Chances are, if some stranger came up to you and demanded to know if you would pick Penn State all over again, you’d say yes. In fact, there’s a 92.1% chance you would say yes. That’s way up from 2002 with 80.2%.

Onward State started in 2008, so we’re pretty sure the jump has to do with that.

The 2010 Student Satisfaction Report detailed how 5,125 voted about their happiness at Penn State. Of those 5,125, 42.7% were from University Park, 57.3% were from Commonwealth campuses.

The vote is broken down into three categories: overall, University Park students, and Commonwealth campus students.

Probably the most disappointing, but not shocking, figures were the low ones regarding advising. Only 66.6% of University Park students are satisfied with advising, as opposed to 70.5% Commonwealth Campus students. From what my friends and I have whined about when discussing advising from our previous campuses, I’m surprised Commonwealth Campus students ranked higher.

University Park students spend an average of 18.6 hours a week studying. So that noise outside your window is not of wasted students, but of studying students. Commonwealth campus students spend an average of 15.5 hours a week studying.

We’ve also gone from 52.9% (2002) to 62.9% (2010) of students who do not skip class in an average week. Maybe that’s why we’re happier: we actually know what’s going on in class, so we don’t flunk out.

And finally, we’ve gone from 73.4% (2002) to 81.1% (2010) of students who know at least one faculty or staff member well enough to ask for a recommendation. Commonwealth campus students compare with 86.4% (2002) to 88.8% (2010). I think a better question to ask would be how many people have at least one staff or faculty member on their Facebook, and then ask how many. I have 15. Just try and beat that.

But now that Onward State is bigger than ever, let’s shoot for 100% of people who would decide to come back here again in the next survey.