I know there are hundreds of these threads and they get annoying, but I’d really appreciate any feedback
3.3 UW GPA, 3.71 Weighted, 17 total AP and honors courses in high school, also two 5’s and one 4 on AP Exams - competitive county in Northern Virginia
1390 out of 1600 on new SAT, 680 Math and 710 reading, Very good EC’s and over 300+ volunteer hours, also won volunteer of the year award at the Veterans Affairs Center
Applying priority before November 30th and intended major is Information Technology (Cybersecurity), also plan on joining Army ROTC
Penn State is my dream school and I’ve wanted to go there for a long time, could someone with experience or background let me know how realistic my chances are? I’ve been pretty anxious because I am worried my GPA is too low but I’m hoping my SAT makes up for it. Thanks!
Does my GPA seem too low for UP? I’ve checked the statistics given on PSU’s website, but those are hard to take at face value because they are don’t really factor in course difficulty. Thank you for the response by the way.
Your GPA is not too low for UP. Your weighted GPA is right in there. Penn State will take into consideration your school’s grading scale as well. You are correct in that it’s virtually impossible to compare GPA’s across schools and states. So Penn State will compare your performance against the grading scale at your specific school. Your SAT score is good. The thing with Penn State is that they do weird things with admission sometimes. So it’s difficult to say for sure that anyone is in. But I think you are in the ballpark. That being said, applying DUS (undecided) is always the safest bet at UP. The criteria to get admitted is the least competitive in DUS and you can work towards (almost) any major.
Wow okay this gives me a little bit more confidence haha. Thank you for the advice, I think I’m just gonna take my chances and apply directly for cybersecurity. Hopefully I get in!