Anonymous
Post 01/27/2025 14:04     Subject: Penn State satellites may close
PA just has way too many regional public colleges that are bleeding students.

Bloomsburg, IUP, Shippensburg, East Stroudsburg, etc are 50% smaller compared to 10 years ago. I assume the Penn State regional schools have also seen significant student declines.

Seems like at some point you have to accept that a state that overall has a declining and older population can't feed all these schools...and they aren't appealing for OOS.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2025 13:57     Subject: Penn State satellites may close
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:https://www.statecollege.com/articles/psu-news/penn-state-faculty-fear-the-school-will-close-campuses-across-the-state-officials-wont-give-them-a-straight-answer/

Will be glad if this is true. Standards are not tip top at Penn State to begin with... satellite campuses have basically no standards


Isn't this kind of like shutting down ODU, Longwood, and Radford because they aren't up to par with W&M, UVA, and VT. They serve different purposes.


PA also has their state system schools like Slippery Rock, Bloomsburg, etc.

In addition to community colleges.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2025 13:15     Subject: Penn State satellites may close
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There should be a middle ground. Some Pennsylvania students use the satellite campuses as a way to get into the main campus if they don't get in out of high school, by maintaining a high GPA. I think that's a great option for a state funded school -- there are students who are capable of doing the work at Penn State but may not be ready for it right out of high school.

The problem is when they just become a way to put the Penn State stamp on a subpar education.

If it's just about maintaining academic standards, I think the better thing to do would be to rebrand the satellites in a way that makes it clear that if you get your degree there, it is not from State College.

Does it not say on the degree that you graduated from xyz campus?


No. Penn State considers the system to be unified and to issue one degree. It isn't like a lot of the other state systems (e.g., University of California) in which you receive a campus-specific Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD degree.

I graduated from one of these PSU satellite campuses 20-some years ago. At the time, the education was fine. I had gone to a private high school and also done a year at another state university flagship on full scholarship, so I had some point of comparison. I went there because A. close to home, B. cheap, and C. niche major that only that campus had.

I think like a lot of people: it worked out fine for me, but I wouldn't send my kid there.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2025 13:08     Subject: Penn State satellites may close
Anonymous wrote:https://www.statecollege.com/articles/psu-news/penn-state-faculty-fear-the-school-will-close-campuses-across-the-state-officials-wont-give-them-a-straight-answer/

Will be glad if this is true. Standards are not tip top at Penn State to begin with... satellite campuses have basically no standards


Isn't this kind of like shutting down ODU, Longwood, and Radford because they aren't up to par with W&M, UVA, and VT. They serve different purposes.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2025 13:00     Subject: Penn State satellites may close
Anonymous wrote:The branch campuses would be more desirable if you only had to go there for one year. It used to be that way. Now they make you go for two years before transferring to UP.


How many years ago was it just one year? 35 years ago it was two years. As a freshman at McKeesport then it felt like 13th grade. The campus was across the street from the high school.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2025 11:40     Subject: Penn State satellites may close
I think they're poking the bear. Penn state is barley majority Pennsylvania resident while the satellites are three quarters. Close the satellites and the legislature will make State College accept a much higher proportion of in state students
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2025 11:34     Subject: Penn State satellites may close
Anonymous wrote:There should be a middle ground. Some Pennsylvania students use the satellite campuses as a way to get into the main campus if they don't get in out of high school, by maintaining a high GPA. I think that's a great option for a state funded school -- there are students who are capable of doing the work at Penn State but may not be ready for it right out of high school.

The problem is when they just become a way to put the Penn State stamp on a subpar education.

If it's just about maintaining academic standards, I think the better thing to do would be to rebrand the satellites in a way that makes it clear that if you get your degree there, it is not from State College.


I can see the middle ground being that the strong satellites survive (and maybe even get a better reputation) while some of the ones that are really hurting close.

I hope they don't try to fix the problem by "consolidating" or sharing services between some of the weaker campuses. Someone just brought that concern to me about the PSAC schools, where my kid is being recruited. Said most of her kid's classes are online, because they're sharing professors between a couple of struggling schools.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2025 11:07     Subject: Penn State satellites may close
Anonymous wrote:There should be a middle ground. Some Pennsylvania students use the satellite campuses as a way to get into the main campus if they don't get in out of high school, by maintaining a high GPA. I think that's a great option for a state funded school -- there are students who are capable of doing the work at Penn State but may not be ready for it right out of high school.

The problem is when they just become a way to put the Penn State stamp on a subpar education.

If it's just about maintaining academic standards, I think the better thing to do would be to rebrand the satellites in a way that makes it clear that if you get your degree there, it is not from State College.

Does it not say on the degree that you graduated from xyz campus?
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2025 11:05     Subject: Penn State satellites may close
There should be a middle ground. Some Pennsylvania students use the satellite campuses as a way to get into the main campus if they don't get in out of high school, by maintaining a high GPA. I think that's a great option for a state funded school -- there are students who are capable of doing the work at Penn State but may not be ready for it right out of high school.

The problem is when they just become a way to put the Penn State stamp on a subpar education.

If it's just about maintaining academic standards, I think the better thing to do would be to rebrand the satellites in a way that makes it clear that if you get your degree there, it is not from State College.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2025 11:01     Subject: Penn State satellites may close
The branch campuses would be more desirable if you only had to go there for one year. It used to be that way. Now they make you go for two years before transferring to UP.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2025 10:59     Subject: Penn State satellites may close
I think it is a shame in some respects. Satellite clinics for two years and then transferring to the main campus or away from many students to keep cost down.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2025 10:50     Subject: Penn State satellites may close
Educational standards is what I think about when I think of Penn State. Northeastern is going to have the same problem.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2025 10:42     Subject: Penn State satellites may close
https://www.statecollege.com/articles/psu-news/penn-state-faculty-fear-the-school-will-close-campuses-across-the-state-officials-wont-give-them-a-straight-answer/

Will be glad if this is true. Standards are not tip top at Penn State to begin with... satellite campuses have basically no standards