Chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Penn State
1

<p>I am a male high school senior planning on applying to UP for fall of 2014 semester. I have a 3.85 wgpa, and a 1620 on the SAT. Have taken many AP and advanced courses. I've done SADD club, key club, National honors society, Spanish NHS. Top 20% of my class. I was planning on engineering. What are my chances for UP looking like?</p>

<p>And I was also wondering if when applying they look at past family members who went to Penn State? Because both of my parents went there and my grandfather did also. </p>

<p>So just wondering mainly about my chances for fall UP.</p>

2

<p>SAT is low for UP. Apply early and indicate that you would be willing to start in the summer. You may be offered a branch campus.</p>

3

<p>What is the breakdown of the 1620 on the SAT? And the unweighted GPA? Because all schools weight classes differently, weighted GPA is almost meaningless without some knowledge of how the weighting works.</p>

4

<p>Reading-500
Writing-530
Math-590 </p>

<p>And not sure what my unweighted is, but the way it works is if you get an A in an AP class it counts as a 5.0, B is a 4.0 and so on. I took 3 AP’s in my junior year, taking 3 more in senior year.</p>

5

<p>I’d guess around 3.6</p>

6

<p>I really think whether you get in might depend on your major. Some schools, such as business or engineering, are more competitive than others to get into. And doesn’t PSU look at whatever gpa they are given, weighted or not? Seems a 3.85 would offset a 1620, esp. since gpa is 2/3 of the decision.</p>

7

<p>GPA above average.
SAT on the 25th percentile.</p>

<p>Definitely in for summer.</p>

<p>Low chance for fall.</p>

8

<p>If you’re applying as a declared engineering major, you likely won’t get into fall session without having to do summer.</p>

9

<p>Didn’t see he’s an engineering major. I agree then, summer is more likely.</p>

10

<p>Lets say I apply in September and take the SATs in October, is there anyway to update my SAT score if I improve? Or should I wait to apply?</p>

11

<p>Honestly I feel like as long as you apply before the recommended filing date (November 30th? or the 1st I can’t remember) that’s sort of considered ‘early’. I would get all of your scores squared away before applying, but if you choose to apply in that September timeline, email the office or call them and let them know that you’re taking the October SAT. Decisions don’t usually start coming out until early November anyway.</p>

12

<p>With these scores/grades, I doubt he would be one of the “early” decisions. </p>

<p>Best advice would be to study for the SATs and take them again as soon as you can.</p>

<p>And I’m not completely sure how PSU views weighted GPA, but I’m pretty sure they look at how it is actually calculated. Otherwise GPA is not a level playing field. My sons’ school only weights an AP course by 6%. An 100% in the class will only weight to a 106 (or a 4 becomes a 4.24 based on our school’s grading system). Your school is weighting an entire grade if an A (4.0) becomes an 5.0!</p>

13

<p>On their website Penn State notes GPA on a 4 point scale. I would take that as unweighted.</p>

14

<p>not necessarily. You could be on a 4.0 scale, but also weight the GPA.</p>

15

<p>The admissions bubble chart considers GPAs above 4.0.</p>

16

<p>I meant on the Penn State Admissions statistics page. Also, I thought if it said 4.0 scale that meant 4.0 was the max. Just as we say, “Rate this on a scale of 10, where 1 is low and 10 is high” - 10 is meant to be the maximum.</p>

<p>If Penn State truly uses weighted GPA as reported by the schools that could definitely hurt some students. My D15’s public high school has four levels of classes. AP classes get 6.0 for an A, GT and Honors get 5.0 for an A, and Standard gets 4.0 for an A. I would think that Penn State recalculates on whatever scale they choose to use in order to compare students. My D currently has a 4.0 UW, but a 5.57 W. It wouldn’t be fair to compare her weighted GPA to WaitinginCPA’s son if he also had a 4.0 UW. Maybe they also look at unweighted and compare rigor.</p>

17

<p>SHC does not accept the weighted GPA reported by the schools. They use unweighted and then evaluate the transcript based on rigor of the coursework and strength of school district</p>

18

<p>^ that makes sense. I didn’t realize that the GPA discussion was for SHC, I thought it was about Penn State in general. But, any clarification is good because the GPA questions come up frequently.</p>

19

<p>no, my bad. I replied specifically for SHC because I know the answer. </p>

<p>Now, here’s my opinion based on what I know:
SHC uses resources and databases from “general” admissions (school district data etc) in their evaluation. They must keep these for a reason other than SHC use.</p>

<p>The reported GPAs in admissions stats and bubble charts (and those stored in a student’s admissions profile) top out at 4.33. Many applicants have school reported weighted GPAs in excess of 4.33. You cannot get to a 4.33 in a 4.0 system. Even if they assigning a 4.33 for an A+, no way so many students got straight A+s.</p>

<p>There are few other reasons than the two listed above that clearly indicate PSU does not use the school district calculated weighted GPA that I won’t comment on. As you wrote, that makes no sense</p>