Saturday, January 19, 2008

Go Cougars (or Nitanny Lions?)

For those who don't know, the mascot of Penn State is the Nittany Lion. Mount Nittany (the term "mount" is used loosely back East) was once part of the eastern range of the North American Mountain Lion (aka cougar). Hence the name and mascot. I've been out here in State College for the last few days interviewing with faculty and visiting the campus. We're excited at the possibility of coming out here for PhD. work in the "Genomics and Bioinformatics" program, with a focus on plant molecular evolution. Maybe the Cannons' will remain cougars... State college is also situated in what is locally referred to as Happy Valley. Coincidence?


Penn State has a nice campus. Lots of red brick and white columns. The aptly named State College (yeah, that's really the name of the town) is composed of some 45,000 students with a total of about 60,000 in population. It shows. I thought Provo was a college town. State College is funny. Everyone always says everything is 10 minutes away. There's a small ski slope on the other side of the valley, ten minutes away. It takes ten minutes to walk over to the stadium, but on game day it takes ten minutes to drive. "Well ain't this place a geographical oddity...." Ulysses Everett McGill

4 comments:

Jenn said...

Interesting coincidences! You'll have to let us know what you end up deciding. Are you applying anywhere else? There's a pretty good chance you would at least be CLOSER to us if you came to Penn State, and that would be fun! We just spent MLK day in Philly touring UPenn's campus, as that's one of our 9 possibilities. Keep us posted!

Wanderingfamilies said...

I hope you choose Penn State - I LOVE PA! Good luck with the decision!

rebecca and eric said...

hey i'm glad I found your blog! Yay for blogging! Penn State looks cool, as do all of Grant's outfit combinations. We want to have you guys over soon. We'll be calling you!

Cake Hero said...

DUUUUDE! You must choose Penn State, Philly is very cool and I could come visit and meet your wife (ps best name ever) and adorable little one. Yes yes yes, forever yes. :)