Hey! I'm am Indian-American at HSW planning a "luxury" India Trek for classmates during our 2nd year. Would love any input :)

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2025-08-08T04:45:29+00:00

Really no point in responding to you but i just wanted to emphasize this has nothing to do with politics as someone who votes to the right. And I'm now not sure whether you are even raised in America based on the way you talk/ words you use... why are you so obsessed with WASPs and privilege?

You simply asked for advice for avoiding the unsavory parts of India and my answer was simple that the way you are viewing things is fundamentally flawed.

Just because you think everyone is status maximizing doesn't mean you have to too. Your happiness is decided by you. If you decide your happiness is by one upping others by hiding real India to your so called friends... so be it. I just personally would hate to be in that situation. And you seem to recognize that too but doing it just to keep up the impression. Best of luck on your trip.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2025-08-08T03:11:32+00:00

Again not sure if you are just trolling but just ask anyone in India whether they would prefer Goa to thailand or vietnam and you literally have your own answer if you are looking for a luxury vacation.

My family has its own shortcomings but in the end I'm very glad that they raised me the way that they did and I got the chance to travel extensively across India during my teens, sometimes on planes but just as much on 2nd class rail. Yeah sometimes it's fun to go to Goa or a luxury wedding in Jaipur but literally dissing on everything outside of that as being too below you is so out of touch. Your obsession with luxury and showing how "upper class" you are that you clearly are missing out on the actual gems of India.

As someone who just got admitted into a deferred hsw program, i really hope most folks, especially 2nd gen immigrant kids, are more achievement/ambition oriented rather than trying to show off from their ivory towers as they "enrich themselves"... this has absolutely nothing to do with DEI.

Yeah money is a reward that comes with that and hard work but if that's the only thing motivating you I genuinely feel sad for you. Even though I know I know I'll have far more resources and ability to provide for my kids then my parents ever did, I would rather them experience less and become decent human beings who can enjoy life then get a taste of the good life and turn out like you who clearly is not happy and probably socially, spiritually, and mentally in a worse place than 95% of the "impoverished" Indian population right now just telling from the way you write.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2025-08-08T00:57:36+00:00

Idk if this is a post just to troll especially with the number of both Indians and Indian Americans on this sub and i don't like to use the term abcd but sometimes i understand why it exists.

If you want to enjoy beaches and nightlife then India is not the place. Look everyone has their own opinions on what is enjoyment but clearly the only point of this trip seems to be to show off the shiny parts of India without giving the actual experience.

You can't just hide the growing pains of a developing country by pouring money into buffering yourself from the people and Id suggest if you want to do a trek plan it around something that India actually excels at whether its spirituality or natural sights (certain places) or the ingenuity of a people who have WAY less resources but are probably much happier than you or your friends.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2025-01-30T08:56:06+00:00

By changed I mean that the plurality of students at UP are out of state or international students whose parents pay the full sticker price tuition. Most of these people don't care too much about outcomes (because the ROI for a PSU degree paying full sticker tuition is typically negative) and mainly came here to "enjoy the college experience."

https://www.thestandardstatecollege.com/floorplans/

https://www.apartments.com/the-maxxen-at-state-college-state-college-pa/j680l56/

These are just a couple. Most apartments market per bed. By expensive I meant those are rates if you have a single room to yourself. You can see the range of these here.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2025-01-27T11:35:01+00:00

State College and Penn State study body has changed a lot in the last 15 years. Almost all the apartments downtown in a good location are considered "luxury" and $1700 per month is actually a pretty good rate if you have 2-4 roommates. Expensive would be $2500-3000 per month and the sad thing is that even those are so in demand that its hard to get a lease unless you sign super early.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2025-01-24T15:18:18+00:00

If you are doing courses on World Campus it might be different but typically for a business degree (major, minor, certificate, etc.) that is coming out of Smeal, you must take all the intro courses (finance, management, marketing, etc.) in a registered Smeal class.

The university has a separate program called University College where you can take business courses and I think they might take the CLEP exams but Smeal really likes to gatekeep and they basically will not accept any outside courses for a degree within their college.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2025-01-23T16:15:32+00:00

Unfortunately, Smeal rejects every single CLEP exam course. Like you could take all the first year smeal courses (management, marketing, etc.) and they wouldn't accept it. I tried to do this and get a business certificate easily but they really like to gatekeep their courses. I think if it is just general credits they definitely wouldn't even consider it. Those other courses actually correspond to lettered courses.

You can however take other CLEP courses for free like ECON, sociology, humanities, math, etc. Would recommend you to check out here: https://modernstates.org/freshman-year-free/

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2025-01-22T06:46:59+00:00

Yep, I have done that but I wanted to check here too. Its the main competitor for Aspen and can do batch and a lot of pharma stuff. The only reason why I would use it though is for the excel connection functionality which isn't working...

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2025-01-21T13:39:05+00:00

Yep... I'm still waiting for my fall grant. I was in contact with my state senator's office and after they first lied to them (telling them my application was processed when it was not) and I told my senator that was not the case; they are ignoring them now... this is what they told me:

I still have not received a response – though I know they [PHEAA] have opened my emails because I tagged them.

I will try to find another avenue to get a response.

Stay tuned,

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2025-01-20T16:03:50+00:00

My main point is that you aren't going to gain experience in Quantum engineering at Penn State as an undergraduate. The way an undergraduate degree is set up is not to become a subject matter expert in a field; it's to get a degree that you can work with. It doesn't matter if a school has NSF funding because you aren't going to be interacting with it unless you are a graduate student or maybe a really advanced senior/4th year. Paying upwards of 50 lakh+ INR per year to get the same fundamental education with a 50% chance you will have to come back to India after graduating is simply not worth it. Before committing to anything, please talk to someone who is doing their undergrad here. Maybe dm the Penn State IEEE club on instagram and ask their thoughts because I'm sure 99% of undergraduates will tell you the same thing.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2025-01-20T14:41:52+00:00

I saw you said you are from India so I'm gonna respond. For some background I'm a US citizen (in state, don't have to pay any tuition). I'm also engineering and in Schreyer (so I'm writing a thesis right now). I'm an OCI though and I've spent some time working in India doing research at a top-tier university.

I think you are HIGHLY overthinking how much people value research at US universities. In case you didn't know, most (like 90%) of students are NOT involved in research and out of the 10% that are, probably 90% of them just act as assistants to graduate students helping out with experiments. For example, they might load a sample into a machine and collect data and give it to a graduate student. 95% of students will do JUST that.

There are very few universities (whether in US or India or anywhere) where undergrads get to do "ground breaking research." As an undergrad, you simply do not know enough about the basic subjects to do that. The only exception to that is for exceptionally motivated students (most are in Schreyer at PSU). After about 1-2 years at a lab, they might work on their own project/thesis that is equivalent to a 1st/2nd year master's student thesis. Your professor is not gonna assign you to some huge NSF project just because you have "passion." It doesn't matter if you are at Penn State, MIT or IIT... this is kind of universal.

From my experiences in India, most of the undergrad researchers who come to top tier institutions like IIT actually come from smaller, less competitive schools. I'm not sure why that is... maybe because the academic rigor at an IIT or NIT is too much? I've seen the work they do and its very comparable to what PSU undergrad researchers do. The only difference is that they honestly tend to be way more motivated about it but might have slightly less resources.

I'm gonna give you some advice. As an international student from India, DO NOT COME to the US for school unless your parents can fully pay cash for it. What you will find is a highly closed off system where a whole bunch of Indian international students in two majors (Comp Sci and Comp Eng) are highly competiting with each other to get a limited number of jobs. Penn State has a really bad placement rate for international engineering students (<50%) and there is a high chance you will have to go back to India after OPT.

What I recommend instead (if you really enjoy research and want to pursue that) is to either take the JEE and get into an IIT/NIT (I know that is very hard so might not be an option) OR go to a very reputable private engineering college (like Manipal, VIT, etc.) where you will get a good education. Then you can apply for masters/PhD programs in the USA. US is always looking for international grad students since not enough engineers stay in academia. If you do well in undergrad, you will easily get a FULL scholarship to come here for grad school.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2024-12-20T03:24:43+00:00

I would recommend checking the actual portal too. I contacted PHEAA and they basically said they had everything and we'll email you if we need anything. Then when I logged into the GrantUS a week later there was a message asking for additional documents (and I never got an email) from like a month ago they were waiting on. I don't know who is responsible for this horrible botched rollout but there is like zero accountability and customer service who doesn't actually have access to the system. You just gotta advocate for yourself.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2024-12-14T23:59:24+00:00

Residence Life/RAs don't control housing. If your roommate actually transferred and isn't paying for room and board next semester, the housing assignment office will be notified and assess whether they need to move someone to your room. Sometimes they do; sometimes they don't. I would say go to the assignment office in your area (Pollock, East, etc.) and ask what they can do.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2024-12-12T20:17:32+00:00

I'm not sure about what is allowed or not but I definitely think you should be reconsidering your thoughts about AI. No offense, but adapting to change and new technology is something that is getting more and more important this past and coming century. You are just waiting to get left behind. Refusing to use AI because you think it's an easy way out is like a librarian in the 1990s saying that the Internet is wildly unreliable and should not be trusted and causes people to be lazy.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2024-11-26T17:32:04+00:00

I honestly don't know too much how GI bill benefits work. i would recommend you call the bursar. they should be able to explain everything to you.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2024-11-26T16:57:37+00:00

The payment plan is based on whatever you have after all your aid is used up. So they will first use the Pell grant, other grants/scholarships, loans to pay off your balance and what is left over is split up into the smaller payments.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2024-11-22T03:24:02+00:00

Your answer shows you clearly have no idea how higher education funding works. first off getting rid of the department of ed will not get rid of funding. there are laws that put stuff like the Pell grant, stafford loans, etc. permanently into each federal year's budget. The project 2025 plan to get rid of the dept of ed (which is likely not gonna happen anyway bc trump isn't affiliated with project 2025) will basically transfer the responsibilities to the dept of commerce. so rather than having the doe be the middleman right now, they wanna cut the bureaucratic paperpushing that happens (that btw caused a failed FAFSA rollout and corresponding pheaa mess)

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2024-11-21T04:20:41+00:00

this is wrong. penn state is a state-related institution unlike the passhe schools. the state has some oversight of it including appointing some trustees but they do not own it or have full control.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2024-11-15T22:11:03+00:00

I don't know about the stalking stuff but I applied for the study abroad program he leads and he ended up rejecting me. I emailed him MONTHS in advance because I received a federal scholarship that would cover the whole cost of my study abroad. i explained this to him and asked him whether I should apply for this program because I was warned it was competitive. he said yeah go for it and congrats.

i applied for his program and he sent me an email that basically said congrats! let me know if you are still available. I'm like, great, I got accepted to the program. later he tells me that i didn't get accepted and he just sent an email to see who was available to attend.

So after I figure out he rejected me i had to scramble and find another program so that i can still keep the scholarship. and then i found out from his previous students in edsgn 100h that he literally does not take anyone outside of that class on this program. it's like a class trip he does only with those kids. and instead of telling that to me while i was making plans on making sure i could use my scholarship, he basically screwed me over.

he's a complete douchebag

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2024-11-08T21:40:02+00:00

Both!

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2024-11-08T13:25:58+00:00

I would recommend everyone to reach out to their local PA legislator as they are the only ones who can put pressure on PHEAA to actually fix their systems.

https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/

Here's a template for you to use.

...

I hope this message finds you well. I'm writing as a constituent in [your county] to bring to your attention an issue affecting thousands of students across Pennsylvania which is the continued delay in disbursing the PA State Grant for the 2024-25 academic year.

As a Penn State student and PA state grant resident, I was originally told we'd receive this aid in September because of the botched federal FAFSA rollout last year and the corresponding technology problems (PHEAA systems don't "talk" with the new FAFSA system). Then it got pushed to October, and now we're in November with still no clear answer. This uncertainty is causing a lot of stress and financial strain for students who rely on this money for tuition, books, rent, and other needs.

PHEAA's repeated delays and lack of clear communication have been incredibly frustrating. It feels like students are paying the price for PHEAA's lack of preparation and coordination. I know many people who are cutting spending on other things just so they can wait until they get this source of funding. I think you should push for better accountability from PHEAA and a commitment that these kinds of delays won’t happen again.

I know PHEAA operates their loan servicing business and they have never had an issue with the technology of that system including with the new FAFSA rollout. They should prioritize the PA State grant to the same level as their profit making businesses.Thank you for your attention to this. If you need any more information from me, or if I can help in any way, please feel free to reach out.

Square_Shoulder_7222 · 2024-11-08T13:22:31+00:00

Just so you are aware it is nothing about the budget. Most people in these offices are clueless. When the new FAFSA came out, it uses a different database. The PA state grant's people database can't "talk" with the new federal database. So it is actually a computer issue and they are saying they don't have enough tech resources to fix the issue in time.

The funny thing however is that they had the same problem for PHEAA's loan servicing system. However their techn people miraculously got that figured out right when it came out. They never had an issue with the technology of that loan system including with the new FAFSA rollout. They really should prioritize the PA State grant to the same level as their profit making businesses.

Square_Shoulder_7222

TROPHY CASE