I haven't locked my door in 4 years and live in state college where main campus Penn state is. It's really really safe. Like really safe. Pennsylvania itself is probably not that safe but state college is.

You can work on campus to pay for food and living expenses but it's a minimum wage job usually so you're only gonna get close to $7.25 an hour... Life is cheaper here than cities for sure. But it would be best if you had money coming in.