Welcome to Penn State girls! My name is Christine Gunther, and I am a mechanical engineering major. I went to Penn State Brandywine for two years, and in the fall, I will be starting my last two years at University Park! Going to a commonwealth campus is a great experience, so I have a few helpful hints for those attending a commonwealth campus in the fall on how to make it a successful two years!
1) Take Advantage of Your Professors and Sit in the Front Row: By going to a commonwealth campus, you will get to know your professors, and they will get to know you as a student. Your classes will be very small; my classes on average were about 20 students. My highest class went up to about 40 students, but my lowest class size was 12. (Some of my classes were even smaller than my high school classes!) This is a wonderful attribute of commonwealth campuses, especially for engineering students who need that extra attention in the classroom. Being in such a small class, your professor will call you by name, and you will be able to participate throughout class. With this in mind, I advise you to sit up front. In some classes, there might even be just one or two rows of seats, but I would still sit up front if you can. It shows that you are eager to learn, that you care and are interested in the material, and that you are willing and ready to ask questions and participate.
2) Take Advantage of Scholarships and the Career Center- At my commonwealth campus, there were specific scholarships available for only commonwealth students. During the spring semester, students with above a 3.0 GPA were able to send in a generic application. There were many scholarships available, but the students didn’t have to apply to each one; the scholarship committee would select the students based on their generic applications and see which scholarship matched up with their academic talent. The engineering department at my campus also gave out scholarships every year, so I would advise the commonwealth girls to meet with their advisor and discuss any potential scholarship opportunities. The Career Center would also know about scholarships and internships. Being at a small commonwealth campus, you will able to get more attention with internship questions and assistance. Most likely your campus will also have a career fair, so when you arrive on campus in the fall, I would ask specifically when the career fairs are and sign up for them. Also, as a commonwealth student, you are able to attend the University Park career fair in September. I went both years, and it was a great experience.
3) Sign up for a tutoring session and/ or create your own- When I attended PSU Brandywine, they only had tutoring available for certain Math and English classes. The Math Center had tutoring up to Math 141, but they didn’t include some of the more challenging classes such as Math 251 and Math 230. If this is the case for any of your commonwealth campuses, I would advise you to first ask your campus Tutoring Center what courses they have tutoring for. If they don’t have certain classes that you would like to have extra help on, then ask if they can possibly create a tutoring group with a hired tutor. If they aren’t able to do this, then I would advise you to create one yourself. Gather students from your class, and ask if your teacher can meet with your group at certain times during the week. If your professor is unable to fit this in their schedule, still meet with your friends from class to do homework, but ask questions during class and/or office hours to understand the material. My math professor that taught me for 4 out of 5 math courses was very helpful and available to ask questions during class and outside of class (and so were all of my other professors), so don’t hesitate to ask for extra help whenever you need it.
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