A classic town-and-gown community situated in bucolic central Pennsylvania, State College is a powerful economic driver with Pennsylvania State University at its core. A significant portion of the school's budget is set aside for research; the Applied Research Lab partners with the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering oversees the longest operating licensed university research reactor in the country.

State College is also a nice place to live and visit, its downtown teeming with hundreds of restaurants, shops and seasonal festivals, which might be one reason Psychology Today voted it one of the "50 Smart Places to Live" in the U.S.