Vantaggi
Beautiful area, high quality research. High camaraderie among graduate students and other positive and supportive environment.
Svantaggi
Penn state at large is frighteningly cultish and willing to look over immoral behavior (although I'm sure other large football schools suffer this problem). Computing cluster management is a disaster. One is better off running simulations on Amazon or Google or their own computer for a larger price than deal with ICS. Poor undergraduate instruction in physics -- mostly organizational style. Mediocre to handling of graduate student grievances. Particular faculty have far inappropriately large weight when it comes to graduate student applications. Loudest voices among faculty appear to be the only ones heard, while not enough attention paid to the opinions of humbler and/or quieter but equally (if not more) qualified faculty.