I. The Pennsylvania State University

Academic and Research Units

Penn State University Park

The University Park campus, located in Centre County, is the administrative center of the University. It is the primary site for graduate study and enrolls about half of all Penn State undergraduates. Of the University's approximately 5,300 full-time faculty, about 3,000 are located at this campus, and the total work force numbers approximately 16,000. The University Park campus also houses most of the University's major research facilities, both those within colleges and those contained in intercollege research units. Based on an index developed by the Association of Research Libraries, the University Libraries, with their central administration at the University Park campus, rank among the top ten research libraries in the United States and Canada. The campus also is the home of the Palmer Museum of Art and the Center for the Performing Arts.

Twelve academic units confer degrees at the University Park campus: the Colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Arts and Architecture, Smeal College of Business, Communications, Earth and Mineral Sciences, Education, Engineering, Health and Human Development, Information Sciences and Technology, the Liberal Arts, Eberly College of Science, and the Graduate School. Faculty at all Penn State campuses are members of these academic units.

Penn State Abington

Penn State Abington, founded in 1950, is located in Montgomery County on a beautiful forty-five-acre suburban site, a few miles north of the Philadelphia city limits. The enrollment includes approximately 3,400 students with a diversity ratio of 35% to 40% each year. There are approximately one hundred full-time faculty members, among whom thirty are in the senior ranks. In July 1997, Penn State Abington became the Abington College of Penn State, joining three other new colleges from the former Commonwealth Educational System. The college currently offers 15 baccalaureate degrees with a total upper-division enrollment of more than 1,000 students. Two degrees (Psychological and Social Sciences and Corporate Communication) are unique to the Abington College. The college offers the upper-division Schreyer Honors College diploma in addition to its own Honors Program for first- and second-year students.

Penn State Altoona

Penn State Altoona was established in 1939 and became a baccalaureate, degree-granting college in 1997. Its mission is to provide a comprehensive undergraduate educational experience for students seeking a Penn State opportunity in a residential, small-campus environment. Penn State Altoona offers 8 associate and 19 baccalaureate degree programs as well as the first two years of more than 160 baccalaureate degrees available throughout the Penn State system. Over 4,000 students study here. With 15 NCAA Division III sports programs, a distinguished speaker series, an honors program, dozens of student organizations and recreational, student, and arts programs, Penn State Altoona offers a full spectrum of academic, cultural, and athletic opportunities.

The college is extremely active in the community and economic development of south central Pennsylvania. Through its Division of Continuing and Distance Education, Penn State Altoona reaches companies and individuals throughout the region and the United States, especially the Northeast.

Penn State Berks

Penn State Berks, founded in 1958, is located in Berks County on a 258-acre suburban site near Reading. There are 19 major buildings, including seven residence halls for 805 students, a bookstore, and a conference center. The enrollment includes approximately 2,800 full- and part-time students; there are about 110 full-time faculty members.

Penn State Erie, The Behrend College

Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, offers baccalaureate degrees in the following majors: Accounting; Biology; Business Economics; Business, Liberal Arts, and Science; Chemistry; Communication; Computer Engineering; Computer Science; Creative Writing; Economics; Electrical Engineering; Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology; English; Finance; General Arts and Sciences; History; Interdisciplinary Business with Engineering Studies; International Business; Management; Management Information Systems; Marketing; Mathematics; Mechanical Engineering; Mechanical Engineering Technology; Nursing; Physics; Plastics Engineering Technology; Political Science; Psychology; Science; Secondary Education, Mathematics; and Software Engineering.

Master's degrees are offered in Business Administration and Project Management. Students can complete two years of most other baccalaureate degree majors offered by the University.

The college is actively involved in community and economic development and is home to several applied research centers, including the federally funded Plastics Technology Center, offices of the Ben Franklin Partnership and PENNTAP, the Center for Organizational Research and Evaluation, and Continuing Education, which offers a broad range of contracted management and workforce education and training programs. Knowledge Park at Penn State Erie is a research and development initiative aimed at increasing high-tech employment opportunities in the Erie economy. Students have numerous opportunities to engage in research as part of their undergraduate education.

The chancellor at Penn State Erie is the principal academic and administrative officer of the campus and reports to the vice president for Commonwealth Campuses. The chancellor maintains contact with the faculty through a system of appropriate academic officers and faculty committees.

Penn State Harrisburg

Penn State Harrisburg, located in Middletown, is an undergraduate college and graduate school offering 2 associate, 31 baccalaureate, 22 master's, and 3 doctoral degrees as well as certificate and certification programs. Penn State Harrisburg also offers the first two years of study leading to more than 160 Penn State undergraduate majors available throughout the Commonwealth -- including 30 of its own. The graduate programs are designed to accommodate the working adult with classes offered in the evening.

University College

The University College comprises fourteen campuses located across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Beaver, Brandywine, DuBois, Fayette, Greater Allegheny, Hazleton, Lehigh Valley, Mont Alto, New Kensington, Schuylkill, Shenango, Wilkes-Barre, Worthington Scranton, and York.

Selected baccalaureate programs are offered at University College campuses including programs in business, human development and family studies, information sciences and technology, and science. In addition, the first two years of coursework for most of Penn State's baccalaureate majors are offered at all campuses. Also available are a variety of associate degree programs and the opportunity to pursue minors in 14 subjects. Several campuses offer master's degrees in selected subject areas. For more information about the degree programs offered and the organization of the University College, refer to Appendix 1.

College of Information Sciences and Technology

The Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) was conceived and built for the Information Age, so that its students and faculty members could help shape the emerging digital, global society.

IST broke from existing academic models to engage all issues related to people, information, and technology. Its educational philosophy was to help develop articulate graduates who can lead, work in teams, and solve real-world problems—women and men ever-capable in an environment of change.

Founded in 1999, IST opened its doors to 428 associate and bachelor's degree students at 19 Penn State locations across the Commonwealth. One bachelor of science major was offered, Information Sciences and Technology. The faculty at University Park numbered five.

The first full graduating class of bachelor's candidates received their degrees in 2003. Most entered the professional workforce, impacting business, industry, government, and the nonprofit sector with a unique blend of knowledge and abilities. Others pursued advanced degrees. The placement rate for the class exceeded 95 percent, with starting salaries among the highest earned by Penn Staters. That trend continues today.

By 2008, the statewide student population had risen to 2,000, with programs at the associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels. A second undergraduate major, Security and Risk Analysis, was drawing significant interest from students. Doctoral candidates could pursue five tracks of study, including Computational Informatics, AI and Cognitive Science, and Social and Enterprise Informatics. At University Park , the college now occupied a landmark building that bridged a major thoroughfare and connected the central and western parts of the campus.

As IST entered its second decade, the faculty at University Park had increased to 50 members, drawn from an array of disciplines as reflected in the directions taken by IST's research organizations: information assurance, the information society, enterprise informatics and integration, network-centric cognition and information fusion, and human-computer interaction. The faculty's scholarly productivity was ranked among the best and funding for IST's research neared $8 million annually.

Nationally, the college is now among the leaders of the i-school, or information school, movement. Involving 20 prestigious universities from across the United States and Canada , the i-schools draw from library science, computer science, and related fields to form an important new discipline on the educational landscape. Penn State hosted the inaugural i-school conference in 2005.

Schreyer Honors College

The Schreyer Honors College is a University-wide honors program for academically superior undergraduate students. It does not confer degrees, but provides a diploma notation. Admission is highly competitive. Schreyer Scholars from all of Penn State's academic colleges pursue enriched honors study and research, as well as a wide selection of international and service opportunities.

Dickinson School of Law

Penn State Dickinson School of Law embraces the University’s mission to improve the lives of the people of Pennsylvania, the nation, and the world through legal teaching, scholarship, and service. Law is the foundation of social order and prosperity. Penn State Dickinson trains students to practice law at the highest level in an increasingly global world through a rigorous course of study including both classroom-based and clinical learning. Our faculty and staff reflect diverse life experiences and ideas. We understand the important role lawyers play in the administration of justice and are committed to meaningful diversity among our students.       

Students with an undergraduate degree may earn a juris doctorate degree in a three-year program. Foreign students with a juris doctorate equivalent may earn a master of laws degree (LL.M.) in a one-year program. The Law School participates in several joint degree programs including, J.D./M.B.A. and J.D./M.P.A. Courses are offered at University Park in the new Lewis Katz Building and in Carlisle.

Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies

The Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies is a special-mission campus of the University, providing graduate programs and continuing professional education for working adults in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Penn State Great Valley offers master's degree programs in Education, Engineering, Finance, Information Science, Leadership Development, Leadership Technology Integration, Management, and Training Design & Development. About 1,300 students attend this campus. Most students are working professionals attending classes part-time in the evenings and on weekends year round. The campus also offers extensive continuing professional education programs and can provide individual needs assessment and customized professional development programs for corporations and organizations.

Strategically located on Route 202's high-technology corridor in suburban Philadelphia, the school represents a historic alliance between higher education and business and industry. Penn State Great Valley was the first permanent campus in the nation to be built in a corporate park, and its location among world-class businesses lends a fast-paced, cutting-edge atmosphere to the classes. The master's programs in software engineering and systems engineering are also offered at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

College of Medicine

The College of Medicine, which is home to nearly $100 million of funded research, is located on the campus of Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey. Primary clinical operations controlled and operated by the Medical Center are located there also, and include a Teaching Hospital; Children's Hospital; Cancer Institute; University Physician's Center; Rehabilitation Center; Heart and Vascular Institute; Sports Medicine Center; Level One Trauma Center (pediatric and adult) and Emergency Medicine Department; Arthritis, Bone, and Joint Center; and Women's Health Center.

The College of Medicine confers the doctor of medicine degree and, in conjunction with the University's Graduate School, offers doctor of philosophy degrees in anatomy, biochemistry and molecular biology, bioengineering, cell and molecular biology, genetics, immunology and infectious diseases, integrative biosciences (options in bioinformatics and genomics and chemical biology), microbiology and immunology, molecular medicine, molecular toxicology, neuroscience, pharmacology, and physiology. In addition, the College of Medicine offers master of science degrees in anatomy, health evaluation sciences, homeland security, laboratory animal medicine, and physiology. The M.D./Ph.D. program provides an opportunity for students interested in academic medicine and research to undertake training in both clinical medicine and fundamental research in a seven-year period. In addition, the Medical Center provides graduate medical education, education for allied health professionals and nurses, and continuing medical education.

Pennsylvania College of Technology

Pennsylvania College of Technology is an affiliate of the University as a wholly owned subsidiary to the Corporation for Penn State, but maintains its own mission, goals, and board of directors. Admission and administrative policies are set by Penn College and may differ from those of Penn State.

Penn College is a special mission affiliate of Penn State, committed to applied technology education. Partnerships with business and industry are a key ingredient of Penn College's "degrees that work." Unique bachelor's and associate degree majors, as well as specialized certificate programs, focus on applied technology and provide students the opportunity to work on projects that combine hands-on experience with theory and management education related to their field of study.

Academic majors at Penn College are offered by the Schools of Business and Computer Technologies, Construction and Design Technologies, Health Sciences, Hospitality, Integrated Studies, Industrial and Engineering Technologies, Natural Resources Management and Transportation Technology.

Penn College enrolls more than 6,500 students in credit classes. Classes are held at four locations: the Main Campus in Williamsport; the Aviation Center at the Williamsport Regional Airport; the Earth Science Center near Allenwood; and the Advanced Automotive Technology Center in Williamsport.