Starting a new thread, conversations for those WAITING for decision, feel free to share stats.
ACT: n/a
SAT: 1420
GPA: 3.88 uw, 104% w
Rank: 10/298
Extra: 12 APs, National Merit Scholar, Ap scholar w/distinction, 4 honor soc., Leadership
State Residency: PA
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Gender: Male
Applied date: 10/1 scores and application finished
Applied Early Action?: yes
Decision date: 1
Decision/College: Eberly, Bio (Pre Med)
Campus: UP
How does UP notify students? D applied end of August/early September, but has not heard anything.
I checked with my husband. He submitted on 17th through penn state website. We did not use commonapp for smeal college. It was confusing to pick smeal school (under penn state) on commonapp. He applied on 17th and we got letter from penn state yesterday that she got admitted on 22nd. We forgot to check the website :)- We never thought that we will get admission this soon.
After looking at this board over the last few years, I think itâs difficult to predict a pattern to the timing of acceptances, other than to say students who apply to a commonwealth or branch campus often hear earlier than UP applicants. Kids with super high stats MAY hear earlier. But high stat kids will also hear in December and January. There seemed to be some consensus at one point that engineering and Eberly notified early to snag the high stat students who might be trying to get early decisions from higher tiered schools; however, now that PSU has its own early action deadline, this might not be the necessary.
Between the SRAR/common app and early action, the process is too new to warrant being frustrated or offended if you donât get your acceptance in a specific timeframe compared to other kids. If PSU says they will notify you by Dec 15th, just assume it will be the 15th and then be pleasantly surprised if you find out earlier.
Correction: I meant Dec 24th :). Haha!
I spoke with admissions and their office closes for break starting Dec 22nd. Good chance they said decisions Admitted, deferred, or declined will go out before the office closes for the holiday break.
@Psu2023dad , @ziveli513 , donât assume just because your son or daughter has high stats that they SHOULD hear back immediately. Historically decisions trickled out and then a flood are released leading up to whatever date Penn State promises students will hear by. If you reference previous decision threads, high stat kids also hear near the end. Penn state doesnât owe us or your child anything more than what they promised.
(Imagine the frustration of those kids who applied 9/1 last year and didnât hear until the end of January. Five months of waitingâŚpatience was a painful lesson for them to learn. By comparison, many schools donât announce decisions until March 15 or 30, so letâs count our blessings.)
To @Sophley 's point, PSU is pretty clear about the fact that those who apply EA by 11/1 will get a decision by 12/24. Thatâs it. Thatâs how PSU EA works. Apply by this date, hear back by this date. There is nothing on PSUâs website about this type of applicant hearing back before this other type of applicant. Or this school making decisions before this other school.
It is not 12/24. So, not sure what there is to get worked up about at this point from a PSU perspective.
That said, I will still obsessively check the portal because waiting is really hard and frustrating. My son applied in early September. 
@InfiniteWaves , sorry this is our first child going through applications⌠so colleges donât pull in the submitted grades and scores and ârankâ the applications for lack of a better word? We were assuming that once EA closed, theyâd start sending appearance letters based on highest stats first. Sounds like itâs more random?
@PSU2023dad This is my 3rd son going, but first early action applicant, this son has slightly higher scores, other sons didnât have EA, and they still heard before him. Itâs very random, yes, super high scores stand out, but Iâve heard much lower scores, later applicants, getting accepted now. I think weâre all just reading into this a little early. Sit tight, they accept more students than actually attend.
Infinite waves thank you! That explanation makes sense from what I have seen
As often is the case, if things were more clearly explained we would all understand
But thatâs ok, Iâm learning!
@amomoffour , thank you for clarifying, thatâs very helpful! We had no idea it would be this stressful ?
for those wondering, i had everything else sent prior 10/31. i only said that date because thats the day i completed the srar and my app was marked fully complete. so no, not making anything up lol ??ââď¸ im aware that waiting is frustrating but i know plenty at school who got a response quickly (like i did)
My application just updated to your application has been updated please check back for a status update does that mean I will receive a decision soon?
Iâm curious what you all think of this, but Penn State visited my daughterâs HS today, and she said the admissions rep told them that if they have a 1300 and a 3.7 gpa, for example and they apply early action they will probably be deferred to the RD round. If they have a 1500 and a 4,0, for example they will be accepted during the EA round. Sounds weird to me. Thoughts?
A lot Universities handle EA like the admissionâs rep mentioned, Tulane and Boston College to name a few. Iâm a little disappointed but not surprised.
@ziveli513 When an applicant applies, the application is sorted into many different categories based on major, GPA, campus, test scores etcâŚThen the applications are verified - meaning that they check to see if the applicant has the requirements for the major they chose (ie HS math for engineering) and they verify all materials as valid. Then the applications are converted to Penn Stateâs scale to account for all of the different grading scales out there. The weighting process for that high school is reviewed (some schools have very lenient weighting that skews their grades).
That process can take different time for different applicants. They filter down to different admission reps who also roll out decisions in different timelines (some work faster than others). So, while the PROCESS is the exact same for every applicant, the DECISIONS will appear to come out randomly because they are processed in different queueâs .
Penn State is not true rolling admission - they are MODIFIED rolling admission - which means that the decisions dates are in waves. Apply by this date, hear BY this date.
I totally get your frustration. When I was going through this several years ago (I have a senior and sophomore at PSU UP) I went about crazy trying to figure out the admissions process. I did boat loads of research. I tiled a bathroom to keep from checking the portal. I get the frustration! But hopefully this explanation helps explain to you and others how the process actually works. Penn State isnât âlateâ with anyoneâs EA application until after Dec 24.
(FYI - when my D applied her year she applied Sept 1 and didnât hear until Jan 26 - 5 months! She still got in and not one person has asked her when she was accepted )
@citymama9 Where do you live? If you are not very near to the main campus, admission ârepsâ that visit high schools are actually admission VOLUNTEERS that live across the country. Usually parents of current kids. Some are very well versed, others are not. I would not take any absolutes like that as fact as that is not usually how PSU operates.
@jhpsu Hi, we live in NY and the person who came to her school is an actual admissions rep. I just looked his name up.
Citymama9 bummer! Thatâs bad news then for us then even though it does seem my daughters stats will eventually be accepted at up
And frustrating, because penn state doesnât make all these nuances clear on the website
To what end? Why not be clear if an admissions rep is telling students there are cut offs based on stats
What is the point of putting all energy into applying in August and choosing early action
if we will get regular decision based on stats?
Wth