Do I have any shot?

<p>Hello all,</p>

<p>I am currently a senior and Penn State is one of my top two college choices. I recieved a 24 on the ACT and have a 3.99 weighted (3.66 UW) GPA. I have done very little volunteer work, but am confident I can write a pretty good personal statement. </p>

<p>From everything the university puts out, including the bubble charts and statistics, I seem to have a very small chance of getting into the University Park campus (which is the only one I want to go to since I am out of state and we have many universities comparable to the branch campuses that I could attend at a much lesser cost). However, on reputable websites like cappex.com and parchment.com, they say I have about a 75% chance of getting accepted, which seems quite high based on what Penn State's published materials say. </p>

<p>What do you guys think? Also, I plan on checking yes to the summer session option box when I complete my application. What are the standard statistics for people that get accepted for the summer session? Also, how does this work? If they accept you for this program, are you then a full-time student for good?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Hi Bickmore. When you use the chart you will have to convert your ACT to an SAT equivalent (CR+M+W). A 25 ACT compares to a 1710 SAT score. With a 3.99 wgpa that puts you in the upper end of the yellow bubbles. I would say you have a good chance of acceptance to UP, based on last year, many people in the yellow bubbles are ultimately accepted to UP, but you may have to wait until end of January to hear. Who gets accepted from year to year is based on the strenght of the applicant pool that year. Good luck!</p>

<p>Its also important to remember that Penn State counts your GPA (66%)twice as much as your Standardized Test scores(33%). Your personal statement probably won’t affect your admission unless they have to directly decide between you and another person. The don’t read 10s of thousands of personal statements.</p>

<p>Also, consider applying for admission for the summer session. It narrows the pool of people you are compared to, and in general, because they get far fewer applicants to summer session than fall, the take a relatively higher percentage. Its essentially the same as getting admitted for fall, but you start in July, and your classes are condensed because of the time constraints. What would have been a 50 minute class three days a week might end up being 2hrs a day, five days a week.</p>

<p>Thank you to all that offered their input, I really appreciate it.</p>