in suspenders and girls in bonnets, and SO polite, and grateful for your patronage! It really is a nice area!
Thanks for the review!</p>

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<p>Oh, my mistake. Kutztown is definately a white town, much less diverse then the college itself. Sorry, I replied right before I went to bed, should have proofed it first and now it’s too late to edit… It’s also confusing because Kutztown the college is in Kutztown the town. Here’s what I should have said:</p>

<p>Kutztown University is 86.7 white. Avg. SAT score 1080 for the most recently admitted class. This pretty much reflects many of the towns surrounding Kutztown, with the exception of perhaps the cities such as Allentown. From the NCES database from the graduating class of 2002 at my sons HS, it shows of a total graduating class of 198, 3 were asian, 0 were african amerian and 2 were hispanic. So, for our HS kids, maybe Kutztown would seem very diverse!</p>

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<p>i love kutztown university. my dad went there and i am hoping to get in. im a little worried though b/c i sent in everything like a very long time ago… erm. middle/late october. and i still havent heard anything. it worries me. lol
but seriously…</p>

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<p>My niece went there for two years and liked it. She transferred back to a NJ state school to be closer to the boyfriend. She was a typical student there–good grades in HS but low SAT’s (1000 or so–I think a bit less). The school has plenty to offer the average type kid.<br>
I also have fond memories of the Fair as we went every year as a kid from west NJ with a German mother.</p>

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<p>If the student doesn’t have a car on campus, are they stuck there?</p>

<p>Also, how easy is it/is it possible to take a train to Philadelphia to somehow make it up into Central Jersey?</p>

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<p>Nice review, kathiep-- I like hearing about the schools we don’t often hear about here on CC. Also, the “College Visits” forum doesn’t seem to leave people much room to elaborate-- there are lots of cut-off sentences…</p>

<p>Especially surprising to hear that 70% statistic re: art teahers!</p>

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<p>

Bieber busses run to NYC many times a day right from K-town. Also into Reading, and Philadelphia. Many folks commute on the busses. they are convenient and inexpensive.</p>

<p>K-Town + Art teachers - yep. K-town has an excellent Art education program.
In fact - Keith Haring grew up and graduated from Kutztown!</p>

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<p>Been to all the PA campuses several times, through athletics. Also D finishing a masters in sp ed at one of them.</p>

<p>ohlollipop, you’ll find a fair # of jersey kids at Kutztown. Majority of oos kids will be from NJ. Also East Stroudsburg, Bloomsburg and West Chester. Shouldn’t be hard locating a ride from any of these into NJ. </p>

<p>There are honors programs at some of these in addition to IUP, but I believe IUP is the most comprehensive of all the schools. Campuses: imo Bloomsburg is the prettiest, West Chester has the advantage of Philly within a half hour, Kutztown as mentioned has Lancaster, and EStroudsburg has the Poconos (and relatively easy access to NYC).</p>

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<p>I believe the Frazetta (the famous and often copied Sci-fi artist) museum is in EStroudsburg. Worth a trip if you are in the area.</p>

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<p>Did your kids look at West Chester, or eliminate it for any reason? Thanks for the great report. </p>

<p>I’m trying to put LockHaven, Millersville, West Chester and IUP into some kind of perspective, since last kid apparently wants to visit every school within a 20 hour drive… We only visited IUP with our other kids. I was very impressed with it during our tour, even though my other kids chose other schools.</p>

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<p>Well, gee glad you all liked my trip report from three years ago! My son with whom I visited Kutztown is now a Sophomore at Roanoke College in Virginia. As much as I liked Kutztown, he didn’t even apply. Both he and his sister did apply and were accepted at Millersville- neither attended. I know many kids that attend the PA state colleges and of the 14 schools in the system, I believe that IUP has the best honors College. It’s really unique. <a href=“http://old.www.iup.edu/honors/[/url]”>http://old.www.iup.edu/honors/&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>I actually think Bloomsburg is the least attractive of the state schools I’ve visited. I think Millersville and Kutztown are much more attractive. As they say though, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.</p>

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<p>Bloomsburg (was there this weekend):</p>

<p>The entire center of campus, which was a hodgepodge of parking lots, has been transformed into a parklike retreat with fountains, benches, landscaping. Was a major, yearlong project, just finished and looks great. That along with refurbishing of several major buildings and dorms has really changed the place. Till all this I would have agreed with you kathiep.</p>