Penn State DISCUSSION THREAD Fall 2022 Admission

My daughter also received this Sapphire invitation but is bummed about being accepted to the summer session.

Nobody is a direct admit to Smeal. Smeal is not a direct admit major. Everyone that gets “in” Smeal is actually in with an “intended major” of Smeal and are considered pre-major. Everyone has to complete the same entry to major requirements (which I posted a few days ago above or you can google Smeal entry to major). Entry to major requirements include required classes and GPA requirements. Other school direct admit and then have to you keep certain qualifications to stay in, Penn State does the qualifications up front and then if you meet them, you are in.

Congrats on Saphire invite! It is an honor!

Summer session at Penn State is so fun. I’ve never met a student who didn’t like it. In fact, my daughter was accepted for Fall last year and switched to summer because of its reputation and she could not have been happier with her experience. Ask around. It’s what anyone who’s attended LEAP in the summer will say.

That said, she could also call and ask for reconsideration to DUS (undecided) for fall and get to Smeal that way. It’s a common path.

Are all students who were admitted to Smeal offered an invite for Sapphire? My son received an invite but is nervous to apply. It’s the same reason he didn’t apply honors, he’s concerned about doing well enough in his basic classes and getting the required GPA to get into his major. He is afraid to tack too much else on. I didn’t push him with honors because I know that would require a lot of extra writing. That is definitely not his forte. I feel like he should at least apply to Sapphire, especially if not every Smeal admit is sent an invitation. Does anyone know if it is a lot of extra work? Particularly writing?

Hello. Has anyone gotten an invitation for the For The Glory weekend this year? I’m trying to determine if it already happened/will happen this year. The last thing I can find about it was from 2020.

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My son, my nephew and a neighbor all applied EA and have yet to hear from Penn State and all documentation was in. TBH, it’s a bad look - we paid money to apply, they were supposed to provide an answer by 12/24 and haven’t. I’m thinking of calling admissions and asking for my money back.

The likely answer is that they think they applied EA, but did not. If any part of the application arrives after 11/1, including the SRAR or counselor form or anything, then they aren’t EA. Best option is to call admissions and ask.

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Will do but 1- I don’t think anything is missing and 1 - honestly, this is my third kid applying to college (same with my neighbor and nephew) - would it be too much to expect an email?

I do think it would have been nice to either have the dates that the school received each item or state whether the student is considered an early applicant or a regular applicant. I believe most other schools do one or both of these things. Makes everything much clearer.

Agreed. Most other schools have this information listed on the application portal. They also allow a few additional days to receive the SRAR or test scores after the application submission. At the very least, an email indicating that the application was pushed out to rolling would have been helpful.

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My daughter applied in Nov and hasn’t heard either.

We received an acceptance letter in the mail today. She checked portal last week with no info. Today we got the envelope with “Congratulations!” on it! The portal is updated now. We never received an email.

Congrats to others, also! We are out of state Midwest and just got the envelope. I hesrd in another thread that someone received an acceptance via snail mail about 4 days ago. Maybe it’s making its way west?

Daughter applied EA but was late submitting supplemental transcripts. (That bothers me since our self report transcripts were also in Common App)

When do.they send.out.merit decisions? We are hoping for some help.

OOS
Interested in Atmospheric Sciences
3.8 weighted
1550 SAT
National Merrit semifinalist
Sports, bands, and volunteering.

Congratulations on your daughter’s acceptance!

Merit aid is not likely at Penn State. The only merit aid is in the honors college and that’s only about 5k. Unfortunately, Penn State is notoriously lacking in merit aid.

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Penn State gets over 100,000 applicants. They give the dates that everything has to be in by, a phone number to call, and an email to send questions. They are not going to call every student to tell them when their application was completed. The portal does state when everything is in.

It’s not for everyone, but Penn State does very little hand-holding. The way they do admissions is very indicative of the Penn State college experience. Advocate for yourself, seek information yourself - because they won’t chase you down to make sure you’ve done what you need to do, or that what you’ve done is what you think you’ve done.
It may be that everything was in on time and for some reason all three of the applications you mention have fallen through the cracks. Much more likely is that something wasn’t in by 11/1.

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The application opens August 1. Why would they need to give a few additional days to receive the SRAR? They have a deadline for a reason. They also notify applicants via the portal when their application is considered complete.

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What about the Provost award?

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Is the date the application was considered complete available on the portal? Perhaps I’m not looking at the right place as I don’t see any dates.

My son was accepted 2+2 last month & got an email today notifying him that he received the Discover Award. $6000 per year for his 2 years at Altoona, and if he stayed all 4 years $6500 a year for years 3 & 4. Was a nice surprise!

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wow! That would really be the deal breaker for us. It would make it her cheaper college! Congrats to your son

My son just received the same award. I was wondering if this is something generic that everyone gets or is this actually a big deal? I heard many times that Penn State doesn’t give any money, so just curious.

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