www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Looking for info on State College, PA

My son is planning on starting classes next month at Penn State in State College, PA as part of a graduate student program (music). We're in the process of trying to arrange this cross country move. The thought came that this is an area that some here might be familiar with. (I know very little about it.) If anyone would want to contact me via PM about the area with suggestions and area info, that would be most welcome.

Many thanks!

Dave,

There are a couple of folk here who are from State College, as I recollect (but, I'm blanking right now on the user names). Meantime, what little info I can offer ...

Holy Trinity Orthodox - OCA [holytrinity-oca.org] has an outreach program to the Penn State campus at State College and St John the Baptist Byzantine (Hawk Run, PA) also has a Campus Ministry there.

(Holy Trinity has a nice website but navigation could be more user-friendly. Go to the unobtrusive list at the very bottom of its home page. All are links, though not readily apparent as such.)

Many years,

Neil

Addendum: A friend just reminded me that Tim/tjm199 is one of our State College members. He hasn't posted for a while. I just tracked him down at FB and messaged him, urging that he come home to us.

DT:

Christ is in our midst!!

Your son may be running a bit late for housing at this date. The secretary where I do some consulting just had her daughter give up her apartment since she's just graduated. Apartment rentals typically run from August 1 to August 1. We're about 45 miles SW of State College. If commuting is not a problem, he may be able to find something to rent in Tyrone, which is only about a 20 minute drive. I can have some of my FD colleagues look for an apartment if need be.

Let me see if I can get you some info about realtors in State College and get back to you tomorrow.

The area is served by a very convenient airport--one that we use when flying out of this area to visit relatives. It has commuter service from some major hubs like Philadelphia, Baltimore, and (I believe) Washington, D.C. State College combines some very urban with rural qualities and is a great place to live. Lots of alums move back for the lower cost of living relative to urban areas.

Bob

Bob,
Would Bellefonte, Pleasant Gap or Boalsburg be more convenient than Tyrone? I know before I-99 was built there were nasty traffic tie-ups toward Port Matilda. Apts should be a bit cheaper there than in State College and they are served by bus transportation Centre County Bus [catabus.com]

Found this site for housing http://www.statecollege.com/classifieds/housing/

Many thanks to everyone for the links and info! This is quite a move for our son and it's taking a bit to work it all out. I'll keep you guys posted on how it goes.

There is also St. John the Baptist Carpatho Russian Orthodox Church in Hawk Run...http://www.acrod.org/directories/parishview?parish=0079

Paul B:

Good point--bus service. I don't know if any of the Centre County locations will be much help because they're geared to being university "suburbs."

I can get in and out of the UP airport without even going near State College. The only tie-up is getting off I-99. Other than that, it's a breeze getting there and back. I once took a course at UP and could get there from my home in Hollidaysburg via I-99 in about 45 minutes so Tyrone is about half way there.

Bob

Hawk Run is better than 30 miles away. St John the Baptist (OCA) in Philipsburg is closer--you have to go to Philipsburg in order to get the road to Hawk Run. There is also St. Marys (OCA) in Osceola Mills a few miles from Philipsburg. St. Marys has a great choir that has come to Altoona for weddings since the local OCA parish is too small to have its own. There is also a Ukrainian Orthodox parish in the area that one of our members belongs to. But why travel so far away when there is a parish in State College? Wasn't there when I attended Penn State.

Bob

Amazing isn't it. He'll have a whole built in "cyber' family just waiting to help him.. God is god!

Thanks for adding that David. I didn't try to list parishes outside SC itself, since I don't know the area well enough to know which are closest - but I do know that there are several of them and I figured that you and others would chime in.

Many years,

Neil

DT:

Did your son find housing?

Are you traveling here by vehicle with his furnishings, etc. or is he flying in with just luggage? I-99 is a good way to get to State College these days if you can connect via other interstate highways.

Bob

Thanks again for all the help from posters here!

We're still trying to find housing. We're making contacts re: rooms and apts through some of the classified notices we've seen so far.

At present, we're planning on making a drive from Oregon, starting about the 5th of August with the goal of getting there about the 8th.

Getting some good leads on housing so that's almost done.

I just wanted to say that we'll probably be attending DL at Holy Trinity in State College on August 14th. It would be nice to run into some people from here there.

And, just a further request: can you guys do something about the heat so that it won't be so bad then? I've been in Arizona for a few weeks so I've already done my time for heat this summer!

AZ is dry heat. We've got very high humidity so prepare to be in a steam bath. We've got 100,000 trees in this state breathing out water after photosynthesis. It's like a jungle this past week and next week is predicted to be the same.