Congrats to all of you who got in! You did it!!! For the others who were not accepted, keep your chin up for RD and March!! We will do great!! : )
Quick question though: I applied rolling admission, and I’m just wondering when the decisions for rolling admissions will come out?
I am an international student and I am so confused about this Summer start thing in Penn State. I applied to University Park Campus after EA deadline and checked yes for optional summer start not thinking of it as a big deal. But after reading these comments here, I realized it may be really important. Can anyone tell me if what I understood about this is correct?
This is what I think it is:
A. I turn out to be an excellent applicant and they accept me for UP WITHOUT summer start.
B. I turn out to be a good applicant but not good enough so they accept me for UP WITH summer start.
C. I turn out to be a not-so-bad applicant so they accept me for my second choice campus.
D. I turn out as a terrible applicant and they deny my application.
Is this correct, or are the orders a little different? I will really appreciate it if any of you could help me with this.
Congratulations for getting accepting to PSU
I don’t think it depends on the points you said . It depends on the major and how many applicants , capacity and many other factors your stats etc
What major you applied and what’s your stats
Honestly for an international student, I think the summer start would be a great way to get accumulated to PSU. It’s a huge campus and classes are difficult and you’ll have to adapt to the cultural/time change too.
People don’t want summer start because they want to have a free summer before college. Starting in the summer will add extra costs.
If neither of those things bother you, take it for a grain of salt what people say. No one is going to judge you any differently in the fall and you’ll have a head start making friends etc. You’ll have college credits going into the fall. If you say on task/ahead you can maybe register at some point earlier than classmates that started in the fall as you’ll have more credits. I am a PSU grad myself and I loved every minute at PSU.
I really appreciate your nice advice! Now that I think of it, summer start may be a good option since I am an international student. But I still want to be clear. If I get into UP, do I get to choose whether I do summer start, or did I already choose that by checking yes?
I was accepted to the College of Engineering with an intended major in computer science at UP. Does anyone know why it says intended major? Is CS not direct admit?
Same here we have same intended major of CS. You can check earlier post on this thread where it was discussed penn state for all Engineering courses you need to complete ETM it’s pretty much for all engineering degrees
I spoke to one of Junior currently doing engineering it seems not too bad they have upto 3-4 semesters to meet the requirements
Most of them can do in 2 semesters
Here is CS major handbook
They choose for you based on your application & qualifications for whatever it is you applied for. If for whatever reason they feel you qualify for summer start, you have to do it in order to be admitted. If they accept you to UP without the summer start option, consider yourself very lucky.
If you get into UP, you can ask to be switched to summer. However if admitted for summer it means they already tried to see if they’d admit you for Fall and didn’t admit you, so you can only start UP Summer or 2nd campus.
There are no “direct admit” programs at PSU except for Nursing and Turf Science AFAIK.
You have to take the same classes as anyone who wants to have the same major, those of you who get the grades are in. (There is no further selection process such as a quota or a fixed, limited number of places).
Yes, I took Honors Precalculus and AP Calc AB my Soph and junior yr. I will be taking AP Macro semester 2 of my senior year. I will have taken 3 dual classes by the time I graduate, 5 APs, and 7 honors. My UW GPA is 3.6, and will be higher by the time I graduate too.
Seriously, ask what happened, listing all this. Or skip the questions, cut to the chase, and straight up ask to be reconsidered for DUS (I’m willing to bet you’ll get in for DUS UP - please do report back 
).
BTW DUS allows you to register for whatever classes fit with your plan, so it’s not detrimental at all to your progression to major.
A possibility, beside asking for reconsideration for DUS: If you want to simplify your life, ask to be reconsidered for a Russian major, since you completed 3 years already, which is rare and a sign of interest for the major AND a major very very very few students apply for. In short I don’t think anyone who’s taken Russian in HS would be denied and the major is only offered at UP. During orientation, switch to DUS (possibly with a Russian minor since it would certainly enhance your major).
Hey all, I was recently accepted into a 2+2 with UP and LV for premedicine, I called and asked for reconsideration with DUS at UP fall start, what are my chances?
In-State, GPA: 3.71 w (school doesn’t do uw or rank), ACT: 30, 5 AP classes, 3 dual enrollment classes, 12 honors classes.
Decent odds due to curriculum rigor but the weighted GPA will likely be reweighted so it may be dicier depending how many B’s (or even Cs) you got.
It may be a blessing in disguise: med schools don’t want a “premed major”, they want you to have a real major AND succeed in your premed pre-reqs. From DUS you can complete any major’s pre-reqs anyway. Look into Biological Anthropology, Biochemistry, Infectious Disease…
Most of colleges re-weight the GPA’s to make ground level and compare apples to apples
Couple of reads below
Yeah I heard that a premed major is not very good for your chances of getting into med school, thanks a lot for your input, I’ll calculate my uw gpa and see what kind of number I get for more clarity
Just got my acceptance packet in the mail yesterday (I live in IL).
@xxpianoxx123 I think you are a victim of the more competitive Smeal admissions. It is great you have APs and DE, the problem is your uw of 3.6 compared to stronger candidates. According to the admissions website, a 3.55-3.90 is the middle 50% of summer/fall admissions. That is all majors. For Smeal, it is probably higher.
I think the idea of requesting reconsideration for DUS is a great idea. good luck. However, if PSU isn’t your first choice, or you don’t think it is in the cards, don’t request re-evaluation just for the sake of it. I would think it is incredibly frustrating for admissions when they have kids that request re-evaluation for a different major or summer, get it, and then don’t come anyway.
I got into Smeal with a 3.88 weighted if that helps provide insight