Pennsylvania State University, USA

Routinely ranked among the top 15 public universities in the US by the US World News & Report, PSU is acknowledged as a ‘public Ivy league’ university for its rigorous academic programmes delivered in hands-on learning environments

Promoted in 1855, Pennsylvania State University (PSU) popularly referred to as Penn State is arguably America’s most highly-rated government-funded public varsity with 93,000 students enroled in its 24 campuses across the eastern seaboard state of Pennsylvania. Routinely ranked among the top 15 public universities in the US by the US World News & Report, PSU is acknowledged as a ‘public Ivy League’ varsity for its rigorous academic programmes delivered in hands-on learning environments. Its 12 academic colleges offer over 160 baccalaureate (four-year) degree programmes and over 20 associate degree (two-year) programmes. The university is also highly-ranked for its ability to prepare graduates for the job market. The Wall Street Journal has ranked PSU first among 100 colleges — including several private Ivy League colleges — in September 2010 following a survey of 479 corporate recruiters across the United States.

Comments Graham B. Spanier, president of PSU, which has accumulated an endowment of $1.23 billion (Rs.5,535 crore): “Penn State remains America’s most popular university, receiving a record-setting 107,000 applications for admission this year. Currently we have 93,000 students at our 24 campuses and online World Campus. And over half a million alumni make us proud every day. I’m grateful to Penn State’s 44,000 full and part-time employees who have taken on increased workloads, sacrificed salary increases, reduced expenses and contributed in countless ways to enable us to hold down tuition increases and maintain the quality of our programmes.”

Penn State was founded as a degree-granting institution in 1855 by an Act of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, following a gift of 200 acres from James Irvin of Bellefonte. Initially established with the objective of providing agriculture study programmes and training, Penn State quickly expanded its range to include engineering, liberal arts, business management and the social sciences to transform into a full-fledged varsity. Currently it offers over 160 majors across the disciplines of agriculture and natural resources, architecture and environment design, arts, biological sciences, business, communications, engineering, education, health professions, humanities and languages, physical sciences and mathematics and social sciences.

State College. PSU’s main campus — University Park — is sited in State College (pop. 80,000), a quintessential college town with small eateries and quirky shops lining main street marking the border between downtown and campus. Nestled at the base of Mount Nittany, in central Pennsylvania known as ‘Happy Valley’, it’s just a four-hour drive to New York City, Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. State College was recently ranked by Psychology Today as the lowest stress city in the US while Forbes rates it among the top 10 smaller metros in which to start a career or business.

Philadelphia. A majority of PSU’s 20 campuses are sited in close proximity to Philadelphia (pop:5.8 million), the largest city of Pennsylvania state and the second largest habitat on the east coast. Hosting the second largest number of colleges (over 50) in the US, Philadelphia is a major cultural hub with its citizens having played a pivotal role in American history. The city’s oldest quarters are rich with monuments and streets from the era of Dr. Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia also offers more than 100 museums and historical sites.

But the favourite hangouts of students are the city’s downtown restaurants, coffee shops, art galleries, cinemas and shopping areas. A large performing arts community offers not only the Philadelphia Orchestra but also opera, ballet, jazz, contemporary and classical music and theatre. The city’s climate tends to be chilly from November to April. Summers are hot and humid and autumn and spring temperatures moderate.

Campus facilities. PSU comprises 20 undergraduate campuses across Pennsylvania with each campus offering state-of-the-art academic, sports and recreational facilities. The university’s administrative hub is the University Park campus, PSU’s largest campus with 44,112 undergrad and 6,124 postgrad students. Attractions at University Park include Old Main, the chief administrative building which contains frescoes by artist Henry Varnam Poor tracing the growth of the university; Nittany Lion Shrine, a gift of the class of 1940 and a landmark; the Matson Museum of Anthropology, Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum, Frost Entomological Museum, and the Palmer Museum of Art. On-campus sports facilities include numerous tennis courts, indoor tracks, exercise and fitness centres, an indoor ice-skating rink, and swimming pools.

PSU’s other campuses include Abington, Altoona, Beaver, Berks, Brandywine, DuBois, the Behrend College, the Eberly campus, Fayette, Greater Allegheny, Harrisburg, Lehigh Valley, Mount Alto, New Kensington, Schuylkill, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre, Worthington Scranton and York.

PSU has a network of 37 libraries across its 20 campuses offering access to 5.35 million volumes, 88,668 journal subscriptions, 171,402 film and video material, 100,000 e-books and 536 online and other e-resources. Moreover there are over 1,200 clubs and organisations on campus.

Twenty undergraduate campuses apart, PSU has four special mission campuses including the Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle (founded in 1834 and ranked among the top 100 law schools nationally); Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies in Malvern (offering Masters degrees, Masters certification, and continuing professional education); Penn State Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine in Hershey (the university’s medical school and teaching hospital) and Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport (offering certificates as well as degrees in over ten technical disciplines).

Admission. The minimum eligibility criterion for admission into PSU’s undergraduate programmes is success-ful completion of Plus Two with a first class bachelor’s degree required for graduate programmes. In addition foreign students have to submit proof of proficiency in the English language (minimum TOEFL score of 550) as well as SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) scores. Entrance difficulty is based partly on demand with the University Park campus being the most competitive for admission.

For further information contact The Pennsylvania State University, 201 Shields Building University Park, PA 16802; Phone: 814-865-5471; Fax: 814-863-7590; e-mail: admissions@psu.edu; website: www.psu.edu.

Accommodation. First-year students at University Park are required to live on campus and are guaranteed housing. Ten of PSU’s 20 campuses offer university owned housing with the others offering off-campus accommo-dation options. Each room is equipped with television cable service, telephone, computer and internet connections, and a microfridge. Laundry facilities and a dining hall are located in each residence hall.

Degree programmes. Penn State offers more than 160 baccalaureate degree majors (four-years) and more than 20 associate degree majors (two-years) across 12 academic colleges (see box).

Summiya Yasmeen