<p>Bottom line is I'm getting pretty worried on whether or not I'll be accepted into Penn State.</p>
<p>Senior in Highschool
White Male
Public Highschool in Miami (out of state)</p>
<p>UW GPA: 2.8 (pending grade changes/grade forgiveness)(3.0+)
W GPA: 4.2 (pending grade changes/grade forgiveness)
GPA: 3.54 (core GPA, 100% accurate)(only core classes)</p>
<p>SAT: (first time)
500 Math
500 Critical Reading
600 Writing (11 Essay) </p>
<p>ACT: N/A</p>
<p><em>I'll be taking the next 2 SAT's hoping for an 1800+</em></p>
<p>Course Rigor:</p>
<p>Advanced Placements</p>
<p>1.) Art History
2.) Comparative Gov.
3.) English Language
4.) United States Gov.
5.) Biology
6.) United States History
7.) Human Geography
8.) World History
9.) Psychology</p>
<p>Dual Enrollments:</p>
<p>1.) Social Problems</p>
<p>Honors: </p>
<p>1.) Pre Calculus
2.) Biology 1
3.) Chemistry 1
4.) English 1
5.) English 2
6.) Geometry 1</p>
<p>Regular: </p>
<p>1.) Algebra 1
2.) Algebra 2
3.) Spanish 1
4.) Spanish 2
5.) Earth Space Science</p>
<p>Potential Senior Year Schedule (Rigor)(Core Classes Only)</p>
<p>1.) AP Environmental Science
2.) AP Macroeconomics
3.) AP Probability & Statistics
4.) Spanish 4 Honors
5.) Marine Science Honors</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:</p>
<p>-1 year school internship for a Lawyer
-Jewish Club
-107 logged Community Service hours (assisting low level highschool readers)(hoping to have 200 by the time I submit my application)</p>
<p>College Confidential Community, what do you suggest I try and do to improve? Tips/Advice?</p>
<p>Should I apply Summer or Fall term?</p>
<p>Any help is appreciated</p>
<p>Penn State takes GPA as 2/3 of their decision, now, I’m not sure I get how your unweighted and weighted can differ that much. If you just use the middle GPA of a 3.54 for arguments sake, paired with a 1600 SAT, you could probably pull off summer session. But, if PSU looks at your unweighted GPA moreso than your weighted, you’d probably get sent to a branch campus. </p>
<p>The way applying for fall/summer works is you automatically apply for fall of your desired campus, it’ll then ask if you wish to be considered for summer admission if they can’t offer you fall admission. Assuming you’d be able to pay for the extra summer session, i’d click that box because unless you get your SAT up I don’t see you getting a direct fall admit. </p>
<p>PSU gives terrible aid to everyone, and theres virtually no merit aid, so theres no way you’d get any merit. They may throw you a bone and give you like $1500 in endowed scholarship money like they did for me, but expect to pay near full price for PSU.</p>
<p>Just a quick glance, and I would say borderline on acceptance. </p>
<p>Not much you can do to improve your overall GPA at this point, but concentrate on a stellar senior year. </p>
<p>Bringing up your SAT score 200 points would help too.</p>
<p>My son had a 3.85 GPA (unweighted), and 1830 on 3 part SAT, and got zippo for merit aid.</p>
<p>For need based aid, we would need to know much more info to even guess at that.</p>
<p>Very little need based aid is available for OOS students. :(</p>
<p>Question:</p>
<p>How much would my parents have to physically pay each semester at Penn State </p>
<p>Exactly how much would the checks come out to?</p>
<p>My official bill this semester was $19,502 (From North Carolina so OOS) before my financial aid (I have an outside scholarship covering $11,000) of that - but my total financial aid was about $4,000 for the semester from the school, so I had about $4400 for this semester we had to pay. PSU offers a deferred payment plan that you can spread the semester payments out over 3 separate payments, one in August, one in October, and one in November and similarly for spring semester.</p>
<p>Wow $11000 scholarship that is insanely awesome! How do I even get something near that? I really need something even half of that. Please help me out man</p>
<p>I say scholarship to oversimplify it. Its not really a scholarship. My dad works for another university and through the school theres a tuition benefit to its employees that pays 75% of its tuition towards another schools tuition costs minus a 3,600 deductible per semester.</p>
<p>I understand now. Are there any links you could show me that would show rates for out of state students for tuition + room/board? </p>
<p>My brother got accepted last year for summer term and penn state/FAFSA gave him $11,500 but it was still way to expensive for my family </p>
<p>I’m not sure if that is 100% right but that’s what I remember him saying</p>
<p>Estimated Tuition and Fees for 2013-14 Fall
Tuition $14,332
Activity Fee $87
Information Technology Fee $248
Facility Fee $116</p>
<p>Total $14,783</p>
<p>Is what I got which is for tuition, how is this looking?</p>
<p>Still need room/board </p>
<p>This is also without taking into consideration fafsa…</p>
<p>These are my exact numbers for you. I’m a freshman undecided major living in east halls (the standard dorms) on a level 4 meal plan, which is like the standard level</p>
<p>Tuition: 14,332.00
IST Fee: 248.00
Student Activity Fee: 87.00
Facilities Fee: 116.00
Meal Plan Charge: 2200.00
Housing Room Charge: 2595.00
Total: 19578.00</p>
<p>Estimated College Costs for 2013-14<br>
Fall Spring Total
Tuition<br>
$14,332 $14,332 $28,664
Activity Fee<br>
$87 $87 $174
Information Technology Fee<br>
$248 $248 $496
Facility Fee<br>
$116 $116 $232
Room<br>
$2,601 $2,601 $5,202
Meals<br>
$2,457 $2,457 $4,914
Books<br>
$1,060 $1,060 $2,120</p>
<p>*Semester Total $20,901 $20,901 $41,802</p>
<p>The above is what I will be paying for Fall/Spring semesters.</p>
<p>Assuming Penn State gives me what they gave my brother (who decided to not go to PSU) which was 11,500 I’d be paying $30,300</p>
<p>That’s 2 semesters which is not that, it would be 15,150 per semester. My dad said he would put down $10,000. I would just need to find a way to get the other $5150 each semester. </p>
<p>Getting a scholarship for 5150 would be huge for me.</p>
<p>I know where to find textbooks online so thats another $2120 off the bill which would mean I would need to get $4140 each semester.</p>
<p>By the way, do freshmen living on campus need a meal plan?</p>
<p>While as a freshman you will probably not spend near $1000 on books a semester ( I got all mine for the semester on Amazon for $300 total) you still need to buy them. But thats not a billable expense that shows up on your tuition bill. </p>
<p>As a freshman yes you are required to have a meal plan with your housing contract.</p>
<p>While there are a lot of little scholarships you can apply for, and in theory you could take out private loans for that much each semester with a cosigner, I wouldn’t recommend it. Winning little scholarships each semester is not a sustainable way to get through college and PSU might just be too expensive for you. 11,500 is a pretty generous aid package for an OOS student at Penn State seeing as the median package for both in and out of state students is $9481, So I would not assume the same.</p>
<p>What happened to FSU, UCF and USF ? Tuition is one of the lowest in the country. </p>
<p>Apply before Nov 30 and check the summer option. You should be able to get in with 1800+.</p>
<p>@Xtremepower those schools I am also applying to, FSU being my absolute first choice. </p>
<p>Im just REALLY worried I won’t get in.</p>
<p>I’d go to FSU Summer session in a heartbeat.</p>
<p>UF is out of question.
FSU, UCF and USF all are low reaches because of the low GPA and SAT. You really need to increase that SAT to at least a 1750.</p>
<p>@xtremepower count on an 1800 come the next 2 SAT tests.</p>
<p>I figured UF was out of the question but FSU is my #1, if you think I have a good shot, you’ve made me happy</p>