Visiting a college campus... take Amtrak and save!

Along the East Coast states, most of the major universities are served by Amtrak or reasonably close:

New Jersey: Rutgers (New Brunswick), Princeton (Princeton)
Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania, Temple, Drexel (Philadelphia); Villanova (Villanova); University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie-Mellon (Pittsburgh); No service to Penn State
Delaware: University of Delaware (Newark)
Maryland: Johns Hopkins, Baltimore; U of Maryland (College Park -near Washington)
District of Columbia: American, George Washington, Georgetown, Howard (Washington)
Virginia: University of Virginia (Charlottesville), Virginia Commonwealth (Richmond), College of Williams & Mary (Williamsburg), Hampton Institute (Newport News) No service to Virginia Tech
North Carolina: University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill - 11 miles from Durham), NC State (Raleigh), Duke (Durham), UNCG, NC A&T (Greensboro), UNCC (Charlotte). No service to Wake Forest (Greensboro is 29 miles from Winston-Salem)
South Carolina University of South Carolina (Columbia), The Citadel (Charleston), Clemson University (Clemson), Furman (Greenville)
GeorgiaEmory, Atlanta University, Georgia Tech (Atlanta) No service to University of Georgia
Florida No service to University of Florida or Florida State (service to Tallahassee suspened after Hurricane Katrina).

The closest station to Penn State(main campus) would be Tyrone, but one would have to get a ride or take a cab. For more service, one might as well go to Harrisburg, either drive or intercity bus. Something tells me that folks living in the Philly area who attend Penn State main campus would be more likely to take the train than those travelling from the NY area.

You're probably right since State College, PA, is basically a straight shot from New York out I-80 for 5-6 hours. the overwhelming majority of Penn State students reside within Pennsylvania, and in all likelihood the largest segment of those come from the Philadelphia area.