The National College of Sports Medicine determined that Penn State is the number one large public university when it comes to active lifestyles. The recently released National Collegiate Fitness Rankings looked at 39 participating universities based on the physical and programmatic resources they have that promote active living and a healthy lifestyle and found Dear Old State to be the top of its class.
The report outlines the criteria for the study and why it was conducted in the first place. The report was initiated in 2012 and looked at the “walkability” of campuses and the results of a survey that asked questions like, “Do you offer personal training services on campus?” and “How many skating rinks are on your campus?”
The above data was combined into a Fitness Score for each school which was then used to rank the universities in each category. Penn State’s winning Fitness Score was 69.9.
In addition to taking first place overall, Penn State was also ranked No. 1 in walk score, group fitness classes per week, and physical education classes per semester.
Penn State beat out Kansas State University and the University of Tennessee at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, as well as Ohio State (No. 16), Michigan State (No. 18), and Rutgers (No. 32) of the 39 ranked, large public universities. Lyndon State took the number one spot for small public universities and Southern Adventist University was No. 1 for private schools.
