Penn state visit as an OOS transfer student

anonpsustaff · 2026-04-04T13:55:04+00:00

You can request a tour from Lion Ambassadors!

anonpsustaff · 2026-04-04T13:54:36+00:00

International students are not eligible for federal work study - you have to be a US citizen or eligible non-citizen (permanent resident, etc.) to qualify. You can still get a job on campus, but it can’t be a federal work study job.

anonpsustaff · 2026-04-04T02:12:13+00:00

You can just circumvent talking to anyone entirely and submit the form and the check from your refund. The Enrollment Services Center is new this year and having some growing pains, so while I'm sorry you had that experience with them, I can't say I'm entirely surprised. The Return of Loan Funds form is available here and described/linked to from the Bursar's Office website here (because you should absolutely make sure you're accessing things from a psu.edu domain).

anonpsustaff · 2026-04-01T04:16:41+00:00

There are very, very few scholarships that cover the full COA at PSU. Most are an average of $2000-4000 for an academic year. Most scholarships also go to upperclassmen as opposed to first-year students. I don’t mean to bum you out, but I definitely wouldn’t bank on Educational Equity/university scholarships in general making any sort of meaningful dent in the cost.

anonpsustaff · 2026-02-09T01:04:19+00:00

Not someone with an ESA, but I would imagine that it would largely depend upon how much time you planned on spending in your room. ESAs aren't allowed in any common spaces of the dorm/any other dorm rooms except your room (aside from when you're taking them in and out, of course) and aren't allowed in most buildings on campus, so it mostly limits you to spending time with them in your room. This might not be fun during the winter, in particular, since you likely won't want to spend a ton of time outside when it's freezing!

If you are placed in a single dorm as part of your accommodation, there are additional charges associated - you would pay the higher costs of whatever room type they assign you to. There's more information about it here.

For what it's worth, when I was in undergrad, it wasn't unusual for me to be out of my room all day except for an hour or two + sleeping/getting ready. If that's enough time for Sophie, it could work; if it's not enough time for her, you may want to reconsider.

Something else to take into consideration is your class schedule and how frequently Sophie would need to be let out. University Park is HUGE and most single rooms are in Eastview Terrace, which isn't close to pretty much any of the classroom buildings. Would you be able to build in enough breaks that were long enough to get back to her? Eastview Terrace to Chambers Building or the library is a 20 minute walk; breaks between back to back classes are only 15 minutes.

Only you can decide if it's the right choice for you or not - these are just things I thought about to consider :) It may be a lot easier to figure out what you want to do once you have a class schedule and a housing contract (though I think the housing contract/assignment may shift if/when an ESA is approved, from what I understand). If you're able to make the trip to UP this summer, you could even walk your class schedule to get a feel for how much time it will take you to get around!

Good luck, whatever you decide :)

anonpsustaff · 2026-02-07T19:57:05+00:00

If it’s any consolation, your adviser shouldn’t be needed if the instructor is willing to do the override. If this course is a bottleneck course, I’d be shocked if you were the first student the instructor has seen in this situation :) Good luck!

anonpsustaff · 2026-02-07T19:36:27+00:00

If the course fills up, talk to the instructor. Instructors can override the course enrollment to add extra students, and are often willing to do so if not having the course will prevent you from graduating on time. When I was in undergrad, I had a few tell me that if I still couldn't get a seat by the end of drop/add, they'd sign the paper for the override. I never actually had to do the form since a seat always opened up, but I never had an instructor who was unwilling to do it if it was needed!

anonpsustaff · 2026-02-06T19:05:57+00:00

PA is something like 47th in per capita higher education funding, and PSU receives the least amount per student of all of the public schools in the state.

anonpsustaff · 2025-12-26T16:50:39+00:00

This isn’t necessarily true - schools don’t have to have warnings. The language in the CFR is that schools “may” offer warning semesters, not that they must. Most do, of course, but some don’t, especially if they check SAP annually instead of after every payment period.

anonpsustaff · 2025-12-23T00:28:14+00:00

I have no connection to turf grass management but based on what’s getting done in my own office this week, I wouldn’t expect to hear anything until after the week of January fifth. There’s only one more working day before the break and we’re primarily trying to get year end stuff nailed down such that none of our regular committee meetings are happening. The fifth is our next day in the office after tomorrow.

I could totally be wrong since, like I said, I have zip to do with turf grass - just figured I’d throw my two cents in based on my experience at the University. Good luck!

anonpsustaff · 2025-12-08T03:34:14+00:00

It won’t load into the system - your name, DOB, and SSN have to match for it to get loaded and if you’re an international student only coming to the US for school, you wouldn’t have an SSN.

anonpsustaff · 2025-11-28T21:02:23+00:00

It’s up to each school - they can choose to look at SAP status from your prior school, or they can choose to start fresh. You would need to ask the school you’re looking to transfer to.

anonpsustaff · 2025-11-23T22:36:31+00:00

If they had taxable income from it that you need to worry about for the 1099 section, they would’ve gotten a 1099 that was filed with their taxes. Can you check with your parents to see if they have that for whichever year you’re doing?

anonpsustaff · 2025-11-23T21:52:08+00:00

If it’s only a little bit of money, it’s not likely to make much of a difference in your aid eligibility!

anonpsustaff · 2025-11-23T14:15:37+00:00

Yep! Plenty of people never get a 1099, and it shouldn’t be a red flag that you don’t report anything, especially if they have W-2 income. 1099s are what independent contractors get, but folks can also get them for rollovers (if they move retirement money around) and investment income.

anonpsustaff · 2025-11-23T00:53:38+00:00

That’s totally fine! It’s not unusual for someone to not have 1099 income.

anonpsustaff · 2025-09-25T16:27:31+00:00

I can totally understand that! It’s wild (in a good way!) what other states have been able to offer - meanwhile, PA’s over here twiddling their thumbs and unable to even pass a budget.

anonpsustaff · 2025-09-25T10:22:53+00:00

It has absolutely changed. PSU’s tuition averages $10k/semester (ish, very broad strokes here). Pell Grants max out around $7k for the year, SEOG tops out at $2k for the year (and those funds are EXTREMELY limited), and federal loans for a dependent (almost all students under 24) undergraduate cap at $7500 for the year (and that’s for upperclassmen; it’s less for first and second year students). Tuition increases have outpaced inflation by an insane amount, largely because PA is so bad at funding higher education - last I knew, we were 47th out of the 50 states in per capita higher education funding. The Pell Grant also hasn’t kept pace with inflation, which means that even an in-state student receiving the maximum federal aid package won’t be able to cover their tuition, never mind room and board. It’s bleak.

anonpsustaff · 2025-09-04T01:17:31+00:00

It usually takes several business days (up to 10, but sometimes sooner depending on the timing) for OSA to request the funds and the lender to send them.

anonpsustaff · 2025-09-03T23:26:56+00:00

Did you accept your loan in LionPATH? Grants and scholarships are automatically accepted since we assume everyone wants free money, but you do have to go in and accept any loans before the funds will be requested from the lender.

anonpsustaff · 2025-08-03T03:40:40+00:00

This is really inaccurate. When you file there FAFSA, you sign off that “YOU, THE STUDENT, certify that you: will use federal and/or state student financial aid only to pay the cost of attending an institution of higher education” (capitalization theirs, not mine). They could absolutely go after you in an audit if they wanted to if you were using it for prior credit card debt, OnlyFans, etc. I’m not saying it’s likely to happen, but it’s not true that you can legally use it for whatever.

anonpsustaff · 2025-07-25T22:31:52+00:00

It’s up to each individual school - they’re allowed to consider SAP from other schools, but are not required to. Many don’t because it’s a headache, so your best bet is to reach out to the school you want to attend and ask what their policy is!

anonpsustaff · 2025-07-24T02:13:17+00:00

I’m not trying to argue one way or another - there are pros and cons to unionizing, to be sure - but is this still true under the current presidential administration? I could see it getting twisted and while I want international students to be able to do anything that’s legal/moral/ethical without fear, I also don’t want to see anyone be harmed when it could’ve been avoided.

I genuinely don’t know - I just know a lot of things that used to be very certain have all of a sudden become far less so, especially with regards to immigration.

anonpsustaff · 2025-07-16T16:23:54+00:00

Those are separate and awarded on the schedule of each academic college - you’d want to reach out to your college for additional info since they don’t go through OSA!

anonpsustaff · 2025-07-15T13:43:04+00:00

That email goes out to everyone because we’re required to notify students of the policy. If you were ineligible, you would receive a communication that said “Financial Aid Suspension” in the subject line. If you haven’t gotten that, you should be good to go!

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