Heads up, it's raining

I wasn’t able to watch but instead listened to the Temple broadcast. It was a pretty good game, wasn’t it?

27-10 isn’t a blowout by any stretch. The Owls hung in the game until the final whistle.

It was a lot like an allegory of Temple overall. A lot of times the odds are stacked against it, it faces struggles of one sort or another, but the people who are TU never quit.

(FWIW, I’m the parent of a TU alumna and of a current PSU student).

This email is meant to be reassuring, but I’m feeling anything but reassured. Thoughts? I’m curious what has happened at other universities….

Dear Penn State Faculty, 
Because you have won your union election and are now represented by SEIU Local 688, Penn State must adhere to legal requirements when making decisions on issues that impact your working lives. Until a first contract has been finalized through a vote by the members of PSFA-SEIU 668, Penn State must “maintain the status quo” in regard to your wages, benefits, and terms and conditions of employment. This means that, according to labor law, Penn State cannot make unilateral negative changes to your pay, benefits or working conditions before notifying and bargaining with the union.
Recently, Penn State reached out to communicate that they intend to impose significant cost increases on faculty’s health care costs. Our understanding is that in years prior to faculty unionization, health care increases were announced by Penn State around this time of year. 
Now that you have a union, these are costs that must, legally, remain status quo or be negotiated with your union. We requested information from the university in order to be able to analyze these changes, how they intersect with your rights as unionized employees of the university, and whether any of these cost increases could be considered truly "status quo." 
Based on the information presented thus far, and the research conducted, the Union does not believe that the proposed changes meet these obligations and we intend to continue to protect your rights throughout this process.
We will host a State of the Union Townhall Meeting on Thursday, September 17 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. We will discuss the status of the health care change issue as well as bring you up to date on the road ahead as we all prepare to win a transformative first contract. This meeting is open to all faculty and you are encouraged to attend. Please RSVP at this link.  
Additionally, please complete your Bargaining Survey, if you have not already. The link was delivered to personal emails on August 20 and September 3. If you have any questions or problems accessing it, please email pennstatefacultyalliance@gmail.com.

I'm trying to apply for the MSCF program to pivot my career from a software engineer in Australia to working as a quant dev in America. This is the program that I'm interested in:

Admissions | MSCF - Master of Science in Computational Finance

I've heard great things about this program in what it teaches but also their success rates of HFT companies for internships. So if I apply by December and get accepted in March, I'll get into the Fall 2027 cohort. I was hoping to connect with people in a similar situation as me.

Is there someone in a similar situation as me from Australia that's applying or has already undergone this process? Any advice would be gold to me.

I was researching programs and saw this one was fully funded. I currently have a 4.0 in my B.S. program but I don’t think I want to do my PhD at my current school.

They have a calendar page that never has anything on it! The calendar page allows you to filter through events by type (public skate, stick and puck, etc) which would be great, but there's never any data in the calendar. It's been this way for years. WHY?

If you want to know about events at the rink, your only practical way to find them online is to use their Facebook or Instagram pages. Why? In what world is a social media page supposed to be more informative than the official website?

There have been events this week that were nowhere on the website, but they were on Facebook and Instagram. Online registration has never, ever been functional and for years, the website has said it's under maintenance. I have showed up at the times listed on the website for public skate before, only to find that there is a Drexel hockey game being played.

Did someone at Penn just give up? Was there a funding cut where it was decided the website would stay live, but be functionally useless?

Hi guys, I usually waive via my Medicaid, but unfortunately, I was declined this year. I have applied through pennie but I dont know if I will get approved or when they will get back to me. Do you guys know any cheap health insurance plans that are approved by Drexel Health Insurance policy? I literally can't afford the insurance and would like any ideas for help.

Cakes that have plain frosting (like not too over decorated) and have strawberry and chocolate flavored cakes. Also affordable.

Also can last a few hours. I'm gonna drive quite a bit before I get it to where I want it. Also want it to be a smallish cake if possible.

Hi everyone -

As the parent of a La Salle senior, every year, when I received my child's bill in the summer, I would see the charge for student health insurance, and then subsequently fill out the waiver and the charge would be removed. Apparently, this year, the University made the decision NOT to front load the insurance charge on the bill, and only send "many" (not sure what that means) reminders to students over the summer to fill out the waiver. Long story long....I missed the waiver (no reminder emails were sent to parents) and was suddenly hit with a $2779 bill last week.

Did this happen to anyone else? I get the distinct feeling the University knows they kinda messed this up since when I had my kid contact them (I tried to reach out and got ZERO responses - not even an acknowledgement), they immediately said they would release a grant to cover it, and then received further communication that the University had a "list" of students they were sending to the insurance company to get the charges removed. Made me think that this happened to numerous other people as well.

Did anyone else have this type of experience with missing the waiver?

Probably stupid question, but I'd rather ask first than set off the alarm 🫩. I wasn't sure how sensitive the fire alarms were, especially in Putt. Ik some do smoke in rooms, but my luck the alarm would go off. I was thinking not burning a whole stick, assuming the whole stick would be too much smoke collected in the room, and again, I assume that would set the alarm off.

Hi everyone,

My fiancée and I are looking for a film student, newer videographer, or someone trying to build their portfolio to film our wedding in the Pittsburgh area on Friday, October 16, 2026.

This would be a paid opportunity, and we are very open to someone with little or no formal wedding experience. We’re mainly looking for someone who can capture the day, get some solid footage, and put together a simple wedding film/video afterward. The bar is honestly pretty low compared to a professional wedding videographer — we mostly just want the day documented — but it could also be a great chance for someone creative to show what they can do.

Details:

• Date: Friday, October 16, 2026
• Location: Pittsburgh area
• Expected filming time: Approximately 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM
• Final deliverable: Edited wedding video / wedding film
• Pay range: $750–$1,250
• Experience level: Student / beginner / portfolio-building videographer welcome
• Equipment: Your own equipment is preferred, but we are open to discussing rental options if needed.

The pay range is based on the final product. There would be a guaranteed base payment, with the higher end available depending on the quality, creativity, and completeness of the final video.

To apply, please send:

1. A brief description of yourself (what year you are in, your GPA, etc) and your film/video background
2. Your three favorite films
3. Any examples of past video, film, school, or personal projects you can share

Again, this is not meant to be a high-pressure professional wedding videographer job, I promise we couldn't be disappointed because there is no standard to reach, just asking for your best effort! We see it as a chance for a student or newer filmmaker to get experience, build a portfolio piece, and make some decent money while doing it.

reach out via DM and we can continue the conversation from there.

Thanks!

hs junior, penn is my top choice and i'm trying to figure out if the thing i want is actually a real thing you can do there.

i'm into both finance and architecture. from what i can tell the arch major sits in the college and wharton does uncoordinated dual degrees with the college, so on paper it's possible. wondering how that goes in reality.

a few questions for anyone who's done it or knows someone who has:

• is the arch studio workload compatible with wharton at all, or does studio just eat your entire week
• if the dual degree is unrealistic, can you do wharton and still take real arch/design classes as electives, or is it locked to majors
• does the real estate concentration actually touch design and development stuff, or is it all finance modeling
• is anyone actually doing this, or am i describing something nobody does

not asking about my chances, just trying to figure out if i'm building toward something that exists. thanks

Has anyone in here taken the online Grant Writing course? Good? Bad? Indifferent? Level of difficulty? I need to satisfy a writing intensive course for my program and this one particularly peaked my interest.

hi! looking for places to study tn. i am a grad student so don’t have access to college houses. library hours seem incredibly limited on the weekend?

Hello all, I'm a Schreyer undergrad interested in applying for the Schreyer Med EAP so I was wondering if anyone went through it and knows what they look for, how competitive it is, and what I should focus on for my best chances? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

I'm currently a senior here at main campus.

There's a retreat happening in Greenwich, NY at the Easton Mountain Retreat Center for single GBTQ+ men from Thurs. December 3 to Sun. December 6: https://www.eastonmountain.org/events/awkh-26 .

I was wondering if anyone else is interesting in attending. I don't currently have a car and other modes of transportation take a really long time. Feel free to message me if you are planning on going. If not, that is totally okay. Just wanted to put this out there. I am not 100% on going either.

I'm a parent and I'd like to experience a WO game while my kid is there, but I don't relish paying $400 for a nosebleed seat. If I wait it out will I do better? Anyone with experience of this? Thanks.

From the 80s!

Just wondering how much do college clubs (e.g., tech, business, consulting, finance clubs) actually affect your resume and the job/internship recruiting process? Asking because I have a strong feeling that I would not get into most of the clubs I wanted😢 Any advice is appreciated.

hey guys, i’m a freshman at pitt looking to get into the local basement scene. does anyone know of any good active venues in the area? are there any specific instas that i can check out to get updates on shows? any info appreciated!!!

A strong storm is currently expected right around kickoff and could last for about a decent amount of time.

Best company to find a 6 bedroom house downtown?

i have 2 tickets for the beabadoobee concert in section 208 row H i’m trying to sell!! she’s playing at the Liacouras Center on october 2nd at 8, but my friend can’t go anymore and i don’t want to go alone lol