Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service. Its instructional mission includes undergraduate, graduate, professional and continuing education offered through resident instruction and online delivery. Its University Park campus, the flagship campus, lies within the Borough of State College and College Township, Pennsylvania. The Penn State Dickinson School of Law has facilities located in both Carlisle and University Park and the College of Medicine is located in Hershey. Penn State has another 19 commonwealth campuses and 5 special-mission campuses located across the state.

Penn State University Park is ranked among the top 15 public universities nationally and is considered to be one of America's Public Ivy universities, which recognizes top public research universities in the United States. Annual enrollment at the University Park campus totals more than 44,000 graduate and undergraduate students, making it one of the largest universities in the United States.

Penn State was an early leader in the movement for diversity, admitting its first two women in 1871 and its first African-American student in 1899. It was one of the first schools to insist on integration in athletics.

The university's total enrollment in 2009-10 was approximately 94,300 across its 24 campuses and online through its World Campus. Penn State offers more than 160 majors among all its campuses and administers a $1.52billion USD (as of April 30, 2010) endowment. The university's research enterprise exceeded $765 million for the 2009-2009 fiscal year, and in fiscal year 2008 Penn State was ranked 11th among U.S. universities in research income by the National Science Foundation.

The university boasts the largest student-run philanthropy in the world, the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (also known as THON), and has one of the top intercollegiate athletic programs in the nation [See sections on THON, Student Life and Athletics.]

Penn State’s vision for the near future includes enhancing student success, continuing sustainability efforts, advancing a global presence, enhancing diversity, maintaining access and affordability, serving the people of Pennsylvania and beyond, using technology to expand access and opportunities, controlling costs and seeking additional efficiencies.

Demographics and Diversity
As of fall 2010, the racial makeup of the Penn State system including all campuses and special-mission colleges, was 75.4 percent white, 5.5 percent African-American, 4.3 percent Asian-American, 4.4 percent Hispanic-American, 0.2 percent Native American, 0.1 percent Native Hawaiian/Pac Island, 1.7 percent two or more races, 5.8 percent international students and 3.1 percent of an unknown race. Over the period 2000-2010, minority enrollment as a percentage of total enrollments has risen 5.3 percentage points, while minorities as a percentage of total teaching positions rose 2.0 percentage points from 1997 to 2002.

Six-year graduation rates for the 2004 cohort at University Park was 85.3 percent. Graduation rates for by race among this group are 86.6 percent white, 75.0 percent African-American, 81.9 percent Asian-American, 77.4 percent Hispanic-American, 57.1 percent Native American and 76.1 percent international students

Admissions
The Undergraduate Admissions office at Penn State offers information on a variety of topics for incoming and prospective students including FAQs, costs, financial aid and academic programs. Information on the middle 50 percent GPA and SAT ranges for accepted students is available to assess admission standards at Penn State.

Tuition
Current Tuition and Room and Board rates are available for University Park and all Penn State campuses.

According to a 2006 survey by USA Today, Penn State's flagship campus, University Park, has the highest in-state tuition rates among comparable institutions nationwide. While a task force formed in 2001 to study options for tuition projections determined that the University's operating efficiency is among the highest in postsecondary education, it found that tuition increases at Penn State still consistently outpaced increases at other Big Ten Conference institutions. Student leaders of The Council of Commonwealth Student Governments (CCSG) have led annual rallies to support lower rate hikes at each of the 19 commonwealth campuses and at the Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg. In 2005, the board of trustees proposed a tuition freeze at the commonwealthcampus locations as part of its state appropriation request.

Housing
Housing is available at 11 Penn State locations – Altoona, Beaver, Berks, Erie, Greater Allegheny, Harrisburg, Hazleton, Mont Alto, Pennsylvania College of Technology, Schuylkill and University Park.

University Park
The largest of Penn State's 24 campuses, University Park, is almost entirely within the boundaries of State College borough, a site chosen to be near the geographic center of the state. With an undergraduate acceptance rate of 51 percent, it is the most selective campus in the Penn State system, due primarily to the fact that students select University Park as their first-choice campus at a far greater rate than Penn State's other undergraduate campuses. During the fall 2010 semester, 38,594 undergraduate students and 6,223 graduate students were enrolled at University Park. Of those, 45.3 percent were female and 30.6 percent were not Pennsylvania residents.

Colleges
The University Park campus is organized into 14 distinct "colleges": In addition, the Penn State Board of Trustees voted in January 2007 to create a School of International Affairs, with the first classes admitted in the fall 2008 semester. The school is part of the Dickinson School of Law at its University Park campus location.

As of 2008, the School of Nursing has been added to the list as a separate college.

Commonwealth campuses


Map depicting the locations of Penn State's 19 commonwealth campuses and the University Park campus.

In addition to the University Park campus, 19 campus locations throughout the state offer enrollment for undergraduate students. Over 60 percent of Penn State first-year students begin their education at a location other than University Park. All of these satellite campuses offer a limited number of degree programs, but any student in good academic standing is guaranteed a spot at University Park to finish his or her degree if required or desired. Most students do complete their degree program at University Park (known as "change of assignment," since commonwealth campuses are subsidiary to University Park and therefore "transferring" is an inaccurate term).

Special-mission campuses
The Dickinson School of Law of The Pennsylvania State University was founded in 1834 and is the oldest law school in Pennsylvania. It merged with Penn State in 2000. Students now have the choice of studying in either Carlisle or University Park, with classes teleconferenced between the two locations using high-tech audiovisual equipment. The school is ranked among the top 100 law schools nationally. It has produced a number of governors, members of congress, and judges. A number of attorneys comprise the faculty and lead several centers and institutes devoted to specific practice areas. The school's alternative dispute resolution program is ranked among the top 10 nationally. The law school also houses the School of International Affairs.

Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies is a special mission campus offering master's degrees, master's certification, and continuing professional education. Located in Malvern, Pa., it also offers classes at the old Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

Penn State Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine in Hershey, Pa., is Penn State's medical school and teaching hospital. Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center has become only the ninth hospital in the United States and 16th worldwide to implant the CardioWest temporary Total Artificial Heart when a 60-year-old man suffering from end-stage heart failure received the device in May, 2008.

Pennsylvania College of Technology, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, offers certificates as well as degrees in over 10 technical fields.

In 1998, the University launched Penn State World Campus, or Penn State Online, which offers more than 60 online education programs, degrees, and certificates. Distance education has a long history at Penn State, one of the first universities in the country to offer a correspondence course for remote farmers in 1892. Examples of online programs include an MBA, master of professional studies in homeland security, a bachelor of science in nursing, and postbaccalaureate certificates in geographic information systems and applied behavior analysis. Penn State's World Campus offers 18 graduate degrees, 21 graduate certificates, 17 undergraduate degrees, and 11 undergraduate certificates. World Campus students come from all 50 U.S. states, more than 40 countries, and six continents.

Organization and administration
Penn State is a "state-related" university, part of Pennsylvania's Commonwealth System of Higher Education. As such, although it receives funding from the Commonwealth and is connected to the state through its board of trustees, it is otherwise independent and not subject to the state's direct control. For the 2006-2007 fiscal year, Penn State received 9.7 percent of its budget from state appropriations, the lowest of the 4 state-related institutions in Pennsylvania. Initial reports concerning the 2007-2008 fiscal year indicate that Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is recommending a 1.6 percent increase in state appropriations. Penn State's appropriation request, submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Education in September, requested a 6.8 percent increase in funding.

Board of Trustees
The university is governed by the 32-member board of trustees. Its members include the president of the University, the Governor of the Commonwealth, and the state Secretaries of Agriculture, Education, and Conservation and natural resources. The other members include six trustees appointed by the Governor, nine elected by alumni, and six elected by Pennsylvania agricultural societies. Six additional trustees are elected by a board representing business and industry enterprises. Undergraduate students do not elect any trustees; the court case Benner v. Oswald ruled that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment did not require the undergraduate students be allowed to participate in the selection of trustees.

As of 2009, the chair of the board of trustees is James S. Broadhurst, a 1965 graduate of Penn State and CEO of Eat'n Park Hospitality Group, Inc.

The main responsibilities of the board are to select the president of Penn State, to determine the goals and strategic direction of the University, and to approve the annual budget. Regular meetings of the board are held bi-monthly and take place primarily on the University Park campus, although on occasion meetings are held at other locations within the Commonwealth.

Administration
The president of the University is selected by the board and is given the authority for actual control of the university, including day-to-day management. In practice, part of this responsibility is delegated by the president to other departments of the administration, to the faculty, and to the student body. As of 2011, the president of the university is Graham Spanier.

The executive vice president and provost is the chief academic officer of the University. As of 2011, the provost is Rodney Erickson, and the Associate Vice President and Senior Associate Dean For Undergraduate Education is Jeremy Cohen.

Student Government
The Pennsylvania State University has a long history of student government with student inclusion in University decision making capacities, as provided for in the Board of Trustee's Standing Orders. The University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) is the student government of the 38,594 undergraduate students at Penn State's University Park campus. UPUA is composed of an Assembly of Student Representatives, an Executive Board, and a Board of Arbitration. UPUA is currently led by President TJ Bard and Vice President Courtney Lennartz. The Assembly is the legislative body of UPUA and is composed of many elected positions whose constituencies range from all of the academic units of Penn State to the areas of residency.

There are also student governance bodies in each college. The most prominent college councils include the Earth and Mineral Science Student Council and the Liberal Arts Undergraduate Council. In addition, students that live in the residence halls are represented by the Association of Residence Hall Students (ARHS) acts as an independent student organization, addressing on-campus issues. Each of the residence areas on the University Park campus also features its own association.

The commonwealth campuses of Penn State are governed by the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments (CCSG), formerly known as the Council of Branch Campus Student Governments (CBCSG). CCSG meets typically 3 times a semester at University Park, with two representatives from each commonwealth campus. The CCSG Central Staff, while based out of the University Park Campus, deals with issues affecting commonwealth campus students. CCSG is the oldest undergraduate student government at Penn State and is currently led by President Peter Khoury and Vice President Justin Cortes.

Academics


The 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities ranks Penn State 43rd among universities worldwide. U.S. News & World Report ranks Penn State's undergraduate program 47th in its 2011 American's Best College. In 2011, Penn State was also ranked 94th in the QS World University Rankings.

According to a Wall Street Journal survey released in September 2010, Penn State was ranked #1 among 479 corporate recruiting executives who were asked to identify "whose bachelor degree graduates were the best-trained and educated, and best able to succeed once hired."

Education
As of September 2009, only 24 Pennsylvania colleges and universities held Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accreditation in business and only four in accounting. The Smeal College of Business, The Sam and Irene Black School of Business, Penn State Harrisburg, and Penn State Great Valley were among the institutions accredited.

Penn State offers an accelerated Premedical-Medical Program in cooperation with Jefferson Medical College. Students in the program spend two or three years at Penn State before attending medical school at Jefferson.

Recently, a joint venture between the Eberly College of Science and the Smeal College of Business created an integrated undergraduate/graduate program to give highly motivated students the opportunity to receive a Bachelor's Degree in Science and an MBA two to five years sooner than those pursuing a traditional path. The BS/MBA Program prepares individuals to be future leaders of the world's scientific organizations and is led by Mr. Peter Tombros and Dr. James Gardner.

Research
According to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, Penn State University is a Research University with very high research activity. Over 10,000 students are enrolled in the University's graduate school (including the law and medical schools), and over 70,000 degrees have been awarded since the school was founded in 1922.

Penn State's research and development expenditure has been on the rise in recent years. For fiscal year 2007, the National Science Foundation reported that Penn State had spent $652,144,000 on R&D and ranked 11th among U.S. universities and colleges in R&D spending. For the 2008-2009 fiscal year, Penn State was ranked ninth among U.S. universities by the National Science Foundation, with $753 million in research and development spending for science and engineering. During the 2009-2010 fiscal year, Penn State received $780 million in research expenditures.

The Applied Research Lab (ARL), located near the University Park campus, has been a research partner with the United States Department of Defense since 1945 and conducts research primarily in support of the United States Navy. It is the largest component of Penn State's research efforts statewide, with over 1,000 researchers and other staff members.

The Materials Research Institute was created to coordinate the highly diverse and growing materials activities across Penn State’s University Park campus. With more than 200 faculty in 15 departments, 4 colleges, and 2 Department of Defense research laboratories, MRI was designed to break down the academic walls that traditionally divide disciplines and thereby enable faculty to collaborate across departmental and even college boundaries. MRI has become a model for this interdisciplinary approach to research, both within and outside the university.

Penn State was one of the founding members of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN), a partnership that includes 17 research-led universities in the United States, Asia, and Europe. The network provides funding, facilitates collaboration between universities, and coordinates exchanges of faculty members and graduate students among institutions. Penn State president Graham Spanier is a former vice-chair of the WUN.

The Pennsylvania State University Libraries were ranked 14th among research libraries in North America in the 2003–2004 survey released by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The University's library system began with a 1,500-book library in Old Main. In 2009 its holdings had grown to 5.2 million volumes, in addition to 500,000 maps, five million microforms, and 180,000 films and videos.

Penn State is the home of CiteSeerX, one of the most prominent open access repositories and search engines in computer and information sciences.

The campus is also host to a Radiation Science & Engineering Center, which houses the oldest operating university research reactor. Additionally, University Park houses the Graduate Program in Acoustics, the only freestanding acoustics program in the United States.

Athletics


Penn State's mascot is the Nittany Lion, a representation of a type of mountain lion that once roamed what is now University Park. The school's official colors, now blue and white, were originally black and dark pink. Penn State participates in the NCAA Division I-A and in the Big Ten Conference for most sports. A few sports participate in different conferences: men's volleyball in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA); men's lacrosse in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA); women's lacrosse in American Lacrosse conference; and hockey (American Collegiate Hockey Association). The fencing teams operate as independents.

Athletic teams at Penn State have won 65 national collegiate team championships (37 NCAA, 2 consensus Division I football titles, 6 AIAW, 3 USWLA, 1 WIBC, and 4 national titles in boxing, 11 in men's soccer and one in wrestling in years prior to NCAA sponsorship). There have been another 53 national collegiate championships, by either individuals or club teams. The 37 NCAA Championships ranks eighth all time in NCAA Division I, and is the most of any Big Ten school. Recent championships won include Women's Rugby, Men's Gymnastics, Men's/Women's Fencing, Men's Volleyball, and Women's Volleyball in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 and Men's/Women's Fencing in 2009 won their respective national titles.

Since joining the Big Ten in 1991, Penn State teams have won 48 regular season conference titles and 11 tournament titles, including eleven consecutive titles in women's soccer (second longest streak in Big Ten athletic history), and six straight in women's volleyball (the longest streak in Big Ten volleyball history).

Penn State has one of the most successful overall athletic programs in the country, as evidenced by its rankings in the NACDA Director's Cup, a list compiled by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics that charts institutions' overall success in college sports. From the Cup's inception in the 1993–1994 season through the 2007–2008 season, the Nittany Lions have finished in the top 10 eight times and the top five four times, and have finished in the top 25 every year. In 1999, Sporting News named Penn State as the country's best overall athletic program, citing its consistent and wide-ranging athletic successes along with its athletes' long-standing tradition of excelling in the classroom. Penn State placed 6th in Sports Illustrated's top 25 rankings for athletic success for the 2007-08 academic year, the highest of any Big Ten school.

Penn State student-athletes receive academic honors that often far exceed those awarded to other Division 1-A schools. In the 2007-08 academic year, a school record 261 Penn State Student-Athletes earned Academic All-Big Ten honors. Penn State leads the Big Ten with 3,069 selections.

Despite widespread success in the overall athletic program, however, the school is best known for its football team, which draws a very large following. Penn State's Beaver Stadium has the second largest seating capacity of any stadium in the nation, slightly behind Michigan Stadium. The football team is led by legendary coach Joe Paterno, who at 83 is in his 45th year as head coach (as of the 2010 season). Joe Paterno was in a close competition with Bobby Bowden, the head coach for Florida State, for the most wins ever in Division I-A (now the FBS) history. This competition effectively ended with Paterno still leading following Bowden's retirement after the 2010 Gator Bowl. Entering the 2010 campaign, Paterno had 394 total career wins. He won his 400th game, a huge comeback with the final score 35-21 against Northwestern University, on November 6, 2010. In 2007, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

In 2009, Cael Sanderson became the head coach of Penn State's wrestling team.

The University opened a new Penn State All-Sports Museum in February 2002. This two-level 10000 sqft museum is located inside Beaver Stadium. In addition to the school funded athletics, club sports also play a major role in the University, with over 68 club sport organizations meeting regularly to date. Many club teams compete nationally in their respective sports. The Penn State Ski Team, which competes as part of the United States Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA) in the Allegheny Conference, as well as the Penn State Swim Club, which competes in the American Swimming Association - University League (ASAU), are just a few examples. Some other clubs include baseball, squash, karate, crew, and sailing.

Penn State's most well known athletic cheer is "We are...Penn State." Typically, the students and cheerleaders shout, "We are," followed by a response of "Penn State" from the rest of the fans. This is typically done three or four times, and followed by "Thank you..." "... you're welcome!" when completed. The cheer is by no means restricted to sporting events, as prospective students touring the campus (with the aid of either the Lion Scouts or Lion Ambassadors) will hear plenty of these chants from current students.

Housing
There are seven housing complexes located on campus for students attending the University Park campus: East Halls, North Halls, Pollock Halls, South Halls, West Halls, Eastview Terrace, & Nittany Apartments. Each complex consists of a few separate buildings that are dormitories and a commons building, which has lounges, the help desk for the complex, mailboxes for each dormitory room, a small food shop, and a cafeteria-style room. Different floors within a building in the complex may be a Special Living Option, meaning students can sign up for that floor if they are in that major.

Student organizations
As of November 2009, 778 student organizations were recognized at the University Park campus. In addition, Penn State has one of the largest Greek systems in the country, with approximately 12 percent of the University Park population affiliated. Additional organizations on campus include THON, Thespians, Blue Band, Glee Club and LateNight.

Student media
Student media on campus includes La Vie, the Penn State University annual student yearbook; the student-run radio station The LION 90.7 FM (WKPS-FM); Com Radio, operated by the Penn State College of Communications; The Daily Collegian, a student-run newspaper; Onward State, a blog related to the Penn State community; and Phroth, a student-run humor magazine. For additional information on media related to Penn State -- including Penn State Live, the official news source of the University -- see the Media section below.

Additional information on media
Penn State Live is the Official News Source of the University. The student-run newspaper is The Daily Collegian. It is published every weekday while classes are in session. Since the summer of 1996, the traditional paper publication has been supplemented by an online edition, known as The Digital Collegian. Onward State has recently gained standing as an alternative media outlet to The Daily Collegian. It is a blog centered on the Penn State community. Also long time local web site StateCollege.com has expanded its news coverage of the university and the local community. In addition, Penn State's newspaper readership program provides free copies of USA Today, The New York Times, as well as local and regional newspapers depending on the campus location (for example, the Centre Daily Times in University Park). This program, initiated by President Graham Spanier in 1997, has since been instituted on nearly 400 other universities across the country.

La Vie (the Life), the Penn State University annual student yearbook, has been in production documenting student life continuously since 1890. La Vie 1987, edited by David Beagin, won a College Gold Crown for Yearbooks award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

The student-run radio station is The LION 90.7 fm (WKPS-FM). Founded in 1995 as a replacement for Penn State's original student radio station WDFM, The LION broadcasts from the ground floor of the HUB-Robeson Center, serving the Penn State and State College communities with alternative music and talk programming, including live coverage of home Penn State football games. The LION's signal can be heard in the greater State College area at 90.7 FM and anywhere in the world via its live 24/7 webstream at www.theLION.fm. The LION's programming grid can be found at www.thelion.fm/shows/.

In addition, the Penn State College of Communications operates ComRadio. It was founded in the spring of 2003 as an internet-based audio laboratory and co-curricular training environment for aspiring student broadcasters. ComRadio is most well known for its coverage of most major Penn State sporting events. ComRadio also airs student-produced Penn State news. Other programming includes student talk shows, political coverage, AP syndicated news and soft rock music. In recent years, ComRadio broadcasters have won numerous state awards for their on-air work. The station's sports department prides itself on the broadcasts of every home and away football game, including bowl games, and its coverage of the NFL Draft live from New York City.

The student-run humor magazine is Phroth, which publishes two to four issues each year. Phroth's roots date back to 1909 when it was called Froth. Several Froth writers and editors have gone on to win fame: Julius J. Epstein wrote the screenplay for Casablanca and won three Academy Awards; Jimmy Dugan wrote for the Saturday Evening Post, National Geographic, and The New York Times; and Ronald Bonn was a producer with NBC Nightly News and CBS Evening News. Kalliope is an undergraduate literary magazine produced by students and sponsored by the Penn State English Department. Kalliope includes works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art. The student-run life and style magazine is Valley.

Allegations of Discrimination
Penn State has been the subject of controversy for several issues of discrimination. Following some violent attacks on African-Americans in downtown State College in 1988 and complaints that Penn State was not adequately recruiting African-American faculty and students to representative population levels, student activists occupied Old Main and demanded that Penn State do more to recruit minority students and address intolerance toward minority students on campus, as well as in the local community. After President Bryce Jordan canceled a promised meeting with students and organizations in the Paul Robeson Cultural Center on April 8, 1988, 250 students and activists nonviolently occupied Penn State's Telecommunications building on campus. The following morning, 50 state troopers and 45 local and campus police, equipped with helmets, batons, and rubber gloves, entered the building as the crowd outside sang “We Shall Overcome”, arresting 89 individuals for trespassing. All charges were later dismissed. In 1990 a vice provost for educational equity was appointed to lead a five-year strategic plan to "create an environment characterized by equal access and respected participation for all groups and individuals irrespective of cultural differences." Since then, discrimination issues include the handling of death threats in 1992 and 2001,  controversy around LGBT issues, and the investigation of a 2006 sexual discrimination lawsuit filed by former Lady Lions basketball player Jennifer Harris, alleging that head coach Rene Portland dismissed her from the team in part due to her perceived sexual orientation.

Other
Every February, thousands of students participate in the Penn State Dance Marathon (THON), the largest student-run philanthropy in the world. In previous years, participants stood for 48 hours nonstop and performed a line dance at least once every hour to stay alert. In 2007, THON was moved to the Bryce Jordan Center and now lasts 46 hours. THON raises millions of dollars annually for pediatric cancer care and research, generally through the Four Diamonds Fund. In 2010, THON raised more than $7.83 million, and a record $9,563,016.09 in 2011.

The 22,000+ student section at home football games is the largest concentrated student section in the nation. However, Penn State has the lowest percentage of students given the opportunity to purchase season in tickets in the Big Ten, and one of the lowest in the nation at just 25.25% (it should be noted that this percentage includes students at all 24 campuses statewide; the student section is approximately 50% of the students attending the University Park campus). Conversely, Ohio State University, with a student section of 29,000 tickets has seats for 57.16% of their students. Penn State students were listed number one in the "students who pack the stands" category of the 2009 Princeton Review survey. Due to a change in the way seating is assigned, beginning in 1993 tradition has been for students to camp outside of the stadium on the days leading up to important games, and beginning in 2005 the campsite has been called "Paternoville."

Alumni and notable people


Established in 1870, nine years after Penn State's first commencement exercises, the Penn State Alumni Association has the stated mission "to connect alumni to the University and to each other, provide valuable benefits to members and support the University's mission of teaching, research and service." The Alumni Association supports a number of educational and extracurricular missions of Penn State through financial support and is the network that connects alumni through over 280 "alumni groups," many of which are designated based on geographical, academic, or professional affiliation.

As of July 1, 2010, the Alumni Association counts 496,969 members within the United States, with an additional 16,180 in countries around the globe. About half the United States alumni reside in Pennsylvania, primarily in the urban areas of Philadelphia (and the surrounding counties), the Pittsburgh Area and in the Centre County region surrounding State College, although alumni can be found in every region of the country and abroad. About 34 percent of United States alumni and 21 percent of international alumni are members of the Alumni Association. With membership totaling 164,658, the Penn State Alumni Association is the largest dues-paying alumni association in the world, a distinction it has held since 1995.

Since 2001, Penn State, along with all schools in the Big Ten, has participated in the "Big Ten Challenge" website, which is a "competitive" clearinghouse of alumni donation statistics for member schools. Results are tracked to determine a percentage of each school's alumni from the previous decade who gave to their alma mater each calendar year (during the 2005-2006 year, alumni donations from 1996 to 2005 were tallied). With the exception of 2005-2006, when Penn State fell to second behind Northwestern University, Penn State has won the challenge each year since its inception.