Picture a college dorm packed with students. The halls are buzzing with life as they get ready for their first day of classes. Excited freshman talk about parties, hook-ups and new friends. Just outside on the busy, overcrowded sidewalks comes more excitement and more noise. Everyone seems full of life for this early Monday morning. All of the students that have flocked to Penn State for it's wonderful academics and even better parties are happy to finally be the ones cheering, "We Are... PENN STATE!" Now let's pan over to that one student that walks alone, tunes everything out with their music, and dresses appropriately for the season. That is the person that has lived here all of their life and, quite honestly, is tired of hearing "We Are..." everywhere they go. I am that person. Yes, campus is beautiful in the fall with its changing leaves and well-kept everything, but having seen this all of my life I am not under the spell. I wish I could share in the joy and excitement of a new school year at a beautiful school.
Watching everyone getting antsy before a big game makes me jealous. They are all tailgating and buying season tickets. I have interest in the football program, but I just can't get excited like everyone else. I have witnessed it for the past eighteen years of my life. It's the same thing every few years: big loss - riot; big win - riot. State College is overrun with tourists and visitors. There is no place to park and hardly any room to drive between the thousands of students parading through the streets.
My personal opinion of campus is that it's incredible... if you aren't from around here. I feel that growing up here gave me no real choice in where I would go to school. My college experience has been greatly influenced by growing up in the area. For me that isn't a good thing though. When asking students who grew up in the area how they feel they've been affected by being a local and going to PSU I got many different responses. Joe Mullin, a senior, says, "I don't think it has affected it really, but it is the reason why I chose PSU. I have been a PSU football fan since I was born and was raised in a family full of the same. There was not another option for a college for me really."
Sharing a completely opposite response, Catelyn McMinn, a freshman commuter, states, "I have grown sick of the environment in this town. The only reason I go here is because of my parents. They are alumni that moved here after graduating. They basically told me I was coming here."
I can relate to both of these people. While I like the football team and have pride, some of that pride has been diminished by the sheer fact that I have seen it all of my life. Finally, when asking an out of state freshman, Janelle Zimmerman, her opinion of the campus, she had nothing but positive remarks, "I love it here! My parents and I live in Michigan and used to visit to see family. We would always go to football games and it made me want to be apart of the Penn State community. The campus is so big. Sometimes there isn't much to do, but I've made a lot of new friends so it's not so bad."
The Smeal College of Business put together a website listing interesting PSU facts such as the college as a whole has over 90,000 students (at least half are here at main campus. The school also awards around 20,000 degrees a year. That could be reason enough that students flock here by the thousands. When going to a college it is always smart to look into the graduation rate. The people over at imakenews.com also threw together a few fun facts. In 2002, the largest crowd ever in Beaver Stadium (110,753 to be exact), watched Penn State win 40-7 over Nebraska. Perhaps students come for the football? Also, the average tuition for freshmen and sophomores this year was near $6,802 per semester.
The facts that I found made me think that I should be asking students not only how where they grew up affects their college experience, but why they came to Penn State. I think that getting to know students' reasons why they came will help me determine how well they will like it here. What were the students looking to find in their college experience and will they get it here? I think that after getting this out of the way I have a clearer focus on where I would like my report to go.
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