Pennsylvania State University (Penn State): Admissions 2025, Scholarships, Fees 2025, Rankings & Courses

• There are almost twenty-four campuses. However, there are a lot of campuses that are being shut down. The main campus is University Park. Other notable campuses are Altoona and Harrisburg.
• There are almost 5 libraries, 3 gyms and 1 hospital on the main campus.
• The whiteout games are very big here. The homecoming and Halloween weekend celebrations are other major events here. THON is the biggest charity event that is unique to Penn State.
• There are many Indian and south Asian clubs that celebrate Indian festivals here. There are almost 1200 clubs at Penn State so there is a club for virtually every interest.
   

• It is almost sixty-five thousand dollars per year for me, including everything. However, that was two years ago and they have increased the rates to almost seventy thousand, according to some of my first-year friends but I am not sure about the figures exactly.
• They charge semester wise and you can opt to pay it monthly and it came to around 6500 per month for me.
• Off campus, including rent and other stuff, it was 1000 for me.

• Penn State has 24 campuses, with the main campus at University Park, and there are 19 Commonwealth campuses. Some of the notable Commonwealth campuses include Penn State Abington, Altoona, Erie (Behrend College), and Harrisburg.

• The campus has the following facilities
  - Libraries: Multiple libraries (approximately 15) covering various subjects
  - Sports Facilities: Beaver Stadium and the Bryce Jordan Center, along with numerous intramural fields.
  - Medical Services: University Health Services (UHS) with ambulance and paramedics 24/7

• Penn State is known for its vibrant events:
  - THON: The largest student-run philanthropy in the world, raising money for pediatric cancer research.
  - Arts Fest: A downtown State College festival showcasing local art.
  - Over 1,000 student clubs and organizations

• Extracurriculars
  - Sports: Big Ten athletics, club sports, and intramurals.
  - Cultural Events: Concerts, performances, and festivals celebrating different cultures, with a large emphasis on Indian culture.
  - Student Organizations: Opportunities for community service, academics, and personal interests.

• It costs approximately 55k a year, broken down as 8k a year for campus, 40k a year for tuition, and 5k for miscellaneous things such as prepaid meal plan, textbooks, etc.
• The fees are charged semester wise, and one can opt in for monthly installments
• Since the meal plan is prepaid, transportation is free, and I live on campus, the only regular expenses are for things such as laundry and occasionally shopping at walmart or target

• Penn State has around 11 campuses, 1 major library and every department has it's own small library, multiple grounds for almost every sport. I am on the University Park campus, State College PA. There are a lot of clubs and many football games. The Gym facilities are also excellent and we have ice skating arena and almost all the sport grounds.

• We have a lot of events going on all year; there are societies and clubs for cultural activities as well. There are many Indian events that take place here and celebrations of different festivals. During major festivals, you won't feel far from home.
• We have clubs like IGSA, SASA and many more. We have an amazing intramural building; name a sport, and they have it there.

• All Campus:- University Park,Abington,Altoona,Beaver,Behrend (Erie),Berks,Brandywine,DuBois,Fayette (Eberly),Greater Allegheny,Harrisburg,Hazleton,Lehigh Valley,Mont Alto,New Kensington,Schuylkill,Scranton,Shenango,Wilkes-Barre,York.

• I am in the university park campus. It has great recreational activities. The worlds third largest football stadium is Beavers stadium home to the PSU football team. It hosts a lot of matches which is a source of entertainment for the 100,000 fans visiting each and every game. PSU is a sports school and has great facilities.

• So the fee is 18,000 USD (with health insurance) per semester. So 65000 USD for the entire two year course (30 credits). The credit based fees is 1975 dollars per credit.
• The monthly expenses are around 600 for rent and 250 to 300 USD for groceries. You should also keep 50/100 USD expense as miscellaneous.  So you should account around a 1000 dollars per month.

• My university has 24 campus

1. University Park – Penn State University Park
2. Abington – Penn State Abington
3. Altoona – Penn State Altoona
4. Beaver (Monaca) – Penn State Beaver
5. Behrend (Erie) – Penn State Behrend
6. Berks (Reading) – Penn State Berks
7. Brandywine (Media) – Penn State Brandywine
8. Carlisle – Penn State Dickinson Law
9. DuBois – Penn State DuBois
10. Fayette (Lemont Furnace) – Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus
11. Great Valley (Malvern) – Penn State Great Valley
12. Greater Allegheny (McKeesport) – Penn State Greater Allegheny
13. Harrisburg (Middletown) – Penn State Harrisburg
14. Hazleton – Penn State Hazleton
15. Hershey – Penn State College of Medicine
16. Lehigh Valley (Center Valley) – Penn State Lehigh Valley
17. Mont Alto – Penn State Mont Alto
18. New Kensington – Penn State New Kensington
19. Schuylkill (Schuylkill Haven) – Penn State Schuylkill
20. Scranton (Dunmore) – Penn State Scranton
21. Shenango (Sharon) – Penn State Shenango
22. Wilkes-Barre (Lehman) – Penn State Wilkes-Barre
23. Williamsport – Pennsylvania College of Technology (Penn State affiliate)
24. York – Penn State York

• All the facilities you could imagine are available at my campus sports, food, health related, gyms, swimming pools, everything.
• The major events would be the THON which is an event for charity which happens for i think 48-72 hours straight without stopping and the penn state whiteout which is a sport event where everyone wears white to the game.
• There are well over 500 clubs at my university, for extra curriculars you have gyms, pool tables, tennis courts, pickle ball courts, soccer courts, rock climbing , badminton, swimming pools and few other sports which I don't remember.

• There is a 5% increase in your fee when you hit 59 credits or more. We had semester wise fee.
• All the fee i am listing below is from my freshman semester from 2022 fall
  I had a room and board fee 6600$
  Tuition was 19051$
  Insurance was 1059$
  International fee was 750$
  UP (campus) student fee was 274$
  Erollment fee was 130$
  Total was around 27600$ for the first semester
• My monthly expenses living on campus would be around 300$-400$ and it varies from person to person depending on how much you are spending on food outside the campus, how much you were partying or travelling etc.

• All the Campus :-

1. Penn State Abington        Abington, Pennsylvania
2. Penn State Altoona        Logan Township, Pennsylvania
3. Penn State Beaver        Monaca, Pennsylvania
4. Penn State Berks        Spring Township, Pennsylvania
5. Penn State Brandywine        Media, Pennsylvania
6. Penn State Carlisle        Carlisle, Pennsylvania
7. Penn State DuBois        DuBois, Pennsylvania
8. Penn State Erie (Behrend College)        Erie, Pennsylvania
9. Penn State Fayette        Uniontown, Pennsylvania
10. Penn State Greater Allegheny        McKeesport, Pennsylvania
11. Penn State Harrisburg        Middletown, Pennsylvania
12. Penn State Hazleton        Hazleton, Pennsylvania
13. Penn State Lehigh Valley        Center Valley, Pennsylvania
14. Penn State Mont Alto        Mont Alto, Pennsylvania
15. Penn State New Kensington        New Kensington, Pennsylvania
16. Penn State Schuylkill        Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania
17. Penn State Scranton        Dunmore, Pennsylvania
18. Penn State Shenango        Sharon, Pennsylvania
19. Penn State Wilkes-Barre        Lehman, Pennsylvania
20. Penn State York        York, Pennsylvania
21. Penn State University Park        State College, Pennsylvania

• I got to University Park campus, we have multiple gyms, libraries and lots of sports facilities. We have the third larget football stadium in the US.

• Popular events include concerts and football games. Festivals of all different backgrounds are also celebrated by the respective societies.

• We pay fee semester-wise based on the credits we have taken. Since I am enrolled in a 10 credit course, the first three semesters, where I enroll in 3 credits per semester, cost around 18-20k including insurance.
• My monthly rent is 610. Utilities in summer-fall cost about 20-40 per month. In winter, the utilities may go up to about 70-100 per month.Groceries cost around 200-300 per month. Transport is free as bus pass is included for free in my rental agreement. Total living expenses per month come out to about 800-1100 USD.

• My college has a total of 24 campuses, spread all over Pennsylvania. It is too much information to type for each campus, so here is the link for all of them: 
  https://www.psu.edu/academics/campuses

• I live in University Park, the main campus, based in State College, Pennsylvania. It has all the amenities I had mentioned earlier, including a stadium, hospital, libraries, intramural building, swimming pools, golf course, airport, lake, and multiple gymnasiums. 

• There are various concerts by musicians like Drake, Travis Scott, and Taylor Swift. There was a Donald Trump rally in November. There are football games almost every weekend in that big stadium. 

• There is an intramural building, where there is all the equipment you would need for all sports, including an indoor football turf and a 20,000 sq meter gym. There is also a Recreation Hall, where there is an indoor volleyball stadium. There are four swimming pools that I know of, all are olympic sized. All of these are free to use for students. There are career fairs, cultural fairs and inclusion fairs time to time. I have already described clubs and organisations earlier. 

• The fees is based on semester wise system. 

  • Tution- $23, 762

  • Hostel- Between $2,714 to $4,508 depending on where you live on campus

  • Meal Plan- Between $2,688 and $3,011 depending on which level you choose (Level I, II or III. Higher meal plan= more dining dollars)

  • Since almost all my expenses are already paid for in the fees, my monthly expenses of groceries is barely $30-$50. 

• There are many campuses of Penn state available in different location, main campus is University park and second most important is Harrisburg. There are overall 24 campuses.
• All facilities are available from library and personal room space to study in quiet environment and alone, medical services - UHS and many sports , esports , lawn tennis , gym and pickleball available.
• There are many clubs which has different goals and each club celebrates the festival according to them , there is ICLC club organizing all the Indian events that take place at the college.
• There lot of club activities which you have to enroll yourself and attended their masterclass or class and learn the technique or skills they teach you over the time.

• I dont know much about the fees stucture but Its roughly around $60000-$65000 for international students including everything (tuition living and miscellaneous) per year.
  Tution fees - $40000-$50000
  Living - $6000 - $10000|
  Books - $500 - $1000
  Miscellaneous - $100 - $500
  Travel - $100 - $500
  My monthly expense is $200 - $300
• They charge according to semester wise and credit wise depending on subject to subject chosen by student, student exceeding 19 credits in any semester , has to pay extra credit charge.

The major reason for choosing this college was the cost of program - cheaper in comparison with other schools offering similar program. Secondary factors include - brand value, alumni network, geographic advantage. And the reason I chose Engineering Management is because of my interest in tech and skill in management. Also wanted to break into product management. Overall experience was just about satisfactory. Studying at this university and particularly this course had a lot of cons for a few pros. Would recommend to consider only after thorough research.

Campus life is pretty limited. The school operates only in the evenings, but allows students to study/work in the day. Events and extracurricular activities are limited. Students are allowed to do research assistant jobs.