SAT- 1430
ACT- 30
GPA- 4.43
RANK- 23 (top 10%)
RIGOR- 16 honors/AP classes
MAJOR- Marketing
I applied for summer
Thanks!! Hopefully my chances are good 
Nothing is a given with Smeal because it’s the hardest college to gain acceptance. That being said, your stats are well within range of accepted students there.
@jlhpsu what’s your opinion?
Your scores are very good. I’m assuming your GPA is weighted? What is your unweighted GPA? As Sophley said, Smeal is the hardest college to get into. Last I checked, they only accepted 11% of their applicants. If you applied DUS and chose to work towards Marketing from there, I think you’d have absolutely no problem. But applying directly to Smeal is a toss up because of it’s extreme competitiveness. They get far more qualified applicants than they can take which means lots of qualified applicants get denied.
If you get denied, immediately call admissions and ask to be reconsidered for DUS. They will consider you after all of the DUS applicants from the first deadline are decided. It’s not a given, but lots of people have gotten in that way after a denial.
Hopefully you will sail in - but even with your stats, that’s not a given. Your unweighted GPA will tell more of the story because Penn State also takes into consideration how easy, or hard, your school’s weighting process is.
@jlhpsu Thank you so much for the extremely thorough response! My unweighted GPA is a 4.07. Advisors that I’ve spoken to have told me that applying directly into Smeal is far easier than attempting to transfer in once I’ve already been accepted. Is it a better idea to switch to DUS now? Thanks again!
Which advisors? Are they affiliated with Penn State?
Penn State does their majors differently than a lot of schools. No one, and I mean No one, is in their major from freshman year regardless of what major they are accepted to. The only exceptions to this are direct entry majors that must start freshman year, such as Nursing, Golf Course Management and one or two others. The rest of the 160 majors are all in the same boat. Everyone must complete the entry to major requirements for their major. For some, the entry to major requirements are simple…maintain a 2.0 for example. For others, like Smeal, they are more complex. For Smeal your entry to major requirements in Marketing would be:
ECON 102
ESL 15, ENGL 15 or 30
ACCTG 211
FIN 301
MATH 110 or 140
MGMT 301
MKTG 301
SCM 200 or STAT 200
A grade of a C or better in all classes from ACCTG 211 down the list
An overall GPA of a 3.2 or higher
When you successfully complete this list, which is usually sophomore year, you apply for the major. Here’s the thing…DUS majors can take this exact list of courses and apply also at the end of sophomore year. For Smeal, you have to either be in Smeal Pre-Major (which is what everyone who is accepted into Smeal as a freshman is) or DUS in order to apply. It does not matter which.
So it is not more difficult to switch into Smeal later because Penn State has a path for intended Smeal graduates through DUS. Most majors you can start in DUS and switch to a major later with careful planning.
I hope this helps explain the process. Your GPA and test scores are very good. You may get accepted directly to Smeal as a pre-major. But honestly, there is no reason to sweat it in my opinion. If you change to DUS now, then I would very much expect you to be admitted to Penn State - and you would apply to Smeal at the end of your sophomore year with both Smeal pre-majors and DUS folks who have been working towards Smeal.