<p>I am a white male from NJ. Will be applying for Fall 2014 semester.
SAT 1980- 670 CR 690 WR 620 MATH
GPA 3.79 UW, 4.55 W
Ranked 80/365 (Top 21%)
Only 3 APs, 7 honors.
Decent amount of extracurriculars
Thanks for all of your help.</p>
<p>It looks like you are in good shape for UP. Just apply early and you should be fine. Penn State has rolling admission so if you apply early and get in, there is a lot less stress during your senior year; I found that going into March/April knowing I had already been accepted at UP (my first choice) was very nice.</p>
<p>This is what Penn State sends around to School Counselors for placement at Penn State:
<a href=“http://admissions.psu.edu/info/counselors/bubble_chart.pdf[/url]”>http://admissions.psu.edu/info/counselors/bubble_chart.pdf</a></p>
<p>You are clearly in the blue on the chart so as long as you apply early while there are many spots at UP, you will probably get in easy; just remember write a compelling personal statement.</p>
<p>I was wondering if the bubble chart uses the unweighted or weighted GPA? If it uses unweighted that does not seem to give credit for taking harder courses.</p>
<p>That bubble chart is highly inflated and its not an accurate prediction of acceptance. Its better to look at common data set. </p>
<p>It seems like the bubble chart uses weighted GPA.</p>
<p>I can’t remain silent any longer. Xtremepower has been degrading PSU’s admission standards for the last year or more. I think his/her opinions are based on a few posts of marginal applicants who happened to report they were accepted, and frankly, some type of bitterness that I can’t explain. The marginal applicants, who fall off the bubble chart, do not bother to come back to the site and say “I got rejected”. The bubble charts are accurate. The middle 50% numbers that are reported are accurate. The answer to the question of if weighted or unweighted GPA is used is described in the bubble chart pdf. Apparently, xtremepower did not read the chart carefully. </p>
<p>I may be unfair to him/her, and if so I apologize. Xtremepower please describe to us the basis for your opinions on the quality of PSU students and PSUs admission standards? How many PSU students do you know? Have you been attending PSU? How long?</p>
<p>Do take that chart with a grain of salt though. It was most recently updated in 2010. Just know that PSU takes your GPA as 2/3 of its decision, and your GPA is just fine paired with a moderately above average test score. You should be fine to get in.</p>
<p>We were at the school visiting this past week and I spoke with someone from admissions who told me that they take the scores as they get them from your High School. For example, my sons school uses a weighted system and I was told that his transcript GPA is what is used. Also, they don’t super score the tests, but take your best scores from a particular day. That actually knocks my sons overall score down about 40 points. It is a nerve-racking time, and I can do this all over again next year for my other child…</p>
<p>the bubble chart is fairly accurate; there are obviously exceptions but PSU is very upfront about gpa and test scores making up the vast majority of the decision, along with strength of schedule. </p>
<p>if you look at Xtreme’s posting history, you can see that in the year since this student has joined, he? posts almost exclusively on chance/choice threads with unilateral decisions about a wide variety of schools. Umich is better than__<strong><em>. SUNY is better than </em></strong><em>. You need a </em> to get in to _____. He’s been asked before if he is a student, where, and studying what, but never responds. Seems to dislike Penn State but is maybe a student here. Which is just information new people should think about. As in all things cc, all advice comes with a grain --or shaker— of salt!</p>