Penn State Decision

[curlyq177]

Hey guys! I recently got accepted into Penn State's Master's program for speech and I'm super nervous about committing. The program offers everything I want, but I am nervous about the town and housing. I am from NYC and I am nervous about moving to the middle of PA. Can anyone tell me some good things about the area (things to do, festivals, shopping, etc.)? Also was wondering if their downtown is fun. I appreciate any input! 

[melly14]

I went to Penn State as an undergrad and there are soo many things to do! Penn State is a huge sports school so if you enjoy that I would definitely suggest getting season tickets for football - even if you don't, we take tailgating very seriously and it is a blast- but pretty much all of the sports teams are awesome! There are also intramural sports that are pretty relaxed that you can get involved in and most of the fitness centers have been redone/have classes you can take (its included in tuition!). There definitely aren't as many options for going out as you would get in NYC but they have a little bit of everything downtown and most bars have a theme night - Mad Mex has margarita Monday, Darkhorse has sex trivia and Pickle's has country night on Tuesday's, and so on. There is a small mall about 15 minutes from campus but when I say small i mean probably like 30ish stores. They also have this really great festival in the summer called Arts Fest. A bunch of local artists and vendors set up along the streets downtown and on campus. They have lots of live music too! You are also not far from Mount Nittany if you like hiking or Tussey Mountain if you like to go skiing/snowboarding. Also one of the most amazing things you could do is get involved with THON. THON is a 46 hour no sitting, no sleeping dance marathon for pediatric cancer research. You fundraise all year and then it ends with the dance marathon in mid February. It is honestly one of the most rewarding and humbling things you could do during your time there.

As you can probably tell I loved everything about Penn State but it really is such an amazing school all around. I hope this was helpful and also congratulations on getting in! :)

[curlyq177]

On 3/26/2019 at 10:22 AM, melly14 said:

I went to Penn State as an undergrad and there are soo many things to do! Penn State is a huge sports school so if you enjoy that I would definitely suggest getting season tickets for football - even if you don't, we take tailgating very seriously and it is a blast- but pretty much all of the sports teams are awesome! There are also intramural sports that are pretty relaxed that you can get involved in and most of the fitness centers have been redone/have classes you can take (its included in tuition!). There definitely aren't as many options for going out as you would get in NYC but they have a little bit of everything downtown and most bars have a theme night - Mad Mex has margarita Monday, Darkhorse has sex trivia and Pickle's has country night on Tuesday's, and so on. There is a small mall about 15 minutes from campus but when I say small i mean probably like 30ish stores. They also have this really great festival in the summer called Arts Fest. A bunch of local artists and vendors set up along the streets downtown and on campus. They have lots of live music too! You are also not far from Mount Nittany if you like hiking or Tussey Mountain if you like to go skiing/snowboarding. Also one of the most amazing things you could do is get involved with THON. THON is a 46 hour no sitting, no sleeping dance marathon for pediatric cancer research. You fundraise all year and then it ends with the dance marathon in mid February. It is honestly one of the most rewarding and humbling things you could do during your time there.

As you can probably tell I loved everything about Penn State but it really is such an amazing school all around. I hope this was helpful and also congratulations on getting in!

Thanks for all the great info! Were you a SLP undergrad?? If so would you mind telling me a little about the program, facilities, and professors?? I am unable to go on a tour unfortunately. 

[melly14]

On 3/30/2019 at 12:54 PM, curlyq177 said:

Thanks for all the great info! Were you a SLP undergrad?? If so would you mind telling me a little about the program, facilities, and professors?? I am unable to go on a tour unfortunately. 

Yes I was an SLP undergrad! The program is great and you can definitely tell all of the professors are extremely passionate about speech pathology. I am not quite sure how classes work for the graduate program (i.e. if they are all in one building or spread out) but the health and human development building was newly renovated maybe 3ish years ago so if you have classes in there its super nice! Most of my classes were spread across campus - for example I had a few CSD classes in the business building lol - so I can't really tell you much other than you will get a lot of steps in while you are there :). We also have a great speech and hearing clinic located in the same building as all of the professor's offices. A lot of professors do research as well which I believe you can find on the website somewhere if you are interested in that. Depending on what kind of student you are and how you learn some classes (based on the professor) can definitely be harder than others but they are all manageable and as I said before the professors are so passionate and are always willing to meet with you for extra help!

[curlyq177]

On 4/1/2019 at 10:30 AM, melly14 said:

Yes I was an SLP undergrad! The program is great and you can definitely tell all of the professors are extremely passionate about speech pathology. I am not quite sure how classes work for the graduate program (i.e. if they are all in one building or spread out) but the health and human development building was newly renovated maybe 3ish years ago so if you have classes in there its super nice! Most of my classes were spread across campus - for example I had a few CSD classes in the business building lol - so I can't really tell you much other than you will get a lot of steps in while you are there :). We also have a great speech and hearing clinic located in the same building as all of the professor's offices. A lot of professors do research as well which I believe you can find on the website somewhere if you are interested in that. Depending on what kind of student you are and how you learn some classes (based on the professor) can definitely be harder than others but they are all manageable and as I said before the professors are so passionate and are always willing to meet with you for extra help!

Thanks so much for taking the time to tell me about it! Youve really helped me out