Hi! My son is going to be a senior this year- His first choice is Penn State University Park with a Mechanical Engineering major. He has a 3.95 GPA took the AP Physics test bust we do not know the score yet and first time around SAT 1500 Math score 600 English 480 and ACT 24. Honor Society AP classes all next year. Just not a good test taker-taking again in June. My question is do you think he will get into the engineering program? Or should he apply DUS? He would like to grad in 4 years. We visited Behrend campus too- nice but would like UP
@crazycat220 - Your son will need to get his test scores up to 1800+ to be considered for engineering at PSU/UP. That said, just got back from New Student Orientation and they made it clear that very select majors (don’t think mechanical engineering is among them) really require a declaration as a freshman. Meaning, he has a better shot of getting in DUS (as my did) and getting on an engineer track, get great grades and declare as an engineer major. But even to get in as DUS he’ll need to get his test scores up. 1700 is borderline and would require either a summer start (as my son is doing) or starting at a non-UP campus such as Behrend. (if you check the class of 2019 admissions thread you’ll see there were 1900 SATs rejected, but 1550 accepted. If he’s ok starting at Behrend, you can save some $$ and headaches if he starts there). Good luck! It’s a crazy, fun (mostly…well, sometimes) year ahead!
Thanks for the info. We are going to an open house at the end of July- yours will prob be there. I pray he gets his scores up in retaking them in the the next couple of weeks. He did like Behrend- but I am sure he will like Main better- maybe not- classes are huge for general ed. I am going to ask why main doesn’t have Software engineering - it is just at Behrend. That way he could do the 2+2 like you said. Well we will see how it goes!!
@crazycat220 A Summer Day at Penn State was our introduction to University Park a year ago. We went with my son somewhat ambivalent about Penn State but they sure know how to get visitors pumped for that school. It moved way up his list after that visit, and to the top after a September football game. And from everything I’ve seen, read, experienced…once they have you, you never want to leave! Good luck!
I know he hasn’t gone to see the campus but he prob will do anything to get in main, including summer. Summer is 6 grand, yikes! I will have to ask if you start DUS, how easy is it to get the required engineering courses scheduled that the freshman and soph take that are admitted into that school. I heard it can be tough to get into those classes(they fill up), so in turn you end up in the 5 year plan to get all the required courses in… Goal is for him to get the best degree at the best school to get a good paying job in four years. lol
@crazycat220 DUS students have no disadvantage as compared to Engineering students when it comes to scheduling classes.
First year students schedule during NSO, after that, it is determined by how many credits you have.
There are many sections for almost all of the required early engineering classes.
Not really my daughter had a late NSO and she was shut out. She had to sign up for the watch-list and quickly try to grab a spot of someone dropped,