Founded in as Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania , [ 13 ] Penn State was named the state's first land-grant university eight years later, in In addition to its land-grant designation, the university is a sea-grant , space-grant , and one of only six sun-grant universities. The College of Medicine is in Hershey. The university maintains 19 commonwealth campuses and five special mission campuses located across Pennsylvania.
Since its founding, Penn State has won 82 national collegiate team championships, including 54 NCAA titles across all sports, and Penn State students, alumni, faculty, and coaches have won a total of 74 Olympic medals , including 20 gold medals. Congressman from Bellefonte , donated acres 0. The same year, on February 22, the Pennsylvania General Assembly designated the school a degree-granting institution.
In , the school's name was changed to the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania. Congress , and Pennsylvania selected the school to be the state's sole land-grant college. By , enrollment fell to 64 undergraduates, and the school attempted to balance its primary focus on agricultural studies with classic education. Atherton was named the school's president; Atherton set about broadening the curriculum beyond its agricultural focus.
The school developed an engineering studies program that immediately became one of the nation's ten largest engineering schools. A major road in State College was later named in Atherton's honor. In the 20th century, Penn State grew significantly, becoming the largest grantor of baccalaureate degrees in Pennsylvania.
In , its enrollment reached 5, Hetzel , the school's president, established a commonwealth of colleges to provide an alternative for Depression -era students who were economically unable to leave home to attend college. In , President Milton S. Eisenhower , the brother of then- U. President Dwight D. Eisenhower , sought and won permission to elevate the school to university status, and it assumed its current name, The Pennsylvania State University.
