Penn State CORE: College Relationships And Experiences Survey - Year 3

Executive Summary

Penn State CORE is a longitudinal study of the experiences and well-being of Penn State undergraduate students across the Commonwealth. Students from all 20 undergraduate campuses participated. This ongoing study gives voice to students as they share about their lives as Penn State undergrads, informs ways that Penn State can enhance their experiences, and serves as a gateway for students to engage more closely with Penn State research studies.

The first two years of data collection, conducted in Spring 2023 and Spring 2024, each included responses from a diverse group of more than 4,000 students across their first through fourth years of study. Year 3 of the study was successfully completed in Spring of 2025, with over 3,500 students. Nearly half of these were returning participants from Year 2, and 244 were no longer enrolled at PSU. Those students received a tailored version of the survey, including questions about their current employment, health care access, and debt.

As in past years, in Year 3 we assessed key measures including:

demographic information including first-generation student status,
food and housing insecurity,
sexual and gender minority status,
flourishing and belongingness,
campus healthcare utilization,
mental health (including academic stress), and
substance use behaviors, including use of trending products

This year, we also added questions about use and perceptions of use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the classroom.

This Executive Summary Report from the Year 3 survey presents select findings for the overall sample (3,675), students from University Park (2,311), students from the Commonwealth campuses (1,120) and former PSU undergraduate students (244). Overall, 9.4% of current PSU students report an elevated risk for academic distress, 22% report high anxiety scores, and 42% report high depression scores, yet only 10% reported using campus healthcare resources in the past month. Anxiety, depression, and academic stress were slightly higher at the Commonwealth campuses compared to University Park.

Food insecurity remained high, at 30% of all current students. Once again, alcohol use, cigarette use, vaping, and cannabis use – including experimenting with Delta-8 THC – are highest at the University Park campus. Twice as many students at University Park report using AI daily for academic purposes (10.2%) compared to those at Commonwealth campuses (4.7%). Indeed, 47.2% of students at University Park report using AI at least weekly, compared to 30.5% of those at Commonwealth campuses.

This ongoing study will follow students annually and recruit another new cohort of first-year students from across the Commonwealth to join Year 4 of the study in Spring 2026. Fourth-year students will be followed for one additional year to study their well-being and employment outcomes.

Penn State CORE is funded by the Office of the Provost, the Social Science Research Institute, the Huck Institutes for the Life Sciences, and the College of Health and Human Development.

Campus Representation

	Campus	Number of Participants
Number of Participants by Penn State Campus
University Park
	University Park	2311
Former PSU Undergrads
	Former PSU Undergrads	244
Commonwealth Campuses
	Behrend/Erie	219
	Harrisburg	202
	Altoona	126
	Abington	125
	Berks	108
	Brandywine	42
	Scranton	38
	York	35
	Lehigh Valley	32
	Schuylkill	27
	Mont Alto	22
	Beaver	21
	Greater Allegheny	21
	Hazelton	21
	DuBois	20
	Fayette	18
	Kensington	17
	Wilkes-Barre	11
	Shenango	9
	World Campus	6
Total	—	1,120
Grand Total	—	3,675

Demographics

General Demographics

Characteristic	Overall N = 3,675 ¹	Campus Groups
Characteristic	Overall N = 3,675 ¹	University Park N = 2,311 ¹	Commonwealth Campuses N = 1,120 ¹	Former PSU Undergrads N = 244 ¹
Previous Participant
Yes	1,929 (52.5%)	1,215 (52.6%)	470 (42.0%)	244 (100.0%)
No	1,746 (47.5%)	1,096 (47.4%)	650 (58.0%)	0 (0.0%)
Age	20.6 (16.20)	20.3 (1.25)	20.0 (1.37)	26.2 (62.54)
Gender Identity²
Woman	2,268 (61.7%)	1,449 (62.7%)	660 (58.9%)	159 (65.2%)
Man	1,277 (34.7%)	805 (34.8%)	401 (35.8%)	71 (29.1%)
Sexual & Gender Minority³	656 (18.3%)	365 (16.2%)	247 (22.7%)	44 (18.3%)
Race²
White only	2,631 (71.6%)	1,645 (71.2%)	800 (71.4%)	186 (76.2%)
Black only	156 (4.2%)	85 (3.7%)	66 (5.9%)	5 (2.0%)
Asian only	500 (13.6%)	338 (14.6%)	130 (11.6%)	32 (13.1%)
Multiracial	231 (6.3%)	151 (6.5%)	67 (6.0%)	13 (5.3%)
Missing/Decline to answer	91 (2.5%)	50 (2.2%)	34 (3.0%)	7 (2.9%)
Hispanic Origin	251 (9.6%)	157 (9.6%)	86 (10.2%)	8 (5.8%)
School Year
First year	657 (17.9%)	374 (16.2%)	283 (25.3%)	0 (0.0%)
Second year	834 (22.7%)	492 (21.3%)	342 (30.5%)	0 (0.0%)
Third year	1,002 (27.3%)	729 (31.5%)	273 (24.4%)	0 (0.0%)
Fourth year	869 (23.6%)	672 (29.1%)	197 (17.6%)	0 (0.0%)
Other	60 (1.6%)	40 (1.7%)	20 (1.8%)	0 (0.0%)
Prefer not to answer	9 (0.2%)	Less than 5	5 (0.4%)	0 (0.0%)
Former PSU Undergrads	244 (6.6%)	0 (0.0%)	0 (0.0%)	244 (100.0%)
Living Situation
Off-campus	2,443 (66.5%)	1,423 (61.6%)	791 (70.6%)	229 (93.9%)
On-campus	1,207 (32.8%)	878 (38.0%)	318 (28.4%)	11 (4.5%)
Prefer not to answer	25 (0.7%)	10 (0.4%)	11 (1.0%)	Less than 5
¹ n (%); Mean (SD)
² Data for additional categories are available in the comprehensive report.
³ Participants were included in this category if their gender identity was different from ‘man’ or ‘woman’, or if their sexual identity was different from ‘heterosexual or straight’. Data on sexual identity categories are available in the comprehensive report.

Food Security (Past Month)

Characteristic	Overall N = 3,675 ¹	Campus Groups
Characteristic	Overall N = 3,675 ¹	University Park N = 2,311 ¹	Commonwealth Campuses N = 1,120 ¹	Former PSU Undergrads N = 244 ¹
Food Security
Food Insecure	1,099 (29.9%)	684 (29.6%)	365 (32.6%)	50 (20.5%)
Food Secure	2,576 (70.1%)	1,627 (70.4%)	755 (67.4%)	194 (79.5%)
¹ n (%)

Housing Security (Past Month)

Characteristic	Overall N = 3,675 ¹	Campus Groups
Characteristic	Overall N = 3,675 ¹	University Park N = 2,311 ¹	Commonwealth Campuses N = 1,120 ¹	Former PSU Undergrads N = 244 ¹
Housing Security
Housing Insecure	169 (4.8%)	95 (4.3%)	61 (5.8%)	13 (5.5%)
Housing Secure	3,352 (95.2%)	2,134 (95.7%)	995 (94.2%)	223 (94.5%)
¹ n (%)