I have been admitted to the Penn State University. I was hoping to be selected for the University Park campus. However, they’ve selected me for the penn State Berks campus and I have no knowledge whatsoever about this campus. What are the important things that I should know about this campus before making a decision?
Did you request to be reconsidered to the DUS program? Or a summer start?
No, I applied for the fall semester.
My major:- Computer Science.
I see from your other threads that you’re an international student. Berks is the 5th largest commonwealth campus, with about 2500 undergraduate students. There is on-campus housing for about 800 students, so there are a fair number of residential students. 4% of the students are international. You would be at Berks for the first 2 years, then move to main campus for the last 2 years. If you’d prefer a somewhat larger campus with a larger percentage (14%) of international students, you could ask admissions whether you could start at the Harrisburg campus instead of Berks. Have you been accepted to any other colleges/universities?
I have been accepted to University of Nebraska–Lincoln and I am waiting for decisions from 7 other universities.
And how inclined should I be towards accepting their offer?
@its_me2002 are you planning on attending?
Attending what?
@its_me2002 you asked “how inclined should I be towards accepting their offer?”
I responded, “do you plan on attending?” (I guess I should have clarified… with “do you plan on enrolling and attending Penn State or do you want to hear from other schools first?”
you asked back, “Attending what?”
I guess the short answer is Penn State. You said you’ve been accepted to UNL and waiting to hear from a number of other schools. Based on that answer, I am assuming you are going to wait to see where else you might be admitted before making a decision? Unless Penn State is your #1 choice, or you have family in Pennsylvania, or some other reason that you don’t want to wait.
Before you decide if you should accept the offer, what are your chances of following through on that acceptance and actually ATTENDING Penn State ?
And the short answer, is no, you should not double deposit. Many kids do and it is becoming the trend to get in the housing line early… or register for classes… or take advantage of whatever the reasons are for accepting earlier rather than waiting. However, it drives guidance crazy because a college/university may think twice about admitting the next kid next year because too many from your HS double deposited and didn’t attend.
@itsme2002 I agree with @lucyvan_pelt. Wait until you see where else you are admitted. You don’t have to make a decision until May 1. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is a good school and personally, I think it’s a better choice than doing the 2+2 program at any of Penn State’s commonwealth (branch) campuses, especially for an international student. Where else have you applied, and when will you hear from the other 5 schools? Are all of these schools financially feasible?
@lucyvanpelt I am definitely going to wait for other universities to release their decisions before I decide which university I want to attend. Thanks for your help.
@kidzncatz I have applied to a total of 9 universities.
UC Berkeley
UC San Diego
Purdue University
University Of Virginia
Virginia Tech
Penn State
Ohio State
UMass-Amherst
UNL
Some of these are financially feasible and some aren’t.
Good luck with the 7 schools whose decisions you are awaiting.
@kidzncatz Thank you very much.
I also wanted to ask if there’s any chance that Penn State’s admission department can change my campus from Berks to University Park.
You could request to be reconsidered for a summer start and DUS rather than Computer Science (you’d still be eligible to complete the entrance to major requirements for Computer Science). I’d say your chance of changing to UP isn’t great, but if you want to try, go ahead. You wouldn’t lose your spot at Berks, and some students have been successful with requests for reconsideration.
So, I should just write an email asking them to reconsider my application?
It doesn’t hurt to ask
@its_me2002 Yes, I think you should email admissions, possibly cc-ing the admissions officer in charge of international undergraduate admissions (you’d have to figure out who that is).
I received the email from the “Director of Enrolment Management”. Should I cc her?
Probably, but I really don’t know. Did you have contact with anyone in admissions before you applied? If not, just do what you think is best. You might want to call to find out how to request reconsideration, but at this point I think the office is closed until Jan. 2.
The Key thing for reconsideration is asking for summer start (only if you can go in June and your parents can afford to pay the extra costs) AND DUS.
Another option is to ask for PSU behrend instead of Berks because it’s very good for STEM.
All in all I’d pick UNL over Berks so it’s a no risk proposition.
Regardless, wait till you hear back from other universities before you commit to any University.