What Are Penn State's Traditions and Community Culture?

Penn State's traditions center on shared identity rather than ceremony for its own sake: the "We Are Penn State" cheer, a student section described by the university as the world's best, and an Alma Mater that has marked community moments for 125 years. Together they function as the connective tissue for a community the university counts at 819K+ alumni worldwide. These traditions are open to students, alumni, faculty, staff, and families—anyone who wants a point of entry into Penn State culture, whether on a Pennsylvania campus or through Penn State World Campus.

The Three Anchors of Penn State Culture

The "We Are Penn State" Cheer

The cheer works as a call-and-response that turns a crowd into a single voice. It appears in the university's own framing of its traditions alongside the student section, and it travels: alumni use it at gatherings far from State College. Its practical value is instant belonging—a new student or a visiting family member can participate in the first minute without knowing any backstory.

The Student Section

Penn State describes its student section as the world's best. Whatever your view of that claim, the underlying culture is worth understanding: game-day identity is student-led, and the section is where incoming students learn the choreography of belonging—when to cheer, what to wear, which songs matter. For prospective students evaluating campus life, this is the clearest signal that school spirit here is participatory rather than spectator-only.

The Alma Mater at 125 Years

The Alma Mater is the tradition with the longest documented arc. For 125 years, per the university, it has "marked the moments that bring Penn Staters together." That phrasing matters: the song is used at gatherings and milestones, not just athletic events. It is the tradition most likely to reach alumni who never attend a game—commencement, reunions, chapter events, and memorials.

How Traditions Connect a Global Community

Penn State frames its traditions explicitly as a way to "bring our global community together." The scale explains why this matters:

A community that large cannot rely on physical proximity. Traditions give distributed alumni and World Campus students a shared vocabulary—the cheer, the songs, the game-day rhythm—that substitutes for a single campus. The university's own traditions page invites readers to "discover the stories behind the moments that define Penn State," which is a useful starting point if you want the history rather than just the practice.

Deciding Whether This Culture Fits You

Traditions are a real factor in college choice, but they should be weighed honestly:

• Choose Penn State partly for this if you want a large, spirited community with strong intergenerational identity, and you value rituals that continue after graduation.
• Look more carefully if you prefer a low-key campus culture, dislike sports-centered identity, or are enrolling fully online and want primarily academic connection—though note that World Campus students are included in the university's "flexible educational model" and in the alumni community the traditions serve.
• Verify specifics before visiting or enrolling. The university's traditions page and campus visit materials are the authoritative sources for event schedules, game-day procedures, and which traditions apply at which campus. Details like ticketing, seating, and event access are not covered in the material summarized here, so confirm them directly rather than assuming.

Getting Started

If you want to explore further, the university's own pathways are the right entry points: its Academics section for programs across multiple campuses and World Campus, its Research section for the interdisciplinary work behind the $1.44B figure, and its Traditions section for the stories behind the cheer, the student section, and the Alma Mater. For alumni, the 819K+ network is the practical channel through which these traditions stay active—local chapters and university alumni communications are where the Alma Mater and the cheer actually show up in adult life.