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1855

Founded

78,323

Students

43

Programmes to choose from

Overview

About Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State was named the state's first land-grant university eight years later. Its primary campus, known as Penn State University Park, is located in State College and College Township in Centre County.

Penn State enrolls more than 89,000 students, of which more than 74,000 are undergraduates and more than 14,000 are postgraduates. In addition to its land-grant designation, the university is a sea-grant, space-grant, and sun-grant university. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities, Very high research activity" and is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU). The university has two law schools: Penn State Law on the school's University Park campus and Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle. The College of Medicine is in Hershey. The university maintains 19 Commonwealth Campuses and 5 special mission campuses located across Pennsylvania.

Memberships & networks

  • Oak Ridge Associated Universities
  • Consortium of Social Science Associations
  • arXiv
  • Northeast University Semiconductor Network
  • NextGen Service Corp
  • Association of American Universities

Programme-level accreditation varies; we confirm recognition for your home country before you apply.

Key facts

Founded

1855

Type

Public research university

Location

State College, United States

Students

78,323

Reported 2021

Academic staff

23,115

Reported 2020

Head of institution

Neeli Bendapudi

Rector / president

Programmes with us

43

Programmes

43 programmes to choose from

Health & Life Sciences · Computing & Technology · Engineering · Business & Management

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Fees & entry

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Location

State College

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Useful links

Overview text adapted from Wikipedia (Pennsylvania State University), CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo: George Chriss, CC BY 2.5