Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Top Questions

The worst thing about my school would have to be Findlay Commons food in East Halls. It's terrible!

The worst thing about my school would have to be Findlay Commons food in East Halls. It's terrible!

I feel that the orientation process could be improved. I felt that when I came to school I was sort of just dropped there with no preparation. We had an orientation in the summer that for a day but I found it very unhelpful. The only thing I got out of it was that I signed up for classes. Other than that, I had to continuously make appointments with advisors in order to move forward with anything. I feel that there should have been more preparation prior to us arriving in order to make the transition smoother.

classes fill up quickly

Students that transfer into this school often feel unwelcomed because everyone else already made their friends. This is what I had gone through and was a very difficult transition for me. The transition was thr worst thing about this school.

The worst thing about Penn State is how easy it is to feel lost while attending a school that has over 40,000 students. By being a small fish in a big pond, its very hard to get noticed and appreciated for your educational efforts. You have to be the most elite in your field (or classroom) to stand out from the crowd. The size of Penn State also can make you feel lost socially as well. You HAVE to join a smaller, student-run group to make the large student-body shrink to smaller, more doable size.

The cost is definitely the worst thing about Penn State. Tuition is very high and hard to manage if you or your parents are not financially wealthy. I am part of a low-income family, so making payments on my tuition bill is a constant struggle.

One downside to Penn State is that being a very large, worldwide school it is easy to feel like your problems can get lost in the crowd. However there are tons of resources on campus that do not get as much use as they should.

winter, i definetly don't enjoy cold wather

The worst thing about Penn State is also one of its best attributes, the size of the student body. There are so many students at Penn State with so many different interests and passions. This results in numerous clubs and organizations that students have the opportunity to join. Having so many options to choose from is both a blessing and a curse. While searching for the groups and the peaople that are right for you it is common try numerous other organizations before finding your niche.

The worst thing about my school would have to be the dining hall that is assigned to the freshman. Findley Commons, as it is known, manages to feed the thousands of freshman food that neither looks appetizing nor tastes very good. Luckily there are four other dining halls we can attend, where the food is actually edible. The Findley Dining Hall offers a variety but doesn't really make it look very pleasing to eat.

The heavy association with alcohol and the student social life is entirely too much. I think too many situations get out of hand and cause students to feel that they cannot have fun unless alcohol is present. I consider this to be the worst thing about my school because it is not necessary at all in my opinion, and I wish more students felt that way.

I wish there were more opportunities for minorities.

Similar to most universities, the issues with under-aged drinking and alcohol poisoning is the unfortunate aspect of being a Penn Stater. Whenever there is a party, drinking is an activity either following the event or is an act performed before the event; this is known as "pre-gaming". However, the students who link this representation of "party school" to Penn State are also the ones who will still attend class with a killer hang over the next day. Penn Staters know that they are accountable for their actions and understand the importance of succeeding academically when fun is inappropriate.

It's hard to get good financial aid

The size of the school is extremely large. It's difficult to make friends if you're not in small classes or groups.

The worse thing about the school is there aren't many resources for students who have psychological issues. This is a problem because college students are amongst the highest group of people who suffer from depression, anxiety, stress, and committ suicide.

The engineering majors require too much work.

Nothing comes to mind I enjoy every minute of it. Its a blast

The worst thing i consider about my school is that there are too many parties at the weekend because it can possbily distract students' attention from their studyings. it can also bother the students who try to focus on their studying, howmework or exam at the weekend. Particularly, it might cause students easily into the fight if they got drunk. However, there is rarely a trouble in my campus and i hope this situation will not happen in my Campus .

I consider the amount of drinking and partying to be the worst part. People do a lot of stupid things when they are drunk, and I usually prefer to avoid drunk people.

I haven't really found anything that I dislike about Penn State. If I had to pick something I would say that some of the dorm rooms could be larger.

Definitey the Math Department. But im pretty sure other schools have thesame problem.

Penn State is a great school but the only issue that i have with them is that is tooo expensive and do not seem to have a lot of scholarships. As a freshmen, i came to Penn State with a 4.1 GPA and a rank of 36 out of 457 students in my school. Unfortunately i didn't receive any scholarships for all my hard work in high school; for that, Penn State is not in my opinion willing to offer scholarships. This makes me feel like all the hard work i did back in high school was wasted.

I like everything about my school.

The weather in State College was terrible, always dark, rainy and cold. Winter seemed to last forever.

Penn State is probably ranked among the top party schools, which can make for lots of distractions from your studies. Parties abound not only on weekends, but throughout the week as well, and have been the downfall of many less-than-focused students. It takes a lot of committment to stay in your room studying when the sounds of parties surround you.

I love my school. I really don't have any complaints about the school itself. The worst I'd have to say is the cold weather. At times, it is freezing up here and plans go as scheduled due to our heated sidewalks.

The weather

Time management. It's hard to schedule classes that are around each other. At most times you only have 15 minutes to get from one class to another.

I do not consider anything to be that bad to call it "the worst thing" but if I were to pick one, it would have to be the unsettled weather. There are not that many sunny days during any season and the skies can get pretty gloomy, but I was told that at orientation. If this is the only worse thing I could think of, then my decision to attend this school was definitely the right one.

The weather in State College. It usually rains which makes walking to class depressing, and the sky is usually grey which in itself is depressing.

I honestly don't think there is anything bad about Penn State, but I feel like the most difficult thing to overcome is balancing and managing time. You meet so many people here, and with lots of people always asking you to hang out or do something, it is tempting to participate in the fun things rather than concentrating on your schoolwork. However, if you realize your priorities, you will find an efficient way to get the best of everything.

It is really big and you have to work hard to get involved and make friends.

I consider the over use of alchohol and the acceptance of this fact by the faculty to be our bigges tweakness.

The worst thing about this school is location. It is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. For a fairly large school you would expect the growth and population of the town to be large but here it is relatively small. There aren't very many choices for shopping and eating.

If i had to choose a worst component of my school, the most negative thing woud be the size. It is fairly big and that can be looked at as a negative thing for some people.

The fact that every school team, both division and club, are insanely good. It makes it hard for people not looking to have their lives dominated by sports be able to play at all. I played varsity volleyball in high school but that means nothing at a school with a women's volleyball team that has won the NCAA title 3 years in a row, and with a club team just as intense.

Sometimes the worst thing about Penn State is the weather because it can snow and rain a lot, but students tend to make the best of it and it really makes you appreciate nice weather.

In my opinion, the worst thing about Penn State University Park is the lack of accessable wireless internet in the dorms. Other than that, University Park is an awesome campus!

I truely love Penn State. The only problem I have with this university that it is not as musically diverse as I want it to be. Penn State has a fantastic music program for classical musicians. However the do not offer much for other forms of music like jazz, latin, pop, hip hop etc. Other than that Penn State is a perfect school.

The campus is huge so there are large distances between classes and buildings making the walks longer and especially in the usually rainy weather conditions.

Penn State is also known to be a party school and I think this is quite a problem.

It's hard to transfer to a different school. I wish they made the process easier and worked with students to make more credits count in other places.

Rising tuition. It is a land grant, state school and should be readily available to anyone willing to put in the work to get through.

there is not enough financial aid for the students , who attend an out of state University.

The worst part is the dorms. They are relatively small and the dorms that most freshman are in are far away from downtown and most the buildings my classes are in. The dorms are cold in the winter and don't have air conditioning so hot in the spring.

The worst thing about the school would be the traffic, that goes for cars, buses, and just plain old people traffic.

I think that the size and the cost of tuition is the worst part.

Because it is so large, it can sometimes be overwhelming but there are many programs and services available to help you get through it.