Hello everyone! I hope you’re doing well. I’m an international applicant from Chile and I need to know what you think about the following situation:
I sent everything by the first rolling admission deadline (December 1), yet after a long conversation via email with Penn State Admissions, I’m being told that “Unfortunately, because your documents were not received until January, it is highly unlikely that you will receive a decision in January. You should find a decision in March.”
Does this make sense? If I sent everything by the deadline, I can’t seem to understand why they processing my documents after the deadline can “disqualify” me from the first batch of rolling admission. And I mean… January??? That’s like taking more than one whole month to process everything!
What do you think I should do? Receiving a decision in January is extremely important to me since not receiving it would mean having to pay for a year of college in Chile, even if I get into a US College later in March (I have to pay in February). Thank you very much in advance!
@fc_pulpfiction that’s a tough situation. Sorry for your struggle. Decisions seem to be 2-3 months at this time. My son applied in mid- November with high stats and still has heard nothing.
I am so sorry that your son didn’t get the results he wanted.
It is really difficult to compare GPA’s across school districts. Every school weights differently and comparing GPA’s is impossible. One school may have a 90% as an A and others have 95% as an A. A 4.0 at each school would not be comparable.
All of that being said, Smeal is one of the hardest major to get acceptance to at Penn State UP campus. Your son could ask for reconsideration to DUS (undecided) and work towards Smeal from there and declare a Smeal major at the end of Sophomore year as long as he’s completed the entry to major requirements. These requirements are the exact same as those in Smeal are completing. No one at Penn State is in their major until after they complete entry to major classes.
DUS is getting more competitive because people are applying to DUS in order to get into Smeal or Engineering after completing entry to major classes. So for the best shot you can also add summer option to the reconsideration.
That seems right…in order to hear by Jan 31 everything had to be entered by Dec 1.
You can read on this board many people were hoping to qualify for early action (Nov 1) but since not all required materials were in they were bumped to next round,
This was experience at Texas A&M for their EA deadline for engineering. Even though everything was submitted before their 10/15 deadline, it was not received on their end until after the 15th. For example, SATs from College Board didn’t come in until nearly two weeks later. It can also take up to a week for SRAR to reach them. Transcripts also take many days even when submitted electronically.
Needless to say, we did not make the EA deadline as they didn’t receive everything required to mark the APP complete until 10/17 and it is now nearly impossible to get in.
Nearly had similar things happen for 11/1 and 11/15 deadlines for EA at other schools and I immediately contacted admissions at those schools and showed evidence things were submitted before the deadline and it was out of my control. Every school I contacted made and exemption, but I think the key was I contacted them as soon as the deadline hit and let them know I did everything by their deadline.
I’m strongly convinced that this is their responsibility. If they always have problems like this, they should move the deadlines to two weeks before than it is today. Am I the only one who thinks this?
I agree. How are people supposed to know in order to the hit the deadline you may actually have to submit things 2 weeks in advance. Even more frustrating with Texas A&M was they took 4 days to send the post application email to create the Aggie account that is needed to submit the SRAR. This was a system they control, and the delay wasn’t due to a 3rd party taking a week to do something. That email came on 10/17, 2 days after their deadline. I felt like I just got scammed into paying an application fee for nothing.
I’m so sorry this happened to you, it’s very frustrating. Some colleges have a deadline for the actual application and a separate deadline for when items such as HS transcripts, LORs, and test scores from CB can be received by them, often 10 - 14 days after the application deadline. Unfortunately, PSU is not one of these colleges, they need to receive everything by the application deadline date. The College Board took about 10 days plus this year towards the end of Oct. to get scores sent out.
@fc_pulpfiction I think it is different because you are an international applicant.
When I read the ‘dates and deadlines’ for international students, I see this:
Fall semester:
EA: due Nov. 1st, decision by Dec. 24th
Priority filing: due February 1st, decision by April 1st
So, before you are strongly convinced this is their responsibility, I would ensure you are reading the right data. Perhaps a call or email to Admissions to inquire would help?
My son got accepted to PennState UP in december but we haven’t heard anything on merit etc. Usually what is the timeframe for any sort of merit decision?
Decisions at Penn State are random in order, but there is a rhyme and reason to the decisions.
First of all, it is impossible to compare GPA’s across different schools. There are so many scales, and so many weighting differences - a 4.0 at one school may be a 3.0 at another just because of their grade scales. Penn State sees the scales and the weighting and can ‘recalculate’ based on a typical 4.0 scale to determine how well a particular student did. None of us see that information. All we see is that someone with a 3.7 GPA got in and someone with a 3.9 GPA did not. What could have happened is that the person with the 3.7 performed really well against their school’s scales vs. the 3.9.
Secondly, Major Choice plays a HUGE ROLE in accepting a student. You cannot compare an acceptance to a denial if the majors chosen were different. Some majors are much more difficult to get into and the GPA required to gain acceptance to various majors can be vastly different.
I know these reminders do nothing to soothe the disappointment and hurt of not getting into a first-choice college. But sometimes it does help to realize it’s nothing that anyone did wrong. Every kid ends up where they are supposed to be. Also, if your child was denied, there are always things you can do to ask for reconsideration and hopefully, gain admission.
@Susanb33 Unfortunately, mid-November means the Dec. 1st due date. He should hear by the end of January. Not surprising that he has not heard yet - Penn State has not missed their deadline.
@nrpm3c I think merit will be rolling out anytime now. But I would encourage you not to have high expectations. Did he apply to Schreyer? Not to be the bearer of bad news, but if he applied for Fall and was admitted for Summer, there are probably kids with stronger stats in front of him for merit money.
Hi! Thank you for that. I had checked that, actually, and included on the email I sent to them a week ago. It is weird that they chose “first-year” and “international” titles, since I’m international but I’m also first year . But yes, it is possible that the chart that applies to me is the international one. In any case, that’s not the reason they gave me in their response. They told me they had received some documents during December and even January.
summer is a great option! and a few good prides for him if he is CS.
Just don’t count on merit money, but maybe he will get a nice surprise? My only kid that got it was a National Merit Finalist and he received it in September (after he was already a student taking classes), so it was a nice bonus. Unfortunately, most don’t get it.
Oh, sorry to hear that your application wasn’t considered complete until all documents received. The good news is that hopefully everything IS in by the Feb. 1st deadline. Have you confirmed that your application is complete with everything received?
So if they move the deadline, won’t there be people complaining because they missed THAT deadline? There has to be a deadline at some point. It’s the student’s responsibility to know that it takes additional time when dealing with other entities that have to release information to Penn State. Just because you request test scores or SRAR or whatever to be released to Penn State on a certain date, doesn’t mean they have an immediate turn around.
When you say you submitted everything by Dec 1, what does that mean to you? Everything has to be RECEIVED by Penn State by the deadline date. Not just submitted. How did you submit? Electronically? Mail? The application is one thing, but SRAR and test scores are another and also need to be there on time.
Additionally, deadlines are different for international students. Make sure you are talking to admissions about international deadlines.
You would have to have EVERYTHING RECEIVED by Penn State by the deadline of Dec 1 to get a decision in January. Otherwise, you are in the regular decision pool.
. But yes, it is possible that the chart that applies to me is the international one. In any case, that’s not the reason they gave me in their response. They told me they had received some documents during December and even January.