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Is Penn State University Mac friendly?

J

johnbro23

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 12, 2004
770
0
Pittsburgh, PA
I got accepted to PSU and I'm considering going there. Not that I would base my decision on this, but is PSU Mac friendly? I know some schools like Wake Forest give you Thinkpads. Now I know PSU doesn't give free computers, but do you think it'll be ok if I get a PowerBook?

I would just call PSU, but their offices are closed for the holiday.
 
I was a grad student at Penn State in the Department of Horticulture from '97-'99. At that time the entire department was Mac and we had a terrific IT guy named Scott. Of course it has been a while since I have been there, but I think the whole school is fairly Mac Friendly.

What your are going to find is that the Mac-friendlyness is going to depend on what department you are in. If you are going to need AutoCAD or other specialized software, you might be in trouble. Even in cases where the software is available in both platforms (SAS, MiniTab) the profs are going to teach it for one platform. There are lots of labs around campus, so finding a PC when you need one shouldn't be a problem.
 
cool, penn state has macs

now we have to just convince the average joe in anytown, usa, who as a group has most of the computer market, and that has been the hard part all these years
 
Hey

I'm a PSU alumni and yes Penn State is very Mac friendly,

My old roomate and friend heads up the IT online courses dept. and I don't even think he's touched a windows computer in years.

So, yes, very mac friendly, and a very fun school to go to.

avoid the frat scene. :p
 
PSU is very Mac friendly

1993 Graduate and we had Macs back then...

PSU has members on the Steering committee of macenterprise.org (formerly macosxlabs.org) and has a very active Mac developing community.

True not all depts are Mac friendly, I'd wager business, accounting, etc. majors are running windows but over-all the university is very mac friendly.

Good luck to a future Nittany Lion Alum.

Go PSU beat FSU!!
 
i was helping a friend pick out a laptop for school (PSU).....of course i recommended the pbook and he was about to buy it, but then his mom called the department and they said not to because of compatibility issues and how it wont connect to the internet or aynthing.....i insisted they didnt know what they were talking about, but he got a thinkpad instead

another friend of mine got an ibook and shes at penn state with no problems
 
Sapphire Program at Penn State

Thanks for all your help! I'm glad I'll be safe getting a PBook when August comes rolling around (it can't come fast enough!)

I'm going to the business school. I just got a letter a week ago accepting me into the Smeal College of Business' Honor's Program called the Sapphire Program. Doesn anyone know anything about that program (i.e. how selective is it?)

I'm still deciding between PSU and UMD. Still waiting to hear from UVA. I'm leaning towards PSU now, especially because of that Sapphire Program.
 
johnbro23 said:
I'm going to the business school. I just got a letter a week ago accepting me into the Smeal College of Business' Honor's Program called the Sapphire Program. Doesn anyone know anything about that program (i.e. how selective is it?)
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http://www.smeal.psu.edu/uprog/sapphire/ - You've probably seen that already, but if other folks want to look, there it is.

Looks like a good program to me. It doesn't say how selective it is, but anytime you can take smaller classes and are allowed to enroll early in courses you need, particularly at a huge state school, where sometimes the biggest obstacle to graduating in four years is getting into all the classes you need, that's a good thing.
 
johnbro23 said:
Thanks for all your help! I'm glad I'll be safe getting a PBook when August comes rolling around (it can't come fast enough!)

I'm going to the business school. I just got a letter a week ago accepting me into the Smeal College of Business' Honor's Program called the Sapphire Program. Doesn anyone know anything about that program (i.e. how selective is it?)

I'm still deciding between PSU and UMD. Still waiting to hear from UVA. I'm leaning towards PSU now, especially because of that Sapphire Program.
Click to expand...

there are the super selective b-schools like harvard, stanford, imd, mit, and wharton and almost impossible to get into and are usually the "top 5" that are world famous and universally accepted for their excellence

and then there are the selective next tier like your uva, berkeley, ucla, penn, nyu, maryland, etc and they are a good bet for most of us (unless you expect the harvard, wharton, or sloan-stanford/sloan-mit education) and there are perhaps 50 schools in that bunch worldwide

and then there are the masses, like cal state system, suny, and a thousand others and they are good for simply getting your accredited bachelor's in business/acct/econ/finance/human resources, etc ...that's where i did my schooling and even though my sat put me in the previous tier, my grade point average out of high school was sloppy and i blame 1) oversexed girlfriend and 2) my stoner friends, but i never got stoned in hs but their influence rubbed off on me and i somehow felt incurably lazy and had these muchie cravings all the time ;)
 
jefhatfield said:
there are the super selective b-schools like harvard, stanford, imd, mit, and wharton and almost impossible to get into and are usually the "top 5" that are world famous and universally accepted for their excellence

and then there are the selective next tier like your uva, berkeley, ucla, penn, nyu, maryland, etc and they are a good bet for most of us (unless you expect the harvard, wharton, or sloan-stanford/sloan-mit education) and there are perhaps 50 schools in that bunch worldwide
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Jef -

I find it quite odd that you completely ignore the midwest when for MBA's Northwestern's Kellogg program and UChicago are consider in the top 5 in many many of the lists I've seen. I mean even within the top ten, theres obviously Michigan too. I mean those names will look as good as most of the 5 you recommended in the business community, and you build up similar levels of contacts by attending.
 
I live in State College and my dad is a professor at PSU and my mac works great there. No compatibility issues at all. They sell macbooks and ibooks on campus and have all the latest accessories for macs. a mac on this campus would be fine.
 
We sent my sister to PSU with a iBook G3 500 MHz. 4 years without a complaint. She graduated last year.
 
Kwyjibo said:
Jef -

I find it quite odd that you completely ignore the midwest when for MBA's Northwestern's Kellogg program and UChicago are consider in the top 5 in many many of the lists I've seen. I mean even within the top ten, theres obviously Michigan too. I mean those names will look as good as most of the 5 you recommended in the business community, and you build up similar levels of contacts by attending.
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Thank You. Actually, about a year ago The Wall Street Journal ranked Michigan as having the number one MBA school in the country as far as who will hire you once you graduate. Also, I know that Purdue is up there too.
 
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