This is the official thread for those applying EA to Penn State University.
List your unweighted GPA, any SAT /ACT scores, and ECs. What majors are you going into?
Ask your questions, the CC community is here to help!
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Does anyone know anything about the Art Education major in the College of Arts and Architecture? How competitive? Also, I keep hearing that the undecided major is more competitive now, so not sure how my daughter should apply.
Her stats are *4.27 GPA, with 3 honors and 1 AP class
and *30 ACT and she applied already under ART EDUCATION and now is second guessing the major, thinking that she should have applied to the College of Education, as opposed to the College of Arts and Architecture.
If she is truly interested in education, that is an excellent pathway to university park admission. They are being more careful though because people are using that as a loophole and switching immediately as a freshman. Does the art major require a portfolio review?
No, Art Education doesn’t require a portfolio.
Is there somewhere that gives the number of students in each college or major? My thought is that if she is going to come out of either college as an art teacher, which avenue will give her better odds of getting accepted. I just can’t find anywhere that gives the number of students in each college.
@calm I can’t find the data that lists admissions by major but I found a few graduation numbers… for education, they graduated about 370 students (bachelors) in 2021. Arts and Architecture was about 250 for the same time. Looks like Art Education (A&A) graduated 6… I don’t see that as a major in the college of education - what would she major in?
And frankly, it doesn’t really matter how many are in the program. A smaller program might be more selective- (think musical theater). It matters where she is relative to the competition and no one here can answer that.
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Thank you very much for the information!
I have checked the Penn State website and common app. It seems the main essay is optional and supplemental essays are not required. There are also no major specific essays. Is this really correct?
My S is interested in applying for the 5 year BArch program in school of architecture.
Does anyone have any personal experience with their BArch program?
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Admission to the BArch program is very competitive. Although essays are not required, it would be a very good idea to complete either the main essay on the Common App or the personal statement on the Penn State application.
I have a question about essays also…
Using the common app and have completed the common app essay.
Is there another Penn State essay? Or is it either/or with the common app essay?
This is for Bellisario.
Then it looks like the only essay is the optional personal statement
Please tell us something about yourself, your experiences, or activities that you believe would reflect positively on your ability to succeed at Penn State. This is your opportunity to tell us something about yourself that is not already reflected in your application or academic records.
Unless he wants to apply to the honors college, there’s no major specific essays for the school of architecture.
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Hi, I’m applying to penn state ea along with Millennium Scholars and Schreyers.
My school uses a weird 107 point scale. 100/107 GPA 1540 SAT 14 APs by end of HS
Major of interest: Most likely CS but I might apply data science, as both have opportunities in bioinformatics
Intern at tech startup for 9 months (6 as basic intern, 3 as a team lead)
Research assistant for a summer in bioinformatics research, assistant for a year at another (published as a third author on a paper)
Cofounder of a red cross club
Robotics-states and regional awards
Taught java for 2 months to underclassmen
Yt channel abt hobby, a few videos got over a thousand views
Certificates in research, data, python, java, and bioinformatics
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FLORIDA
SAT 1540
GPA 5.54
Rank 1 out of 424
Completed all Math and Science AP’s 4s/5s
Applied for Mechanical Engineering
Also Applied to Texas A&M, ND, Purdue, Auburn, UCF, UF
Has PSU begun to release any decisions yet?
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NO. It will be just prior to Thanksgiving. Going on previous years.
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A few FAQs from previous years’ threads.
DECISION TIMELINE:
decisions do not generally come out before November and those are usually the very high stat kids or commonwealth decisions (students that applied directly to the commonwealth). MOST other applicants won’t hear until December.
Apply Early Action and not Rolling to hear by the end of December. Rolling applicants actually hear after EA applicants.
Pay attention to deadlines and decision dates. Dates & Deadlines - Undergraduate Admissions
Decisions at Penn State come out in random order and are not first in, first out.
DUS vs MAJOR DECLARATION
PSU’s undecided major is called Division of Undergraduate Studies (DUS). It has become more competitive in the past years as students have figured out that you can still get into Smeal Business or Engineering from DUS without losing any time. It is still less competitive to apply to DUS than Engineering or Smeal.
Do not apply directly to Smeal unless you have stellar grades (4.0+) and rigor. Only about 10% of all Smeal applicants get accepted as a freshman and even they are still in a pre-major status.
PREMAJOR vs DIRECT ADMIT
Only a handful of majors at PSU are direct admit. Direct Admit Majors | Penn State
For virtually everyone else, your acceptance will state that you have an INTENDED Major of XYZ. This is because all students at Penn State (except direct admit) have to complete entry to major requirements to get into the major - usually by the end of Sophomore year. You can find the entry to major requirements by searching the online academic bulletin (Undergraduate Bulletin | Penn State ) for your intended major. If you complete the requirements, you are in the major. It is similar to how other schools have you complete requirements to STAY in the major. Penn State has you complete the requirements and then when you are in, you are in.
Those are just some common questions. Feel free to ask other questions or for clarification in this thread.
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Can you clarify why you think the essay would be beneficial? The common data set for last year still states that admission essays will not be considered in any admissions decision. The personal statement is part of the application, but an essay, I thought, is not.
That is correct. There will not be supplemental essays geared toward different majors. The supplemental essays are not read per the Common Data Set. I am not aware that essays are now being considered but hopefully, if someone knows differently they can post here. In previous years, a personal statement would suffice. Make it a good one, however, because Architecture is extremely competitive and is also a direct entry major which means there is no backup campus for BArch applicants. They must start and finish at the UP campus.