Are you an incoming Penn State University Freshman? Or you want to be? You’re in the right place.
Whether you are moving across the country or just a car ride away, moving into a school with 40,000 undergrad students will be a huge change. You’ll live with people you probably don’t know, in a town you aren’t familiar with, doing school work that will be a step up in difficulty and responsibility, but it will be one of the best choices of your life.
I graduated from Penn State University this year, and it was one of the best decisions I have made. I grew immensely, made lifelong friends, and set myself on a path for the future that I am proud of, but it wasn’t easy!
Your freshman year will consist of learning as you go. Here I’ll talk you through what I wish I learned sooner.
Budgeting Your Meal Plan:
Your meal plan may not seem important, but when there is two months left in school and you have $50 left to your name, your opinion of it might change!
Take some initiative and go onto https://liveon.psu.edu/ and click on eLiving. If you click on your profile and click on the meal plan button, you can see your balance.
I personally always look at my starting balance before I go to school. Then, divide the total by the amount of weeks I’ll be there, and after divide that number by seven to get the amount of about how much I should be spending each day.
When I was an RA and on the highest meal plan, I had about $13/$14 to spend each day. While this does sound like not much at all, you get a 65% discount on most of the food. So breakfast at the dining hall was about $3, lunch is about $5 and dinner is about $6 (according to my memory).
There are also a ton of other options besides the all you can eat, like a salad in South Halls, depending on the size, is $2-$4. This keeps me on track to have money consistently throughout the semester
Meal Plan Killer:
If there is one way to destroy your meal plan balance, it’s eating at the HUB, Starbucks, or the dining hall markets. When you eat at somewhere with a brand name you know, like Panera, The Edge (which is all Starbucks food), Burger King, or the grocery stores in the main res hall buildings, there is no longer a 65% discount on the final price.
So when you buy anything from these places, like your favorite $7 coffee, it will be full price and might be more than half of your daily amount.
When people run out of money early on, it’s because they don’t keep track of their money and eat at the most expensive places on campus.
To be clear, you get a discount when you swipe into the all you can eat dining hall and the adjacent restaurants in the dining hall. If it is The Edge or Market in your dining hall, or anywhere outside of your dining hall, it is full price.
You Will Survive Not Living In East Halls:
When I got my notification that my eLiving had been updated on the day room assignments were sent out, I almost cried at work when I saw I was in Pollock, not East.
On every tour the guide will tell you that most freshman live in East, so naturally I assumed I planned to live there. Midway through freshman year, I was relieved not to be living in East.
Don’t get me wrong, East is a ton of fun. There is always something going on or something to do, and you are surrounded by all other people in the same situation as you. As I lived in Pollock longer and longer, my appreciation grew. Like how some floors were loud and some were not. There wasn’t this bustling kind of go go go energy as I felt in East. There were always people doing things, but I didn’t feel this pressure to keep up. I ended up loving Pollock, as much as one can in unrenovated rooms (which really aren’t that bad), and disliking talking to East people. Everyone I met asked me where I lived, then pitied me when I told them.
Freshmen get placed in every hall on campus. All of them have their own benefits and negatives. Find what you like about your area and you can always make friends who live in different areas to experience that vibe as well.
Party Culture:
Most people end up at Penn State because they like the idea of it being a huge party school. This is not too far from the truth. There are people who go out every single night of the week. There are others who don’t. If you know what you are doing, you can start going out as soon as you arrive.
Having a sibling or older friend is helpful – they know how PSU nightlife works. ALSO, a party at an apartment is MUCH more enjoyable than one in a dorm. If you don’t know anyone, don’t worry, I didn’t either but I figured it out fairly fast.
For the girls:
If you are a girl, there’s a decent likelihood that you can get into frat parties. Penn State is first and foremost, a frat school. Some frats have a guest list they go off of. Or you will have to show a text from their social chair proving you were invited. You can also lie and pick a random sorority to say you are in. If you have an older friend in a sorority, they can potentially send you the invite text to use. No guarantees that will work! If you are interested in Greek Life – check out this post! There are a bunch of “lower tier” or not strict/stuck up frats that let girls in no matter what. If you rush in the spring semester you will have a social chair that organizes all of your events.
What I did was download tinder and swipe on every single guy that has greek letters in their pictures. Then I would start a conversation to get invited to their parties. The frat houses are pretty big, so the majority of the time I would just go dance and I’d never run into them!
Sorority recruitment is in January. I served as Recruitment Director for my sorority for basically all three years of my involvement. If you are interested in learning more about it, check out this post!
For the Guys:
If you are a guy, there is no chance that a frat will let you in, unless you know one of the brothers. Your best bet is to get involved in clubs and organizations that throw events for their members. Many clubs have weekly events at someone’s apartment for the club members. THON orgs are a good bet if you are interested in that.
Get Involved:
There are tons of interesting and cool clubs to join with opportunities for growth within if you join early enough. There are so many opportunities that I wish I knew about sooner! I want you to make sure you know about them from the start.
THON Committee – THON is a 46 hour no sleep dance marathon where organizations raise money against childhood cancer. It’s also the pride and joy of Penn State. Most organizations have their own THON Chair and way to get involved.Yyou can also apply to be on a THON Committee. The committees are broken up into different areas, all of which work together to run THON weekend as a team. From Finance, to Merch, to Dancer Relations, each area has several committees you might join with different focuses to make friends on. If you join, you’ll have a weekly meeting from September until February where you bond and fundraise with your Committee. Then on the weekend of THON, you will have shifts to work related to whatever your Committee’s focus is.
I am from Connecticut, so THON isn’t really a thing here. On the other hand people from Pennsylvania have been participating in their school’s THON event for years. I wish someone had explained to me what it was and told me to join a Committee. The amount of people I heard that made some of their best friends this way was astonishing.
Other organizations I found incredibly interesting are Valley Mag, a fashion magazine with teams related to design, finance, and event planning, the Nittany Lion Consulting Group, which is a club that teaches you the basics of consulting then you interview to join the group and work on real life cases,
Making Friends:
Finding your lifelong friends at a big school takes a different amount of time for everyone. Some people find those friends on their dorm floor, but the majority don’t. Others through clubs, or a random gen ed class, or through sitting in the lobby of their building.
There are people who find their best friends within weeks of coming. There are others who make friends, but don’t find their people for a year or two. Don’t compare your timeline to other peoples.
On that same note, when you find your friends, take a step back and look at the people around you. Did you roommate not make their friends yet, but you did? Or someone on your floor that you hung out with once or twice. Be kind and invite them to hang with your group once in a while.
The start of college is lonely for everyone. No one likes to feel that way. Be inclusive, kind, and open to everyone. Have each others backs, and it’ll make the first month easier for everyone.
I attended Penn State Universityfor four year. Two of which I was an RA. Each year I’ve taken count of what I wanted to share with my kids. I hope this advice gives you some comfort or added confidence when starting your journey at Penn State. Or really any big university for that matter.
Best of luck – I’m rooting for you!
