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 in 2023, and it was one of the best decisions I have made. I grew immensely as a person, 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 constantly learning on the go. It’ll be scary, but you’ll make it through and end up building a life you love!
Here, I’ll talk you through what I wish I learned sooner to make freshman year easier.
You Will Survive Not Living In East Halls:
I remember vividly the day room assignments were sent out for my freshman year. As I opened eLiving, I almost cried at work when I saw I was in Pollock, not East. I thought my freshman year was over before it began, life was over, but little did I know I would become incredibly thankful for this placement!
On every tour, the guide will tell you that most freshmen live in East, so naturally I assumed and planned to live there. Freshmen live in every single area, but East is the residence area where only freshmen live. Nowadays, Pollock consists of mostly freshmen as well. Midway through freshman year, after seeing what life was actually like in East compared to Pollock, 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. You are surrounded by all other people in the same situation as you. It feels like the place to be
Why I loved Pollock
As I lived in Pollock longer and longer, my appreciation grew. Like how most floors were not loud every second of the day. There wasn’t this cliquey behavior everywhere that I felt in East. There were always people doing things, but I didn’t feel this pressure or competitiveness to keep up. I ended up loving Pollock, as much as one can in un-renovated rooms (which really aren’t that bad). Everyone I met from East would pity me when I told them where I lived, like they were better than me because they had to walk 30 minutes to get to any class and that their dining hall food sucked. I hated the East superiority and was immensely happy to not be placed there.
Freshmen get placed in every hall on campus. All of them have their own benefits and negatives. Find the positives of whatever area you get placed in. Remember you can always make friends who live in different areas to experience that vibe as well! Regardless of your placement, know that you will survive, make friends, and have a great experience.
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 looked at my starting balance before I got to school. Then, divide the meal plan 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. This would give me an idea of a daily budget to stick to. That way, I never ran out of money.
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 that get the 65% discount 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 on a daily basis.
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.
Party Culture:
Most people end up at Penn State because they like the idea of it being a huge party school. This is honestly not too far from the truth. There are people who go out every single night of the week. There are others who don’t go out at all. If you know what you are doing, you can start going out as soon as you arrive.
Having a sibling or older friend is super helpful – they know how PSU nightlife works and can help you find where to go. 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 (and you will too)!
For the girls:
Penn State is first and foremost, a frat school. If you are a girl, there’s a decent likelihood that you can get into frat parties. Some frats have a guest list they go off of, so your name would have to be on it to get in. You can also lie and pick a random sorority to say you are in. Just know, there is a hierarchy for all of the frats and sororities. Certain orgs only hang out with certain orgs, so if you lie and say the name of a sorority that the frat you’re trying to get into, would never hang out with, then that will certainly not work.
For others, you will have to show a text from their social chair proving you were invited. If you have an older friend in a sorority, they can potentially send you the invite text to use. No guarantees that will work, but decent odds!
Rushing
I personally recommend rushing. That’s how I met my best friends and thoroughly enjoyed it. Though there is a ton wrong with greek life of course, it could be a great way to make friends and get involved. If you do rush in the spring semester you will have a social chair that organizes all of your events.
What I did first semester, 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, or use their name at the front door to get let in. 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. Hopefully you have an early birthday and can start hitting the best bars as soon as possible! Though I have heard you can go to the Den with a fake ID (The Lion’s Den).
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. You 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, and 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 months easier for everyone.
I attended Penn State University for four year. Two of which I was an RA. Each year I shared this information with my residents, and now I’ve shared it with you. 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!
