Chance?

<p>Looking forward to hearing soon. What do you think the chances are for an OOS WM w/ 700M/600CR and 3.35gpa (out of 4.0); applied to Smeal;(not requesting fin. aid) </p>

<p>Was just looking on the USNWR Rankings and hadn't realized that Penn State was ranked so highly -- actually higher than son's first choice of Boston Univ. Makes me wonder if he considered all factors when applying!</p>

<p>Anyway, look forward to getting an answer soon but until then, anyone with an idea of chances?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>GPA is pretty low for main campus, although your son's SATs are quite high, so they may balance eachother out. Smeal is pretty competitive to get into, not sure if it as hard to get in freshmen year as it is jr year (you have to apply to your major in Smeal before the summer before your junior year, so college GPA is very important for business majors).</p>

<p>How are his ECs?</p>

<p>3.35gpa is a B+ -- that's too low for Smeal? 3/4 of his classes have been at the advanced (honors) level and he's taking 3 APs this year (Bio, Latin, Statisticts). His ec's are: pres. of language club (2ys); varsity golf (4ys); few other ec's and a little volunteering; worked full-time in a law firm last summer. </p>

<p>I appreciate your feedback -- thanks.</p>

<p>Forgot to ask before -- how's life at Penn State for out-of-staters?</p>

<p>UP is not a B college especially Smeal. If you want colleges for B students, check out this book: Amazon.com:</a> America's Best Colleges for B Students: A College Guide for Students Without Straight A's (America's Best Colleges for B Students): Tamra B. Orr, Gen Tanabe: Books.</p>

<p><a href="http://admissions.psu.edu/info/counselors/bubble_chart06.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://admissions.psu.edu/info/counselors/bubble_chart06.pdf&lt;/a>
Smeal is one of the hardest colleges within UP to get into. You definitely want to get at least within the lower blue dots for Smeal or Engineering.</p>

<p>If "PS isnt a "B" college," presumably it's an "A" college?? You referred me to Amazon.com's "America's Best Colleges for B Students: A College Guide for Students Without Straight A's." I'm not being condescending, however, are you trying to tell me that PSU is filled with only straight A students? Where then, are the Ivy League and other top-ranked universities getting their straight A students from if they're all attending Penn State??</p>

<p>I always figured a B to B+ average in mostly all honors-level courses as being well thought of? Thought maybe the 700 in Math would look good at Smeal. Oh well, I appreciate your thoughts -- have to look more closely at our own in-state university.</p>

<p>Thanks for your thoughts.</p>

<p>The middle average GPA for UP students is between 3.57-3.97, and GPA is a factor that is highly considered. According to Princeton Review, over 60% of students have a GPA of 3.5 or above. SATs and ECs look good, though, so I could say the GPA could be evened out.</p>

<p>Is that GPA figured on grades received in regular college-prep level courses or on advanced-level (honors) courses, or does it even make any difference to PSU? I read where they consider the GPA as weighing 2/3 of the complete package with the SATs the remaining 1/3. Do they consider the reputation of the high school in the equation at all? I know they get tens of thousands of apps, so maybe they don't. </p>

<p>In any event, hope to hear good news in the near future -- really thought it was a spectacular campus with something to offer everyone. Applied in mid-September so hoping for an answer by Thanksgiving.</p>

<p>Good luck to all!</p>

<p>Just wondering.. my S applied to DUS ( and checked off summer ) vs. Smeal thinking his chances to be accepted in DUS would be greater rather than risking rejection from Smeal and ultimately his chance for acceptance to PSU entirely. Do you need higher GPA and SAT for Smeal than DUS? He falls within the blue range on the 2008 chart, but would it be different had he applied to Smeal ? What kind of average do you need to transfer into Smeal as a junior ? Depends on the major, yes ?</p>

<p>^You definitely need higher credentials to gain admission to Smeal. I believe Smeal is one of the more selective ones along with engineering at PSU. If your S falls within the blue range in the chart and checked off summer, he should have a good shot at Smeal. If you say he applied to DUS, he should be a shoe-in. Transferring into Smeal...I don't know much about, but I know it depends on your gpa your first two years and major of choice. I believe finance is the highest with a 3.3 and I heard from a friend in the major that they plan to require a 3.4 by next year because of the demand.</p>

<p>Thanks lil_killer. I don't think he can switch to Smeal once he is accepted to DUS... that would be great if he could ! So, if he gets accepted he will just try to keep up his grades to transfer in. He may want to study supply chain management (logistics).</p>

<p>i don't see why they wouldn't look at the reputation of the high school just because they get thousands of apps a year.
for instance, many people from my private school have gotten into places like uw-madison with even below a 3.3. one person didn't even have a 3.0</p>

<p>yeah i think they definitely take into consideration the reputation of the high school</p>

<p>If he is accepted DUS he can transfer into any major he wanted to, even one in SMEAL. He just has to have the GPA to do so before the end of his sophomore year. Declaring DUS vs a major in SMEAL coming into college would helo out onky that he wouldn't have to beat out the better qualified students in meeting the prospective student quotas the majors put up. So by coming in undeclared you avoid these and therefore have a better chance of getting into main campus.</p>

<p>does going in under DUS in general help your chances?</p>

<p>^Yes it helps/</p>

<p>oh good that's what i went in under. does it help your chances simply because they're going to take the best of the best for each major? or why is that</p>

<p>I think it's because the demand for certain majors are high and it's hard to accommodate everybody, so they have to raise the standards for acceptance into those programs to "lower" it. For DUS, people just take random courses basically to fulfill their gen-eds, which PSU can do because they can just enlarge the class sizes for those courses. But it's hard to make major courses any larger than it already is without decreasing its quality.</p>

<p>Do the classes have to be random ? Can a student take classes with a specific area in mind ( maybe after the 1st semester) ? If my S goes there I am afraid all of his classes will be huge.</p>

<p>psualum80 - when your S is picking classes online for his schedule, he'll be able to see how big each class is (it will list the total available seats, as well as how many spots have been filled as of that moment). If he prefers smaller classes, he can look for ones with a smaller class size. It seems that many of the popular GenEd classes are fairly big, but my S has also been in some with less than 30 students. </p>

<p>People often end up taking random classes because they have specific GenEd requirements left to fulfill, and they basically need to take whatever class they can find that will fill that requirement. That's esp. true for freshmen, who don't get to schedule classes until after the upperclassmen, so you often don't have many available classes from which to choose.</p>