Is State College friendly or snobby?

[drshang]

Just as a disclaimer, I grew up in State College, and have for the last 10 years lived in Pittsburgh and now Los Angeles, and semi-frequently go back to central PA as I have family still living there.

I think Nicole gave a pretty solid overview of what's going on in the SC area. Bellefonte used to be just an "ok" place but it's gotten a lot nicer over the last 10-15 years. The school districts in Centre County are generally not great outside of SCASD, which scores very high in state rankings. A large reason this is the case is there are no real private schools outside the area and professors, university administrators, etc. all send their kids to State College public schools. Therefore there is a lot of support from the community to foster a good school system and PSU is generally willing to share university services with local kids. The town has little crime and if you go to SCASD you can generally get into PSU fairly easily assuming you aren't a total dog in the school system. PSU is very, very good about accepting marginal students from SCASD.

Prices are low enough that kids don't generally share rooms, and most families live in single family dwellings. There is tons of affordable housing within SCASD, which extends out pretty far into the rural areas where housing is pretty cheap.

I am not sure how to really explain the snobby thing but I will give you a few tidbits of information that will hopefully help to answer your questions.

- There are two Wal-Marts in SC and lots of middle class white families shop there. State College is pretty much the only place I've been to where middle and upper-middle class white, educated families (along with college students) will represent a strong percentage of customers at Wal-Mart.

- Many high school students will drive cars to school, but they are generally second hand or cars that are worth less than $10k, and you will not be chastized if your car is worth less than $5k.

- It is pretty hard to find any brand nicer than Polo Ralph Lauren at the mall in State College. Coach bags are not standard issue wear among teenagers in central PA. American Eagle, Gap and Abercrombie are going to be trending to the high end of what types of "designer" clothing high school kids will wear at SC. You will not be chastised if you bought a shirt at Target or Aeropostale. If you wear worn out shirts with holes in it you may be made fun of.

Hopefully that gives some insight as to the level of materialism in State College. As to whether or not those above ancedotes are "snobby" depends on where you come from. Compared to the average city of its education level, safety and standard of living, I think you'll find SC to have a below average level of "materialism" factor.

[gray52]

I would have to agree with most of the posters. My family of 4 (me, wife, DS5, DD2) moved here from Richmond 1-1/2 years ago and we absolutely love it here. By the standards of folks in the surrounding counties, SC might seem snobby to them... but by Richmond snob standards, SC would be considered "full of commoners". I think SC has 3 restaurants that's considered "fine dining", you'd expect a few more than that if it were a place of snobby people... the rest are your chain restaurants and mom & pops. The thing about SC is that everyone in the area has a fairly decent job... and we spend our money on a fairly decent 2800-3000 sq.ft house and drive a fairly decent Toyota/Nissan... so the town has a feel of "equality". As far as revolving around the college... as far is my family is concerned, we're amazed at how much it doesn't revolve around the college and does offer so much for families... There's a ton of things to do for the kids and the parks here are plentiful... and the opportunities for kids match that of Richmond (only without all the crime). I am a stay-at-home-dad, and i was extremely concerned moving to a "small town"... but it has exceeded my expectations by leaps and bounds. There are a lot of stay-at-home parents here and I've not run into any mom (or dad) that has been snotty (as you will get a lot of times with families who make enough money to enable one parent to stay home). If you're an outdoor enthusiast, SC is again a great place... the air is CLEAN here and there is an amazing interlocking walking/bike paths throughout the whole town and outer city limits.
If you want a small town feel with small city amenities, SC is a great choice. In my opinion the crime here is on par with a small town, even with the college.

[ihopveggan]

Originally Posted by drshang

Just as a disclaimer, I grew up in State College, and have for the last 10 years lived in Pittsburgh and now Los Angeles, and semi-frequently go back to central PA as I have family still living there.

I think Nicole gave a pretty solid overview of what's going on in the SC area. Bellefonte used to be just an "ok" place but it's gotten a lot nicer over the last 10-15 years. The school districts in Centre County are generally not great outside of SCASD, which scores very high in state rankings. A large reason this is the case is there are no real private schools outside the area and professors, university administrators, etc. all send their kids to State College public schools. Therefore there is a lot of support from the community to foster a good school system and PSU is generally willing to share university services with local kids. The town has little crime and if you go to SCASD you can generally get into PSU fairly easily assuming you aren't a total dog in the school system. PSU is very, very good about accepting marginal students from SCASD.

Prices are low enough that kids don't generally share rooms, and most families live in single family dwellings. There is tons of affordable housing within SCASD, which extends out pretty far into the rural areas where housing is pretty cheap.

I am not sure how to really explain the snobby thing but I will give you a few tidbits of information that will hopefully help to answer your questions.

- There are two Wal-Marts in SC and lots of middle class white families shop there. State College is pretty much the only place I've been to where middle and upper-middle class white, educated families (along with college students) will represent a strong percentage of customers at Wal-Mart.

- Many high school students will drive cars to school, but they are generally second hand or cars that are worth less than $10k, and you will not be chastized if your car is worth less than $5k.

- It is pretty hard to find any brand nicer than Polo Ralph Lauren at the mall in State College. Coach bags are not standard issue wear among teenagers in central PA. American Eagle, Gap and Abercrombie are going to be trending to the high end of what types of "designer" clothing high school kids will wear at SC. You will not be chastised if you bought a shirt at Target or Aeropostale. If you wear worn out shirts with holes in it you may be made fun of.

Hopefully that gives some insight as to the level of materialism in State College. As to whether or not those above ancedotes are "snobby" depends on where you come from. Compared to the average city of its education level, safety and standard of living, I think you'll find SC to have a below average level of "materialism" factor.

i agree but the town needs diversity and without penn state
state college wealth would be in danger

[ihopveggan]

needs more diversity at state college
if your a minority its hard to not feel uncomfortable

[ki0eh]

S.C. is definitely less ethnically diverse and more politically conservative than most college towns of its scale. Perhaps that's because Penn State is not actually THE state-supported research university - Pitt and Temple are too. Consequently the draw to PSU is proportionately more from areas outside Philly and Pgh, so the city diversity and liberalism from the two ends of PA isn't drawn out to the countryside to the same extent as, say, Cornell does for Ithaca in NY state.

Plus, when the place is literally called "State College" it's difficult to argue there's much there that's not tied to PSU. Might be interesting (though idle) to speculate what might have been different had PSU located right next to Bellefonte, rather than miles out of that older town.

[tech2enable]

Originally Posted by NicoleWorks4u

Having been born and raised locally (and having lived here most of my life), I can honestly say State College and all of Central Pennsylvania has seen many changes over the years. Like all places, some are for the better and some are not - but that also depends upon your perspective.

University Park itself IS very student-dominated/oriented. However, there are MANY nice surrounding family-friendly communities, still in the highly-rated State College School District - some outside of SCSD. That's not to say University Park isn't friendly, but if you choose to live near the PSU campus, you have to realize you WILL be dealing with students and their lifestyle - there's no getting around it - esp with the number of students attending Penn State.

Central Pennsylvania - and State College in particular - has been attracting a wide diversity of people and cultures from all over the world - literally. As a general rule, you find what you're looking for here. Many people are very friendly and easy to get along with. Like anywhere else, there are always rude people.

The trend I've noticed over the past 10 years or so is that many people are coming here from larger cities - in NJ and NY mostly. The cost of living in Centre County has been on the rise and unfortunately, there aren't many big employers moving in to the area - or any of the surrounding communities. In fact, we've lost quite a number of jobs in recent years. Part of what's is driving the higher costs are the retirees and alumni coming back here after having made their money (or selling more expensive houses) other places.

But there are houses in all price ranges and locations - right in towns or out in the woods. My only advice is to really look at the job situation here and secure employment first. There are many "service industry" jobs, but other positions are sometimes difficult to come by.

I hope this was helpful - feel free to contact me if I can be of any further assistance in your relocation. In closing, let me just say, overall, I still find Central PA to be one of the friendliest places on earth. Are there snobs here? Absolutely - but again, it's nothing you won't find other places and quite frankly, I think they're in the minority.

Best wishes whatever you decide,
Nicole

I agree with that point, the higher costs of living in state college is probably due to higher home prices which are due to retirees are people wanted to make money of student housing, or people cashing out,etc

State college jobs are low-paying often college students fill them, so the median income for the city like Pittsburgh is probably lower, its dominated by the college for sure, atleast for the most part and the businesses that fulfill them,

this is not unique to state college by the way but also to similar places such as college station,tx