Portal:Pennsylvania/Selected article/3

 The Pennsylvania State University (commonly known as Penn State) is a state-related, land-grant university located in State College, Pennsylvania, United States. The University has 24 campuses throughout the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, including a virtual World Campus. The enrollment at the Penn State University Park campus is 42,914 with a total enrollment of over 84,000 across its 24 campuses, placing it among the ten largest public universities in the United States. Penn State offers more than 160 majors and administers a $1.4 billion (USD) endowment.

Penn State was founded as a degree-granting institution on February 22, 1855 by act P.L. 46, No. 50 of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania. Centre County became the home of the new school when James Irvin of Bellefonte donated 200 acre of land&mdash;the first of 10101 acre the University would eventually acquire. In 1862, the school's name was changed to the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, and with the passage of the Morrill Land-Grant Act, Pennsylvania selected the school in 1863 to be the state's sole land grant college. (Read more...)